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Book:Equal Rites

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Equal Rites
0552131059.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
Cover [[Image:|thumb|center|200px|{{{1}}}]]
Published January 1987
Publisher Victor Gollancz
ISBN 0552131059
Pages 336
Series Witches Series
Main characters Granny Weatherwax
Annotations Annotations for Equal Rites
Notes Book #03
All data relates to the UK hardback edition.

Contents

Blurb

The last thing the wizard Drum Billet did, before Death laid a bony hand on his shoulder, was to pass on his staff of power to the eighth son of an eighth son. Unfortunately for his colleagues in the chauvinistic (not to say misogynistic) world of magic, he failed to check on the new-born baby's sex...

Cover

On the back cover, illustrator Josh Kirby painted himself as a wizard.

Characters

Minor characters

Cameos

Locations

Things and Concepts

Annotations

  • "She prided herself on her unrivaled knowledge of the properties of Ramtops herbage - none knew better than she the many uses of earwort, Maiden's Wish and Love-Lies-Oozing" - Granny is much more of a herbalist here than in Witches Abroad, where Magrat claims that Granny just gives people colored water to make them feel better (Granny makes this claim herself in this book, but Magrat implies that Granny does this because Granny doesn't know more about herbs)
  • "...smelling of anti-moth herbs" - a silly reference to mothballs?
  • Granny Borrows bee minds in this book. Isn't there another book where she specifically says this is very difficult, but manages to do it for the "first time" there?
  • "You know that. Esk didn't." - Pterry seems to address the reader quite a bit in the book. JRR Tolkien used the same literary device in The Hobbit.
  • "All wizards knew ... the important thing about moving something from A to Z, according to basic physics, was that at some point it should pass through the rest of the alphabet." - Ponder Stibbons finally manages to overcome this rule when he teleports Rincewind in Interesting Times
  • "...wizard of the third rank or above" - Is 'rank' another word for 'level' here?
  • "His Adam's apple..." - I wonder how this Discworld phrase originated?
  • "According to the standard poetic instructions one should move through a fair like the white swan at evening moves o'er the bay" - a reference to the Irish folk song She Moved Through the Fair, which has slightly different lyrics.
  • "The lodgings were on the top floor next to the well-guarded premises of a respectable dealer in stolen property because, as Granny had heard, good fences make good neighbors." - reference to the Robert Frost poem Mending Wall
  • "There are two ways of getting into Unseen University [...] The first is to achieve some great work of magic, such as the recovery of an ancient and powerful relic or the invention of a totally new spell" - this line shows that Ridcully didn't just make up this possibility when he presented it to Rincewind in Interesting Times
  • Granny makes references to several witches, but doesn't mention Nanny Ogg, even though we later discovery that Nanny and Granny are lifelong friends. Nanny won't make her first appearance until Wyrd Sisters.
  • Even though some of the action takes place in the Unseen University Library and the Librarian is present, then-assistant librarian Rincewind is conspicously absent.
  • "Fiftysevenfiftysevenfiftysevenwell?" - one of the frequent 57 references in TP's work
  • And of course the open and veiled references to the old English folk song The Two Magicians, which, as Granny Weatherwax would darkly mutter, refers to goings-on (as most folk songs eventually do). In the song, a wizard pursues a witch, with carryings-on in mind, but she eludes and fights him by continual transformations of herself, to which he responds by continual transformations of himself...

"She became a trout, a trout all in the brook;

But he became a feathered fly, and catched her with his hook!"

Possibly the best version was done by electric folkies Steeleye Span on the LP Now We Are Six.

Three variants of the lyrics and a discussion of the themes (male magic versus female) can be found here:- [1]

Roundworld References

Direct references to Roundworld:

Series notes

  • First appearance of Granny Weatherwax
  • First appearance of Mrs. Whitlow
  • First mention of Albert (as Malich the wise)
  • First mention of Sourcerers
  • The Thieves' Guild is now the main law enforcement agency in Ankh-Morpork
Previous book

First book

Witches Series Next book

Wyrd Sisters

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