The animated movie The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep follows Geralt (voiced by Doug Cockle) and Jaskier (Joey Batey) on a wild adventure, and, in the process, it reveals a bit about the latter’s backstory. As The Witcher prepares for its fourth season, Netflix keeps expanding this universe with spinoffs. The latest is Sirens of the Deep, directed by Kang Hei Chul, and set between episodes 5 and 6 of The Witcher season 1, meaning that some well-known characters join Geralt and Jaskier in this story.

When a pearl-diving boat is found with its crew mᴀssacred, Geralt is hired to find the sea monster responsible for it. In the process, he meets Essi (Christina Wren), a bard and childhood friend of Jaskier who joins their mission. Together, they make a shocking discovery about the real creature responsible for the boat’s mᴀssacre, and it’s up to Geralt to avoid a war between humans and merpeople. Sirens of the Deep sees more of Geralt and Jaskier, even revealing bits of the bard’s past.

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Jaskier Grew Up In Bremervoord, Not Oxenfurt

Jaskier Has Embellished His Own Story

Jaskier is known for taking creative liberties in his songs, especially those about Geralt’s many adventures. While this isn’t necessarily bad, especially as it has given him the recognition he wants (and deserves), he has sometimes taken his creativity a bit too far. Geralt admits Jaskier’s many embellishments in his songs about him when Essi brings it up and asks about specific parts of Jaskier’s songs, which Geralt calmly clarifies. As Sirens of the Deep reveals, Jaskier not only embellishes Geralt’s stories but also his own.

When Jaskier and Geralt arrive in Bremervoord, they come across Essi, and Geralt asks how they met. It’s then that Geralt learns that Jaskier is from Bremervoord and not Oxenfurt, despite presenting himself as the bard from Oxenfurt. Bremervoord is a small princedom ruled by Duke Agloval, who, in Sirens of the Deep, is a young prince who falls in love with a mermaid, whom his father doesn’t accept. Bremervoord thrives thanks to the trade of pearls, which is why the boat’s mᴀssacre is so alarming to the town.

Jaskier admits to Geralt that he has changed his own story and isn’t ashamed of it, but his tone changes when he says he did so after how hard it was to grow up in Bremervoord. Essie stayed there and her family still lives in town, too, but Jaskier had strong reasons to leave and create his own life.

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Jaskier Left Due To How Badly He Was Treated In Bremervoord

Jaskier Was Bullied By Zelest & Company

It’s immediately noticeable that, although Jaskier has created his own backstory in his songs, his real past is a painful topic for him. Sirens of the Deep features a brief flashback to Jaskier’s childhood in Bremervoord, in which a group of kids (who look slightly older than him) have taken his lute and are forcing him to jump off a cliff and into a river if he wants his lute back. Leading the group of bullies is Zelest, the illegitimate son of the king, which Jaskier uses to tease him as he won’t leave him alone.

Zelest tricks Jaskier into thinking he will jump first, only to backflip, land behind Jaskier, and push him off the cliff. After Jaskier teases him and Zelest is ready to fight him, Essi arrives and defends Jaskier. Sirens of the Deep doesn’t show more of Jaskier’s past after this, so it’s understood that Jaskier left Bremervoord and doesn’t present himself as being from there due to all the bullying he received for being himself and making music, which is valid. In the end, Jaskier and Essi became acclaimed bards, and Zelest became part of his father’s army.

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Jaskier’s Real Name Is “Julian”

Essi Still Calls Him “Julian”

Perhaps the biggest reveal about Jaskier in Sirens of the Deep is the one about his name. Jaskier introduced himself as such in the first season of The Witcher, and that’s the name both viewers and characters have known him with since then. However, when Geralt and Jaskier come across Essi in Bremervoord, she calls him “Julian”, much to Geralt’s surprise. Jaskier simply brushes this off, but Essi and Zelest continue to call him “Julian” in Sirens of the Deep.

Jaskier’s real name in the books and the Netflix adaptation is Julian Alfred Pankratz (the bullies call him by his last name in the above-mentioned flashback), but he goes by “Jaskier.” However, Sirens of the Deep doesn’t explain why he chose “Jaskier” or what it means to him, but in a surprising moment of respect, in his last minutes, Zelest calls him “Jaskier” after he saves him during Melusina’s attack in her Kraken form.