Talk:Morpork

The Owl

Surely Morpork is represented on the coat of arms as a owl? (In this world it is a Tasmanian Spotted Owl) Marmosetpower 10:38, 23 February 2012 (CET).

Thanks to a discussion on the Discworld Monthly facebook page, it has been revealed that on Roundworld the Morepork is another name for the Tasmanian spotted owl, native to Tasmania and New Zealand (I.e. the Foggy Islands?). In fact with regards to Ankh-Morpork it is mentioned on the birds Wikipedia page, which also suggests Pterry had not heard of the bird at the time of naming the city, but retroactively associated the two. Again based on the facebook thread, apparently the name comes from the birds "distinctive hoot" that sounds like "More Pork", and someone else pointed out that apparently hearing the hoot is meant to be an omen of death. --Verity (talk) 14:49, 6 July 2015 (UTC) Its just occured to me... if the cry of the bird heralds death... and the Ankh is a symbol of life... thats quite a nice, sort of, duality going on there. If Pterry really didn't know about that when he first wrote it, it looks like this is another case where Narrativia smiled and made things magically work out. --Verity (talk) 15:05, 6 July 2015 (UTC)

It's hard to believe that TP, of all people, hadn't heard of the Morepork. He denied a lot of stuff. --Old Dickens (talk) 16:21, 6 July 2015 (UTC)