Equal Rites

16

The maid at Unseen University is called Ksandra, which puns on Troy’s Cassandra; but might also refer to Sandra being yet another typical ‘Tracey/Sharon’ sort of name in England.

Perhaps the fact that nobody can understand Ksandra (because she talks with her mouth full of clothes-pegs) is also an obscure reference to the classical Cassandra, daughter of Priam of Troy, whom the Gods gave the gift of prophecy and the curse of no-one believing a word she said.

17

Refers to the Pleistocene geological era (a few dozen million years or so ago), but also to Plasticine, a brand name that has become (at least in Britain, Australia and New Zealand) a generic name for the modeling clay children play with.

18

Some folks thought they recognised the duel between Granny Weatherwax and Archchancellor Cutangle from T. H. White’s description of a similar duel in his Arthur, The Once and Future King (also depicted as a very funny fragment in Disney’s The Sword in the Stone, which was an animation film based on this book). However, Terry says:

“The magical duel in Equal Rites is certainly not lifted from T. H. White. Beware of secondary sources. Said duel (usually between a man and a woman, and often with nice Freudian touches to the things they turn into) has a much longer history; folkies out there will probably know it as the song ‘The Two Magicians’.”

19

The first mention of this particular running gag in the Discworld canon (to be featured most prominently in Guards! Guards!). It is not quite the earliest appearance in Terry’s work, though: he also uses it on p. 46/55 of The Dark Side of the Sun.

20

Gormenghast is the ancient, decaying castle from Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy.

21

Plays on the folk saying: “Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight. Red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning”.