Hwel

First encountered in Wyrd Sisters, Hwel is the most gifted playwright on the Disc, one of those rare unconventional dwarfs who become renowned musicians, celebrated lovers and such, and into whose hairy bullet head inspiration sleets from the farthest corners of the multiverse, coruscating across his brain and setting the pages of his plays afire with wit, pathos, oratory, bathos, passion and verve.

How these plays come across to theatre-goers (or, more usually, the inhabitants of backwater two-bit villages who want to know what the sackcloth and shouting is all about) was down to Olwyn Vitoller, former itinerant showman - now owner of The Dysk theatre in Ankh-Morpork. The business of acting Hwel's incredible tales out has now fallen to Tomjon, Olwyn's adopted son, and unwitting tool of Fate, whose skills at friendship-making, being whoever he thought he was and remembering the words are entirely due to the coven of Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick.

Hwel has tortured dreams in which he sees the Discworld equivalents of Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin and others, which make his chest hurt from laughing, but his stumbling attempts to convey these pictures to his company are doomed to failure. He is an unusual Shakespeare, but his words scorch across the hearts of listeners when imparted by Tomjon, the finest actor of his - or possibly any - generation.

In Wyrd Sisters the play Hwel is hired to write for Leonal Felmet, Duke of Lancre takes on a life of its own, even disconcerting Death himself. An inveterate tinkerer, Hwel cannot stop adding or rewriting scenes as the inspiration or the mood takes him.

Hwel also wrote the play meant to celebrate the marriage of the King and Queen of Lancre. In the event, the special magick and deceptive qualities of Theatre summoned Elves to the kingdom, bringing about no end of bother until Granny Weatherwax sorted it out. The play may no longer be performed, as Hwel is looking for a snappier title than Things Which Happened On A Midsummer's Night.