From: Leo Breebaart <apf@lspace.org>
Subject: The Annotated Pratchett File, v7a.5
Newsgroups: alt.fan.pratchett,alt.books.pratchett
Summary: BEING: THEE moft LEARNED and EDDYFYING COMPENDIUM intended for the
	 AMUSEMENT of the NOBLE and the INSTRUCTION of the VULGAR, pofted
	 on occafion upon THEE NETTE and CONSISTING of an OSTENTATIOUSNESS
	 of COMMENTARIES and EXPLICATIONS by which shall be shewn the TRUE
	 MEANING of the LEGION and MANY JESTS, SAWS and WITTICISMS to be
	 FOUND in the MULTITUDINOUS WORKS of MISTER TERENCE PRATCHETT,
	 OBE, scribe of thysse parifh. FEATURING a CAST of THOUSANDS
	 confifting in PART of WIZARDS, WARRIORS, MONK^H^H^H^HAPES, DIURSE
	 ALARUMS and ONE THOUSAND ELEPHANTS.
	 BEWARE! Here be SPOILERS!
Organization: Unseen University
Followup-To: alt.fan.pratchett,alt.books.pratchett
Reply-To: apf@lspace.org

Archive-name: apf-7a.5.3.5
Last-modified: 25 July 2002
Version: 7a.5.3.5
Editor: Leo Breebaart <apf@lspace.org>
Assistant-Editor: Mike Kew <apf@lspace.org>
URL: <http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/>

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** Preface to v7a.5
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is not the new release of the Annotated Pratchett File.

This is a development version, a work in progress, an unfinished business.

Since 1996 I have kept everybody waiting for a new release of the APF
(version 9.0, internal codename: the Pointless Albatross release). Real
life kept interfering, and year after year passed without anything
happening.

I did do large amounts of work behind the scenes, but there was never
enough time to take things all the way, to fully research and edit the raw
material, to wrap everything up into something releasable. Worse, it didn't
look as if this situation was going to change. The time had come for me to
face reality, and either give up entirely, or else make some radical
changes to the way I had been approaching the job of editing and releasing
the APF. I decided to change, and you are now looking at the results.

The first major change is that I have abandoned the concept of releasing
only complete updates to the Annotated Pratchett File, in which *all* of
the annotation sections for *all* of the books are fully updated. From now
on, the APF will be updated incrementally: book by book, section by
section, sometimes even annotation by annotation. There will, eventually,
be a version 9.0, a proper "stable release", but until that happens the
intermediate stages on the 7a.5 "development branch" will be available for
public viewing.

The second major change is that I have abandoned the concept of doing the
entire core researching/editing job by myself without outside help. From
now on, I will share that job with Mike Kew, a.k.a. Miq -- a name that
should be familiar and welcome to all alt.books.pratchett and
alt.fan.pratchett readers. Mike and I will be able to work in parallel on
different stages of the editing process, and as a result progress can be
made even if one of us is occupied with other commitments.

What has changed in version 7a.5? The single most important change is that
we have added 204 new annotations (well over 1500 lines of text), finally
bringing _Feet of Clay_ and _Hogfather_ into the domain of annotated books.

The rest of the Annotated Pratchett File has stayed mostly the same, except
for the occasional rewritten section (such as this Preface). This also
implies that some of the unchanged bits have now become outdated, because
they still refer to the situation of the previous 7a.0 release. That is one
of the disadvantages of going public with a development version:
perfectionism has to take a back seat to pragmatism, and loose ends will
dangle visibly until they get tied up.

In the same vein, the new annotations have not been proofread (yet) by my
usual team of APF proofreaders, they only cover a period of e-mail
submissions and a.f.p. logs from July 1996 until December 1998, and v7a.5
will only be available as ASCII text and on the L-Space Web, not in any of
the other formats (PostScript, MS Word) that v7a.0 was released in.

I can only hope that finally being able to read new APF annotations for the
first time in four years will be enough make up for such occasional rough
edges.

Leo Breebaart

Delft, Hogswatch 2000

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** Introduction
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ Note: This section was written for APF v7a.0, and has not yet been
  updated for APF v7a.5.
]

You are now about to read the 7a-th edition (the 8th, really, but since
this is the Discworld I'm not taking any chances...) of the Annotated
Pratchett File, or APF for short.

One of the most popular pastimes on the Usenet newsgroup alt.fan.pratchett
has always been discussing the many jokes, parodies and references that
Terry Pratchett puts into his novels.

Since, as Terry once put it, "alt.fan.pratchett as an entity has the
attention span of a butterfly on cocaine" it quickly became apparent that
it would be a good idea to distill some of these discussions into something
with a little more persistence and staying power than individual Usenet
articles. So the _Annotated Pratchett File_ was born, and (because I was
brave/foolish enough to volunteer) I became its editor.

The structure of the file is straightforward, with the books divided into
two large groups: the Discworld related books, and all the other ones. Per
book, the annotations are sorted in ascending page order. For each
annotation I supply two page numbers: the first number is that of the
paperback (usually the UK Corgi edition), the second number that of the
hardcover (usually the UK Gollancz edition). Use these numbers as a rough
guide for finding an annotation in your own particular edition of the book.

Each annotation is also prefixed by either a '+', denoting an annotation
that is new or has been significantly updated in this version of the APF,
or a '-', denoting an unchanged older annotation. This is handy for
long-time readers who quickly want to scan for the new stuff.

The APF incorporates, in this edition even more than before, passages from
articles that Terry himself has posted to alt.fan.pratchett. As an active
contributor to the group, he often provides us with inside information on
many aspects of his writing, and it would be a waste to let this first-hand
knowledge just disappear into the vacuum of Usenet history.

The file ends with an editorial section, where various nuts & bolts of the
APF editing process are discussed, and information is given to help you
obtain the most recent version of the APF in whatever format you prefer.

One particular piece of information is so important I am putting it here
rather than at the end, and that is the address to write to if you have any
suggestions, questions, corrections, or new annotations -- without the
enthusiastic reactions and input from its readers, the APF would never have
survived. So please mail all your feedback to me at

        apf@lspace.org

and look for *your* contribution in the next edition. I will now leave you
to the annotations, and end this introduction with a thought that is a bit
of a cliche but nonetheless true: I hope you will enjoy reading the APF as
much as I have enjoyed putting it together.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** Editorial Comments for v7a.5
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

PAGE NUMBERS 

Up to APF v7a.0, each annotation was identified (apart from the relevant
quote) by two page numbers: one for the Gollancz hardcover, one for the
Corgi paperback. Unfortunately, this system has a number of drawbacks.

One minor problem is that I have never liked the look of those double
page numbers. The "247/391" strings look ugly, bloat the text, and make
the annotations just that tiny bit harder to read.

A more serious problem is that having two page numbers is a maintenance
headache. Double the numbers means double the chance of mistakes. And
since I don't own Terry's books in both hardcover and paperback editions
myself, I have to rely on volunteers to supply fully half of the data I
need: all the page numbers for the editions of the books I don't have.

Thankfully, so far I *have* had the help of volunteers who do a stellar
job on this, but it does still mean that I can never just add an
annotation without having to go bother someone else for the second page
number. This makes annotating a two-step process, which is especially
tiresome now that APF updates happen incrementally and in a more
on-the-fly kind of fashion.

The most serious drawback, however, and the one that has made me
reconsider the whole setup, is fairly recent, and caused by the fact
that there are now so many different editions of Terry's books available
that the percentage of readers to whom *either* of the page numbers I
supply means anything useful, is shrinking, and will only get smaller
over time. Not only do we now have American editions in widespread use,
but we also have reissues of the older Corgi paperbacks and Gollancz
hardcovers, both with page counts that are different from the previous
editions.

Finally, I think the most useful aspects of the page numbers is that
they provide a ordering of the list of annotations for a given book. I
strongly suspect that the actual numbers are used more often by me as
editor than by the vast majority of APF readers. Had Terry written in
chapters, I probably would never have used page numbers at all, but
merely listed the annotations on a per-chapter basis. I don't think that
there are that many readers of the APF who habitually use the page
numbers as a link back from individual annotations to the source text.
Rather, it will be the other way around, and on a much more global
level: "I have just read _Pyramids_, now I'll go browse through the
annotations for that book and see what I've missed".

With all that in mind I have decided that as of v7a.5.4 of the APF I
will be returning to uni-numbered annotations, based on the editions of
the books I happen to have in my possession.


OTHER ANNOTATIONS 

Over the years, a number of other sites collecting Discworld annotations
have appeared.

_Detritus_ (<http://books.detritus.co.uk/pratchett/annotations/index.shtml>)
collects annotations that have appeared on alt.fan.pratchett.

_Bugarup University_ (<http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Village/4108/xxxx_explained.htm>)
specifically collects annotations for _The Last Continent_.

Sockii's Annotate-o-matic (<http://wibblehome.orcon.net.nz/annotate/>) is
an interactive annotation page, where you can enter your own annotations
directly.



---------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** Discworld Annotations
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE COLOUR OF MAGIC 

- [p. 7/7] "[...] He stares fixedly at the Destination."

  This line is interesting not only because it foreshadows _The Light
  Fantastic_ (as in fact the entire prologue does), but also because it is
  about the only time the narrator really commits himself to A'Tuin's
  gender without hedging his bets (as e.g. on the first page of _The Light
  Fantastic_). Note the capital 'H', which Death also rates in this book
  and loses in the later ones.

- [p. 8/8] "For example, what was A'Tuin's actual sex?"

  I have had e-mail from a herpetologist who has studied under one of the
  world's experts on turtles, and he assures me that in real life
  determining the sex of turtles is no easy task. Unlike mammals, reptiles
  don't have their naughty bits hanging out where they can be easily seen,
  and the only way to really tell a turtle's gender is by comparison: male
  turtles are often smaller than females and have thicker tails. Since
  there are no other _Chelys Galactica_ to compare A'Tuin to, the attempts
  of the Discworld's Astrozoologists are probably futile to begin with.

- [p. 8/8] "[...] the theory that A'Tuin had come from nowhere and would
  continue at a uniform crawl, or steady gait, [...]"

  Puns on the 'steady state' theory of explaining the size, origin and
  future of the universe. The best-known *other* theory is, of course, the
  Big Bang theory, referred to in the preceding sentence.

- [p. 9/9] "Fire roared through the bifurcated city of Ankh-Morpork."

  Terry has said that the name 'Ankh-Morpork' was inspired neither by the
  ankh (the Egyptian cross with the closed loop on top), nor by the
  Australian or New Zealand species of bird (frogmouths and small brown
  owls, respectively) that go by the name of 'Morepork'.

  Since I first wrote down the above annotation, there have been new
  developments, however. In _The Streets of Ankh-Morpork_ and _The
  Discworld Companion_ we are shown an illustration of the Ankh-Morpork
  coat of arms, which *does* feature a Morepork/owl holding an ankh. But
  from Terry's remarks (see next annotation) I feel it's safe to say that
  neither bird nor cross were explicitly on his mind when he first came up
  with the name Ankh-Morpork.

  Finally, many readers have mentioned the resonance that Ankh-Morpork has
  with our world's Budapest: also a large city made up of two smaller
  cities (Buda and Pest) separated by a river.

- [p. 9/9] "[...] two figures were watching with considerable interest."

  The two barbarians, Bravd and Weasel, are parodies of Fritz Leiber's
  fantasy heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. The _Swords_ series of books
  in which they star are absolute classics, and have probably had about as
  much influence on the genre as Tolkien's _Lord of the Rings_.

  The _Swords_ stories date back as far as 1939, but nearly sixty years
  later they have lost none of their appeal. Both _The Colour of Magic_ and
  _The Light Fantastic_ are, in large part, affectionate parodies of the
  Leiberian universe, although I hasten to add that, in sharp contrast to
  many later writers in the field, Leiber himself already had a great sense
  of humour. Fafhrd and the Mouser are not to be taken altogether serious
  in his original version, either.

  Given all this, I can perhaps be forgiven for thinking that Terry
  intended Ankh-Morpork to be a direct parody of the great city of Lankhmar
  in which many of the _Swords_ adventures take place. However, Terry
  explicitly denied this when I suggested it on alt.fan.pratchett:

  "Bravd and the Weasel were indeed takeoffs of Leiber characters -- there
  was a lot of that sort of thing in _The Colour of Magic_. But I didn't --
  at least consciously, I suppose I must say -- create Ankh-Morpork as a
  takeoff of Lankhmar."

- [p. 11/11] "[...] two lesser directions, which are Turnwise and
  Widdershins."

  'Widdershins' is in fact an existing word meaning 'counter-sunwise', i.e.
  counter-clockwise in the Northern hemisphere, clockwise down South. A
  synonym for 'turnwise' is deosil, which helps explain Ankh-Morpork's
  Deosil Gate as found on the _The Streets of Ankh-Morpork_ Mappe.

  Widdershins is also the name of the planet where Dom, the hero from _The
  Dark Side of the Sun_ lives.

- [p. 12/12] "'Why, it's Rincewind the wizard, isn't it?' [...]"

  The story behind Rincewind's name goes back to 1924, when J. B. Morton
  took over authorship of the column 'By The Way' in the _Daily Express_, a
  London newspaper.

  He inherited the pseudonym 'Beachcomber' from his predecessors on the job
  (the column had existed since 1917), but he was to make that name forever
  his own by virtue of his astonishing output and success: Morton wrote the
  column for over 50 years, six times a week, until 1965 when the column
  became a weekly feature, and continued to the last column in November
  1975.

  Beachcomber/Morton used an eccentric cast of regular characters in his
  sketches, which frequently caricatured self-important and high-brow
  public figures. One continual theme was the silliness of the law courts,
  featuring amongst others Mr Justice Cocklecarrot and the twelve
  Red-Bearded Dwarves. In one sketch, the names of those dwarfs were given
  as Sophus Barkayo-Tong, Amaninter Axling, Farjole Merrybody, Guttergorm
  Guttergormpton, Badly Oronparser, Cleveland Zackhouse, Molonay
  Tubilderborst, Edeledel Edel, Scorpion de Rooftrouser, Listenis
  Youghaupt, Frums Gillygottle, and, wait for it: Churm Rincewind. Terry
  says:

  "I read of lot of Beachcomber in second-hand collections when I was
  around 13. Dave Langford pointed out the origin of Rincewind a few years
  ago, and I went back through all the books and found the name and
  thought, oh, blast, *that's* where it came from. And then I thought, what
  the hell, anyway."

- [p. 12/12] "Since the Hub is never closely warmed by the weak sun the
  lands there are locked in permafrost. The Rim, on the other hand, is a
  region of sunny islands and balmy days."

  A presumably knowledgeable correspondent tells me that actually, if you
  do the calculations, it turns out that it would be the other way around
  (on average, the sun is closer to the hub than the rim, so the hub would
  be warmer).

  Do not feel obliged to take his word for it, though. 'Discworld
  Mechanics' is one of alt.fan.pratchett's favourite Perennial Discussion
  Topics, and I don't think that any two given participants in such a
  thread have ever managed to agree on anything definite about the way in
  which the Discworld might 'work'. See also the _The Turtle Moves!_
  section in Chapter 5 for more information about the physical aspects of
  the Discworld.

- [p. 16/16] "[...] found himself looking up into a face with four eyes in
  it."

  On the covers of the first two Discworld books, Josh Kirby actually drew
  Twoflower with four physical eyes. Consensus on alt.fan.pratchett has it
  that Terry was trying to get across the fact that Twoflower was wearing
  glasses ('four-eyes' being a common insult thrown at bespectacled folks),
  but that Josh Kirby simply triggered on the literal text and went off in
  a direction of his own. Whether this action essentially shows Kirby's
  interpretative genius (the KirbyFan explanation) or his inability to get
  the joke / read very carefully (the NonKirbyFan explanation) is a matter
  still under discussion.

- [p. 18/17] The inn called 'The Broken Drum' gets burned down in this
  book. The later Discworld novels all feature an inn called 'The Mended
  Drum'. The novel _Strata_ contains (on p. 35/42) an explanation of why
  you would call a pub 'The Broken Drum' in the first place: "You can't
  beat it".

  This is probably as good a place as any to mention some intriguing
  information that I received from one of my correspondents: if you have
  ever wondered what it would be like to experience the atmosphere of an
  establishment like the Mended Drum, then the closest you can possibly
  come in our world is by paying a visit to Alexandria, where there exists
  a bar called the 'Spitfire', populated mostly by soldiers and sailors,
  and apparently a dead ringer for the Mended Drum. The story goes that
  when the owner of the bar passed away a few years ago, his body was kept
  in a freezer next to the toilets where, for all we know, it may still be
  today. If any of you ever happen to be in Alexandria, be sure to visit
  the 'Spitfire' and check it out for us.

- [p. 22/20] "Some might have taken him for a mere apprentice enchanter
  [...]"

  One of the few clues to Rincewind's age being younger rather than older,
  despite the tendency of every cover artist to depict him as at least
  sixtyish. No one ever draws him as looking like a weasel, either.

- [p. 22/20] "[...] an alumnus of Unseen University, [...]"

  The name of the Discworld's premier scientific institution resonates with
  that of the Invisible College, formed by the secret organisation of the
  Rosicrucians, whose members were called the Invisibles because they never
  dared to reveal themselves in public. The Invisible College was a
  conclave of scientists, philosophers and other progressive thinkers
  which, in later times and under Stuart patronage, became the Royal
  Society.

  In the _Brief Lives_ arc of Neil Gaiman's _Sandman_ comic, Dream visits
  the Invisible College, where a scientist is happily dissecting a dead
  orangutan. I don't think that scene was *entirely* coincidental...

- [p. 24/22] Terry has this to say about the name 'Twoflower': "[...]
  there's no joke in Twoflower. I just wanted a coherent way of making up
  'foreign' names and I think I pinched the Mayan construction (Nine
  Turning Mirrors, Three Rabbits, etc.)."

- [p. 26/24] "'If you mean: is this coin the same as, say, a fifty-dollar
  piece, then the answer is no.'"

  An American reader was puzzled by the fact that in Ankh-Morpork the unit
  of currency is the dollar, instead of, for instance, something more
  British, like the pound. Terry explained:

  "The dollar is quite an elderly unit of currency, from the German
  'thaler', I believe, and the use of the term for the unit of currency
  isn't restricted to the US. I just needed a nice easy monetary unit and
  didn't want to opt for the 'gold pieces' cliche. Sure, I live in the UK,
  but I haven't a clue what the appropriate unit of currency is for a city
  in a world on the back of a turtle :-)..."

- [p. 28/25] "'Barely two thousand _rhinu_.'"

  A very old British slang word for ready money is 'rhino', which Brewer
  thinks may be related to the phrase 'to pay through the nose', since
  'rhinos' means 'nose' in Greek.

+ [p. 30/27] "The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork smiled, but with his mouth
  only."

  An interesting consideration is just when Lord Vetinari became Patrician.
  Clearly this isn't him (Vetinari eating crystallised jellyfish? -- I
  don't think so. Besides, _Interesting Times_ makes it quite clear that
  Vetinari does not know who Rincewind is).

  However, Terry has always denied this interpretation:

  "I'm pretty certain that the same Patrician was in all the books. [...]
  He's clearly lost weight and got more austere. It must be the pressure.
  As for racehorses and so on -- Vetinari is not the first Patrician, and
  no doubt the earlier ones, like Lord Snapcase, were often crazed, greedy
  and acquisitive. So he has inherited all sorts of things. But he doesn't
  change anything without a reason."

  When the people on afp were not immediately prepared to take his word for
  this (after all, what does he know -- he's only the author...), Terry
  conceded:

  "How about: maybe he was Vetinari, but written by a more stupid writer?"

  Which was grudgingly accepted. Still, discussion about the differences
  between the "early" and the "recent" Patrician continues to flare up
  regularly. When some people on alt.fan.pratchett questioned whether
  Vetinari would really be the type of man to throw the kind of party
  described in _Mort_, Terry answered:

  "I've always thought the Patrician is a party animal. Can you imagine
  waking up next day and remembering all those witty things you said and
  did, and then realising that he was listening?"

- [p. 44/39] "'_Reflected-sound-of-underground-spirits?_'"

  Surprising as it may seem (or at least as it was to me), there are quite
  a few people who do not understand this cryptification of 'economics',
  even though it is explicitly explained by Terry a bit later, on p. 71/63:
  'echo-gnomics'. Some of the confusion perhaps arises from the fact that
  we don't usually associate gnomes with spirits, as in: ghosts. But I
  think Terry here simply means spirits (as in: souls) living underground,
  with the emphasis on the word 'underground'.

- [p. 49/43] "Let him but get to Chimera or Gonim or Ecalpon and half a
  dozen armies couldn't bring him back."

  The Chimera was a fire-breathing monster from Greek mythology (see the
  annotation for p. 171/154 of _Sourcery_). The name is also a pun on
  Cimmeria, Conan the Barbarian's mythical homeland, while 'Chimerical' has
  the general connotation of something mythical or imaginary as well.

  Ecalpon is 'Noplace' spelled backwards. This is similar to Erewhon, which
  is 'Nowhere' spelled backwards (well, almost), the idealistic
  commonwealth described in Samuel Butler's eponymous novel. Also, 'Nehwon'
  is the universe where Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser have most of their
  adventures.

  Go-Nim, finally, is the name of a Japanese board game similar to
  four-in-a-row.

- [p. 62/55] "[...] I WAS EXPECTING TO MEET THEE IN PSEPHOPOLOLIS."

  Death and Rincewind are replaying their own version of the well-known
  folktale _Appointment in Samarra_. Terry says:

  "My mother told me the 'Appointment in Samarra' story when I was very
  young, and it remained. She says she read it somewhere, or maybe heard
  it...

  I'd always thought it was from the 1001 Nights, although I never went
  looking for it. It's one of those stories that a lot of people vaguely
  know, without quite knowing why..."

  For those who aren't familiar with the story, it concerns a servant to a
  rich Baghdad merchant who goes to the market and encounters Death there,
  who gestures at him. Convinced that this is a very bad omen indeed, the
  servant rushes back to his master in a great panic and begs him for a
  horse, so that he can ride to Samarra and escape whatever calamity will
  befall him should he stay in Baghdad. The kind master gives the servant a
  horse, and goes out to investigate for himself. When the merchant finds
  Death and asks him why he frightened the servant so, Death replies: "I
  wasn't trying to scare him, it is just that I was so very surprised to
  meet him here, because I have an appointment with him tonight in
  Samarra!"

  Over the centuries, countless versions and re-tellings of this story have
  appeared in books, plays and poems in all languages and cultures. One of
  my correspondents was so intrigued by the tale that with the help of
  alt.fan.pratchett he set out to find the original, or at least the
  earliest known version. After much research, he now believes this to be
  _When Death Came to Baghdad_, an old ninth century Middle Eastern Sufi
  teaching story, told by Fudail ibn Ayad in his _Hikayat-i-Naqshia_
  ('Tales formed according to a design').

  If anyone has a reference to an even earlier version, we would love to
  hear about it.

- [p. 73/65] "'Here's another fine mess you've got me into,' he moaned and
  slumped backwards."

  This is a well-known Laurel and Hardy catchphrase. Hardy (the fat one)
  always says it to Laurel (the thin one), who then usually responded by
  ruffling the top of his hair with one hand and whimpering in
  characteristic fashion.

  People have been quick to point out to me that Hardy never actually said
  "fine mess", though, but always "nice mess".

- [p. 75/67] This is the first occurrence of the name 'Dunmanifestin' for
  the home of the Gods at the top of Cori Celesti. It is used again in
  several places throughout the other Discworld novels.

  This is not only a reference to the many British placenames that begin
  with 'Dun' (a Gaelic word meaning castle or fort and hence town) but also
  a reference to the supposedly traditional name for a twee retirement
  bungalow in the suburbs. When people (especially the bourgeois middle
  classes) retire to the suburbs they always, according to the stereotype,
  give the house some 'cute' punning name. Since the Dun/Done association
  is well-known, one of the more common names (though it is a matter of
  discussion if anyone has ever actually seen a house with this name) is
  'Dunroamin' -- that is "done roaming" -- i.e. the owners of the house
  have finished "travelling the world" and are now settled down to a life
  of the Daily Mail, golf and coffee mornings. From this, we get that a
  retirement home for gods not possessing much taste, might just be named
  'Dunmanifestin'.

  A correspondent tells me that 'Dun' is also an Old English word for hill.

- [p. 76/68] "[...] Zephyrus the god of slight breezes."

  Zephyrus was in fact the Greek god of the soft west winds. The
  interactions of the gods in 'The Sending of Eight' strongly bring to mind
  the Godshome scenes in Leiber's _Swords_ series.

- [p. 78/70] _The Sending of Eight_

  Just as the first chapter of _The Colour of Magic_ has many resonances
  with Fritz Leiber's _Swords_ series, so can this chapter be regarded as a
  light parody of the works of horror author H. P. Lovecraft, who wrote
  many stories in a universe where unspeakable Evil lives, and where
  Ancient Gods (with unpronounceable names) play games with the lives of
  mortals. Lovecraft also wrote a story called _The Colour out of Space_,
  about an indescribable, unnatural colour.

- [p. 92/82] "[...] the circle began to spin widdershins."

  This entire section is a direct analogy to the workings of a normal
  electrical generator, with the Elemental Magical Force being the
  electromotive force we all know and love from high school physics
  lessons.

- [p. 98/87] "The floor was a continuous mosaic of eight-sided tiles,
  [...]"

  It is physically impossible for convex octagons (the ones we usually
  think of when we hear the word 'octagon') to tile a plane. Unless, of
  course, space itself would somehow be strangely distorted (one of the
  hallmarks of the Cthulhu mythos). It is possible, however, to tile a
  plane with non-convex octagons (and Terry nowhere says or implies he
  meant convex tiles). Proof is left as an exercise to the reader (I hate
  ASCII pictures).

- [p. 101/89] "[...] the disposal of grimoires [...]"

  I don't think too many people will have missed that this section echoes
  the two main methods of nuclear waste disposal: sealing drums in deep
  salt mines, and dropping the drums into trenches at subduction zones. Of
  these two methods, the trench dumping has only been theorised about and
  not actually employed.

- [p. 114/101] "'I spent a couple of hundred years on the bottom of a lake
  once.'"

  Reference to the sword Excalibur from the King Arthur legend. There's
  another reference to that legend on p. 128/113: "'This could have been an
  anvil'".

  Some people were also reminded of the black sword Stormbringer, from
  Michael Moorcock's Elric saga.

- [p. 114/101] "'What I'd *really* like to be is a ploughshare. I don't
  know what that is, but it sounds like an existence with some point to
  it.'"

  Swords and ploughshares have always been connected through a proverb
  originating in a famous phrase from the Bible, in Isaiah 2:4: "[...] and
  they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into
  pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither
  shall they learn war any more".

- [p. 117/103] "I'LL GET YOU YET, CULLY, said Death [...]"

  Death is addressing Rincewind here, so the use of what looks like a
  different name is confusing. Terry explains: "Cully still just about
  hangs on in parts of the UK as a mildly negative term meaning variously
  'yer bastard', 'man', 'you there' and so on. It's quite old, but then,
  Death is a history kind of guy."

  _The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_, by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer (a 19th
  century reference book; see also the _Words From The Master_ section in
  chapter 5) explains 'cully' as being a contracted form of 'cullion', "a
  despicable creature" (from the Italian: coglione). An Italian
  correspondent subsequently informed me that "coglione" is actually a
  popular term for testicle, which is often used to signify a stupid and
  gullible person. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, 'cully' may
  also have been a gypsy word.

- [p. 118/104] The entire _Lure of the Wyrm_ section parodies the Pern
  novels (an sf/fantasy series) by Anne McCaffrey. The heroine of the first
  Pern novel _Dragonflight_ is called Lessa, and the exclamation mark in
  Terry's dragonriders' names parallels the similar use of apostrophes in
  McCaffrey's names.

- [p. 124/109] "_The dragons sense Liessa's presence._"

  This section in italics (continued later with Ninereeds) is another Pern
  reference (see the annotation for p. 118/104), in this case to the way
  McCaffrey depicts the mental communications from the dragons.

- [p. 125/110] "Oh, you know how it is with wizards. Half an hour
  afterwards you could do with another one, the dragon grumbles."

  The 'half an hour afterwards' quip is more conventionally made about
  Chinese food.

- [p. 130/114] "[...] it appeared to be singing to itself."

  Although singing swords are common as dirt in myths and folklore, we do
  know that Terry is familiar with many old computer games, so the
  description of Kring may be a passing reference to the prototypical
  computer adventure game _ADVENT_ (later versions of which were also known
  as _Adventure_ or _Colossal Cave_). In this game, a room exists where a
  sword is stuck in an anvil. The next line of the room's description goes:
  "The sword is singing to itself".

- [p. 141/123] "[...] he had been captivated by the pictures of the fiery
  beasts in _The Octarine Fairy Book_."

  A reference to our world's Blue, Brown, Crimson, Green, etc., Fairy
  Books, edited by Andrew Lang.

+ [p. 156] "'It is forbidden to fight on the Killing Ground,' he said,
  and paused while he considered the sense of this."

  This echoes a famous line from Stanley Kubrick's 1964 movie _Dr
  Strangelove_, which has President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers)
  saying: "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room."

- [p. 168/145] "At that moment Lianna's dragon flashed by, and Hrun landed
  heavily across its neck. Lianna leaned over and kissed him."

  A strange error, since in the rest of the story the girl's name is
  Liessa. Terry says the typo (which occurs in both the original Colin
  Smythe hardcover and the 1st edition of the Corgi paperback, but can also
  be found as late as the 5th edition of the US Signet paperback) must have
  been introduced sometime during the publishing process: they are not in
  his original manuscript.

  Even so, the switch is kind of appropriate because Anne McCaffrey has a
  tendency herself to suddenly change a character's name or other
  attributes (T'ron becoming T'ton, etc.). At least one of my
  correspondents thought Terry was changing Liessa's name on purpose as an
  explicit parody.

- [p. 169/146] After Rincewind and Twoflower escape from the Wyrmberg they
  are flying a dragon one moment and a modern jetliner the next.

  Clearly they have been, get this, translated to another plane (the last
  few paragraphs of this section seem to support the theory that Terry
  actually intended this rather implicit pun). Note also the "powerful
  travelling rune TWA" appearing on the Luggage: Trans *World* Airlines.

- [p. 171/148] 'Zweiblumen' is the (almost) literal German translation of
  'Twoflower' (it actually translates to 'Twoflower*s*', so a 'better'
  translation would have been the singular form: 'Zweiblume').

  'Rjinswand', however, is merely something that was intended to *sound*
  foreign -- it is not a word in any language known to the readers of
  alt.fan.pratchett.

- [p. 172/149] "[...] a specialist in the breakaway oxidation phenomena of
  certain nuclear reactors."

  "Breakaway oxidation phenomena" is a reasonably well-known example of
  doubletalk. Basically, what Terry's saying here is that Dr Rjinswand is
  an expert on uncontrolled fires in nuclear reactors. And we all know what
  Terry's job was before he became a Famous Author...

- [p. 176/153] "'I am Goldeneyes Silverhand Dactylos,' said the craftsman."

  'Dactylos' means 'fingers' in dog Greek. See also the annotation for p.
  159/115 of _Small Gods_.

  The fate of Dactylos has been suffered by craftsmen in our world as well.
  In 1555 Ivan the Terrible ordered the construction of St Basil's Church
  in Moscow. He was so pleased with this piece of work by the two
  architects, Postnik and Barma, that he had them blinded so they would
  never be able to design anything more beautiful.

- [p. 179/155] "[...] the incredibly dry desert known as the Great Nef."

  'Neff' is the name of an oven manufacturer, and 'nef' is of course 'fen'
  (i.e. something incredibly wet) spelled backwards.

- [p. 184/160] "The captain had long ago decided that he would, on the
  whole, prefer to achieve immortality by not dying."

  Probably the best known version of this line is from Woody Allen, who
  said: "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to
  achieve it through not dying".

+ [p. 184/160] "'His name is Tethis. He says he's a sea troll.'"

  In Greek mythology Tethys or Thetis was the personification of the
  feminine fecundity of the sea. She was the daughter of Uranus and Gaia,
  and the youngest female Titan (or Titanide). Eventually she married her
  brother Oceanus, and together they had more than 3000 children, namely
  all the rivers of the world.

  Undoubtedly because of these origins, 'Tethys' is a name that has been
  given to, amongst others, a tropical sea that existed during the Triassic
  era in what is now Southern Europe, and to a moon of Saturn, one
  primarily composed of water ice.

  Note that this is one instance where it appears Terry violates his own
  unwritten rule that trolls should have 'mineral' names. Perhaps this is
  simply because we are looking at this early book in the series with
  hindsight: the only rock troll to appear up to this point lasted about
  three paragraphs and didn't have a chance to introduce himself. But even
  if the unwritten rule was already established in Terry's mind at this
  point, it seems reasonable that it need not apply to Tethis, who is,
  after all, neither a rock troll nor originally a Discworld creature.

- [p. 189/164] "'Ghlen Livid,' he said."

  Glenlivet is a well-known Single Malt Scotch whisky. It's a wee bit more
  expensive than Johnny Walker.

- [p. 193/168] "He told them of the world of Bathys, [...]"

  'Bathys' is Greek for 'deep', as in for example bathyscaphe deep-sea
  diving equipment.

- [p. 194/168] "[...] the biggest dragon you could ever imagine, covered in
  snow and glaciers and holding its tail in its mouth."

  Tethis is describing a planet designed according to a world-view that is
  about as ancient and as widespread as the idea of a Discworld itself.

  The snow and glaciers seem to point specifically to the Norse mythology
  however, where the Midgard serpent Jormungand circles the world in the
  manner described.

- [p. 198/172] "'Well, the disc itself would have been created by Fresnel's
  Wonderful Concentrator,' said Rincewind, authoritatively."

  It is stereotypical that in fantasy fiction (e.g. Jack Vance's _Dying
  Earth_ stories) and role-playing games (e.g. _Advanced Dungeons &
  Dragons_) spells are often named after their 'creator', e.g. 'Bigby's
  Crushing Hand'. And indeed, in our universe Augustin Fresnel was the 19th
  century inventor of the Fresnel lens, often used in lighthouses to
  concentrate the light beam. A Fresnel lens consists of concentric ring
  segments; its main advantage is that it is not as thick as a (large)
  normal lens would be. The disc Rincewind is referring to is a transparent
  lens twenty feet across.

- [p. 221/191] "Whoever would be wearing those suits, Rincewind decided,
  was expecting to boldly go where no man [...] had boldly gone before
  [...]"

  From the famous opening voice-over to the _Star Trek_ television series:

  "Space... the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship
  Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek
  out new life and new civilisations -- to boldly go where no man has gone
  before."

  (This became "where no-one has gone before" only in the newer, more
  politically correct _Star Trek_ incarnations)

- [p. 222/192] "'? Tyo yur atl ho sooten gatrunen?'"

  People have been wondering if this was perhaps a real sentence in some
  Scandinavian language (the letters used are from the Danish/Norwegian
  alphabet), but it isn't.

  Terry remarks: "The point is that Krullian isn't Swedish -- it's *just a
  language that looks foreign*. In the same way, I hope the hell that when
  _Witches Abroad_ is translated the translators use some common sense when
  dealing with Nanny Ogg's fractured Esperanto."


THE LIGHT FANTASTIC 

- [title] _The Light Fantastic_

  The book's title comes from the poem _L'Allegro_, written by John Milton
  in 1631:

        "Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee
         Jest and youthful Jollity
         Quips and Cranks, and wanton Wiles
         Nods, and Becks, and wreathed Smiles
         Such as hang on Hebe's neck
         And love to live in dimple sleek
         Sport that wrinkled Care derides
         And Laughter holding both his sides
         Come and trip it as ye go
         On the Light Fantastic toe."

- [p. 6/6] "[...] proves, whatever people say, that there *is* such a thing
  as a free launch."

  The reference is to the saying "there ain't no such thing as a free
  lunch" (also known by its acronym 'TANSTAAFL', made popular by science
  fiction author Robert Heinlein in his classic novel _The Moon is a Harsh
  Mistress_, although the phrase was originally coined by American
  economist John Kenneth Galbraith).

- [p. 8/8] "[...] the sort of book described in library catalogues as
  'slightly foxed', [...]"

  "Slightly foxed" is a term used primarily by antiquarian booksellers to
  denote that there is staining (usually due to Ferric OXide, hence
  'FOXed') on the pages of a book. This does not usually reduce the value
  of the book, but booksellers tend to be scrupulous about such matters.

- [p. 8/8] Many people have commented on the last name of the 304th
  Chancellor of Unseen University: Weatherwax, and asked if there is a
  connection with Granny Weatherwax.

  In _Lords and Ladies_, Terry supplies the following piece of dialogue (on
  p. 224/161) between Granny and Archchancellor Ridcully as an answer:

  "'There was even a Weatherwax as Archchancellor, years ago,' said
  Ridcully. 'So I understand. Distant cousin. Never knew him,' said
  Granny."

- [p. 8/8] "[...] even with the Wee Willie Winkie candlestick in his hand."

  This is one of those candlesticks with a flat, saucer-like base, a short
  candleholder in the middle and a loop to grip it by at one side. 'Wee
  Willie Winkie' is a Mother Goose nursery rhyme, and traditional
  illustrations always show Willie going upstairs carrying a candle.

        "Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town,
         Upstairs and downstairs, in his nightgown.
         Rapping at the windows, Crying through the lock,
         'Are the children all in bed? For it's now eight o'clock.'"

- [p. 9/9] "[...] the Book of Going Forth Around Elevenish, [...]"

  The title the ancient Egyptians used for what we now call the Book of the
  Dead was _The Book of Going Forth By Day_. Note that in the UK until a
  few years ago the pubs opened at 11 a.m.

  If you try really hard (one of my correspondents did) you can see this as
  a very elaborate joke via the chain: Around Elevenish --> Late in the
  morning --> Late --> Dead --> Book of the Dead. But I doubt if even Terry
  is *that* twisted.

- [p. 10/10] Dandelion Clock

  Amongst English (and Australian) children there exists the folk-belief
  that the seed-heads of dandelions can be used to tell the time. The
  method goes as follows: pick the dandelion, blow the seeds away, and the
  number of puffs it takes to get rid of all the seeds is the time, e.g.
  three puffs = three o'clock. As a result, the dandelion stalks with their
  globe of seeds is regularly referred to as a "dandelion clock" in
  colloquial English.

- [p. 10/10] "'To the upper cellars!' he cried, and bounded up the stone
  stairs."

  The magic eating its way through the ceilings with the wizards chasing it
  floor after floor vaguely resonates with the 'alien blood' scene in the
  movie _Alien_, where the acidic blood of the Alien burns through
  successive floors of the ship, with people running down after it.

- [p. 24/24] "[...] when a wizard is tired of looking for broken glass in
  his dinner, [...], he is tired of life."

  See the annotation for p. 193/158 of _Mort_.

- [p. 26/26] "I WAS AT A PARTY, he added, a shade reproachfully."

  When someone on the net wondered if this scene had been influenced by
  Monty Python (who also do a Death-at-a-party sketch), Terry replied:

  "No. I'm fairly honest about this stuff. I didn't even see the film until
  long after the book was done. Once again, I'd say it's an easy parallel
  -- what with the Masque of the Red Death and stuff like that, the joke is
  just lying there waiting for anyone to pick it up."

  _The Masque of the Red Death_ is a well-known story by Edgar Allan Poe,
  in which the nobility, in a decadent and senseless attempt to escape from
  the plague that's ravishing the land, lock themselves up a castle and
  hold a big party. At which a costumed personification of Death, of
  course, eventually turns up and claims everyone anyway.

  It is perhaps also worth pointing out that the quoted sentence looks very
  much like a classic Tom Swiftie (if you can accept Death as a shade). Tom
  Swifties (after the famous series of boys' novels which popularised them)
  are sentences of the form "xxx, said he zzz-ly", where the zzz refers
  back to the xxx. Examples:

        "Pass me the shellfish," said Tom crabbily.
        "Let's look for another Grail!" Tom requested.
        "I used to be a pilot," Tom explained.
        "I'm into homosexual necrophilia," said Tom in dead earnest.

- [p. 30/30] "[...] the only forest in the whole universe to be called --
  in the local language -- Your Finger You Fool, [...]"

  The miscommunication between natives and foreign explorers Terry
  describes here occurs in our world as well. Or rather: it is *rumoured*,
  with stubborn regularity, to have occurred all over the globe. Really
  hard evidence, one way or the other, turns out to be surprisingly hard to
  come by. As Cecil Adams puts it in _More of the Straight Dope_: "Having
  now had the "I don't know" yarn turn up in three different parts of the
  globe, I can draw one of two conclusions: either explorers are incredible
  saps, or somebody's been pulling our leg."

- [p. 34/34] "Twoflower touched a wall gingerly."

  Speaking of Tom Swifties...

- [p. 34/34] "'Good grief! A real gingerbread cottage!'"

  The cottage and the events alluded to a bit later ("'Kids of today,'
  commented Rincewind. 'I blame the parents,' said Twoflower.") are
  straight out of the _Hansel and Gretel_ fairy tale by the brothers Grimm.

  If you have access to the Internet, you can find an online version of the
  original fairy tale at the URL:

  <ftp://ftp.uu.net/doc/literary/obi/Fairy.Tales/Grimm/hansel.and.gretel.txt.Z>

- [p. 35/35] "'Candyfloss.'"

  Candyfloss is known as cotton candy in the US, or fairy floss in
  Australia. It's the pink spun sugar you can eat at fairs and shows.

- [p. 35/35] "He read that its height plus its length divided by half its
  width equalled exactly 1.67563..."

  A parody of the typical numerical pseudo-science tossed about regarding
  the Great Pyramid and the 'cosmic truths' (such as the distance from the
  Earth to the Sun) that the Egyptians supposedly incorporated into its
  measurements.

  The remark about sharpening razor blades at the end of the paragraph is
  similarly a reference to the pseudo-scientific 'fact' that (small models
  of) pyramids are supposed to have, among many other powers, the ability
  to sharpen razor blades that are left underneath the pyramids overnight.

- [p. 37/37] "'Hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper.'"

  From the first _Conan The Barbarian_ movie (starring Arnold
  Schwarzenegger): "Conan! What is good in life?" "To crush your enemies,
  drive them before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women." This
  quote, in turn, is lifted more or less verbatim from an actual
  conversation Genghiz Khan is supposed to have had with his lieutenants.

- [p. 45/45] "'Of course I'm sure,' snarled the leader. 'What did you
  expect, three bears?'"

  Another fairy tale reference, this time to _Goldilocks and the Three
  Bears_.

- [p. 46/46] "'Someone's been eating my bed,' he said."

  A mixture of "someone's been eating my porridge" and "someone's been
  sleeping in my bed", both from the _Goldilocks and the Three Bears_ fairy
  tale.

- [p. 47/47] "Illuminated Mages of the Unbroken Circle"

  An organisation with this name is also mentioned in the _Illuminatus!_
  trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson.

+ [p. 57/57] "The universe, they said, depended for its operation on the
  balance of four forces which they identified as charm, persuasion,
  uncertainty and bloody-mindedness."

  The four fundamental forces that govern *our* universe are gravitation,
  electro-magnetism, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force.

  The word 'charm' also resonates with the concept of quarks, the
  elementary quantum particles that the strong nuclear force in fact acts
  on. For more information see the annotation for p. 133/97 of _Lords and
  Ladies_.

+ [p. 62/62] "'In the beginning was the word,' said a dry voice right
  behind him. 'It was the Egg,' corrected another voice. [...] '[...] I'm
  sure it was the primordial slime.' [...] 'No, that came afterwards. There
  was firmament first.' [...] 'You're all wrong. In the beginning was the
  Clearing of the Throat--'"

  The bickering of the spells is cleared up somewhat by the creation
  passages on pp. 103/85-119/99 from _Eric_. It is quite clearly stated
  that first the Creator did an Egg and Cress (for Rincewind), then He
  Cleared His Throat, then He Read the Octavo (that's the word then), which
  created the world and finally the primordial slime came into being
  because Rincewind couldn't eat the Egg and Cress Sandwich and just
  dropped it on the beach. The Creator subcontracted for the firmament, so
  it isn't quite clear when that came to be.

  "In the beginning was the word" is of course also a biblical allusion to
  John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
  the Word was God."

- [p. 82/82] "'Anyway, I don't believe in Caroc cards,' he muttered."

  Caroc = Tarot. See also the annotation for p. 110/90 of _Mort_.

  A minor inconsistency, by the way, is that on p. 24/24 there actually is
  a reference to Tarot cards.

- [p. 88/88] "[...] what about all those studded collars and oiled muscles
  down at the Young Men's Pagan Association?"

  A reference to the Young Men's Christian Association, YMCA. See also the
  annotation for p. 14/14 of _Pyramids_.

  In our world the YMCA somehow became associated with the homosexual scene
  (I think quite a few people singing merrily along to the Village People's
  hit 'YMCA' would have been very surprised to learn what the song was
  *really* about), hence the "studded collars and oiled muscles" bit.

- [p. 93/93] "'Only when you leave, it's very important not to look back.'"

  It's always important never to look back if you're rescuing somebody from
  Death's domain. The best known example of this can be found in the tragic
  legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. Orpheus went to fetch his departed loved
  one, talked Hades (the Greek version of Death) into it, but had to leave
  without looking back. Of course he looked -- and she was gone forever. A
  contemporary retelling of the Orpheus legend can be found in Neil
  Gaiman's _Sandman_ series.

  A few people have written and suggested a reference to Lot's wife in
  Genesis 19:26 (who was turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back
  when they left Sodom and Gomorrah), but the fact that we're talking about
  Death's domain here indicates clearly to me that the Orpheus reference is
  the one Terry intended.

- [p. 104/104] "Rincewind wasn't certain what a houri was, but after some
  thought he came to the conclusion that it was a little liquorice tube for
  sucking up the sherbet."

  A houri is actually a beautiful young girl found in the Moslem paradise.
  For more information on sherbets see the annotation for p. 122/111 of
  _Sourcery_.

- [p. 105/105] "[...] homesickness rose up inside Rincewind like a
  late-night prawn birani."

  A birani is an Indian rice curry.

- [p. 128/128] "'Man, we could be as rich as Creosote!'"

  This is the first mention of Creosote, whom we will later meet as a fully
  developed character in his own right, in _Sourcery_. See also the
  annotation for p. 125/113 of _Sourcery_.

- [p. 133/133] The idea of a strange little shop that appears, sells the
  most peculiar things, and then vanishes again first appears in a short
  story by H. G. Wells, appropriately called _The Magic Shop_. A recent
  variation on the same theme can be found in Stephen King's _Needful
  Things_.

  When an a.f.p. reader mistakenly thought that this type of shop was
  invented by Fritz Leiber (see the annotation for p. 9/9 of _The Colour of
  Magic_), Terry replied:

  "Actually, magically appearing/disappearing shops were a regular feature
  of fantasy stories, particularly in the old _Unknown_ magazine. They
  always sold the hero something he didn't -- at the time -- know he
  needed, or played some other vital part in the plot. And I think they
  even turned up on the early Twilight Zones too. You're referring to a
  Leiber story called Bazaar of the Bizarre or something similar, where a
  shop appears which seems to contain wonderful merchandise but in fact
  contains dangerous trash."

  The Leiber story is indeed called _Bazaar of the Bizarre_. It features
  Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, and can be found in _Swords Against Death_.

- [p. 171/171] "'Do not peddle in the affairs of wizards...'"

  See the annotation for p. 183/149 of _Mort_.

- [p. 209/209] "The young turtles followed, orbiting their parent."

  My herpetological correspondent tells me that in our world no known
  turtles give any sort of care to their young. They just lay the eggs and
  leave the hatchlings to fend for themselves, which incidentally helps
  explain why sea turtles are becoming extinct.

  It can be argued that Great A'Tuin is in fact a kind of sea turtle
  (admittedly, a somewhat *unusual* sea turtle), since only sea turtles
  have flippers in place of feet and spend most of their time swimming.

- [p. 213/213] "'They do say if it's summa cum laude, then the living is
  easy --.'"

  Substituting "graduation with distinction" for the Latin "summa cum
  laude" gives a perfectly unexceptional sentiment, but it is, of course,
  also a reference to the song 'Summertime' from the Gershwin
  opera/operetta/musical _Porgy and Bess_: "Summertime, and the living is
  easy".


EQUAL RITES 

- A central theme of this book (as well as of the other Discworld witch
  novels) is the contrast between on one side the (female) witches or
  wiccans, who are in touch with nature, herbs and headology, and on the
  other side the (male) wizards who are very ceremonial and use elaborate,
  mathematics-like tools and rituals. This conflict rather closely mirrors
  a long-standing feud between occult practitioners in our real world. (And
  all the infighting within each camp occurs in real life, as well.)

  My source for this also mentions that Pratchett's witches, especially,
  are obvious stereotypes of the kinds of people one can run into at wiccan
  festivals.

- "Only dumb redheads in Fifties' sitcoms are wacky."

  Refers to Lucille Ball from _I Love Lucy_ fame.

- One of my correspondents recalls that he interviewed Terry in 1987 for a
  university magazine. In that interview Terry said that one thing which
  had tickled him about Josh Kirby's artwork for the _Equal Rites_ cover
  was that it subliminally (accidentally?) reflected the Freudian overtones
  of the book (references to "hot dreams", the angst of adolescence, things
  that might be called "magic" envy)... Kirby's artwork "coincidentally"
  draws Esk with the broom handle where a penis would be (traditionally
  supposed to be the basis of the "witches flying around on broomsticks"
  myth).

- Kirby caricatures himself as the pointy-eared wizard on the back cover --
  anyone who has seen his picture in _The Josh Kirby Posterbook_ can
  confirm this.

- [p. -/5] "Thanks to Neil Gaiman, who loaned us the last surviving copy of
  the _Liber Paginarum Fulvarum_, [...]"

  Neil Gaiman is the author of the acclaimed _Sandman_ comics series, as
  well as the co-author with Terry of _Good Omens_.

  _Liber Paginarum Fulvarum_ is a dog-Latin title that translates to _Book
  of Yellow Pages_, i.e. not the _Book of the Dead_, but rather the
  _Phonebook of the Dead_. The book appears in _Good Omens_ as well as in
  _Sandman_, where it is used in an attempt to summon Death (although the
  colourist didn't get the joke and simply coloured the pages brown). Terry
  said (when questioned about it in a _Good Omens_ context):

  "Liber Paginarum Fulvarum is a kind of shared gag. It's in the dedication
  of _Equal Rites_, too. Although I think we've got the shade of yellow
  wrong -- I think there's another Latin word for a kind of yellow which is
  closer to the Yellow Pages colour."

  The other word for yellow Terry is thinking of may possibly be 'gilvus',
  or 'croceus', or 'luteus'.

- [p. 8/10] "[...] up here in the Ramtop Mountains [...]"

  RAMTOP was the name of a system variable in the old Sinclair Spectrum
  computers.

- [p. 45/45] "'I've seen the thundergods a few times,' said Granny, 'and
  Hoki, of course.'"

  The name Hoki derives from 'hokey' in combination with the Norse god
  Loki. The description of Hoki is pure Pan, however.

- [p. 73/73] "According to the standard poetic instructions one should move
  through a fair like the white swan at evening moves o'er the bay, [...]"

  These instructions stem in fact from a folk song called 'She Moved
  Through the Fair', which has been recorded by (amongst others) Fairport
  Convention, Van Morrison and All About Eve:

        "My young love said to me, 'My mother won't mind
         And my father won't slight you for your lack of kine'.
         And she stepped away from me and this she did say,
         'It will not be long now till our wedding day'

         She stepped away from me and she moved through the fair
         And fondly I watched her move here and move there
         And she made her way homeward with one star awake
         As the swan in the evening moves over the lake"

- [p. 79/79] "'Gypsies always come here for the fair, [...]'"

  Someone on alt.fan.pratchett pointed out that in our world, Gypsies were
  named because people thought they were Egyptians. Since the Discworld
  equivalent of Egypt is Djelibeybi, shouldn't Hilta Goatfounder have been
  talking about, say, 'Jellybabes'? Terry answered:

  "Okay. Almost every word in the English language has a whole slew of
  historic associations. People on the Disc can't possibly speak 'English'
  but I have to write in English. *Some* carefully-positioned
  'translations' like 'It's all Klatchian to me' can work, but if I went
  the whole hog and 'discworlded' every name and term, then the books would
  be even more impenetrable and would probably only be read by people who
  like learning Klingon. I do my best -- French fries can't exist on
  Discworld, for example -- but I think 'gypsies' is allowable."

- [p. 80/79] "If broomsticks were cars, this one would be a split-window
  Morris Minor."

  A Morris Minor is a British car that non-Brits might be familiar with
  either through the video clip for Madness' song 'Driving in my car', or
  through the TV series _Lovejoy_. In that series, Lovejoy's car 'Miriam'
  is a Morris Minor. For the rest of you, here's a description:

  Imagine a curvaceous jelly-mould in the shape of a crouching rabbit, like
  Granny used to use. Turn it open-side-down and fit four wheels, near the
  corners. On the rabbit's back build a cabin, with picture windows and a
  windscreen in two parts at an angle to each other. Add turn indicators
  consisting of little arms which flip out of the body at roof level, just
  behind the doors. Furnish the cabin in a post-War austerity style, and
  power the result with a 1935 vintage 850cc straight four engine pulling
  about 30bhp. In its day, in 1948, this was the height of desirability --
  so much so that for its first few years it was only available for export.

  Even in the Nineties, a fair number of Moggies are still going, er,
  strong. You can actually pay a couple of thousand pounds for a good one
  which works, because they're so easy to maintain. And the split-screen
  ones are very definitely collectors' items.

- [p. 111/109] "Bel-Shamharoth, C'hulagen, the Insider -- the hideous old
  dark gods of the Necrotelicomnicom, [...]"

  The Necrotelicomnicom is another reference to the Phonebook of the Dead
  (see the annotation for the dedication of _Equal Rites_), but is also a
  pun on the evil book of the dead _Necronomicon_, used by H. P. Lovecraft
  in his Cthulhu stories.

  Bel-Shamharoth is an Elder God of the Discworld we already met in 'The
  Sending of Eight' in _The Colour of Magic_. C'hulagen is obviously made
  up out of the same ingredients as C'thulhu, and the Insider refers to the
  unnamed narrator of Lovecraft's _The Outsider_.

- [p. 119/117] "The lodgings were [...] next to the [...] premises of a
  respectable dealer in stolen property because, as Granny had heard, good
  fences make good neighbours."

  Terry's having fun with a familiar saying that originated with Robert
  Frost's poem _Mending a Wall_:

        "My apple trees will never get across
         And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
         He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbours'."

  And since people keep pointing it out to me I suppose it might as well be
  mentioned here that 'fence' is also the English word for a dealer in
  stolen goods.

- [p. 121/119] "'Mrs Palm,' said Granny cautiously. 'Very respectable
  lady.'"

  "Mrs Palm(er) and her daughters" is a euphemism for male masturbation.

- [p. 122/120] "'Yes, that's it,' said Treatle. 'Alma mater, gaudy armours
  eagle tour and so on.'"

  Treatle refers here to the old student's (drinking) song 'Gaudeamus
  Igitur', written in 1781 by Christian Wilhelm Kindleben, a priest in
  Leipzig who got kicked out because of his student songs. The song is
  still in use at many universities and schools, where it gets sung during
  graduation ceremonies. The actual lyrics are:

        "Gaudeamus igitur, iuvenes dum sumus.
         Post iucundam iuventutem,
         Post molestam senectutem,
         Nos habebit humus, nos habebit humus."

  Which roughly translates to:

        "Let us be merry, therefore, whilst we are young men.
         After the joys of youth,
         After the pain of old age,
         The ground will have us, the ground will have us."

- [p. 132/130] The maid at Unseen University is called Ksandra, which puns
  on Troy's Cassandra; but might also refer to Sandra being yet another
  typical 'Tracey/Sharon' sort of name in England. See also the entry for
  p. 106/95 of _Reaper Man_.

  Perhaps the fact that nobody can understand Ksandra (because she talks
  with her mouth full of clothes-pegs) is also an obscure reference to the
  classical Cassandra, daughter of Priam of Troy, whom the Gods gave the
  gift of prophecy and the curse of no-one believing a word she said.

- [p. 133/130] "'Hmm. Granpone the White. He's going to be Granpone the
  Grey if he doesn't take better care of his laundry.'"

  You really have to read Tolkien in order to understand why this is so
  funny. Sure, I can explain that in the _The Lord of the Rings_ a big deal
  is made of the transformation of wizards from one 'colour' to another
  (and in particular Gandalf the Grey becoming Gandalf the White), but that
  just doesn't do justice to the real atmosphere of the thing.

- [p. 143/141] "[...] the Creator hadn't really decided what he wanted and
  was, as it were, just idly messing around with the Pleistocene."

  Refers to the Pleistocene geological era (a few dozen million years or so
  ago), but also to Plasticine, a brand name that has become (at least in
  Britain, Australia and New Zealand) a generic name for the modeling clay
  children play with.

- [p. 163/159] Some folks thought they recognised the duel between Granny
  Weatherwax and Archchancellor Cutangle from T. H. White's description of
  a similar duel in his _Arthur, The Once and Future King_ (also depicted
  as a very funny fragment in Disney's _The Sword in the Stone_, which was
  an animation film based on this book). However, Terry says:

  "The magical duel in _Equal Rites_ is certainly not lifted from T. H.
  White. Beware of secondary sources. Said duel (usually between a man and
  a woman, and often with nice Freudian touches to the things they turn
  into) has a much longer history; folkies out there will probably know it
  as the song 'The Two Magicians'."

- [p. 176/172] "'Million-to-one chances,' she said, 'crop up nine times out
  of ten.'"

  The first mention of this particular running gag in the Discworld canon
  (to be featured most prominently in _Guards! Guards!_).

  It is not quite *the* earliest appearance in Terry's work, though: he
  also uses it on p. 46/55 of _The Dark Side of the Sun_.

- [p. 188/184] "[...] which by comparison made Gormenghast look like a
  toolshed on a railway allotment."

  Gormenghast is the ancient, decaying castle from Mervyn Peake's
  _Gormenghast_ trilogy. See also the annotation for p. 17/17 of
  _Pyramids_.

- [p. 202/197] "'Like "red sky at night, the city's alight",' said
  Cutangle."

  Plays on the folk saying: "Red sky at night, shepherd's delight. Red sky
  in the morning, shepherd's warning".


MORT 

- [p. 17/16] "'They call me Mort.' WHAT A COINCIDENCE, [...]"

  Not only does 'Mort' mean 'death' in French, but in _The Light Fantastic_
  we also learned (on p. 95/95), that Death's *own* (nick)name is Mort.
  Opinions on a.f.p. are divided as to which of these two facts is the
  'coincidence' Death is talking about.

+ [p. 24/21] "The only thing known to go faster than ordinary light is
  monarchy, [...]"

  This is where the popular (on the net, at least) 'kingons and queons'
  footnote starts out, which parodies a postulate of J. Sarfatti based on
  Bell's theorem on quantum physics. Bell proves that in order for quantum
  theory to be valid, there has to exist a way to transfer information
  between subatomic particles that is faster than light. Sarfatti then
  theorised that this so called 'superluminar' communication could be
  modulated and used to send messages.

  During a discussion on a.f.p., Terry had this to add to the subject:

  "I've a strong suspicion that the smaller the country, the more powerful
  the monarch as an emitter of kingons.

  Surely the size of the king in proportion to the size of his country is
  the important factor. If you're king of a country of ten people there
  must be quite a high kingon flux.

  As to where kingons come from in the first place, they come from God. God
  is invoked in the coronation service. God *wants* fat red-haired girls
  and clothes horses who can't keep their mobile phone conversations
  private. God likes people with lots of front teeth. God must have a hand
  in all this, otherwise we'd have slaughtered all kings years ago."

- [p. 30/25] "'How do you get all those coins?' asked Mort. IN PAIRS."

  A reference to the old Eastern European practice of covering a dead
  friends' eyes with coins.

  In the Greek version of this custom, a single coin or obulus was put
  under the tongue of a deceased person. This was done so that the departed
  loved one would have some change handy to pay Charon with (the grumpy old
  ferryman who transported departed souls over the river Styx towards the
  afterlife -- but only if they paid him first).

  The Eastern European version has a similar background.

- [p. 31/26] "The answer flowed into his mind with all the inevitability of
  a tax demand."

  An acknowledgment of the "nothing is certain but death and taxes" saying.
  See also the annotation for p. 151/133 of _Reaper Man_.

- [p. 33/28] "'I shall call you Boy', she said."

  The subplot of Ysabell and Mort and the matchmaking efforts by her father
  echoes Charles Dickens' _Great Expectations_ (where Estelle, for
  instance, also insists on calling Pip 'Boy' all the time).

- [p. 34/29] Albert's stove has 'The Little Moloch (Ptntd)' embossed on its
  door.

  There exists a make of woodburning stove called 'The Little Wenlock'.

  For those who don't know what a Moloch is, I'll let Brewer (see the
  annotation for p. 117/103 of _The Colour of Magic_) do the explaining:

  "_Moloch_: Any influence which demands from us the sacrifice of what we
  hold most dear. Thus _war_ is a Moloch, _king mob_ is a Moloch, the
  _guillotine_ was the Moloch of the French Revolution, etc. The allusion
  is to the god of the Ammonites [Phoenicians], to whom children were 'made
  to pass through the fire' in sacrifice."

  To be fair, however, it must be pointed out that almost all we know about
  Moloch is based on what the bitter enemies of the Phoenicians said about
  him.

- [p. 40/33] "AND WHY DO YOU THINK I DIRECTED YOU TO THE STABLES? THINK
  CAREFULLY NOW."

  The whole section on Mort's training, and this paragraph in particular,
  explores a theme familiar from stories such as told in _The Karate Kid_,
  or _The Empire Strikes Back_, and of course the TV series _Kung Fu_,
  where a young student is given many menial tasks to perform, which are
  revealed to be integral to his education.

- [p. 47/39] "[...] the city of Sto Lat [...]"

  A Polish correspondent tells me that 'Sto lat' is actually the title of a
  Polish party song, more or less equivalent to 'For he's a jolly good
  fellow'. 'Sto lat' means 'hundred years', and the lyrics to the song are
  as follows:

        "Sto lat, sto lat, niech zyje, zyje nam.
         Sto lat, sto lat, niech zyje, zyje nam.
         Jeszcze raz, jeszcze raz -- niech zyje, zyje nam.
         Niech zyje nam!"

  Which loosely translates to:

        "Hundred years, hundred years, let him live for us,
         Hundred years, hundred years, let him live for us,
         Once again, once again, let him live for us!"

  Thinking I was on to something I immediately enquired if 'Sto Helit',
  another name Terry uses often, had a similar background, but my
  correspondent says it's not even Polish at all.

- [p. 54/45] "IT'S THE MORPHOGENETIC FIELD WEAKENING, said Death."

  Terry loves playing with morphogenetic principles in the Discworld canon,
  and I think this is the first place he explicitly mentions it.
  Morphogenetics are part of a controversial theory put forward by
  ex-Cambridge biologist Rupert Sheldrake. 'Controversial' is in fact
  putting it rather mildly: personally I feel 'crackpot' would be a much
  better description. Which explains why on the Discworld, of course, it's
  valid science.

- [p. 65/53] "TIME LIKE AN EVER-ROLLING STREAM BEARS ALL ITS..."

  Death is quoting from _Our God, Our Help in Ages Past_, by Isaac Watts.
  The verse in full is:

        "Time like an ever-rolling stream
         Bears all its sons away
         They fly forgotten as a dream
         Dies at the opening day."

  No wonder Albert thinks Death has been overdoing it.

- [p. 71/59] "[...] the abode of Igneous Cutwell, DM(Unseen), [...]"

  DM(Unseen) means that Cutwell holds a Doctorate in Magic from Unseen
  University. It's the usual way of writing an academic qualification in
  Britain (e.g. DD for Doctor of Divinity, or PhD for Doctor of Philosophy)
  -- though the University name ought to be in Latin.

- [p. 84/69] "[...] just like a Cheshire cat only much more erotic."

  See the annotation for p. 142/141 of _Wyrd Sisters_.

- [p. 85/69] "[...] the fire of the Aurora Coriolis [...]"

  This is the air glow around Cori Celesti (as in our aurora borealis), but
  it is also a reference to the Coriolis force that acts on spinning
  objects.

- [p. 88/72] "'Die a lot, do you?' he managed."

  For those readers who are not familiar with Tibetan Buddhism: it is
  believed that religious leaders who are spiritually advanced (the Dalai
  Lama being only one such individual) will reincarnate and continue to
  guide the people. In 1993, for instance, an eight-year old boy in Tibet
  was discovered to be the seventeenth reincarnation of the Karmapa, and
  was promptly whisked away from his native village and installed in the
  Tsurphu-monastery.

  In _Guards! Guards!_ we eventually learn that Abbot Lobsang has indeed
  been reincarnated.

- [p. 90/74] "Princess Keli awoke."

  Another 'dumb blonde' pun (on Kelly this time) along the lines of Ptraci
  and Ksandra? See the annotation for p. 45/45 of _Pyramids_.

- [p. 93/76] "[...] if Mort ever compared a girl to a summer's day, it
  would be followed by a thoughtful explanation of what day he had in mind
  and whether it was raining at the time."

  Considering the sheer volume of Discworld material written so far, with
  its high jokes-per-page count, it is quite remarkable that Terry
  Pratchett doesn't recycle (or inadvertently reinvent) his own jokes more
  often than he does. As for instance in the case of this particular
  Shakespeare-inspired joke that would be repeated two books later in _Wyrd
  Sisters_ (see the annotation for p. 213/212 of that book).

- [p. 99/81] "'[...] the princesses were so noble they, they could pee
  through a dozen mattresses --'"

  Albert here mangles the Grimm fairy tale known as _The Princess and the
  Pea_, in which a princess proves her nobility to her future husband and
  his mother by being so fine-constitutioned that a pea placed underneath
  the dozen mattresses she was given to sleep on kept her awake all night.

  If you have access to the Internet, you can find an online version of the
  original fairy tale at the URL:

  <ftp://ftp.uu.net/doc/literary/obi/Fairy.Tales/Grimm/princess.and.pea.txt.Z>

  I have since then received mail indicating that the best known version of
  this fairy tale was the one written by Hans Christian Andersen, and that
  the Grimm version was in fact pulled from the collection because it was
  so similar. I was not able to obtain any further evidence for this claim,
  so if anybody out there knows something about this, please drop me a
  line.

- [p. 110/90] Caroc cards and the Ching Aling.

  Caroc = Tarot and Ching Aling = I Ching: two ways of accessing the
  Distilled Wisdom of the Ancients, and all that.

- [p. 118/97] "I SHALL CALL IT -- DEATH'S GLORY."

  In the fishing world there exists a popular dry fly called Greenwell's
  Glory, named after its inventor, a 19th century parson.

- [p. 126/103] "'-- and then she thought he was dead, and she killed
  herself, and then he woke up and so he did kill himself, [...]'"

  Ysabell starts to list off a number of tragic romances, mostly mangled
  versions of existing stories. This one appears to be the Shakespearean
  tragedy _Romeo and Juliet_, or perhaps the original source: Ovid's
  _Pyramus and Thisbe_.

- [p. 127/104] "'-- swam the river every night, but one night there was
  this storm and when he didn't arrive she --'"

  This is the saga of Hero and Leander. Leander swam the Hellespont each
  night to be with Hero (who was a virgin (yeah, sure!) in the service of
  Aphrodite, and therefore not accessible by more conventional means). But
  then there was indeed a storm, and the candle she used as a beacon blew
  out, and the Gods couldn't hear his prayers over the noise of the storm,
  and so he drowned, and the next morning she saw his body and drowned
  herself as well. Read Christopher Marlowe's _Hero and Leander_ for more
  details.

- [p. 133/109] "'Why, lordship, we drink scumble, for preference.'"

  Scumble is the Discworld equivalent of scrumpy, a drink probably unknown
  to most non-UK readers. It's a (very) strong cider, originating from the
  West country, Somerset farmhouses in particular.

  On the subject of scrumpy, Terry writes:

  "I can speak with authority, having lived a short walking -- to get
  there, at least, although it seemed to take longer coming back --
  distance from a real cider house.

  1) You are unlikely to buy scrumpy anywhere but from a farm or a pub in a
  cider area.

  2) It won't fizz. It slumps in the glass, and is a grey-orange colour.

  3) The very best scrumpy is (or at least, was) made on farms where a lot
  of the metalwork around the press was lead; the acid apple juice on the
  lead gave the resultant drink a kick which lasted for the rest of your
  life.

  4) While a lot of the stories about stuff being put in 'to give it body'
  are probably apocryphal, apparently it wasn't uncommon to put a piece of
  beef in the stuff to give it 'strength'.

  5) I certainly recall a case of a female tourist having to have an
  ambulance called out after two pints of scrumpy.

  6) We used to drink *almost* a pint, topped off with half an inch of
  lemonade; this was known as 'cider and gas' and was popular in our part
  of the Mendips. Two pints was the max. I recall that as we went back
  across the fields someone who is now a professor of medieval history fell
  down a disused mineshaft and still carried on singing."

- [p. 154/126] Alberto Malich was rumoured to have disappeared when trying
  to perform the Rite of AshkEnte backwards. Since we know that the Rite is
  used to summon Death, it doesn't seem too unreasonable to suppose that
  performing it backwards might drive Death away from you, which is
  probably why Albert did it. Unfortunately for him, it is also not very
  unreasonable to suppose that performing the rite backwards will instead
  summon *you* to Death...

  There also are two villages called Ash in Kent, UK. It is unknown if the
  connection is deliberate.

- [p. 161/132] Queen Ezeriel refers to our world's Cleopatra who also used
  to bathe in asses' milk, and who eventually committed honourable suicide
  by clutching a venomous snake (an asp, to be precise) to her bosom.

- [p. 183/149] "'Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards because a refusal
  often offends, I read somewhere.'"

  Ysabell probably read one part of this in Tolkien's _The Lord of the
  Rings_ where we find (in _The Fellowship of the Ring_, Book One, Chapter
  III) that Gildor Inglorion the High Elf says: "Do not meddle in the
  affairs of wizards because they are subtle and quick to anger". The other
  part she may have got from signs often seen in stores and pubs around the
  English-speaking world: "Do not ask for credit, because a refusal often
  offends".

  See also the annotation for p. 367/264 of _Lords and Ladies_.

- [p. 186/152] "BEGONE, YOU BLACK AND MIDNIGHT HAG, he said."

  Death is alluding to Shakespeare's _Macbeth_, act 4, scene 1, where
  Macbeth says to the witches: "How now, you secret, black, and midnight
  hags!"

- [p. 192/157] "'Sodomy non sapiens,' said Albert under his breath."

  "Sodomy non sapiens" is dog Latin for "buggered if I know". Since this is
  explicitly translated by Albert two sentences later, it never occurred to
  me to include this annotation in earlier versions of the APF. I had to
  change my mind when e-mail and discussions in a.f.p. made it clear that
  quite a few readers never make the connection, and think instead that
  Albert *really* doesn't know what the phrase means.

- [p. 193/158] "'When a man is tired of Ankh-Morpork, he is tired of
  ankle-deep slurry.'"

  The original quote here dates back to 1777, and is by Samuel Johnson (a
  well-known harmless drudge): "When a man is tired of London he is tired
  of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."

  Quite a few people have mistaken this quote for a reference to Douglas
  Adams. Of course Adams was simply parodying Johnson's quote as well when
  he wrote (in Chapter 4 of _The Restaurant at the End of the Universe_):

  "[...] when a recent edition of Playbeing magazine headlined an article
  with the words 'When you are tired of Ursa Minor Beta you are tired of
  life', the suicide rate there quadrupled overnight."

- [p. 195/159] "'Alligator sandwich,' he said. 'And make it sna--'"

  Refers to an old playground one-liner: "give me an alligator sandwich and
  make it snappy!". Terry uses this joke in a different context in _Witches
  Abroad_ (see the annotation for p. 176/154 of that book).

- [p. 197/161] "'Fireworks?' Cutwell had said."

  The stuff about wizards knowing all about fireworks is a reference to
  Tolkien's _The Hobbit_, where the great Wizard Gandalf was famed (in
  times of peace) for entertaining everybody with fireworks.

- [p. 212/172] In the Disc model, Ankh-Morpork was a carbuncle.

  A carbuncle is (1) a red semiprecious gem, and (2) a festering sore like
  a boil.

- [p. 221/180] "Alberto Malich, Founder of This University."

  Albert's name resonates slightly with our world's Albertus Magnus (also
  known as Albert the Great). Albertus Magnus (born in 1193 in Laufingen at
  the Donau, Germany), became known as 'the Magician' and was probably the
  most famous priest, philosopher and scientist of his time. Amongst other
  things he taught at the University of Paris, was Bishop of Regensburg,
  and at the age of 84 he again undertook the long journey from Cologne to
  Paris to defend the scientific work of his greatest student, Thomas
  Aquinas, against attacks and misunderstandings.

- [p. 224/183] "I don't even *remember* walking under a mirror."

  Superstition says that both walking under a ladder and breaking a mirror
  give bad luck. Therefore, by the sort of skewed logic Terry continually
  gives to his characters, walking under a mirror must be *really* bad
  news.

- [p. 226/184] "[...] purposes considerably more dire than, say, keeping a
  razor blade nice and sharp."

  See the annotation for p. 35/35 of _The Light Fantastic_.

- [p. 240/196] "He remembered being summoned into reluctant existence at
  the moment the first creature lived, in the certain knowledge that he
  would outlive life until the last being in the universe passed to its
  reward, when it would then be his job, figuratively speaking, to put the
  chairs on the tables and turn all the lights off."

  Three years later, in 1990, Neil Gaiman's Death says, in the story
  'Facade':

  "When the first living thing existed, I was there, waiting. When the last
  living thing dies, my job will be finished. I'll put the chairs on the
  tables, turn out the lights and lock the universe behind me when I
  leave."

- [p. 255/208] "IS THIS THE FACE THAT LAUNCHED A THOUSAND SHIPS, AND BURNED
  THE TOPLESS TOWERS OF PSEUDOPOLIS? wondered Death."

  A reference to Helen of Troy (or Tsort, I suppose I should say), over
  whom the Trojan War was started. The exact original quote, from
  Christopher Marlowe's _The Tragical History of Dr Faustus_, goes:

        "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships,
         And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
         Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss!"

  Ilium is the Latin name for Troy.

- [p. 271/221] "'_Only Ysabell said that since you turned the glass over
  that means I shall die when I'm--' YOU HAVE SUFFICIENT, said Death
  coldly. MATHEMATICS ISN'T ALL IT'S CRACKED UP TO BE._"

  Except that the events detailed in _Soul Music_ imply that Ysabell was
  right in this case ("After that, it was a matter of math. And the
  Duty.")...


SOURCERY 

- [p. 8/10] "'My son,' he said. 'I shall call him Coin.'"

  A pun on the English boy's name 'Colin', with a nod to the expression "to
  coin a phrase".

- [p. 12/14] "[...] this was a bit more original than the usual symbolic
  chess game [...]"

  This subject comes up every now and again on alt.fan.pratchett, so it is
  time for an annotation to settle this matter for once and for all:
  playing (chess) games with Death is a *very* old concept, that goes back
  much further than both Ingmar Bergman's famous 1957 movie _The Seventh
  Seal_, or Chris deBurgh's less famous 1975 song 'Spanish Train' (which
  describes a poker game between God and the Devil).

- [p. 22/22] "It was quite possible that it was a secret doorway to
  fabulous worlds [...]"

  A reference to C. S. Lewis's classic fantasy story _The Lion, The Witch
  and the Wardrobe_, in which the heroes are magically transported to the
  Land of Narnia through the back of an old wardrobe, which was made from a
  tree that grew from the seeds of a magical apple taken from that Land
  long before.

- [p. 28/28] "'I saw this picture of a sourcerer in a book. He was standing
  on a mountain top waving his arms and the waves were coming right up
  [...]'"

  Probably a reference to a famous scene from the 'Sorcerer's Apprentice'
  segment in Disney's 1940 film _Fantasia_. The "sourcerer" being in fact
  the Apprentice, Mickey, dreaming of commanding the wind to blow, the
  waves to wave, the stars to fall, and so on.

  Some people were also reminded of Prospero in Shakespeare's _The
  Tempest_.

- [p. 44/42] "'Psst,' it said. 'Not very,' said Rincewind [...], 'but I'm
  working on it.'"

  Play on the word 'pissed', common British/Australian (but apparently not
  American) slang for 'drunk'.

- [p. 51/48] "*Of all the disreputable taverns in all the city you could
  have walked into, you walked into his*, complained the hat."

  Paraphrases Humphrey Bogart's famous line from _Casablanca_: "Of all the
  gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."

- [p. 55/52] "By the way, the thing on the pole isn't a sign. When they
  decided to call the place the Troll's Head, they didn't mess about."

  The reference is to traditional British pub names like King's Head,
  Queen's Head or Nag's Head, all occurring quite frequently, where the
  appropriate head (a nag being a horse) is displayed on a sign outside,
  often on a pole before the building.

- [p. 66/61] "The study of genetics on the Disc had failed at an early
  stage, when wizards tried the experimental crossing of such well known
  subjects as fruit flies and sweet peas. Unfortunately they didn't grasp
  the fundamentals, and the resultant offspring -- a sort of green bean
  thing that buzzed -- led a short sad life before being eaten by a passing
  spider."

  Sweet peas were used by Mendel in his early genetic experiments. Fruit
  flies are used in contemporary genetics. Among the 'fundamentals' that
  the wizards failed to grasp is of course the fact that you can only cross
  individuals *within* each species, not *across*.

  However, I was told that in 1991 (three years after _Sourcery_) an
  article was published in which a team of geneticists write about a
  certain transposon that seemed to be common to both maize and fruit
  flies, implying that it might be possible to have some form of horizontal
  transmission between vegetable and animal DNA, after all.

+ [p. 68] "*SEE ALSO: thee Apocralypse, the legende of thee Ice Giants,
  and thee Teatime of the Goddes.*"

  In Norse mythology, the "Twilight of the Gods" refers to Ragnarok, the
  final conflict at the end of times between the gods and their enemies
  (amongst which are the Ice Giants). See also the annotation for p.
  308/222 of _Lords and Ladies_

- [p. 69/64] "'_Anus mirabilis?_'"

  "Annus mirabilis" translates to "year of wonder". "*Anus* mirabilis" does
  not.

  Brewer mentions that the year of wonder in question is actually known to
  be 1666, "memorable for the great fire of London and the successes of our
  arms over the Dutch."

- [p. 71/66] "'From these walls,' said Carding, 'Two hundred supreme mages
  look down upon you.'"

  Napoleon, to his troops just before the Battle of the Pyramids: "From the
  summit of these pyramids, forty centuries look down upon you".

- [p. 75/69] "'[...] that would be the Patrician, Lord Vetinari,' said
  Carding with some caution."

  A sideways pun (via 'veterinary') on the name of the famous de Medici
  family, who were the enlightened rulers of Renaissance Florence.

  During one of those interminable "which actor should play which Discworld
  character if there was a movie?" discussions, Terry gave some insight in
  how he himself visualises the Patrician:

  "I can't remember the guy's name, but I've always pictured the Patrician
  as looking like the father in _Beetlejuice_ -- the man also played the
  Emperor of Austria in _Amadeus_. And maybe slightly like the head bad guy
  in _Die Hard_."

  The actors Terry is thinking of are Jeffrey Jones and Alan Rickman,
  respectively.

- [p. 76/70] "[...] his chair at the foot of the steps leading up to the
  throne, [...]"

  In Tolkien's _The Lord of the Rings_, the Stewards of Gondor also sat on
  a chair on the steps below the real throne, awaiting the return of the
  king. The prophecy in that case also included a magic sword, although
  Tolkien neglects to make any mention of a strawberry-shaped birthmark.

  Other occurrences of the legend can be found in Robert Jordan's _The
  Wheel of Time_ epic fantasy series, in Raymond E. Feist's _Prince of the
  Blood_, and in David Eddings' Belgariad quintet.

  This is undoubtedly one of those cases where everybody is drawing on a
  much older idea. Legends about kings, swords and birthmarks are of course
  legion, although I must admit that so far I haven't been able to actually
  find an occurrence of the 'chair below the real throne' concept outside
  of contemporary fiction.

- [p. 76/70] "[...] the sort of man you'd expect to keep a white cat, and
  caress it idly while sentencing people to death in a piranha tank [...]"

  A reference to Ernst Stavro Blofeld, leader of SPECTRE and arch enemy of
  James Bond.

- [p. 88/81] "The market in Sator Square, the wide expanse of cobbles
  outside the black gates of the University, was in full cry."

  The word 'Sator' refers to a famous magic square (magic square, get it?)
  dating back to the times of the spread of Christianity in Europe. 'Sator'
  means sower or farmer. The complete square is:

        S A T O R
        A R E P O
        T E N E T
        O P E R A
        R O T A S

  This square is palindromic in all directions. The sentence you get reads:
  _Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas_, which means, more or less: "The sower
  [i.e. God] in his field controls the workings of his tools [i.e. us]".
  Some correspondents questioned the correctness of this translation, so if
  anyone has a good reference to something else I'd love to hear it.

  The magic Sator square also has the property that it can be 'unfolded'
  into two "A PATER NOSTER O" strings that form a cross with the 'N' as a
  pivot element (sorry, proper graphics will have to wait until a future
  edition of the APF). The 'A' and the 'O' stand for alpha and omega.

- [p. 107/98] "'And I seem to remember he spoke very highly of the *soak*.
  It's a kind of bazaar.'"

  Punning on 'souk', meaning a Middle Eastern marketplace; and the verb
  'soak', meaning to charge (and get) exorbitant prices.

- [p. 122/110] "the kind of spaghetti that would make M. C. Escher go for a
  good lie down [...]"

  Maurits C. Escher: Dutch (yeah!) graphic artist of this century,
  well-known for his tangled, paradoxical pictures of optical illusions and
  plane-filling tilings. Read Douglas Hofstadter's _Goedel, Escher, Bach_
  for much, much more information.

- [p. 122/111] "'It looks like someone has taken twice five miles of inner
  city and girded them round with walls and towers,' he hazarded."

  From Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem _Kubla Khan_:

        "So twice five miles of fertile ground
         With walls and towers were girded round"

- [p. 122/111] "[...] 'sherbet and, and -- young women.'"

  'Sherbet' is a cooling Oriental fruit drink (also a frozen dessert) as
  well as a fizzy sweet powder children eat as a sweet, and which comes in
  a cardboard tube with a liquorice 'straw' at the top. To get to the
  sherbet you bite off the end of the liquorice and suck through it. See
  also the annotation for p. 104/104 of _The Light Fantastic_.

- [p. 125/113] "'[...] pretty much of a miracle of rare device.'"

  Coleridge's _Kubla Khan_:

        "It was a miracle of rare device
         A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!"

- [p. 125/113] "My name is Creosote, Seriph of Al Khali, [...]"

  Ok, lessee: Creosote parodies the proverbially rich Croesus (king of
  Lidya -- which lies in what is now Turkey -- in the 6th century BC),
  'Serif' is a typographical term which also puns on 'caliph', and 'Al
  Khali' is pronounced 'alkali' (just covering all the bases here, as my
  original source put it), but probably refers to the Rub' al Khali desert
  in Arabia.

  Creosote itself is actually the name for an oily liquid mixture of
  organic chemicals, resulting as a by-product from the industrial burning
  of coal or wood.

- [p. 126/114] The hashishim as the "original Assassins".

  The English word "assassins" was originally used to denote a group of
  fanatical Ismailis (a Shi'ite Muslim sect) who, between 1094 and 1273,
  worked for the creation of a new Fatimid caliphate, murdering prominent
  individuals. They murdered prominent individuals; hence, "assassin" in
  English came to mean a politically motivated murderer. 

  The name derives from the Arabic "hashashin" -- Marco Polo and other
  European chroniclers claimed that the Assassins used hashish to stimulate
  their fearless acts. For example, Brewer writes:

  "*Assassins*. A band of Carmathians, collected by Hassa, subah of
  Nishapour, called the _Old Man of the Mountains_, because he made Mount
  Lebanon his stronghold. This band was the terror of the world for two
  centuries, when it was put down by Sultan Bibaris. The assassins indulged
  in *haschisch* (bang), an intoxicating drink, and from this liquor
  received their name."

  For more information, see also the Hawkwind song 'Hassan I Sabbah' on
  their album _Quark, Strangeness and Charm_.

- [p. 126/114] Creosote's poetry is mostly based on Edward Fitzgerald's
  translation of the _Rubaiyat_ of Omar Khayyam. The poem parodied on this
  page goes:

        "A book of verses underneath the bough
         A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou"

- [p. 127/115] "'They spent simply ages getting the rills sufficiently
  sinuous.'"

  _Kubla Khan_:

        "And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills."

- [p. 127/115] "'Wild honey and locusts seem more appropriate, [...]'"

  Because John the Baptist ate those, according to Matthew 3:4 (also Mark
  1:6): "And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern
  girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey."

  In order to avoid confusion it should perhaps be pointed out that the
  locusts in question are the seeds of honey locust trees, also known as
  carob and (from this story, of course) St John's Bread.

- [p. 127/115] "'You can't play a dulcimer, by any chance?'"

  _Kubla Khan_:

        "It was an Abyssinian maid,
         And on her dulcimer she played."

- [p. 128/116] "'Has anyone ever told you your neck is as a tower of
  ivory?'"

  This, and Creosote's further compliments to Conina ("your hair is like a
  flock of goats that graze upon the side of Mount Gebra", "your breasts
  are like the jewelled melons in the fabled gardens of dawn", etc.) are
  all very similar to the compliments in the Biblical 'Song of Solomon':

        "Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair;
         thou hast doves' eyes within thy locks:
         thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead."

        "Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury,
         whereon there hang a thousand bucklers,
         all shields of mighty men.

         Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins,
         which feed among the lilies."

  I did an electronic search across the entire King James bible for
  "jewelled melons", but those appear to be an invention of Creosote's.
  Fine by me -- I was already slightly shocked to find out that "thy hair
  is as a flock of goats" was a genuine Biblical compliment and not
  something Terry had made up.

- [p. 129/117] "Get up! For the morning in the cup of day, / Has dropped
  the spoon that scares the stars away."

  The _Rubaiyat_:

        "Awake! for morning in the bowl of night
         Hath flung the stone that puts the stars to flight."

- [p. 130/118] "[...] a falling apple or a boiling kettle or the water
  slopping over the edge of the bath."

  A falling apple supposedly helped Newton discover the Law of Gravity, a
  boiling kettle helped Watt revolutionise the steam engine (see also the
  annotation for p. 175/153 of _Reaper Man_), and Archimedes, according to
  legend, discovered the principles of fluid displacement while taking a
  bath.

- [p. 132/119] "The Seriph's palace, known to legend as the Rhoxie, [...]"

  No connection to the original Croesus here, but rather to the Alhambra,
  the palace of the Emirs of Granada in 15th century Spain. As Terry says:

  "Incidentally, the Seriph's palace, the Rhoxie, is indeed a 'resonance'
  with the Alhambra -- a famous Moorish palace which became a synonym for
  an impressive building, and later became a common cinema name as in Odeon
  and, yes, Roxy."

- [p. 141/127] "Nijel the Destroyer" may be a suitably heroic-looking name,
  but 'Nijel' is of course pronounced as 'Nigel', a name that is
  traditionally associated with wimpy rather than with heroic males.

  I am told that among school-age Australians, Nigel is in fact slang for
  someone with no friends.

- [p. 142/129] "'For example, do you know how many trolls it takes to
  change a lamp-wick?'"

  Someone, somewhere, hasn't heard of the "How many <insert ethnic group>
  does it take to change a light-bulb?"-jokes this is a reference to. This
  annotation is for him/her.

- [p. 142/129] "'[...] it's more than just pointing a finger at it and
  saying "Kazam--"'"

  Captain Marvel, an American comic book character was able to transform
  himself into his superhero alter-ego by saying the magic word 'Shazam'.

- [p. 154/139] "[...] the Librarian dropped on him like the descent of
  Man."

  Reference to Charles Darwin's landmark 1871 book _The Descent of Man_.

- [p. 162/147] "'He asked me to tell him a story.'"

  This is the first, but not the last time in the book that Creosote asks
  Conina for a story. This refers to _1001 Nights_, and the stories
  Scheherezade had to tell every night to *her* Caliph, Harun al-Rashid.

- [p. 167/151] "'I'm looking up the Index of Wandering Monsters', said
  Nijel."

  'Wandering Monsters' is a phrase that comes from the world of fantasy
  role-playing games such as _Dungeons And Dragons_, and it more or less
  means just what you think it means. Nijel is of course exactly the type
  of stereotypical nerd who would, in our world, actually play D&D.

- [p. 171/154] "'It have thee legges of an mermade, the hair of an
  tortoise, the teeth of an fowel, and the wings of an snake.'"

  More reputable witnesses than Broomfog describe the chimera or chimaera
  (from Greek mythology) as a fire-breathing monster having either the
  hindquarters of a serpent and the head of a lion on the body of a goat,
  or else the back of a goat, the wings of a dragon, the front half of a
  lion, and three heads (one each for goat, lion and dragon).

  Woody Allen somewhere describes a mythical beast called the Great Roe,
  which has "the head of lion and the body of a lion, only not the same
  lion".

- [p. 185/167] "Next to it was a small, sleek oil lamp and [...] a small
  gold ring."

  The magic lamp and magic ring, which summon a demon when rubbed, appear
  in the legend of Aladdin. On p. 208/187 Creosote tells the story of how
  "one day this wicked old pedlar came round offering new lamps for old
  [...]". This is also part of the original Aladdin fairy tale.

- [p. 210/189] "It was a Fullomyth, an invaluable aid [...]"

  Refers to the 'Filofax' system: a small notebook (the more expensive
  versions are leather-bound) with loose-leaf information sheets, diary,
  calendar, notes, wine lists, London underground maps, etc. In the UK the
  Filofax at one time became the badge of the stereotypical 80s Yuppie,
  seen working in London's "square mile", walking around with a mobile
  phone clamped to his ear while referring to his Filofax to find a free
  appointment. Hence the Genie: "'Let's do lunch...'".

- [p. 215/193] "'Like not thinking about pink rhinoceroses,' said Nijel
  [...]"

  I always thought that the impossibility of trying not to think of
  something specific was a general concept, but a correspondent informs me
  that the writer Tolstoy actually founded a club as a boy, which you could
  be admitted to if you managed a test. The test was to sit in a corner,
  and *not* think of a white bear.

- [p. 215/193] Significant Quest --> Trivial Pursuit.

- [p. 227/204] "Other things besides the cream floated to the top, he
  reflected sourly."

  Another Tom Swifty, as per the annotation for p. 26/26 of _The Light
  Fantastic_.

- [p. 230/207] "'The world, you see, that is, the reality in which we live,
  in fact it can be thought of as, in a manner of speaking, a rubber
  sheet.'"

  Ovin is modifying Einstein's explanation of gravity for a magical
  setting. See also the annotation for p. 134/128 of _Pyramids_.

- [p. 236/212] "'We are poor little ... unidentified domesticated animals
  ... that have lost our way ...' he quavered."

  'Sheep' was *almost* right. The exact song the horsemen are trying to
  sing goes:

        "We're poor little lambs, that have lost our way"
         CHORUS: "Baaa, baa, baa."

  and is a favourite of the highly drunk.

- [p. 245/221] "'It's not that, then?'"

  In all editions of this novel I am aware of (UK Corgi paperback, UK
  Gollancz hardcover, US Signet paperback) this line is printed in a plain
  font. It seems logical, however, that the line is said by Pestilence and
  should therefore have been in italics.

- [p. 257/232] "'Oh, yes. It's vital to remember who you really are. It's
  very important. It isn't a good idea to rely on other people or things to
  do it for you, you see. They always get it wrong.'"

  Rincewind, nerving himself up to distract the Things in the Dungeon
  Dimensions so that Coin can escape, is anticipating Granny Weatherwax in
  this little speech. The theme is clearly important to Terry from the
  humanist angle, but its roots are in the occult -- actively holding in
  mind who and what you are is a traditional exercise in a number of
  mystical teachings. Note that this statement is the result of the
  inspiration particle which hit Rincewind on p. 165/149.

- [p. 259/233] "For a moment the ape reared against the darkness, the
  shoulder, elbow and wrist of his right arm unfolding in a poem of applied
  leverage, and in a movement as unstoppable as the dawn of intelligence
  brought it down very heavily."

  This is a rather subtle reference to the scene with the bone and tapir
  skull in the 'Dawn of Man' portion of Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C.
  Clarke's movie _2001: A Space Odyssey_.


WYRD SISTERS 

- [title] _Wyrd Sisters_

  In _Macbeth_, the three witches are sometimes called the weird sisters,
  e.g. act 2, scene 1: (Banquo) "I dreamt last night of the three weird
  sisters [...]"; or act 4, scene 1: (Macbeth) "Saw you the weird sisters?"
  (Lennox) "No, my lord."

  But there's a bit more to it than just the Macbeth reference. 'Wyrd' is
  the Norse concept of destiny or fate, as embodied by the Norns (who
  probably inspired the Witches in _Macbeth_). Since 'weird' to a modern
  reader just means 'strange', it's easy to miss the overtones of the title
  and just assume that it's an Old spelling of 'weird'.

- [p. 5/5] "'When shall we three meet again?'"

  _Macbeth_, act 1, scene 1, first line. The entire opening scene of _Wyrd
  Sisters_ is of course a direct parody on the opening scene of _Macbeth_.

- [p. 5/5] "Gods prefer simple, vicious games, where you Do Not Achieve
  Transcendence but Go Straight To Oblivion; [...]"

  Probably the most famous Chance (or Community Chest) card in Monopoly:
  "GO TO JAIL -- Go directly to Jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect
  $200.". (or 200 pounds, or 200 guilders, or 200 of whatever currency you
  care to name).

- [p. 7/7] "The junior witch, whose name was Magrat Garlick, relaxed
  considerably."

  Terry says: "Magrat is pronounced Magg-rat. Doesn't matter what I think
  is right -- *everyone* I've heard pronounce it has pronounced it
  Maggrat."

  "In Margaret Murray's book "The Witch Cult in Western Europe" you will
  find a number of Magrats and Magrets, and a suggestion that they were not
  misspellings but an earlier form of Margaret; also in the lists of those
  arraigned for witchcraft are the surnames Garlick, Device and Nutter. No
  Oggs or Weatherwax's, though."

- [p. 8/8] "Meanwhile King Verence, monarch of Lancre, was making a
  discovery."

  There exists a book entitled _Servants of Satan_, which is about the
  history of witch hunts. It contains the following paragraph:

  "This brings us back to Pierre de Lancre. He became convinced that Basque
  women where an immoral and unfaithful lot when observing their social
  arrangements during his witch-hunting expedition. De Lancre was
  especially horrified at the leadership roles in religious services taken
  by Basque women, the very women among whom witchcraft was rife..."

  Terry comments: "I'm astonished. I've never heard of the guy, and I'm
  reasonably well-read in that area. But it *is* a lovely coincidence."

  It may also not be entirely a coincidence that 'Lancre' is a common way
  of referring to Lancashire, the county where the famous 17th century
  witch trials were held (see the annotation for p. 78/57 of _Lords and
  Ladies_).

- [p. 11/10] "NO PREMONITIONS? STRANGE DREAMS? MAD OLD SOOTHSAYERS SHOUTING
  THINGS AT YOU IN THE STREET?"

  Refers to the famous "Beware the ides of March" warning in Shakespeare's
  _Julius Caesar_, act 1, scene 2.

- [p. 14/14] "'Can you tell by the pricking of your thumbs?' said Magrat
  earnestly."

  _Macbeth_, act 4, scene 1: (2 Witch) "By the pricking of my thumbs,
  Something wicked this way comes [...]".

  Keep an eye on _Macbeth_, act 4, scene 1. It's one of Terry's favourites
  in _Wyrd Sisters_.

- [p. 19/19] "Duke Felmet stared out gloomily at the dripping forest."

  Felmet's dislike of the forest resonates with the prophecy foretelling
  Macbeth had nothing to fear until Birnam wood itself would march against
  him.

- [p. 20/20] "There had been something about him being half a man, and...
  infirm on purpose?"

  Infirm *of* purpose, is what Lady Macbeth calls her husband in _Macbeth_,
  act 2, scene 2.

- [p. 20/20] "[...] with nothing much to do but hunt, drink and exercise
  his droit de seigneur."

  'Droit de seigneur' or 'jus primae noctae' ('right of first night'): a
  custom alleged to have existed in medieval Europe giving the lord of the
  land the right to sleep the first night with the bride of any one of his
  vassals. The evidence for this custom deals with redemption dues which
  were paid to avoid its enforcement. It probably existed as a recognised
  custom in parts of France and possibly Italy and Germany, but not
  elsewhere.

- [p. 22/21] "[...] an architect who had heard about Gormenghast but hadn't
  got the budget."

  Gormenghast is the ancient, decaying castle from Mervyn Peake's
  _Gormenghast_ trilogy. See also the annotation for p. 17/17 of
  _Pyramids_.

- [p. 22/22] "'There is a knocking without,' he said."

  In act 2 of _Macbeth_, scenes 2 and 3 have a lot of [Knocking within] in
  the stage directions.

- [p. 25/25] "'How many times have you thrown a magic ring into the deepest
  depths of the ocean and then, when you get home and have a nice bit of
  turbot for your tea, there it is?'"

  Nanny's ring story is a well-known folk tale that goes back as least as
  far as Herodotus, but has also been used by e.g. Tolkien and Jack Vance.

  More interesting is that at least one non-Brit over on alt.fan.pratchett
  had some trouble making sense of the implied connection between the
  concepts of 'turbot' and 'tea'. What he did not realise was that 'tea' is
  the term the British tend to use for any meal taken between 4.30 and 7
  pm, which may therefore include a nice, juicy turbot.

- [p. 26/26] "'You'd have to be a born fool to be a king,' said Granny."

  I must have read _Wyrd Sisters_ close to twenty times by now, and except
  for the last time this nice bit of foreshadowing completely passed me by.

- [p. 30/30] "'All the women are played by men.'"

  For those who do not know: in Shakespeare's time this was indeed the
  case; no women were allowed on stage.

- [p. 35/35] "He'd tried to wash the blood off his hand."

  Obvious, because very well known, but since I'm annotating all the other
  Shakespeare references, I might as well point out here that Felmet's
  attempts to wash the blood from his hands echo Lady Macbeth's actions in
  _Macbeth_ after the killing of Duncan in act 5, scene 1: "Out, damned
  spot!", etc.

- [p. 36/35] _The Hedgehog Can Never Be Buggered At All_

  Terry invented this title; he has *not* written any words to it (apart
  from the fragments that appear in the novels); but many fans (including a
  folk singer called Heather Wood) have; and there *did* turn out to exist
  an old Oxford drinking song that also uses the key phrase of the hedgehog
  song. See the _Song..._ section in Chapter 5 for one documented version
  of that song. Terry pleads parallel evolution, and observes that: "There
  is a certain, how shall I put it, natural cadence to the words."

  Readers of alt.fan.pratchett have also engaged in a collective
  songwriting effort, the results of which can be found in the Pratchett
  Archives (see Chapter 6 for details), in the file
  /pub/pratchett/misc/hedgehog-song. See also Chapter 5 for a sample.

- [p. 50/49] "Nanny Ogg also kept a cat, a huge one-eyed grey tom called
  Greebo [...]"

  'Greebo' is a word that was widely used in the early seventies to
  describe the sort of man who wanders around in oil-covered denim and
  leather (with similar long hair) and who settles disagreements with a
  motorcycle chain -- the sort who would like to be a Hell's Angel but
  doesn't have enough style.

- [p. 50/50] "'Well met by moonlight,' said Magrat politely. 'Merry meet. A
  star shines on --'"

  Magrat's first greeting comes from _A Midsummer Night's Dream_: "Ill met
  by moonlight, proud Titania". See also the annotation for p. 350/252 of _Lords
  and Ladies_.

  From Tolkien's _The Lord of the Rings_ comes the Elvish greeting: "A star
  shines on the hour of our meeting".

- [p. 53/53] "'Every inch a king,' said Granny."

  A quote from _King Lear_, act 4, scene 6.

- [p. 58/58] "'_A Wizard of Sorts_,' Vitoller read. '_Or, Please
  Yourself_.'"

  Not quite a Shakespeare title, but _Please Yourself_ refers to both _As
  You Like It_ and the subtitle of _Twelfth Night_: "Or What You Will".

- [p. 60/60] "It was the cats and the roller skates that were currently
  giving him trouble..."

  Refers to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals _Cats_ and _Starlight
  Express_.

- [p. 61/60] "However, in Bad Ass a cockerel laid an egg and had to put up
  with some very embarrassing personal questions."

  Legend has it that from an egg laid by a cockerel and hatched by a
  serpent, a cockatrice (also known as a basilisk) will spawn. Since the
  cockatrice is a monster with the wings of a fowl, the tail of a dragon,
  and the head of a cock, whose very look causes instant death, it should
  be clear that such an egg would be a very bad omen indeed.

- [p. 65/65] "'Is this a dagger I see before me?' he mumbled."

  From what is probably the most famous soliloquy in _Macbeth_: act 2,
  scene 1. See also the annotation for p. 184/183.

- [p. 68/67] "The stone was about the same height as a tall man, [...]"

  This is a reference to the Rollright stones near Chipping Norton in the
  UK, which according to legend can not be accurately counted.

- [p. 75/74] "A faint glow beyond the frosted panes suggested that, against
  all reason, a new day would soon dawn."

  The first scene of the first act of Shakespeare's _Hamlet_ starts at
  midnight, and describes a scene lasting about fifteen minutes -- yet the
  act ends at dawn. Likewise, the summoning of WxrtHltl-jwlpklz the demon
  takes place at night, but ends with the quote given above.

+ [p. 82] "[...] the Twins, toddling hand in hand along the midnight
  corridors, [...]"

  The same image can also be found in Stanley Kubrick's classic horror
  movie _The Shining_, where the ghosts of two small girl twins (who
  were horribly murdered in a 'dark deed') walk handin hand through the
  corridors of the Overlook Hotel.

- [p. 84/83] "[...] its eyes two yellow slits of easy-going malevolence
  [...]"

  In earlier editions of the APF this was flagged as one of Terry's major
  inconsistencies. After all, Greebo is supposed to have only *one* eye.

  But since then, Terry has explained on a.f.p: "Greebo is loosely modelled
  on a real cat I knew when I was a kid -- he had two eyes, but one was
  sort of pearly coloured. He's *blind* in one eye."

- [p. 88/87] "Magrat was picking flowers and talking to them."

  What follows is a satire of the mad Ophelia in _Hamlet_: "There's
  rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember: and there is
  pansies, that's for thoughts." (act 4, scene 5).

- [p. 95/94] "It's all very well calling for eye of newt, but do you mean
  Common, Spotted or Great Crested?"

  Eye of Newt is one of the ingredients used by the witches in _Macbeth_,
  act 4, scene 1.

  This scene also resonates very faintly with the famous running gag in the
  movie _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_:

       Bridgekeeper: "What... is the air-speed velocity of an unladen
                     swallow?"
       Arthur: "What do you mean? An African or European
               swallow?"
       Bridgekeeper: "Huh? I -- I don't know that! Auuuuuuuugh!"

- [p. 103/103] "[...] (a dandelion clock at about 2 pm)."

  For an explanation of the dandelion clock see the annotation for p. 10/10
  of _The Light Fantastic_.

- [p. 108/107] "'Infirm of purpose!'"

  Lady Macbeth says this in _Macbeth_, act 2, scene 2.

- [p. 108/108] "'[...] and *you* said, "If it's to be done, it's better if
  it's done quickly", or something [...]'"

  _Macbeth_, act 1, scene 7: "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere
  well it were done quickly."

- [p. 109/108] "Granny glanced around the dungeon."

  This is another misprint: it should be Nanny, not Granny. Terry says the
  error is not present in his own version of the text, but both the UK and
  USA paperbacks have it.

- [p. 127/126] "'[...] the land and the king are one.'"

  A concept straight out of the Arthurian legends.

- [p. 128/127] "[...] rose from the ditch like Venus Anadyomene, only older
  and with more duckweed."

  Venus Anadyomene is the classical image of Venus rising from the sea
  (from which she was born), accompanied by dolphins. The name is given to
  the famous lost painting by Apelles, as well as to the one by Botticelli
  in the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Florence.

- [p. 133/132] "'I have no recollection of it at this time,' he murmured."

  Duke Felmet is echoing the words of Richard Nixon's subordinates under
  questioning by the Senate Committee during the Watergate affair.

- [p. 134/133] "[...] whirl a farmhouse to any available emerald city of
  its choice."

  A _Wizard of Oz_ reference.

- [p. 139/138] "'I mean, Black Aliss was one of the best.'"

  My sources tell me that Black Annis is the name of a fearsome witch from
  Celtic/Saxon mythology.

- [p. 142/141] "Greebo's grin gradually faded, until there was nothing left
  but the cat. This was nearly as spooky as the other way round."

  Refers to the Cheshire cat in Lewis Carroll's _Alice's Adventures in
  Wonderland_, a beast famous for slowly vanishing until only its grin
  remains.

- [p. 145/144] "[...] Herne the Hunted, the terrified and apprehensive
  deity of all small furry creatures [...]"

  Herne the Hun*ter* is a spectral hunter of medieval legend, said to
  originally have been a keeper in Windsor Forest. Herne appears in many
  stories, varying from Shakespeare (who else) to the fairly recent ITV
  television series "Robin of Sherwood" (starring Jason "son of" Connery).

  When alt.fan.pratchett readers mistakenly assumed that the reference
  *originated* from this series, Terry cautioned: "Be careful when
  reference spotting... Herne the Hunter certainly did turn up in the Robin
  of Sherwood series and on an album by "Let's breathe romantically to
  music" group Clannad, but any passing pagan will tell you he goes back a
  lot, lot further than that."

  Herne the Hunter also appears himself in _Lords and Ladies_. Here is some
  relevant information condensed from the book _The Western Way_ by John
  and Caitlin Matthews:

  "Herne the Hunter / Cernunnos is God of green and growing things;
  huntsman, spirit of earth, birth and masculinity. Often pictured seated
  cross-legged with antlers on his brow, he is [...] tutelary deity of many
  modern witch covens."

- [p. 156/155] "[...] trying to find a laboratory opposite a dress shop
  that will keep the same dummy in the window for sixty years, [...]"

  This refers to the 1960 movie version of H. G. Wells' _The Time Machine_,
  where the director uses the effect described to indicate the rapid
  passing of time.

- [p. 158/158] "He'd sorted out the falling chandelier, and found a place
  for a villain who wore a mask to conceal his disfigurement, [...]"

  Describes _The Phantom of the Opera_, another musical by Andrew Lloyd
  Webber. See also the annotations for _Maskerade_.

- [p. 159/158] "[...] the hero had been born in a handbag."

  The protagonist in Oscar Wilde's _The Importance of Being Earnest_ was
  found, as a baby, in a handbag.

- [p. 159/158] "It was the clowns who were giving him trouble again."

  The clowns are the Marx Brothers. The third clown is Harpo, who never
  speaks, only honks ("business with bladder on a stick"). The short speech
  that follows, "This iss My Little Study..." is typical Groucho, and the
  "Atsa right, Boss" is Chico.

- [p. 159/158] "_Thys ys amain Dainty Messe youe have got me into,
  Stanleigh_"

  Laurel & Hardy. Laurel's first name was Stan. See also the annotation for
  p. 73/65 of _The Colour of Magic_.

- [p. 160/159] The Dysk.

  The famous Globe Theatre (which was octagonal in form!) was built by
  Cuthbert Barbage on the Bankside in Southwark (London) in 1599.
  Shakespeare had a share in the theatre and acted there.

  The Globe was destroyed by fire, rebuilt, and eventually completely
  demolished in 1644. Currently, The Globe is being rebuilt again by an
  American entrepreneur on the South Bank, a few hundred yards from its
  original site.

- [p. 162/161] "*All the disk is but an Theater*, he wrote, *Ane alle men
  and wymmen are but Players*. [...] *Sometimes they walke on. Sometimes
  they walke off*."

  _As You Like It_, act 2, scene 7: "All the world's a stage, And all the
  men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances;
  [...]"

- [p. 163/162] "I had this dream about a little bandy-legged man walking
  down a road."

  I have resisted annotating this for 7 editions of the APF, but oh what
  the heck: Hwel is dreaming of Charlie Chaplin.

- [p. 165/164] "'I *said*, where's your pointy hat, dopey?'"

  Dopey is one of the seven dwarfs in Walt Disney's animated _Snow White_.
  Terry likes toying with Disney's dwarf names. See for instance the
  annotation for p. 324/271 of _Moving Pictures_.

- [p. 167/166] "'_Brothers! And yet may I call all men brother, for on this
  night --_'"

  This is (in spirit) the St Crispin's Day speech from _King Henry V_. See
  the annotation for p. 239/238.

- [p. 182/181] "Double hubble, stubble trouble, Fire burn and cauldron
  bub---"

  The witches in _Macbeth_, act 4, scene 1: "Double, double toil and
  trouble; Fire, burn; and, cauldron, bubble."

- [p. 169/168] "[...] go around with axes in their belts, and call
  themselves names like Timkin Rumbleguts."

  This is a sarcastic comment on the behaviour of most generic fantasy
  dwarfs, but of course the main image it invokes is of classic Tolkien
  characters like Thorin Oakenshield, etc.

- [p. 173/172] "'We've got a special on GBH this season.'"

  The abbreviation GBH stands for Grievous Bodily Harm.

- [p. 178/177] "The pay's the thing."

  Puns on a well-known Shakespeare quote from _Hamlet_ (act 2, scene 2):

        "The play's the thing
         Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king"

  If you have access to the Internet, you can find online versions of all
  of Shakespeare's plays at the URL:

  <http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/>

- [p. 179/178] "'I've got this idea about this ship wrecked on an island,
  where there's this--'"

  This can of course refer to a thousand different movies or plays. In view
  of the general influences for this book, however, I'd bet my money on
  Shakespeare's _The Tempest_.

- [p. 181/180] "*Round about the cauldron go*, [...]"

  What follows is a parody on _Macbeth_, act 4, scene 1, in which three
  witches boil up some pretty disgusting things in their cauldron. Try
  reading both versions side by side.

- [p. 182/181] "He punched the rock-hard pillow, and sank into a fitful
  sleep. Perchance to dream."

  Taken from the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy in _Hamlet_.

- [p. 183/182] "KING: Now if I could just find my horsey..."

  Hwel's script is _Richard III_ done as a Punch-and-Judy show.

- [p. 184/183] "Is this a duck I see before me, its beak pointing at me?"

  _Macbeth_, act 2, scene 1 again. See the annotation for p. 65/65.

- [p. 186/185] "Leonard of Quirm. He's a painter, really."

  Refers to Leonardo da Vinci, who also worked on (but didn't succeed in
  building) a flying machine.

- [p. 186/185] "We grow old, Master Hwel. [...] We have heard the gongs at
  midnight."

  Shakespeare again: _King Henry IV, part 2_, act 3, scene 2:

  "FALSTAFF: Old, old, Master Shallow. [...] We have heard the chimes at
  midnight, Master Shallow."

- [p. 189/188] "'There's many a slip twixt dress and drawers.'"

  A Nanny Ogg variant on the saying "There's many a slip 'tween the cup and
  the lip" ('slip' here meaning 'petticoat').

- [p. 189/188] "'A week is a long time in magic,' said Nanny."

  Sir Harold Wilson: "A week is a long time in politics".

- [p. 193/192] "1ST WITCHE: He's late. (Pause)" [Etc.]

  Parodies Samuel Beckett's classic play _Waiting for Godot_, where similar
  dialogue occurs.

- [p. 199/198] "'Did you know that an adult male carries up to five pounds
  of undigested red meat in his intestines at all times?"

  Stereotypical (but basically true) propaganda that radical vegetarians
  like to quote in order to gross people out and get them to stop eating
  meat (of course, the average vegetarian has about five pounds of
  undigested vegetable matter in his intestines). The cliche is used fairly
  often, amongst other places in the movie _Beverly Hills Cop_.

  Terry had this to say on the subject: "Yep. That one I got from some way
  out vegetarian stuff I read years ago, and went round feeling ill about
  for days. And two years ago I saw _Beverly Hills Cop_ on TV and rejoiced
  when I heard the line. God, I wish I'd seen the film before I'd written
  _Guards! Guards!_... I'd have had someone out on stake-duty on horseback,
  and someone creep up behind them with a banana..."

  Note that in _Men at Arms_, the second City Watch book, Terry does manage
  to work in a _Beverly Hills Cop_ joke. See the annotation for p. 251/190
  of _Men At Arms_.

- [p. 207/206] "'All hail wossname,' she said under her breath, 'who shall
  be king here, after.'"

  _Macbeth_, act 1, scene 2: "All hail, Macbeth; that shalt be king
  hereafter!"

- [p. 208/207] "'Is anyone sitting here?' he said."

  _Macbeth_, act 3, scene 4:

        Macbeth: 'The table's full.'
        Lennox: 'Here is a place reserv'd, sir.'
        Macbeth: 'Where?'

  Visible only to Macbeth the ghost of Banquo is sitting in his chair.

- [p. 211/210] "'We're scheming evil secret black and midnight hags!'"

  _Macbeth_, act 4, scene 1: "How now, you secret, black, and midnight
  hags!" See also the annotation for p. 186/152 of _Mort_.

- [p. 212/211] "'I never shipwrecked anybody!' she said."

  Neither did the three witches from _Macbeth_, if you read carefully, but
  I nevertheless think there is a reference here: act 1, scene 3.

- [p. 213/212] "I'd like to know if I could compare you to a summer's day.
  Because -- well, June 12th was quite nice, and ..."

  One of Shakespeare's more famous sonnets (Sonnet XVIII, to be precise)
  starts out:

        "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and
         more temperate"

- [p. 213/212] "'But I never walked like that! Why's he got a hump on his
  back? What's happened to his leg?'"

  A reference to Richard the Third. A rather appropriate reference: in
  Shakespeare's _Richard III_, he is presented as an evil, lame,
  hunchbacked king, whom Henry must kill to save England. This is not
  historically correct -- rather it is how Henry would have liked people to
  remember it. Had Shakespeare strayed from the 'official' version he would
  have found himself in deep trouble with Henry's heirs -- royalty was
  taken seriously in those days.

- [p. 213/213] "'It's art,' said Nanny. 'It wossname, holds a mirror up to
  life.'"

  _Hamlet_, act 3, scene 2: "To hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature;
  to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and
  body of the time his form and pressure."

- [p. 214/213] "'Ditch-delivered by a drabe', they said."

  One of the ingredients in _Macbeth_, act 4, scene 1 is a "finger of
  birth-strangled babe, ditch-delivered by a drabe".

- [p. 225/225] "--THE NEXT NIGHT IN YOUR DRESSING ROOM THEY HANG A STAR--"

  Death is quoting from 'There's No Business Like Show Business', the song
  from the Irvin Berlin musical _Annie Get Your Gun_, also performed by
  Ethel Merman in the 1954 movie _There's No Business Like Show Business_.

- [p. 227/226] "'[...] who would have thought he had so much blood in
  him?'"

  Lady Macbeth in _Macbeth_, act 5, scene 1: "Yet who would have thought
  the old man to have had so much blood in him".

- [p. 235/234] "Like Bognor."

  Bognor Regis is a town on the south coast of England, between Brighton
  and Portsmouth. A sleepy seaside resort, it is best-known for King George
  V's attributed last words, supposedly said after his physician told him
  he would soon be brought to Bognor to convalesce: "Bugger Bognor!".

- [p. 236/235] "'Can you remember what he said after all those tomorrows?'"

  _Macbeth_, act 5, scene 5, from a another famous soliloquy:

        "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
         Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
         To the last syllable of recorded time;
         And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
         The way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle!
         Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player
         That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
         And then is heard no more: it is a tale
         Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
         Signifying nothing."

- [p. 239/238] "They were far more the type of kings who got people to
  charge into battle at five o'clock in the morning..."

  Shakespeare's Henry V was just such a king, and Terry is referring here
  to the 'St Crispin's Day' speech in _King Henry V_, act 4, scene 3:

        "And gentlemen in England now a-bed
         Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
         And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
         That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."


PYRAMIDS 

- [p. 5/5] The Titles of the Books

  _Pyramids_ is split into four 'Books', a structure that gives it a unique
  position amongst the otherwise chapterless Discworld novels (_The Colour
  of Magic_ doesn't really count -- it's a collection of linked novellas,
  not a single novel with chapters or sections).

  Book I is _The Book of Going Forth_, which refers to _The Book of Going
  Forth By Day_, (see the annotation for p. 9/9 of _The Light Fantastic_).
  Book II is _The Book of the Dead_, a more direct reference to the
  Egyptian Book of the Dead. Book III is _The Book of the New Son_ which
  puns on the title of the Gene Wolfe SF novel _The Book of the New Sun_
  (perhaps there is an earlier title both authors are drawing on, but I
  haven't been able to trace it). Book IV, finally, is _The Book of 101
  Things A Boy Can Do_, which gives a nod to the typical titles sported a
  few decades ago by books containing wholesome, innocent, practical, but
  above all *educational* activities for children.

- [p. 7/7] "[...] the only turtle ever to feature on the
  Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, [...]"

  The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram depicts the evolution of stars, plotting
  luminosity (how strongly they emit light) versus surface temperature
  (determined from their colour).

- [p. 8/8] "Some people think a giant dung beetle pushes it."

  The ancient Egyptians did, for instance.

- [p. 10/10] "Morpork was twinned with a tar pit."

  A reference to the concept of twin cities.

  Following the horrors of the Second World War, and in the spirit of
  egalitarianism and common feeling for our fellow men which prevailed at
  that time, it was decided that the best way to cement bonds between