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A review by soris
The Folklore of Discworld by Terry Pratchett
5.0
As someone who loves both Terry Pratchett and folklore, this was fantastic! The book is basically a walkthrough of the Discworld's folklore, divided into several sections, dealing with beasts, ghosts, witches, death (and Death), important holidays etc.
Pratchett did not write the book alone, but rather together with Jacqueline Simpson, a renowned expert on folklore, and it shows. In every chapter, Simpson is able to draw from her real world expertise to discuss not only how the various Discworld customs might have come about and what they would mean, but also tie them in with real world folklore on the same topics.
It really is fascinating and informative. Even if you know a fair bit about folklore, Pratchett frequently drew from such specific and localized stories and legends that unless you've happened to live a very similar life -- or are an expert on British folklore -- chances are you'll still learn a lot of new stuff. And even if you somehow do happen to tick all those boxes, it's still a lot of fun to kind of get both sides of the picture and learn how Pratchett took those local legends and changed them up for his Discworld books.
Pratchett did not write the book alone, but rather together with Jacqueline Simpson, a renowned expert on folklore, and it shows. In every chapter, Simpson is able to draw from her real world expertise to discuss not only how the various Discworld customs might have come about and what they would mean, but also tie them in with real world folklore on the same topics.
It really is fascinating and informative. Even if you know a fair bit about folklore, Pratchett frequently drew from such specific and localized stories and legends that unless you've happened to live a very similar life -- or are an expert on British folklore -- chances are you'll still learn a lot of new stuff. And even if you somehow do happen to tick all those boxes, it's still a lot of fun to kind of get both sides of the picture and learn how Pratchett took those local legends and changed them up for his Discworld books.