Mort

Title: Mort
Author(s): Terry Pratchett
Release year: 1987
Publisher: Victor Gollancz in association with Colin Smythe

Why in Database: In the fourth book of the Discworld series, the turtle motif appears six times, once in the form of a reference to ordinary turtles and five times in the form of references to A’Tuin.
The first two references are at the very beginning, during describing the key character of this book, Death:

But not any Death. This is the Death whose particular sphere of operations is, well, not a sphere at all, but the Discworld, which is flat and rides on the back of four giant elephants who stand on the shell of the enormous star turtle Great A’Tuin, and which is bounded by a waterfall that cascades endlessly into space.

The steady gaze from those twinkling eye sockets encompasses the world turtle, sculling through the deeps of space, carapace scarred by comets and pitted by meteors. One day even Great A’Tuin will die, Death knows; now, that would be a challenge.

Next turtle reference is non-A’Tuin, it is in the description of Princess Keli’s actions:

She took a chicken leg from the table in the biggest kitchen, a cavern lined with so many pots that by the light of its fires it looked like an armory for tortoises, and felt the unfamiliar thrill of theft.

In the next reference, Mort is compared to A’Tuin by the narrator:

Mort didn’t return it. Instead he turned and plodded towards the door, at a general speed and gait that made Great A’Tuin look like a spring lamb.

The last two turtles are also about the Mort, in the first he explains to Albert what he knows about the construction of the discworld, in the second he visits Death’s office:

“I know the Disc is carried through space on the backs of four elephants that stand on the shell of Great A’Tuin,” said Mort.

He turned on his heel and stalked back into Death’s study. There was a large disc of the world in one corner, complete down to solid silver elephants standing on the back of a Great A’Tuin cast in bronze and more than a meter long.

Author: XYuriTT

Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.