Category Archives: Discworld

Title: The Fifth Elephant
Author(s): Terry Pratchett
Release year: 1999
Publisher: Doubleday

Why in Database:

In this book, as in many entries about Discworld, all three turtle references all about A’Tuin:

They say the world is flat and supported on the back of four elephants who themselves stand on the back of a giant turtle.
They say that the elephants, being such huge beasts, have bones of rock and iron, and nerves of gold for better conductivity over long distances.

He knew the legend, of course. There had once been five elephants, not four, standing on the back of Great A’Tuin, but one had lost its footing or had been shaken loose and had drifted off into a curved orbit before eventually crashing down, a billion tons of enraged pachyderm.

Sometimes, though, knockermen came back. And the ones that survived went on to survive again, because surviving is a matter of practice. And sometimes they would talk a little of what they heard, all alone in the deep mines…the tap-tapping of dead dwarfs trying to get back into the world, the distant laughter of Agi Hammerthief, the heartbeat of the turtle that carried the world.

Author: XYuriTT

Title: Carpe Jugulum
Author(s): Terry Pratchett
Release year: 1998
Publisher: Doubleday

Why in Database: Quite a turtle book, mainly because one of the essential characters is the priest of Om, so there are some references to the events of Small Gods and established by the events of this book, Om-Turtle symbolism.

The first reference, however, is more traditional – about A’Tuin.

It was also said, although not by the people who lived in Lancre, that below the rim, where the seas thundered continuously over the edge, their home went through space on the back of four huge elephants that in turn stood on the shell of a turtle that was as big as the world.
The people of Lancre had heard of this. They thought it sounded about right. The world was obviously flat, although in Lancre itself the only truly flat places were tables and the top of some people’s heads, and certainly turtles could shift a fair load. Elephants, by all accounts, were pretty strong too. There didn’t seem any major gaps in the thesis, so Lancrastrians left it at that.

The first mention of Oats pendant:

He carefully lowered his holy turtle pendant into place, noting its gleam with some satisfaction, and picked up his finely printed graduation copy of the Book of Om. Some of his fellow students had spent hours carefully ruffling the pages to give them that certain straight-and-narrow credibility, but Oats had refrained from this as well. Besides, he knew most of it by heart.

The next references to turtles is more general, it is about similarity of a certain phenomenon to them:

She’d seen Hodgesaargh occasionally, around the edges of the woods or up on the moors.
Usually the royal falconer was vainly fighting off his hawks, who attacked him for a pastime, and in the case of King Henry kept picking him up and dropping him again in the belief that he was a giant tortoise.

The next three are about the pendant:

“I am protected by the hand of Om,” he said.
Nanny inspected the pendant. It show a figure trussed across the back of a turtle.
“You say?” she said. “That’s a good wheeze, then.”

“And this is the holy turtle of Om, which I believe should make me cringe back in fear. My, my. Not even a very good replica. Cheaply made.”
Oats found a reserve of strength. He managed to say “And how would you know, foul fiend?”
“No, no, that’s for demons,” sighed the Count. He handed the turtle back to Oats.

Oats’s hands clasped his turtle pendant for comfort as he tried to remember.

Next is a direct reference to the events of the Small Gods:

“It is said three thousand people witnessed his manifestation at the Great Temple when he make the Covenant with the prophet Brutha and saved him from death by torture on the iron turtle—”

Nie tylko Om jest wspominany w żółwim kontekście, Igor wspomina także nieokreśloną sadzawkę Świętego Żółwia:

“Thith ith water from the Holy Turtle Pond of Thquintth,” said a voice above them. “Blethed by the Bithop himthelf in the Year of the Trout.” There was a glugging noise and the sound of someone swallowing. “That wath a good year for beatitude,” Igor went on. “But you don’t have to take my word for it. Duck, you thuckerth!”

The last three, again revolve around the (lost) pendant and what Oats finally got instead:

Oats reached to his neck for the security of the turtle, and it wasn’t there. It has cost him five obols in the Citadel, and it was too late now to reflect that perhaps he shouldn’t have hung it from a chain worth a tenth of an obol. It was probably lying in some pool, or buried in some muddy, squelching marsh…

“What happened to your holy hat?”
“It got lost,” said Oats abruptly. Granny peered closer.
“Your magic amulet’s gone too,” she said. “The one with the turtle and the little man on it.”
“It’s not a magic amulet, Mistress Weatherwax! Please! A magic amulet is a symbol of primitive
and mechanistic superstition, whereas the Turtle of Om is…is…is…well, it’s not, do you
understand?”

“Oh.” Verence looked nonplussed, but kings learn to swing back upright. “I’m sure you know your own mind best.” He swayed slightly as Magrat’s elbow grazed his ribs. “Oh…yes…we heard you lost your, er, holy amulet and so this afternoon we, that is to say the Queen and Miss Nitt… got Shawn Ogg to make this in the mint…”
Oats unwrapped the black velvet scroll. Inside, on a golden chain, was a small golden doubleheaded ax. He stared at it.
“Shawn isn’t very good at turtles,” said Magrat, to fill the gap.

Author: XYuriTT

Title: The Last Continent
Author(s): Terry Pratchett
Release year: 1998
Publisher: Doubleday

Why in Database: Another discworld book with many turtle references. The first three are related to A’Tuin:

Against the stars a turtle passes, carrying four elephants on its shell.
Both turtle and elephants are bigger than people might expect, but out between the stars the difference between huge and tiny is, comparatively speaking, very small.
But this turtle and these elephants are, by turtle and elephant standards, big. They carry the Discworld, with its vast lands, cloudscapes, and oceans.
People don’t live on the Disc any more than, in less hand-crafted parts of the multiverse, they live on balls. Oh, planets may be the place where their body eats its tea, but they live elsewhere, in worlds of their own which orbit very handily around the center of their heads.

“There’s not a single star I recognize,” said the Senior Wrangler.
Ridcully waved his hands in the air. “They change a bit all the time,” he said. “The Turtle swims through space and—”
“Not this fast!” said the Dean.

“I think it’s what we call the Small Boring Group of Faint Stars. It’s about the right shape,” said Ponder. “And I know what you’re going to say, sir, you’re going to say, ‘But they’re just a blob in the sky, not a patch on the blobs we used to get,’ sir, but, you see, that’s what they might have looked like when Great A’Tuin was much closer to them, thousands of years ago. In other words, sir,” Ponder drew a deep breath, in dread of everything that was to come, “I think we’ve traveled backwards in time. For thousands of years.”
And that was the other side of the odd thing about wizards. While they were quite capable of spending half an hour arguing that it could not possibly be Tuesday, they’d take the outrageous in their pointy-shoed stride. The Senior Wrangler even looked relieved.

The fourth and last reference is one of the allusions to the world of the sphere, i.e. the earth, that occurs from time to time:

Rincewind lay back. Even the flies were merely annoying. Things began to sizzle in the bushes. Snowy went and drank from the tiny pool with a noise like an inefficient suction pump trying to deal with an unlucky turtle.
It was, nevertheless, very peaceful.

Author: XYuriTT

Title: Jingo
Author(s): Terry Pratchett
Release year: 1997
Publisher: Victor Gollancz

Why in Database: There is only one turtle mention in this book:

“It puts me in mind,” said Leonard, “of those nautical stories about giant turtles that sleep on the surface, thus causing sailors to think they are an island. Of course, you don’t get giant turtles that small.”

Author: XYuriTT

Title: Hogfather
Author(s): Terry Pratchett
Release year: 1996
Publisher: Victor Gollancz

Why in Database: In this Discworld book, there is only one turtle mention, about A’Tuin:

Author: XYuriTT

Title: Feet of Clay
Author(s): Terry Pratchett
Release year: 1996
Publisher: Victor Gollancz

Why in Database: In this Discworld book, there is only one turtle mention, at the very beginning, during description of the the nature of discworld and A’Tuin:

The Discworld turned against the glittering backdrop of space, spinning very gently on the backs of the four giant elephants that perched on the shell of Great A’Tuin the star turtle. Continents drifted slowly past, topped by weather systems that themselves turned gently against the flow, like waltzers spinning counter to the whirl of the dance. A billion tons of geography rolled slowly through the sky.

Author: XYuriTT

Title: Interesting Times
Author(s): Terry Pratchett
Release year: 1994
Publisher: Victor Gollancz

Why in Database: Typically for Discworld, this book contains some turtle references. The first two are at the very beginning and are about A’Tuin:

This is the Discworld, which goes through space on the back of a giant turtle.
Most worlds do, at some time in their perception. It’s a cosmological view the human brain seems pre-programmed to take.

But this is the Discworld, which has not only the turtle but also the four giant elephants on which the wide, slowly turning wheel of the world revolves.

In the next two fragments turtles are used as the insults:

Rincewind had to concede that the shouting man was right. Not, that is, about Rincewind’s father being the diseased liver of a type of mountain panda and his mother being a bucket of turtle slime; Rincewind had no personal experience of either parent but felt that they were probably at least vaguely humanoid, if only briefly.

“Silence, mouth of—” The guard hesitated.
“You’ve used turtle, goldfish, and what you probably meant to be cheese,” said Rincewind.
“Mouth of chicken gizzards!”

The last one is a turtle… realizing his (not very good) situation:

From one stall a tortoise on top of a struggling heap of other tortoises under a sign saying: 3r. each, good for Ying gave Rincewind a slow, “You think you’ve got troubles?” look.

Author: XYuriTT

Title: Soul Music
Author(s): Terry Pratchett
Release year: 1994
Publisher: Victor Gollancz

Why in Database: There are two mentions of turtles in this Discworld book. The first is the standard, referencje to A’Tuin:

It was a room within a room. There was a large, heavy-looking desk on a raised dais, with a leather swivel chair behind it. There was a large model of the Discworld, on a sort of ornament made of four elephants standing on the shell of a turtle. There were several bookshelves, the large volumes piled in the haphazard fashion of people who’re far too busy using the books ever to arrange them properly.

Second mention is in the context of “rituals” and turtle meat:

He stared along the shelves behind the makeshift counter. There was a pink conch shell. That had a number on it, too. He moistened his lips and reached out…
“If you blow that, you’d just better have a sacrificial virgin and a big cauldron of breadfruit and turtle meat standing by,” said the old lady.

Author: XYuriTT

Title: Men at Arms
Author(s): Terry Pratchett
Release year: 1993
Publisher: Victor Gollancz

Why in Database: An interesting variation, because we have one turtle reference, but it is not, as usual, related to A’Tuin! It is used only as a comparison:

Mr. Morecombe was scrawny, like a tortoise, and very pale. It had taken him ages to come to the point, and when it came the point nailed Vimes to his chair.

Author: XYuriTT

Title: Lords and Ladies
Author(s): Terry Pratchett
Release year: 1992
Publisher: Victor Gollancz

Why in Database: In this DiscWorld book, published after the most turtle book in the series, we have, for a change, book with the smallest turtle part so far – only one reference. It’s about A’Tuin, in the context of how the disc looks like:

But this story starts on the Discworld, which travels through space on the back of four giant elephants which stand on the shell of an enormous turtle and is not made of any bits of anyone’s bodies.

Author: XYuriTT