(Dis)Integration & Chaos: The Enneagram of Geralt and Yennefer, Part 1
Welcome to a series where FoG Staff and Horror Enneagrammarian, Asia (whose own work can be found here), will guide us all into the tragic psyches and wounded souls of the characters we know and love, using the Enneagram as a lens. Unfamiliar with the Enneagram? Asia’s got you covered. She’s written her own take on the “types” here and also recommends The Enneagram Institute as an online resource. Lastly, FoG favorite author Richard Rohr uses the Enneagram in much of his work and co-wrote this book on it. Our goal as ever is finding the holy in the horrific and the Enneagram is a helpful tool to do just that…
Before I say a single word about the enneagram or either of these deeply wounded characters, let me ask you a question.
First, think of someone you know well. It could be a parent, a sibling, a roommate, a spouse – anyone with whom you have spent a significant amount of time.
Next, if you know anything about the enneagram (for the sake of brevity, I will only be delving deeply into the types relevant to Geralt and Yennefer), try to peg this person as a type. Perhaps you’ve already tried to do this.
Finally, ask yourself, “Would I consider this person’s orientation and attitudes towards themselves and life as generally healthy or unhealthy?”
And that is the question that changes everything.
One of the reasons I love the enneagram so much is that it does not define us by our best or worst attitudes and behaviors, but only seeks to point us to where we went wrong along the way so as to course-correct us back to ourselves.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I need to start with this caveat: There are two things that will almost always make “typing” a person more complicated (and sometimes impossible) – major trauma and severe mental illness. The horror genre is comprised of almost nothing but characters that either have been emotionally traumatized (or very soon will be) and the devastating realities (and fantasies) of significant mental illness. When someone has been wounded as deeply as some of the characters we find in The Witcher, it can take some much deeper excavating to uncover the “real” them.
It also can’t go without saying that the fantasy genre is built stone-by-stone atop centuries of archetype. And these heroic and villainous archetypes, while riveting and inspiring, pointing us toward higher truths, do not always reflect the patterns of authentic human behavior.
All that being the case, when I started watching The Witcher, I realized I was going to have to keep my antenna as high and my mind as open as possible.
And even then, I still may not have gotten it right. You’ll have to tell me what you think.
Let’s meet our characters.
Geralt of Rivia. “The Witcher”. “The White Wolf”. Emo Superman (That one’s mine.)
To be honest, it was not difficult to find a type that felt true to this tall, fair, brooding protagonist. So, I’ll get right to it and explain myself to those who disagree after.
Geralt is an 8w9.
It may feel obvious to some but not to others, so I’ll walk you through my process as to how I landed there.
The first thing that struck me about Geralt was his strong moral code. From the very first episode, he clings to an internal understanding of what things he simply will or will not do. Now, there’s nothing particularly special about that. Many other types have internal codes of conduct as well, but the way that Geralt applies this vague ideology is what had me sniffing at 8. A 1’s code of conduct would ordinarily have been much more philanthropic, more concretely dogmatic, and initially more optimistic. However, Geralt seems to have accepted his understanding of morals from a place of cynicism. Every single thing about him, from that code itself, to his desire to not engage in conflict unless provoked, to his protective instincts, and especially to that constant under-current of secrets keep locked deep, deep within absolutely screamed “Body Center” (an enneagram orientation into which 8’s, 9’s, and 1’s fall).
There were moments (and this is going to come in handy later during Part Two) when I did, however, wonder if Geralt could possibly be a 2. While usually content to be left alone and not engage with anyone unless it could benefit him, his hard shell easily melts when confronted with just the right kind of heat. From cursed princesses, to obnoxious minstrels, to raging witches, interpersonal connection is the thing that Geralt is so desperate for (yet so unable to express in any way other than physically - allowing company, fighting to protect, sexual intimacy) that it’s almost as though he cannot say no to it when it finally presents itself. He is very self-sacrificing, going against every steely façade he projects, when someone he cares for is on the line.
However, as obviously haunted as Geralt is for much of the show, he maintains a shocking level of autonomy and personal understanding. While fastidious in his own unique pattern, he can easily give into petty vices. And while unchangingly loyal, Geralt owes no one anything unless he desires to. He speaks frankly. Scolds readily. Yet loves surprisingly naively. And this hard / soft back and forth is an essential interplay of the type 8.
Geralt’s traumatic abandonment by his mother as a wide-eyed, trusting child also speaks to the “childhood wound” that many would consider pivotal to the development of an 8 (depending on what enneagram school of thought you subscribe to). As abrasive as many might consider type 8’s, they were usually very tender and sometimes shy children, the bolder, more challenging persona only developing as a calcifying reaction to what the child-8 perceives as being attacked or abandoned or potentially harmed.
And as I said, despite a horrible childhood, Geralt has come into himself to a degree that very few people could. He has chosen to have a code rather than devolve into resentful vengeance. He has chosen to make a life of his own rather than let what happened consume him, which is why I ended up viewing Geralt as a “normal” to mildly disintegrated (an enneagram term used to describe how detatched from one’s true-self one has become) 8w9. The wing 9 comes because as mighty of a warrior as Geralt is, combat, whether verbal or physical is almost always his last resort. An 8w7 would be much more eager to jump into the fray on a much more impulsive basis.
There is more I want to say about Geralt, but it will actually be best left until after we talk some about Yennefer.
For now, remember this: Geralt of Rivia has devoted his entire existence to the eradication of evil creatures. Regardless of how much of that may or may not have been his own choice, he has taken up that mantle with surprising acceptance. And that level of self-acceptance has allowed him to scratch at the door of his truest nature – which, disguised as a steely-eyed monster-slayer, is a protector and an advocate.
Geralt may look like he is only ever running at a monster, but what he is actually doing is running towards the salvation of the people he loves. Kill the monster, save his friends.
So I would leave you with this challenge. If you have a type 8 in your life (I know I do), how often do you miss the love they offer you by getting stuck in the monster-slaying process. Loving and being loved by an 8 can feel like a game of strength sometimes. But that’s only because (in the cases of normal to healthy 8’s) anything worth doing at all (caring for you) is worth doing ferociously.
And I think that we all can learn a bit more about what love actually is from these tenderhearted monster-slayers.
