Werk, werk, werk! A merry cornucopia chicken greeting to you! This has been a great read, hasn’t it? Here we are at the end of Wintersmith, one of my favorite Terry Pratchett books of all time. I hope everyone enjoyed this book as much as I. A big thanks to Lisa from Over the Effing Rainbow, my cohost, for dissecting this book with me! And don’t forget we will jumping right into the 4th Tiffany Aching book, I Shall Wear Midnight, next week over at Over the Effing Rainbow. Here’s the SCHEDULE.

This week, we covered Chapters 8-End. Kilted spoilers reside below! If you made a post, make sure to leave your link so we can enjoy each other’s witty answers.

1) What did you think of Annagramma’s blunderings and then her reveal to Tiffany about her parentage?

Wow! She really hasn’t learned anything useful, like using her hands for manual labor, healing, or baby delivering. I found it so interesting that her father works for a farmer and yet she works so hard to look down on anyone who gets their hands dirty for a living. Tiffany and the other young ladies were really good to Annagramma, helping her with all the messy stuff. I hope she comes t realize just how much she owes that team.

2) Lady Summer makes herself known in this section of the book. How did your impressions change with each time we saw her?

Well, at first she was miffed and it showed. I can’t say that I blame her. I must be hard to be this awesome forces of nature, literally, and to have her charms usurped by a 12 year old mortal who is rather plain. Still, I was a bit surprised when she tossed Tiffany the cornucopia, destroying Nanny Ogg’s cabbages in the process. Still, she is an elemental and in the end she had the seasons righted once again. With Tiffany’s help.

3) Ah, the Cornucopia, the Horn of Plenty. Was it all you expected? What would you ask from the Cornucopia if you had it for a day?

What a crazy thing. I had always pictured the cornucopia as giving whole foods- single ingredient. Like grapes or a turkey or fennel or milk. I did not expect it to give prepared sandwiches and soups nor live, werking chickens! Again, Pratchett takes a standard and twists it just enough to be original without over doing it.

If I had it for a day, I would ask for some of my favorite things that I could store in the freezer or cupboard for several months. Green chile, mole sauce, hazelnut chocolate, salmon wellingtons….I could go on, but all I am doing is making myself hungry.

4) Werk, werk, werk. So many chickens! Which is worse: 5 kilted Feegles hiding under your bed or a house full of chickens? What would you do with so many of the feathered egg-laying manure factories?

Well, if I could boss around threaten negotiate with the Feegles like Tiffany does, then I would say the chickens would be worse. Chickens are curious and will get into everything. We have one that has figured out the sequence of hops to get into the freezer room! Also, there is the manure. And I know from personal experience that chickens will pluck at eyes, noses, ears, fingers, and toes. Personally, I enjoy all those items in their current arrangements.

If I had so many chickens, I would be quite happy. I have 2 hen houses, and currently only 1 is in use as some predatory dogs took out much of our flock over the summer.

5) The winter was a harsh one, with wolves in the ice tunnels. However, Mistress Weatherwax put a stop to the wolves but never said how. What do you think she did?

Well, the warm fuzzy part of me would like to think that she offered them tea and soup twice a day at the forest outskirts if they promised not to molest the villagers. But that would be ridiculous, as ridiculous as the world residing on the backs of dancing elephants who party on a ginormous tortoise that swims through the stars.

Most likely she turned a few key pack leaders into jerky. Jerky which she then fed to those villagers that she didn’t particularly like.

6) The immortal who tried to make himself into a man: did you enjoy the Wintersmith’s attempts to make himself a man?

I think the Wintersmith would make a good scientist or a pharmacist. He can follow recipes, and he cares about precise measurements. So he could totally mix up drugs and herbal remedies. Yet he still isn’t mortal because he is an elemental force of nature. In lacking mortality, he doesn’t get Tiffany. Still, an A+ for effort. And if he ever does open up a candy shop, a pharmacy, or an illicit drugs store, I would give him my business…..except for the illicit drugs part, of course.

7) Granny Weatherwax tests Rob Anybody’s spelling and then sets him a heroic task. Do you think she was right to set that in motion or do you think someone else would have some up with the same idea?

At first, I thought she was meddling beyond her usual norm and so I questioned it. But then I thought of many of the great fairy tales in which the hero must be set up his/her quest. In this case, Weatherwax used the adventurous nature of the Feegles to get Roland involved. And yes, if Weatherwax had not done this, I think Nanny Ogg would have done so.

8) Finally, did you applaud Tiffany’s solution to the Wintersmith dilemma? Did you find the ending satisfactory?

The first time I read this book, I remember be very shocked actually. I know Tiffany will do what needs to be done, but the thought of destroying a force of nature, if only for a few months, must still way heavily on her. Reading it again, knowing what is to come, it felt very right.

Other Tidbits:

Oh my! Annagramma inadvertently put a piggy with an upset stomach up a tree. Haha!

The Feegles singing ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’! So very very funny.

Wow, can you imagine being in that role reversal where your family, your village beseeches your aid? they watched you grow up, run around the duck pond naked, make all sorts of blunders and faux pas. Now, they need you greatly and come hat in hand to ask? Awkward.

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