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Book:Hogfather

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Hogfather
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Cover [[Image:|thumb|center|200px|{{{1}}}]]
Published 7 November 1996
Publisher Victor Gollancz
ISBN 057506403X
Pages
Series Death Series
Main characters Hogfather, Death, Susan Sto Helit, Mr. Teatime
Annotations Annotations for Hogfather
Notes Adapted as a TV film in 2006.
All data relates to the UK hardback edition.

Contents

[edit] Blurb

It's the night before Hogswatch. And it's too quiet.

There's snow, there're robins, there're trees covered with decorations, but there's a notable lack of the big fat man who delivers the toys ...

Susan the governess has got to find him before morning, otherwise the sun won't rise. And unfortunately, her only helpers are a raven with an eyeball fixation, the Death of Rats and an oh god of hangovers.

Worse still, someone is coming down the chimney. This time he's carrying a sack instead of a scythe, but there's something regrettably familiar ...

Ho. Ho. Ho.


It's true what they say.

'You'd better watch out ...'

[edit] Plot

The story begins in the evening before Hogswatch, the Discworld counterpart of Christmas. Susan Sto Helit has found work as a governess in the Gaiter household, where her ability to see bogeymen and defeat them with a fire poker comes in extremely useful. Meanwhile, the Auditors of Reality pay the Assassins Guild a huge fee to assassinate the Hogfather. Lord Downey sends for Jonathan Teatime, a young, dangerously talented assassin. Teatime employs five criminals, a wizard and a locksmith in his mission.

Death appears to Susan to tell her that the Hogfather is 'unavailable', and he will have to deliver the presents in his place. In Death's library, she discovers the god's hourglass has shattered and travels with Binky, the Death of Rats and a raven to the Castle of Bones, which collapses due to lack of belief. Here, she discovers the newly created Bilious, the "Oh God" of Hangovers, and brings him back to the Unseen University to be cured of his illness. At the University, it is revealed by Hex that the wizards are (accidentally) creating Small Gods to compensate for the lack of belief in the Hogfather.

Susan follows a trail through Ankh-Morpork and discovers that Violet Bottler, a human Tooth Fairy, went missing while taking a tooth to a criminal Banjo Lilywhite (one of Teatime's assistants). In Death's library, her biography shows she is being held captive in the land of the Tooth Fairy. Susan, the Oh God and Binky travel to the land, a world created by children's imagination. In the tower, they rescue Bottler and discover that their enemies have been using the children's teeth to control the children into not believing in the Hogfather.

Meanwhile, Teatime's group have been trying to unlock a door at the top of the tower. As Susan climb to the top of the tower, Teatime's accomplices are devoured by their childhood fears, apart from Banjo, who turns on the Assassin and refuses to attack Susan. Teatime grabs Death's sword off her but it fails to work, since children do not understand death. Susan succeeds in pushing Teatime off the tower where he falls into the pile of teeth. Through the door, she finds the original bogeyman, who became a children's myth as adults stopped believing in him. The bogeyman collected teeth to stop people from controlling the children. Susan leaves Banjo to clean up, and Bilious announces that he will be getting a new job.

Death takes her to the site of the Castle of Bones where the Hogfather, in the form of a pig, is being chased by Auditors in the form of dogs. Susan joins with the pig and guides him to safety over a cliff, while Death confronts the Auditors and condemns them for breaking the Rules. The Auditors are unable to lose their solid form and disappear off the edge of the cliff. The Hogfather transforms back into human form and flies off into the night. Death explains to her that childhood fantasies are important and help us to be human, since later we must understand bigger lies such as Justice, Mercy and Duty.

As they return to the Gaiter's house, Teatime follows them in and contemplates trying to kill Death. Susan throws the nursery poker and thanks to the power of the children's belief, it passes straight through Death and impales the Assassin.

[edit] Sub-Plots

  • Death's tenure as the Hogfather, aided by Albert. Death barges into the grotto Crumley's department store and causes a flood of people into the shop by giving out his own presents. There is much discussion between Death and Albert on the meaning of Hogswatch, and an alternative version of the story of King Wenceslas.
  • Much of the humour in the book comes from in the University. Each time the Wizards mention a non-existent lare or penate, they are suddenly created. In addition, Ridcully also discovers Archchancellor Weatherwax's bathroom, designed by the dreaded Bergholt Stuttley Johnson. He re-seals it after two near accidents, one involving a tap marked Wiki:Old Faithful, and a worse problem involving the University Organ, which is not described in the narrative.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Major Characters

[edit] Minor Characters

[edit] Cameos and Mentions

[edit] Locations

  • Sumtri, land where the pencil bush was first discovered
  • Howondaland (mentioned as place where people eat insects)

[edit] Things and Concepts

[edit] Annotations

  • Although this is primarily a Death book, Pterry makes a heroic effort to get as many different characters into this "holiday special" book as possible: eg, the wizards and the Canting Crew (no witches though), as well as mentions of lands from several books (Omnia, Klatch, the Agatean Empire, etc).
  • Visit's attitude to Hogswatch, as expressed to an uncomprehending Nobby Nobbs, places the Omnian faith very firmly in the same camp as Roundworld's Jehovah's Witnesses. The Witnesses are a Christian sect who very firmly believe that Christmas is irrelevant to Christianity and is, in fact, a pagan festival which has been slipped in by Satan to mislead and taint the Faithful and which no true beleiver should even think of celebrating. Similarly, the Omnians ignore Hogswatch from a similar position of supposed theological superiority.
  • "I spent hours with my nose pressed up against the window... until they heard me callin', and unfroze me.", possible reference to a similar scene in A Christmas Story, where the main character gets his tongue frozen to a flagpole.
  • "Assault and battery included." - parodies the Roundworld phrases "assault and battery" and "batteries not included". Given the state of electrical technology on the disk, do they really have batteries? Given that the oldest ever battery thus far discovered on Roundworld is dated in the first few centuries AD (the discovery was apparently poorly documented at the time and dating has been done on the style of pottery involved, so is a little vague), it's entirely possible that crude electrochemical cells may well exist on the Discworld. Whether they'd refer to them as "batteries" is another matter.
  • "Come along, Mr Wizard." - possible reference to the Don Herbert, popularly know as "Mr. Wizard".
  • "+++ Why Do You Think You Are A Tickler? +++" - Hex's answers are reminiscent of ELIZA, a 1966 computer program designed to parody a psychiatrist.
  • "Hex's 'Anthill Inside' sticker" - parody of Intel's "Intel Inside" advertising campaign.
  • "'It's, er, beehives.' [...] It's actually amazing how much information you can store on one honeycomb." - assuming Granny Weatherwax's theory is correct (that all bees are part of a larger Swarm), Hex may've tapped into a very large and powerful source of information.
  • "Mousse de la Boue dans une Panier de la Pate de Chaussures [...] It's not our fault if even Quirmians don't understand restaurant Quirmian [...] Brodequin roti Facon Ombres [...] Languette braisse [...] Sole d'une Bonne Femme [...] Servis dans un Coulis de Terre en I'Eau [...] Cafe de Terre" - Quirmian appears to be the Discworld equivalent of French
  • The events of this book take place between Interesting Times and The Last Continent, meaning that Rincewind is just starting his survival course on XXXX. Oddly, the Librarian doesn't ask Death/the Hogfather for Rincewind's safe return (it's less surprising that no one else remembers Rincewind -- in The Last Continent, Ridcully repeatedly has to be reminded that Rincewind is a person, not a type of cheese).
  • The square root of 27.4 is very nearly 5.2345
  • "EQUALS 17,857 TONS." - one of the frequent 57 references in TP's work

[edit] References

Direct references to Roundworld:

[edit] Notes

Made into a TV film in 2006; first broadcast on 17 December and 18 December (as a two-parter) on Sky One. Starring David Jason, as Albert, Joss Ackland (White Mischief, Lethal Weapon 3, Cliffhanger, Midsommer Murders) as Mustrum Ridcully, Marc Warren (Hustle, State of Play, Band of Brothers) in the role of Teatime, David Warner (Planet of The Apes, The Omen) as Lord Downey, and Nigel Planer (The Young Ones) as Mr. Sideney, while Ian Richardson (House of Cards, The Final Cut) and Neil Pearson (Bridget Jones' Diary, Drop The Dead Donkey) voices the characters of Death and The Raven respectively. Michelle Dockery (Fingersmith) takes one of the principal roles as Susan. The other actors are Peter Guinness (Sleepy Hollow, Coronation Street) as Medium Dave Lilywhite, Stephen Marcus (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) as Banjo Lilywhite, Sinead Matthews (Pride And Prejudice) as Violet Bottler the Tooth Fairy, Rhodri Meilir (My Family) as Bilious, Arthur White (A Touch of Frost, The Darling Buds of May) as Ernie The Cart Driver and Tony Robinson (Black Adder, Time Team) as Vernon Crumley.

[edit] External links

Hogfather Annotations - The Annotated Pratchett File


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Feet of Clay

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Jingo

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Thief of Time

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