Discworld Witches Reread: Equal Rites - Part 1
I love the Witches books. I looked for an existing reread blog series but couldn’t find one, so here it is.
I’ve reread (and re-listened
I’m reading the kindle version
There are no official chapters in Equal Rites, so this post covers the prologue/introduction/here-is-the-discworld and the night that the first female wizard is born.
Chapter Summary
A wizard is walking through a thunderstorm in the Ramtop Mountains, his staff telling him where he should go. The wizard arrives at the small town of Bad Ass and proceeds to the smithy. The wizard introduces himself to the smith and asks about his son, who is being born upstairs right now. The child will be the eighth son of an eighth son, which means he will be a wizard.
Old Granny the midwife brings the child downstairs. The wizard presents his staff and insists that the child hold it. Granny tries to raise objections, but the smith talks right over her. Once the baby has held the staff, the wizard dies and Granny reveals that the child is a daughter, not a son: they’ve given the world its first female wizard.
Granny explains that female wizards are unnatural and that witching is a different sort of thing altogether. Granny and the smith try to destroy the staff but are unsuccessful. They give up with the staff and bury the wizard in the orchard.
Commentary
The earlier Discworld prologues seem a lot more “meta” than in later books. This prologue does a lot of talking about “this story” and then describes a cinematic view of the Discworld.
However, it is primarily a story about a world. Here it comes now. Watch closely, the special effects are quite expensive.
The Discworld travels through space on the back of the Great A’Tuin, which is one of the rare “astrochelonians”. Not sure what an astrochelonian is or whether we ever hear that word again (its species is identified as Chelys galactica in Turtle Recall: The Discworld Companion . . . So Far
A number of first mentions in this chapter.
There’s the village Bad Ass:
It wasn’t a large village, and wouldn’t have shown up on a map of the mountains. It barely showed up on a map of the village. It was, in fact, one of those places that exist merely so that people can have come from them.
And when we find out its name:
“What is the name of this place, sir?” said the wizard.
The blacksmith shrugged.
“Bad Ass,” he said.
“Bad–?”
“Ass,” repeated the blacksmith, his tone defying anyone to make something of it.
Bad Ass gets mentioned a number of times in the series, but this might be the only book where we actually “see” it. In later books a lot of the action moves into Lancre Town and “abroad.”
The wizard’s name is Drum Billet. I don’t think he’s ever mentioned again, except that Green Billets are one of the few apple varieties that can be used to make good scumble (he’s buried in the orchard and shows up again as an apple tree).
Granny! We hear a lot about her midwifery in later books but I think this is the only time that we see her actually doing it (though she’s doing it off screen even here). She’s first described as “a tall white-haired woman.”
It’s super annoying how the smith keeps talking over Granny. (“It’s all right, Granny, I know what I’m about. She’s a witch, sir, don’t mind her.”) Aren’t the people of the Ramptops supposed to be more deferential–not to mention afraid–of her? If you ain’t got respect, you ain’t got a thing.
Granny is even described as “the frantic midwife.” What definitely does seem in character is how Granny reveals that the smith’s “son” is actually a daughter:
“Are you pleased with yourself?” [asked Granny.]
“Eh? Oh. Yes. As a matter of fact, yes. Why?” [replied the smith.]
She twitched aside a fold of the blanked. The smith looked down and swallowed.
Granny’s disdain for wizard magic is totally in character for her and we see it again and again through the series. What’s weird in this book is her particular distaste for a woman using wizard magic. I guess it gives her a chance to grow throughout the book, learning to accept it?
“Now you listen to me, Gordo Smith!” she said. “Female wizards aren’t right either! It’s the wrong kind of magic for women, is wizard magic, it’s all books and stars and jommetry. She’d never grasp it. Whoever heard of a female wizard?”
“There’s witches,” said the smith uncertainly. “And enchantresses too, I’ve heard.”
“Witches is a different thing altogether,” snapped Granny Weatherwax. “It’s magic out of the ground, not out of the sky, and men never could get the hang of it. As for enchantresses,” she added. “they’re no better than they should be.”
That rant also gives us the core of witch magic, which Pratchett continues to build on throughout the series. Witch magic is about life. And not even just life in the mystical we are part of everything sort of way. Witch magic is about everyday life and domesticity, which is why most of Granny’s time (off camera) is spent on delivering babies, helping the sick, caring for the dying. Though sometimes things go a bit off the rails (like later in this book when Granny has her magical duel at the University).
Granny immediately butts heads with the wizard’s staff, which should come as no surprise. She tries to burn it and it throws her across the room to land upside down against the opposite wall. “I see. That’s the way of it, is it?” Granny wraps her hand in leather and asks for an axe. “With a grunt of triumph and effort” Granny swings the axe. No dice, though. The staff is here to stay.
That’s it for the first part.