The Mythology of Discworld.ppt

The Mythology of Discworld The Disc The Disc 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. 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 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 world…biting its own tail. Instead of the Rimfall there was a wall of ice and instead of the Hub there was a gigantic tree. Elves An elfs 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. 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 queen’s 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.” Rescue from Elfland Magrat: I remember a folksong about a situation just like this. This girl had her fiancé stole