Discworld Never Solves One Great A'Tuin Mystery, But I'm Convinced The Light Fantastic Holds The Answer
Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels contain some of the most wonderful, brilliant, and bizarre fantasy satire ever written. Even after decades of being a fan, I'm rediscovering new weird details every time I pick up a Discworld book, whether it's my fifth time reading it or my fiftieth, and I adore how deeply intertwined the lore is. Sadly, with Pratchett's passing years ago, it seems like one of the greatest mysteries on the Disc – one that's been theorized about since Discworld's very first books – will go unanswered.
The World Turtle Great A'Tuin, upon whose back the Disc rotates, literally serves as the foundation of the Discworld, yet so little tangible information about the creature and its species is ever detailed in the books. We don't even know the sex of Great A'Tuin – a detail that many of the Disc's more narratively central characters are deeply concerned about, considering that whether A'Tuin is a top or a bottom could well have disastrous consequences for the Disc (and the elephants!) perched delicately upon its back.
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While many of the minutiae of the Disc are explored or explained throughout the main series, or in the Science of Discworld side books that Pratchett co-wrote with science writers Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, the details of Great A'Tuin's reproductive biology are never revealed, only teased. In fact, even the detail that the Disc is balanced atop Great A'Tuin isn't necessarily taken as a hard fact by its inhabitants; Omnism, the widespread religion that worships the Great God Om, actually believes the Disc to be spherical, much like our own world.
It's quite difficult to give a thorough veterinary examination to a turtle that is approximately 10,000 miles long and floating through a vacuum.
Omnism isn't the only reason why no one knows the sex of Great A'Tuin, though. The greater issue is that it's quite difficult to give a thorough veterinary examination to a turtle that is approximately 10,000 miles long and floating through a vacuum. Moreover, while real-world sea turtles exhibit relatively minor sexual dimorphism, usually related to the size of the tail or the presence of grasping claws on the forelimbs, those are small details that rely on being able to compare A'Tuin to another member of its species.
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Such an examination was the goal of the nation of Krull, who sent a capsule over the Disc's edge at the end of The Colour of Magic in hopes of getting an answer. Unfortunately, as the capsule wound up containing the long-suffering wizard Rincewind and his companion Twoflower instead of the assigned chelonauts, no scientific observations of note were made, and Rincewind and Twoflower were rescued from the fate of drifting endlessly through space at the beginning of The Light Fantastic.
The Eggs In The Light Fantastic Make A Convincing Case That Great A'Tuin Is Female
With Little Reliable Data On A World Turtle's Behavior, It's A Question Of Inference
While none of the Disc's inhabitants in The Light Fantastic or otherwise manage to get a glimpse of Great A'Tuin's reproductive anatomy – which wouldn't have helped anyway, since turtles keep their fiddly bits inside their cloaca, regardless of sex – there is at least one detail in that book that could be a hint. At the end of The Light Fantastic, as A'Tuin approaches the great red star that the Disc thinks is an omen of doom, the star's eight ominous moons crack apart to reveal eight baby World Turtles, each with a Disc of their own.
The Octavo, a grimoire kept relatively contained at Ankh-Morpork's Unseen University, is thought by the wizards there to be the most powerful spellbooks in all of creation. This may be true, since the function of the spells seems to be to help the World Turtle babies hatch, and few things are as powerful as the ability to bring life into the world.
Given that until that point, A'Tuin was the only World Turtle discussed in the books, it would be reasonable to assume that those hatchlings belonged to it in some way, and that A'Tuin is their mother. After all, it's A'Tuin's presence, and the spells from the Octavo, that triggers their hatching; yet that assumption doesn't actually hold up to scrutiny, as it relies on a fair number of other assumptions, and any wizard worth their pointy hat would point out that correlation does not, in fact, imply causation.
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Although A'Tuin's presence results in the eggs hatching, there is no indication that A'Tuin laid the eggs in the first place, and while the hatchlings do follow A'Tuin away from the red star, they eventually go on their own way. It's just as likely that A'Tuin was driven by instinct (or even magical compulsion) to be present for the hatching, rather than any specific maternal connection.
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Nor is there any correlating behavior we can assume based on our own world's sea turtles, as their hatchlings have to fend for themselves as soon as they emerge from their eggs. While A'Tuin is shown affectionately greeting the babies in the BBC miniseries adaptation of The Colour of Magic, this isn't a detail present in the original text. In the end, Discworld's Great A'Tuin and its reproductive cycle remain a cosmic mystery that will never be solved – although I like to think Terry Pratchett wanted it that way.
Discworld
- Created by
- Terry Pratchett
- First Film
- Hogfather
- Latest Film
- Going Postal
- First TV Show
- Soul Music
- Latest TV Show
- The Watch
- First Episode Air Date
- 1997
Discworld is a celebrated fantasy franchise created by Sir Terry Pratchett. The series takes place on a flat, disc-shaped world that is carried through space on the backs of four elephants, who stand on the shell of the giant turtle Great A'Tuin. Known for its satirical humor and incisive social commentary, the franchise began with novels but later expanded to adaptations in film, television, radio, stage plays, and video games. It has had a lasting impact on fantasy literature and pop culture.
- Spin-offs
- The Watch
- TV Show(s)
- Soul Music, Wyrd Sisters, Hogfather, The Color of Magic, Going Postal, The Watch
