"The Tower of Fools" by Andrzej Sapkowski, summary

This historical fiction novel takes us to Silesia in 1425. Written in 2002, it offers a detailed panorama of medieval Central Europe during the Hussite Wars, filled with Latin, theological debates, and arcane magic. The main character, a young canon and physician named Reinmar of Bielawa, nicknamed Reynevan, flees blood feuds and church courts, crossing the Silesian duchies, teeming with spies and mercenaries.

The novel was awarded the prestigious Polish Janusz Seidel Prize in 2002. This book is the first in the "Reynevan Saga" trilogy (also known as the "Hussite Trilogy"). This cycle includes two more novels: "God’s Warriors" (2004) and "Eternal Light" (2006).

Escape from Olesnitsa

Reynevan’s amorous tryst with the Burgundian Adele de Beauvoisin, wife of the knight Gelfrad von Stercza, is suddenly interrupted by her husband’s brothers. The Stercza brothers burst into a small room at the Augustinian monastery and beat the lovers. A brawl breaks out, and the monks, led by Prior Erasmus Steinkeller, intervene. Taking advantage of the confusion, the young man mounts someone else’s horse and races through the crowded Oleśnitsa market, smashing stalls and knocking down passersby. His enraged pursuers chase after him. Wolfger von Stercza shouts at the top of his lungs, "Now you’re ours, Biełau!" The chase ends tragically in the tanners’ quarter. Young Niklas von Stercza falls from his horse onto a skinning knife and dies of blood loss. Wolfger vows to exterminate the entire Bielawa family. The fugitive heads south along the Wrocław highway.

The road to Brzeg

The Oleśnica prince, Konrad Kantner, takes a fugitive under temporary protection in honor of his father, who died at Tannenberg in 1410. At the Pod Husak tavern in the village of Byków, nobles argue about Czech heretics and the burning of Jan Hus in Constance. The owner of Oleśnica sends Reynevan to the Johannites in Malá Oleśnica, assigning him the famous knight Zawisza the Black of Garbov as his companion. An elderly man from Sulim complains of indigestion from the innkeeper’s meal. "It’s all the cabbage," the knight explains matter-of-factly. The young man gathers angelica, hogweed, and cat’s foot in a shepherd’s hut, quickly curing his companion with a decoction. That night, a mysterious forest creature, Hans Mein Igel, comes to their campfire, prophesying Zawisza’s death at the Pigeon Castle on the Danube and Reynevan’s salvation through love. In the morning, the travelers part at a stone cross of repentance.

Pursuit and Stobrawa

Reynevan decides to make his way to Adele in Ligot, relying on herbal knots called navenzas. At a roadside inn across the river, the fugitive is caught by a band of mercenaries led by the cutthroat Kunz Aulock, nicknamed Kiryeleison. The servant Gerda, a secret healer, uses witchcraft to cause an explosion in the fireplace. The young man mounts and escapes through the fish ponds. In the hills, a horsewoman in a man’s velvet jacket blocks the road. The girl takes Reynevan’s cloak and leads the mercenaries away on a fast steed. Before the ride, she cries out, "Nicolette. My Alkasin, persecuted for love. Hurry!" After disappearing into the alder swamps, the fugitive discovers his horse is lame. At the river pier, the water Poles agree to take him on a barge to Olawa for five skojecs.

Strzelin and the Bonfires

Near a small bridge over a stream, the cart of Rabbi Hiram ben Eliezer, who was carrying the Brzeg prostitute Dorota Faber, breaks down. Robbers attack the travelers. A stranger in a gray cloak named Urban Horn sets his enormous black dog, Beelzebub, on the bandits. Following him, the Oława priest Filip Granciszek arrives, agreeing to give the group a ride to Strzelin. At the entrance to the city, guards inspect travelers due to the recent murder of nobleman Albrecht Bart of Karczyn. An Inquisition trial is underway near the city walls. A crowd watches the execution of three heretics and a poisoner. A Dominican voice pronounces the sentence: "Ecclesia non sitit sanguinem." The executioner strangles the repentant criminals, and pyres burn the bodies before the eyes of onlookers. In the castle, the Wroclaw canon Otto Beess demands that Reynevan forget Adele and flee to Hungary via the Carmelite monastery in Strzegom.

News from Balbinov

Reynevan disobeys the canon’s orders and turns his horse toward the estate of his older brother, Peter (Peterlin). At the fulling mill in Povojovici, the gray-haired master Nicodemus Verbruggen hastily burns the secret papers of his late master. A terrible revelation comes to light: Peterlin has been killed on a forest road by a sword thrust into his face. The widow Griselda curses Reynevan, blaming his sins for his misfortunes and demanding that he leave the house. That night, the young man attempts to summon his brother’s spirit in the Vonvolnitsa cemetery. The earth comes alive, and corpses and monsters appear through the haze. A girl in a white shirt emerges from the darkness carrying a basket of herbs. "You’re strange. Nettles will be used for linen, of course," she replies to his questions. In a bewitched trance, Peterlin’s ghost silently points south, urging his brother to flee. In Wroclaw, the mysterious knight Wallcutter brutally murders Bishop Guibert Bancz, the secretary of the bishop, who was informing on Canon Beessa.

The Prisoner of Strzegom

At the Carmelite monastery in Strzegom, the prior hands over to Reynevan a fugitive monk who had been serving a secret sentence at the Demerite monastery. The stranger calls himself Charleigh and demands confession. Upon leaving the gates, this robust man starts a brawl with wealthy French-speaking merchants. In self-defense, Charleigh maims his attackers and takes an embroidered purse. "The rich city of Strzegom," the Demerite quips, pulling on the caftan he took from the merchant. The friends hide in the forest from the pursuit of the governor, Gunzelin von Laasan.

Meetings in the woods

The travelers lose their way in dank ravines strewn with the bones of plague victims. Deep in the ravine, they discover the encampment of three forest witches. The elder witch pours a potion for a fox-faced girl, who falls into a trance. A prophetess predicts the death of the pope, the collapse of the Tower of Fools, and warns against knights shouting "Adsumus." Charley begs for a bay horse. Emerging from the thicket, the friends find the stallion but are immediately confronted by peasants attempting to hand over the fugitives for a reward. A massacre ensues. Horsemen with whips disperse the peasants. The detachment is commanded by Dzierzka de Wirsing, a widow and relative of the Bielawa family, who is driving a herd of warhorses. She tells of a series of mysterious deaths among Silesian merchants.

The Possessed Benedictine

In search of sustenance, travelers stop at a Benedictine monastery. The abbot asks for an exorcism of Brother Deodat, who has fallen into a lethargy. The terrified novice cries out, "Brother… Deodat… Because of me… He will die…" Charley declares himself an experienced exorcist, and Reynevan, a learned assistant. After a hearty meal of beaver tails, the supposed priests begin the ritual in the dimly lit chapel. Charley shouts long Latin and fictitious curses, Reynevan spouts Arabic terms. Suddenly, the monastery’s feeble-minded strongman, Samson, throws aside his honey pot in disgust, intelligence flashes in his eyes, and Deodat comes to life. That night in the forest, Samson, in pure Latin and Dante’s verse, declares that as a result of the absurd ritual, his mind has been transferred into the body of a fool. Samson saves Sharley from a forest werewolf.

Raubritters and the tournament

Bishop Konrad’s spies scurry about Nimmersatt Castle and the roads. The Wrocław inquisitor, Grzegorz Heincze, interrogates heretics in the cellars. Reynevan and his companions rescue bandits from the band of Notker von Weyrach and Paszko Rymbaba from soldiers, then arrive at their base in the village of Kromolin. The Raubritters argue about the bishop’s declared crusade against the Hussites. Suddenly, the formidable Hein von Tschierne appears and kills the pugnacious knight Sulz with an arquebus.

Reynevan rushes to Ziębice after learning of Adele’s stay with Prince Jan. At a knight’s tournament, the young man sneaks into the tent to see his beloved. Adele publicly denounces him, calling him a liar and a sorcerer. The Sterci and the prince’s servants brutally beat the young man. "Nothing like this could happen in Europe," Adele declares, demanding reprisals. The prince’s sister, Countess Euphemia, saves Reynevan from the knights’ reprisals, ordering him locked in the castle tower. Nicoletta, revealed to be Katarzyna von Bieberstein, appears among the spectators.

Traps and rescue

The convoy leads Reynevan to Stolets Castle. In the forest, the guards are attacked by Kiryeleison’s mercenaries. The bandits are suddenly destroyed by a detachment led by Prince Bolko Voloshek, Reynevan’s old Prague classmate. Stork is drowned in a puddle, and Kiryeleison dies in battle. Reynevan hurries to his friends.

Near Kamenets, Sharley and some bandits attack a carriage, hoping to steal church taxes. Katarzyna Bieberstein is caught in the carriage. The bandit Buko von Krossig decides to demand ransom and takes the captive to his castle, Bodak. There, the magician Guon von Sagar secretly gives Reynevan a flying ointment. He anoints the girl and himself with the potion, whispers a spell, and flies out of the tower window on an oak bench. The bench lands on Pea Mountain in the midst of a witches’ sabbath. The dominatrix’s voice echoes across the clearing: "I am the beauty of the green earth, the white moon among thousands of stars, I am the mystery of the waters." A romantic relationship blossoms between Reynevan and Katarzyna. In the morning, a black knight of the Order of the Wallcreeper attacks the fugitives, shouting "Adsumus." Dzierzka de Wirsing and Reynevan arrived in time and killed the fanatic with shots from crossbows.

The Tower of Fools and the Hussite Campaign

In Frankenstein, Dominican Deacon Cantor betrays Reynevan, Charleigh, and Samson, turning them over to the Church tribunal. The friends are thrown into the city’s Tower of Fools — a mental institution and secret prison of the Inquisition. Dominican Brother Arnulf begins torturing Reynevan with a boot-shaped vice. Wrocław Inquisitor Grzegorz Heyncze enters the basement, recognizing the prisoner as his comrade from Prague. "I am innocent, and I am a good Christian," the boy declares. Heyncze offers freedom in exchange for spying among the Taborites, demanding an answer by December.

The captured Urban Horn is thrown into the Tower. Reynevan draws the magical symbols of his deceased cellmate on the wall, attempting to summon a teleportation demon. At that moment, a gunpowder explosion blows the doors apart. A detachment of Taborites, led by the priest Ambrož of Hradec Králové, attacks Frankenstein, freeing the captives. The Hussite army storms and burns the city of Bardo, executing Catholic priests. On the return journey near Wojbórz, the rearguard is ambushed by the Knights of St. John and the Knights of Haugwitz. In a brutal massacre, the Hussites repel the attack, losing Hetman Galada. Reynevan finds the surviving Wolfger Stercza among the wounded enemy, promises to return to Silesia to settle the score, and, together with the Orphans’ army, retreats toward the Czech border.