Title: The Mythology of Discworld
1The Mythology of Discworld
2The Disc
3The Disc
- Hindu cosmology has four or eight great elephants
called the diggaja, elephants of the directions,
with gods on their backs. - Another legend shows the world on the back of a
single elephant, Maha-Padma, standing on the
tortoise Chukwa.
- "The world rides through space on the back of a
turtle. This is one of the great ancient world
myths, found wherever men and turtles are
gathered together the four elephants were an
indo-European sophistication. The idea has been
lying in the lumber room of legend for centuries.
All I had to do was grab it and run away before
the alarms went off."
4The Other Discs
- A blue-green ball, crisscrossed with tiny white
cloud patterns and what could have been
continents if anyone was silly enough to try to
live on a ball. - A snake big enough to encircle a worldbiting its
own tail. - Instead of the Rimfall there was a wall of ice
and instead of the Hub there was a gigantic tree.
5Elves
- Her maidens skipped off into the palace and
returned with the dazed-looking boy. They adorned
him with rhododendrons and jewels, whirling him
round and round in a manic dance and tittering in
his ears. He fell at the queens feet, kissing
them repeatedly. In response, she kissed him many
times on the lips, and, drawing him to her, she
sported with him, twining his long hair with
pearls and setting her own crown on his head. At
length, she tired of this, and kicked him up into
the air like a football. Enough of this one now
kiss him, girls, to death.
- An elf's strength lay in persuading others they
were weak. - Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.Elves
are marvelous. They cause marvels.Elves are
fantastic. They create fantasies.Elves are
glamorous. They project glamour.Elves are
enchanting. They weave enchantment.Elves are
terrific. They beget terror.No one ever said
elves are nice.Elves are bad.
6Rescue from Elfland
- Oh gloomy gloomy was the night, and eerie was
the waywhen Janet hid among the trees,the faery
fold tae spy. - Twas first she saw the black, black steed,and
then she saw the brown.But Tam raid on the milk
white steedand she pulled him tae the ground. - The faeires changed him in her arms,a burning
coal of fire,but Janet held him tae her
breast,to be her heart's desire. - The faeries changed him in her arms,a wolf and
then a snake,but Janet held him tae her
breast,all for her true love's sake. - They changed him in her arms at last,a wild and
naked man,but still she held him tae her
breast,and so she won Tam Lin, Tam Lin.And so
she won Tam Lin.
- Magrat I remember a folksong about a situation
just like this. This girl had her fiancé stolen
by the Queen of the elves and she didnt hang
around whining, she jolly well got on her horse
and went and got him. Well, Im going to do that
too.
7Dwarves
- All dwarfs have beards and wear up to twelve
layers of clothing. Gender is more or less
optional. - All dwarfs are by nature dutiful, serious,
literate, obedient and thoughtful people whose
only minor failing is a tendency, after one
drink, to rush at enemies screaming "Arrrrrrgh!"
and axing their legs off at the knee. - Dwarfs are very attached to gold. Any highwayman
demanding 'Your money or your life' had better
bring a folding chair and packed lunch and a book
to read while the debate goes on.
- Norse dwarves were short, ugly, and uniformly
male. They were magical creatures with huge skill
at metallurgy, taking fame for making great
artifacts of legend.
8Trolls
- Somehow, you could tell it was made up by a
troll'Now we sing dis stupid song!''Sing it as
we run along!''Why we sing dis we don't
know!''We can't make der words rhyme
prop'ly!''Sound off!''One! Two!''Sound
off!''Many! Lots!''Sound Off!''Er ... What?'
- Mountain trolls from Iceland and Norway are
immensely old and strong, hurl boulders and cause
avalanches. - The Icelandic night-troll avoids sunlight, which
turns it permanently into stone.
9Death
- People's whole lives do pass in front of their
eyes before they die. The process is called
'living' - When it's time to stop living, I will certainly
make Death my number one choice! - -Rincewind
- Old Father Time carries a scythe and hourglass.
He derives from Cronus (Saturn) god of
agriculture and time.
10Death
- The new death raised his cowl. There was no face
there. There was not even a skull. Smoke curled
formlessly between the robe and a golden crown. - A crown? I never wore a crown!
- You never wanted to rule.
- Paradise Lost What seemed his head
- The likeness of a kingly crown had on
11The Auditors
- Intelligent life, was, therefore, an anomaly. It
made the filing untidy. The Auditors hated little
things like that. Periodically, they tried to
tidy things up a little.
12The Luggage
- The ancient Chinese believed that the pear was a
symbol of immortality. (Pear trees live for a
long time.) They were also self-fertilizing and
thus a symbol of dualism.
13The Feegles
- "Nac Mac Feegle! The Wee Free Men! Nae king! Nae
quin! Nae laird! Nae master! We willna be fooled
again!" - "We are a famously stealin' folk. Aren't we,
lads? Whut's it we're famous for?""Stealin'!"
shouted the blue men."And what else,
lads?""Fightin'!""And what else?""Drinkin'!""A
nd what else?"There was a certain amount of
thought about this, but they all reached the same
conclusion."Drinkin' and fightin'!""And there
was summat else," muttered the twiddler. "Ach,
yes. Tell the hag, lads!""Stealin' an' drinkin'
an' fightin'!" shouted the blue men cheerfully.
The Picti, ancient painted warriors of Scotland,
were so fierce they held off the Romans. Some
Scotsmen described unco wee bodies but terrible
strang, who lived under burial mounds. They were
associated with underworld spirits. Short wee
men they were, wi red hair and feet sae braid
that when it rained they could turn them up owre
their heads, and then they served for umbrellas.
14Witches
- Then the Badb, and Macha, and Morrigu went to the
hill of hostage-taking, the tulach which heavy
hosts frequented, to Temhair (Tara), and they
shed druidically formed showers, and
fog-sustaining shower-clouds, and poured down
from the air, about the heads of the warriors,
enormous masses of fire, and streams of red
blood and they did not permit the Fir-Bolgs to
scatter or separate for the space of three days
and three nights.
- "The thing about witchcraft," said Mistress
Weatherwax, "is that it's not like school at all.
First you get the test, and then afterward you
spend years findin' out how you passed it. It's a
bit like life in the respect."
15Wyrd Sisters
- The Norns, are called lawmakers as well as the
arbiters of fate, ever virginal, ever spinning - Thence come maidens
- three,
- Having knowledge of many things
- Urth one is called
- The second Verthandi
- Skuld the third.
- They laid down laws,
- They chose life
- for the children of people
- They tell fates.
- --The Poetic Edda
- Three witches was good. Two wouldnt be enough,
four would be too many. They could be meddling
with the destinies of mankind and everything.
Lots of smoke and green light. You could do a lot
with three witches. It was surprising no one had
thought of it before.
16Golems
- 'I Suggest You Take Me And Smash Me And Grind The
Bits Into Fragments And Pound The Fragments Into
Powder And Mill Them Again To The Finest Dust
There Can Be, And I Believe You Will Not Find A
Single Atom Of Life-' - 'True! Let's do it!'
- 'However, In Order To Test This Fully, One Of You
Must Volunteer To Undergo The Same Process.' - There was silence.
- 'That's not fair,' said a priest, after a while.
'All anyone has to do is bake up your dust again
and you'll be alive...' - There was more silence.
The golem itself is a creature from Jewish
mythology, a man made of clay and animated by
Kabbalistic magic. God's secret name on a
parchment was placed in its forehead. The one
thing it could not do is speak, because only God
can grant the power of speech. The Golem of
Prague was between seven-and-a-half and nine feet
tall and had tremendous strength, but had a very
placid and passive disposition when not under
orders to act otherwise.
17Dragon-Slayers
Dragon-Slayers Perseus St. George Beowulf Sigmund
Siegfried
Dibbler When a stranger comes into the city
under the thrall of the dragon and challenges it
with a glittery sword, weeell, theres only one
outcome, aint there? Its probably destiny.
18Demons
- "Some ancient and probably fearful warning was
edged over the crumbling arch, but it was
destined to remain unread because over it someone
had pasted a red-and-white notice which read
'You Don't Have To Be 'Damned' To Work Here, But
It Helps!!!'" - The whole sequence in Hell is based loosely on
Dante's Inferno (which in turn is based on
Vergil's Aeneid)
19Vampires
- It was hard enough to kill a vampire. You could
stake them down and turn them into dust and ten
years later someone drops a drop of blood in the
wrong place and guess who's back? They returned
more times than raw broccoli. - 'Will it be enough to know that the world is your
oyster?'Her forehead wrinkled in perplexity.
'Why should I want it to be some nasty little sea
creature?' she said.'Because they get eaten
alive,' said the Count.
20New Vampires
21New Vampires
- "Oh, my vord, vake up and smell zer garlic! Oh,
zer stories I could tell you." Otto paused. "But
I von't because I don't do zat sort of thing any
more, now that I have seen the daylightthat vas
in zer bad old days," said Otto hurriedly. "Now I
like nothing better than a nice mug of cocoa and
a good sing-song around zer harmonium, I assure
you. Oh yes. My vord."
22The Pantheon
23The Pantheon
- Offler echo of Ancient Egyptian crocodile god
Sobek, dangerous, yet fierce. - Flatulus (back), The Ephebian God of the Winds.
Reminiscent of Aeolus, Greek god of winds. - Fate He is said to come from a world other than
the Disc. In most myths, Fate cannot be cheated,
even by luck. - Urika The Goddess of Snow, Saunas and Theatrical
Performances for Fewer than 120 People. Her name
is probably a parody of the word Eureka, and the
Swedish celebrity Ulrika Jonsson.
24The Pantheon
- Blind Io He is always accompanied by two ravens,
much like Odin. Odin was also famed for
sacrificing his left eye for wisdom. He sits like
a patriarchal sky god Zeus, Odin, etc. - In India, Shivas wife mischievously covered his
eyes, and he grew a third eye to compensate.
25The Pantheon
- Libertina (center) The Goddess of the Sea, Apple
Pie, Certain Types of Ice Cream and Short Lengths
of String. Her name and appearance suggest the
Statue of Liberty (which overlooks the sea).
Apple pie and some ice creams are famously linked
with the US, across the sea. - The Lady Nemesis was the deadliest Greek
goddess, who could level the playing field for
those being treated unfairly. Her counterpart was
luck (Lady Luck) who distributed her favors more
randomly.
26The Pantheon
- Bibulous from Bacchus, god of wine
- Patina (back) The Ephebian Goddess of Wisdom, a
portmanteau of Pallas and Athena, her helmet and
penguin (er, owl) reflect the Greek goddess of
war and craft. - Topaxi (front) the God of Certain Mushrooms. His
name and appearance suggest an Aztec deity. - Bast (back) Bast was the benevolent and
protective Egyptian Cat-Goddess. - Nuggan. God of Paperclips, Correct Things in the
Right Place in Small Desk Stationery Sets, and
Unnecessary Paperwork. Quite a bureaucrat. God of
Borogravia. No wonder hes annoyed.
27The Pantheon
- According to Aztec mythology, Quetzalcóatl was
supposed to return to his people at some
particular future date. He was a winged serpent. - Romulus and Remus were two orphaned brothers.
Raised by a wolf, the brothers went on to found
Rome. - Set is the Egyptian god of the Underworld.
- The Tezumen god, Quetzovercoatl, the Feathered
Boa." - The legend of Ankh-Morpork being founded by two
orphaned brothers who had been found and suckled
by a hippopotamus - Pyramids describes the complete set of gods
28Prometheus
- Ahura Mazda was a culture hero, Zoroastrian god
of truth and light. His enemy was the evil Angra
Mainyu. - Prometheus Bound "Prometheus I hunted out
and stored in fennel stalk the stolen source of
fire that has proved a teacher to mortals in
every art and a means to mighty ends."
- Fingers-Mazda, the first thief in the world,
stole fire from the gods. But he was unable to
fence it. It was too hot.He got really burned on
that deal.
29Lilith
- For every mirror is a gateway to the Other World
and leads directly to Lilith's cave. That is the
cave Lilith went to when she abandoned Adam and
the Garden of Eden for all time, the cave where
she sported with her demon lovers. From these
unions multitudes of demons were born, who
flocked from that cave and infiltrated the world.
And when they want to return, they simply enter
the nearest mirror. That is why it is said that
Lilith makes her home in every mirror.
- A mirror can suck up a piece of soul. A mirror
can contain the reflection of the whole universe,
a whole skilful of stars in a piece of silvered
glass no thicker than a breath. - Lily You know, youre really just like me. Dont
you know that? There isnt a thought thats gone
through my head that you havent thought too. - Her horrified gaze rose to meet a reflection.
- It glared back at her
- Granny Weatherwax stepped through the empty frame.
30Unseen University
31Wizard Schools
- The School of Magic on Roke Island in the
Earthsea Cycle. - Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches from The Worst
Witch - Magic School on the Charmed television series.
- "This is the school, isn't it. The magic place?
The world. Here. And you don't realize it until
you look. Do you know the pictsies think this
world is heaven? We just don't look. You can't
give lessons on witchcraft. Not properly. It's
all about who you are... you, I suppose."
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