“But folklore isn’t only about the past. It grows, flowers and seeds every day, because of our innate desire to control our world by means of satisfying narratives.”

Have you ever wondered how Terry Pratchett came up with Discworld, with all its wonderful (and sometimes strangely familiar) customs and history? As it turns out, folklore has a lot to do with it.

Co-written with Jacqueline Simpson, The Folklore of Discworld pulls back the curtain and shows us what Pratchett was influenced by when he was writing the various Discworld books. We go through Lancre, Ankh-Morpork, the Chalk, the Witches, Dwarves, Elves, the Nac Mac Feegle, and so much more to find out more about both Discworld and our own.

In each chapter, Pratchett and Simpson explain bits of Discworld lore and then tie it back to the real-world inspiration. If you’ve been reading folklore, bits of these are probably familiar (or you already guessed that it was an influence) but it was nice to see everything tied together so neatly, and actually very impressive to see how much Pratchett knew about folklore and how much he drew upon it for worldbuilding!

For me, in my current folklore reading binge, the most useful part was probably the bibliography, where both authors jump on the chance to recommend books to the reader. Not all of it is even folklore! But it’s a good reading list and I already see some authors that were mentioned in Folklore: The Basics, which I think means that I definitely have to read them.

Honestly, this is a book aimed squarely at the Discworld fan. It’s not much use reading this if you’ve not already read and enjoyed the Discworld books because it’s explaining the worldbuilding, but if you like Discworld and you’ve also got an interest in folklore (specifically: folk tales and myths), then this book is going to be a hit with you.

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