The Folklore of Discworld

Jacqueline Simpson, who with Terry is co-author of The Folklore of Discworld, selected some major examples of the connection between Roundworld and Discworld folklore.

Discworld often takes literally what in our world is regarded as superstition. Terry and Jackie have both expressed regret that so much British folklore is disappearing from our culture and Terry has found via fan mail that people don't always understand his folklore references. This new book sets out to explain some of them.

Jacqueline spoke of Whinny Moor, and the connection between the gnarly ground in Carpe Jugulum and the old ballad The Lyke-Wake Dirge. She spoke of narrativium and how a strong idea on Earth penetrates to Discworld, for example, Hwel receives particles of plays by Shakespeare and others.

Jacqueline told us that the traditional witch's garb of pointy hat and black robe came in very late. In early modern woodcuts they wear ordinary peasant clothes. In 1762 Hogarth drew a cartoon on Superstition in which a preacher holds a model of a witch with hat and broomstick. So where did he get the idea? From Discworld, perhaps...

She then spoke of good or white witches and cunning men, who were real village people.
Terry and Jackie had discovered additional links of which they were previously unaware such as in the case of the witch's "shamble" or magical cat's cradle. In Germany a cat's cradle is called Das Hexenspiel or "The Witch's Game".

We heard that the story of Leshp is based on sailors' stories about landing on a whale and thinking it's an island. Jacqueline had also found a reference to the whale in a medieval bestiary, described as aspido chelone or aspido testudo, thus equating the whale with a turtle!

Waterstones had secured agreement to bring along pre-release copies of Jacqueline's book to Sator Square. These sold like hotcakes and many members have left with a whole new collection of annotations signed by a very engaging author.


Jesca Yates