The Elephants of my Imagination

[Jo of the Gates]

In Any depiction I've seen of A'Tuin the elephants are always facing outward, their hindquarters toward the center. The first time I ever READ Terry Pratchett's description I imagined them trunk-to-tail, as you see in circus parades. If they walk around the turtle's back, that would cause the rotation of the disk. Does Terry ever mention the position of the elephants?

[Tonyblack]

Not that I'm aware. The scientists (such as they are) on the Discworld seem far more interested in A'Tuin him/herself and what sex he/she is. I do like your idea of a circus parade of elephants causing the rotation - that's very logical.

[chris.ph]

tony is turning into a vulcan

[Who's Wee Dug]

What!!! the old areoplane.

[chris.ph]

no tony is bald he couldnt have an avro

[=Tamar]

In Any depiction I've seen of A'Tuin the elephants are always facing outward, their hindquarters toward the center. The first time I ever READ Terry Pratchett's description I imagined them trunk-to-tail, as you see in circus parades. If they walk around the turtle's back, that would cause the rotation of the disk. Does Terry ever mention the position of the elephants?

I think Terry did say once that the elephants face outward as the pictures show them, but I can't recall where. I know that when Rincewind is picked up by Tethis and held out over the edge in TCoM, he sees "the head of an elephant as big as a reasonably sized continent....The head was slightly tilted...Below the elephant there was nothing but the distant, painful disc of the sun. And, sweeping slowly past it, was something that for all its city-sized scales, its crater-pocks, its lunar cragginess, was indubitably a flipper." Since there is no mention of the body, and the elephant seems to be leaning outward enough so the shell doesn't show, I think that the elephant must be facing outward. The Clarecraft Limited Edition sculpture showed the elephants that big and projecting outward over the shell edge, but most of the drawings don't. Oddly enough, there's an old Santana album cover that shows them that way.

[Tonyblack]

Yes, there is indeed a Discworld with elephants on a Santana cover - this one.



A close up of the details.



I do think that Jo has a real point about what, if not the elephants, cause the Disc to rotate. And what sex are the elephants? We know that the scientists on the Disc are keen to know the sex of A'Tuin, but isn't the sex of the elephants important also?

[Jan Van Quirm]

I do think that Jo has a real point about what, if not the elephants, cause the Disc to rotate. And what sex are the elephants? We know that the scientists on the Disc are keen to know the sex of A'Tuin, but isn't the sex of the elephants important also?

It would be important but except when the ladies are in season, elephants tend to live in same sex adult herds and presumably the Disc ellies have to be the same size so all boys and all girls.

In Light Fantastic when the little Discworld eggs hatched there were ellies and a turtle in each so sex is not really a necessity for astral varieties of chelonii and elephantidae

[Who's Wee Dug]

This is a pewter Clarecraft one.

[The Mad Collector]

The big Clarecraft one also shows them this way and the design was approved by Terry

[Jo of the Gates]

Maybe the elephants are side-stepping around the turtle's back to rotate the disc!

[chris.ph]

the elephants are doing the time warp

[Who's Wee Dug]

They know Rocky then.

[chris.ph]

and bullwinkle

it would make more sense for the elephants to be walking around the back of the turtle at least this would cause gravital rotation if they were going fast enough

[Who's Wee Dug]

Make it look like it was doing a wheelie.