Ich Bin Ein Rattarsedschwein

A song to sing while quaffing. It explains why beermugs in Überwald have lids on. The song itself is from the classic opera The Student Horse, one of those operas where the action is largely set in bierkellers and the songs, performed in gruff manly tenors in Überwaldean or neighbouring tongues, celebrate the virtues of:

• Brotherly love expressed between men in natural manly settings such as the local bierkeller;
• The virtues of beer as a natural lubricant for expressions of true manly friendship and cameraderie;
• The joys of quaffing. (This is why one of Überwald's gifts to Discworld culture is the invention of a hinged lid for a beer container, that may be secured during bouts of sustained quaffing by pressing a thumb down on the top. In fact, Überwaldean beer containers are made of stone, rendering them less likely to shatter if clashed during eine hertzlige Quaff).

This sort of light opera also relies on use of the vernacular in music, ie of formerly despised folk and peasant rhythms once thought too plebian for for the professional stage.

Nanny Ogg was bought a quaffing beermug that played this tune by Shirl Ogg. It was kept - not amongst the tat in her living room, but locked in a glass-fronted cabinet as a treasure beyond all others, and had earned Shirl's portrait a permanent place on the mantelpiece - a sure sign of high favour in the Ogg household.

Annotation

The translation is literally "I am a rat-arsed swine". "Rat-arsed" is colloquial English for "Rascally Drunk".

The Student Horse is based on The Student Prince, an operetta with very similar subject matter.