Talk:Dark Morris

The Wikipedia description of the Dark Morris calls for the dancers to wear octiron bells. Does anyone have a reference for this? I don't see it, and I doubt that most rural Morris men could find or afford any octiron. --Old Dickens 20:54, 12 October 2008 (UTC)

Isn't there a reference to octiron being found underneath Lancre and being mined by the Dwarves there? If it's a locally available commodity, this might make sense of the reference. --AgProv 19:02, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

I don't recall that; I thought it came mostly from the Counterweight continent at great trouble and expense. The Companion says "almost as highly valued...as Sapient Pearwood and about as rare". All the supply we ever hear of is the doors and bell of UU and the slivers from which they make magical compasses. --Old Dickens 19:33, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Aha. the Folklore of Discworld, in its section on Morris Dancing,pp210-11, quotes from Reaper Man:-

"On a certain day when the nights are drawing in, the dancers leave work early, and take, from atics and cupboards, the other costume, the black one, and the other bells...

"The bells don't ring. They're made of octiron, a magic metal, but they're not, precisely, silent bells"

I think the original reference in Reaper Man is right at the very end of the book - just don't have it near to hand right now. Righty-ho, off to nail the one about Lancre sitting on octiron deposits. The thought occurs that as with ordinary iron on Roundworld, if some deposits are on the surface and the ore can be gathered with no need to mine, then an ordinary village blacksmith has the resources and can easily do the refining of a found resource. I think the reference to Lancre and octiron may be in Equal Rites. --AgProv 20:07, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

OK. I still wonder where they get it but I'll have to adjust the article slightly. --Old Dickens 20:50, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

And of course, no village blacksmith in Lancre could ever be called "ordinary"... could it be that as morris dancing is a hereditary sort of thing, the octiron bells could be heirlooms handed down the generations (often with some force) from father to son, and may be hundreds, even over a thousand, years old? We hve seen in Lords and Ladies that the morris is a deadly anti-Elf weapon: perhaps an earlier king of Lancre, knowing this, stood the cost of the bells, reasoning that it was cheaper and more effective than recruiting a standing army?--AgProv 09:09, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

Come to look at it, our article on octiron needs some work. --Old Dickens 23:48, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

Roundworld (per)versions

According to YouTube, they do dance something called a Dark Morris with sticks and bells and music and lighted hats, too. I wonder where they got the idea; they couldn't have read the books. --Old Dickens (talk) 17:20, 8 May 2018 (UTC)