Secrets of the Wee Free Men and Discworld (8 page)

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Authors: Linda Washington

BOOK: Secrets of the Wee Free Men and Discworld
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The designer of the cartoons for the tapestries was strongly influenced by other works of art.
—John Williamson,
The Oak King, the Holly King, and the Unicorn
62
Dwarfs vs. Trolls
Trolls.
Dwarfs of Northern mythology, living in hills, underground in caverns or beneath; they are represented as stumpy, misshapen,
and humpbacked, inclined to thieving, and fond of carrying off human children and substituting their own.
63
 
Dwarfs.
Dwarfs … generally dwelt in rocks, caves, and recesses of the earth, were the guardians of its mineral wealth and precious stones, and were very skillful in the working of these.
64
In Discworld, prejudice isn't just about one human looking down on another. Pratchett throws in other species (trolls, vampires, werewolves, golems, and zombies) to add to the malcontent mix.
As we mentioned in
chapter 1
, Pratchett is strongly influenced by other works of literature. In Discworld, he includes the good and the bad, with his own special tweaks. With dwarfs and trolls, you find the good, the bad, and the sometimes ugly.
In Discworld, the dwarfs and trolls are ancient enemies, a fact shown through the Battle of Koom Valley—discussed especially in
Thud!
—and their uneasy relations in Ankh-Morpork. When a dwarf is murdered, a troll is the fall guy. But friendships between dwarfs and trolls, like the friendship between Lance-constable Detritus and Lance-constable Cuddy in
Men at Arms,
also occur, which serve as a mirror of sorts for times in this country and others when relationships between members of different races were deemed “shocking.”
In mythology and its fantasy offspring, trolls are considered stupid, strong, and rarely on the side of good. Think way back to childhood when you heard the tale of “The Three Billy Goats Gruff,” a tale from the collection of Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. Who was the bad guy? The troll under the bridge. Or consider
The Hobbit.
Bilbo Baggins and the dwarves encountered a
group of hungry but easily fooled trolls, who tried to snack on them. And in
The Lord of the Rings,
trolls fought on Sauron's side.
Discworld trolls (which, it should be noted, are huge and made of rock) have the same “stupid and strong” reputation. They have a watchdog committee—the Silicon Anti-Defamation League—headed by troll thug Chrysophrase. (Watchdog organizations in our world: the NAACP, the ACLU, the Jewish Defamation League.)
Dwarfs, on the other hand, have a better reputation, but are sometimes seen as avaricious because of their love of silver and gold, as
The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings,
and other books attest. They have the same reputation in Discworld. Exhibit A: “Gold, Gold, Gold”—a popular dwarf song. They're a dual-society people (Copperhead and Ankh-Morpork), like many immigrants in America who try to assimilate into American society while maintaining roots back home. Like the trolls, dwarfs also have a watchdog committee—the Committee for Equal Heights.
Werewolves vs. Vampires vs. Humans
Even a man who is pure in heart … May become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms.
—Poem from
The Wolf Man
65
 
Look! It's a black chicken! Get it!
—A hungry family, trying to catch Dracula in bat form in
Love at First Bite
66
In
Underworld
and
Underworld: Evolution,
the werewolves (lycans) and vampires have been at war for ages. The two movies show a touch of forbidden love in the vein of
West Side Story
and
Romeo
and Juliet
(the play that inspired
West Side Story
) with the relationship between Selene (Kate Beckinsale), a vampire Death Dealer who kills werewolves, and Michael (Scott Speedman), a werewolf/vampire. (With that combination—werewolf vs. vampire—you can't win.) So, why the animosity? Because werewolves are the only species vampires fear—or so we're told in some stories. Werewolves can kill vampires.
So is it any wonder that in Discworld, vampires and werewolves find getting along difficult? Angua, the resident werewolf on the Watch, can't stand vampires and cringes at being forced to work with Lance-constable Sally von Humpeding, the Watch's first vampire. But Angua's animosity goes all the way back to life in the old country—Uberwald, where werewolves and vampires only work with other species when plotting misery to others they hate more.
Human animosity toward vampires is just as deeply ingrained. Few people on the Disc are fond of vampires, as
Carpe Jugulum, The Fifth Elephant,
and
Thud!
make abundantly clear. Vimes's antipathy toward them, in just about every book he's in, shows the standard human response.
It's the same in our world. What's the first thing you think of when the subject of vampires comes up? Is it a warm and cheery thought?
Y'know, I'd like a vampire to drop by for dinner someday.
No matter how appealing they might seem (e.g., Constantine in
Sunshine
by Robin McKinley, Selene—Kate Beckinsale's character in the
Underworld
movies, Wesley Snipes's hybrid vampire in the
Blade
movies, Angel in
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
, Edward in the
Twilight
series by Stephenie Meyer), you would still give them a wide berth, as Angua tries to give Sally, even if they claim to hunt other vampires. After all, they can't help looking at you the way Hannibal Lecter looks at a human—as an entrée to go with the fava beans.
In the past, literature and movies painted a dark picture of the vampire. After Bram Stoker, many authors, including Stephen King
(
Salem's Lot
), and screenwriters showcased these creatures of the night as the enemy (think of
From Dawn till Dusk
). But nowadays, they've been given a new status as angst-ridden “sexy beasts”—tortured souls just lookin' for love (or as Eddie Murphy in an old
Saturday Night Live
skit said, “Wookin' pa nub”) and tryin' to survive the best way they can. Exhibit A: Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. Exhibit B: the
Underworld
movies. Exhibit C: just about any young adult series involving vampires, including Meyer's
Twilight
,
New Moon,
and
Eclipse
, and Ellen Schreiber's
Vampire Kisses
. Oh, and let us not forget Christopher Moore's books about Jody the vampire—Exhibit D. Lastly, Exhibit E: hundreds of books listed on Amazon about finding love with a vampire. With vampires like these, potential victims almost beg to be bitten. (I [Linda] admit to a partiality for Meyer's series, thanks to strong, likable characters. But I'd still go “Tiffany Aching” all over any who came my way—frying pan and a good stake well done. Clang! I prefer my blood in my body, thank you.)
And werewolves or werewolf-of-sorts movies? Consider special effects-laden movies such as
An American Werewolf in London, The Howling
(which spawned seventy-five thousand sequels—okay, a slight exaggeration)
, Wolfen, Van Helsing
(Kate Beckinsale again), the
Underworlds
, and
Brotherhood of the Wolf.
(The Beast of Gevaudan in the last movie is not really a werewolf. But this movie has the essence of the werewolf movie.) Although we pity the victim of the werewolf's bite who undergoes a painful metamorphosis when the moon is full, werewolves are portrayed as ravenous, untrustworthy creatures—just a cut above vampires. They simply can't help killing! While werewolves are viewed with sympathy in
Blood and Chocolate
by Annette Curtis Klause, the element of being somewhat out of control when the full moon hangs in the sky is there.
Werewolves in Discworld are tolerated more than vampires are, particularly on non-full-moon nights, but are not much liked. The undead have that effect on people. Like the
Underworld
saga, the
forbidden love between Angua and Carrot serves as a way to bridge the gap created by the uneasy relations between humans and the undead.
Zombies vs. Humans
I always look for an intense experience, an intense ride. There is nothing better than a good zombie movie where you run crazy and blow at monsters!
—Sarah Polley, actress in
Dawn of the Dead
(2004 version)
67
If you've seen Peter Jackson's movie
Braindead,
George Romero on a zombie roll (
Day of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead
),
Re-animator, The Fog, Army of Darkness, Shaun of the Dead, Resident Evil, Dawn of the Dead
(2004), or any of the score upon score of other zombie movies out there (including the not-really-zombies-but-still-murderous-crazies in
28 Days Later
or its sequel), you've seen the normal reaction to zombies (i.e., destroy them). After all, who wants to cozy up to something homicidal and hungry (Hannibal Lecter, anyone)?
But in Pratchett's world, zombies are a beleaguered minority. Watchman Reg Shoe is a self-described advocate, combating prejudice toward the Discworld dead, while Mr. Slant takes the route of assimilation by heading the guild of lawyers in society.
Wizard Windle Poons briefly experiences the aversion of others when he dies and becomes a zombie in
Reaper Man.
But Reg's Dead Rights group (the Fresh Starters) are there to succor and protect him.
But then there's Saturday, the murdered baron of Genua, who comes back as an avenging zombie. Saturday, which is an allusion to Baron Samedi, a voodoo figure, is the right-hand man of Mrs. Gogol,
the voodoo witch in
Witches Abroad.
While Saturday thirsts for vengeance, he's still polite about it. No chewing on humans for him! But he will kill them if necessary.
Golems vs. Humans
Golem:
I feel so guilty! I've mangled and maimed thirty-seven people and I told a telemarketer I was busy when I wasn't! I'm not a good man.
Lisa Simpson:
He sure is neurotic for a monster.
68
 
We shall overcome someday.
—Lyrics adapted from a gospel song written by Charles Tindley
If you've played video games such as
Warcraft III
or
Enchanted Arms,
you've seen golems at work and probably already know that golems are from Jewish folklore. In one tale, Rabbi Judah Loew created a golem when the Jews in Prague were persecuted during the nineteenth century. But these animated beings created from clay are treated as mindless slaves in Discworld. Hmm. You can't help thinking about Gollum in
Lord of the Rings,
who was a slave to the ring.
In Discworld, golems are given the worst tasks to do and have no rights whatsoever—a situation reminiscent of human slavery, especially the enslavement of African Americans in the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries in America. Golems are viewed as little more than chattel—something that can be sold or destroyed at an owner's whim. The golems could probably hum a bar or two of “We Shall Overcome.”
Isn't it interesting that stories of golems flourished during times of persecution in Jewish history? While the golem has the protector role in Jewish folklore, it has the hunting-down-the-humans-to-destroy-them role in video games—a role not far from that of a robot or a cyborg like the terminators of the
Terminator
movie series.
According to Jewish folklore, a person who had a golem was considered wise, especially since golems were created with a sacred word attached to their foreheads like a phylactery. The Discworld golems (Dorfl, Mr. Pump, Anghammerad, etc.) have those sacred words, which Carrot later uses to free Dorfl in
Feet of Clay.
The golem legend might have inspired Mary Shelley to create
Frankenstein.
It certainly inspired such writers as Michael Chabon (
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
), Jorge Luis Borges, Jonathan Stroud, and Isaac Bashevis Singer.
Banshees vs. Humans
Banshee.
The domestic spirit of certain Irish or Highland Scottish families, supposed to take an interest in its welfare, and to wait at the death of one of the family.
69
The howl of the banshee is supposed to drive a person crazy. Maybe that's because the banshee's scream is the signal that death is coming for you. But if you're in Discworld, perhaps the banshee's methods won't drive you crazy—not if the omen comes on a slip of paper thrust under your door by Mr. Ixolite.
Banshees, like vampires and werewolves, have their place in Discworld. Although Mr. Gryle's murderous actions might give them a bad name, for the most part all's quiet on the western front. Ixolite
is part of Reg Shoe's Fresh Starters group, which means that for the banshee there's some perception of mistreatment. It's difficult to want someone around who screams piercingly at you. (Well, Mr. Ixolite, a shy banshee with a speech impediment, wouldn't.)
In folklore, banshees were of the female persuasion, since the name means “woman of fairyland.” But if you're an
X-Men
fan, you know that the Banshee (Sean Cassidy) was male and had a piercing sonic scream. Guess Pratchett decided to buck tradition as well, by making his banshees male.
 
 
In a skillfully woven tapestry, you don't notice so much the individual threads as you notice the picture as a whole. In Discworld, no thread seems out of place.

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