The Wee Free Men

infobox Discworld|id=30th novel – 1st Tiffany Aching story
characters=Tiffany Aching, Nac Mac Feegle, Granny Weatherwax
locations=The Chalk, Fairyland
motifs=Fantasy clichés
year=2003
publisher=Doubleday
ISBNH=ISBN 0-385-60736-9
ISBNP=ISBN 0-552-54905-3
awards=WH Smith Teen Choice Award 2003
American Library Association's Best Book For Young Adults 2003
Parenting Book of the Year Award 2003
Center for Children's Books' Blue Ribbon
notes=:"For The Wee Free, see the Free Church of Scotland.""The Wee Free Men", first published in 2003, is the second "Story of The Discworld" book for younger readers. Although primarily written for children this book enjoys a large adult readership. For a period before its release it was known as "For Fear Of Little Men". A sequel, "A Hat Full of Sky", was published in 2004, and a third book, "Wintersmith" was published in 2006.

While Terry Pratchett's first Discworld book for children, "The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents" had swearing translated to rat language, in this book it is in the dialect of the Nac Mac Feegle which is taken from Scots and Scottish Gaelic.

Perhaps the most noteworthy item, in the context of the larger "Discworld" mythology, is that "The Wee Free Men" is the first and so far only book in which Death does not appear.

The novel contains a scene inspired by the painting called "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke", by Richard Dadd.

An illustrated edition of the novel, with pictures by Stephen Player, was initially scheduled for November 1, 2007, but wasn't published until October 2, 2008.

Plot summary

The Queen of the Elves (see "Lords and Ladies") has another attempt at invading the Discworld, by stealing children and infesting dreams.

With the help of the Wee Free Men, the Nac Mac Feegle (see "Carpe Jugulum"), 9-year-old Tiffany Aching finds out that her grandmother used to be the witch of the Chalklands, and that she has inherited the trade. When her baby brother is stolen, Tiffany and the Nac Mac Feegle enter the elves' world to steal him back.

Granny Weatherwax only appears in the end of the book with Nanny Ogg in a cameo.

Themes

Several times in the book, fairy-tales and romanticism in general are mentioned. Tiffany strongly distrusts fairy tales for telling children how they should think (love the beautiful princess and the handsome prince, but hate the old woman because she's wicked). Tiffany even tells Miss Tick about how after the Baron's son disappeared, an old woman was thrown out of her house, her house and books burned, and her cat killed for, essentially, looking like a witch from a story. The book's view of fairy-tale romanticism can be extrapolated from a quote: [Page 51, American HarperTrophy paperback]

Miss Tick sniffed. "You could say this advice is priceless," she said. "Are you listening?"
"Yes," said Tiffany.
"Good. Now...if you trust in yourself..."
"Yes?"
"...and believe in your dreams..."
"Yes?"
"...and follow your star..." Miss Tick went on.
"Yes?"
"...you'll still get beaten by people who spent "their" time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy. Good-bye."

There are also references to country traditions. For example, Tiffany is called "Jiggit" by her grandmother, as she was her twentieth grandchild. This is a reference to the traditional "Yan Tan Tethera" methods of counting sheep practised in the north of England.

Translations

*Волният народец (Bulgarian)
*"Svobodnej národ" (Czech)
*"De små blå mænd" (Danish)
*"De Vrijgemaakte Ortjes" (Dutch)
*"Tillud vabamehed" (Estonian)
*"Vapaat pikkumiehet" (Finnish)
*"Les ch'tits hommes libres" (French)
*"Kleine freie Männer" (German)
*Χιλιάδες Νάνοι κι ένα τηγάνι (Greek)
*"בני החורין הקטנים" (Hebrew)
*"L' intrepida Tiffany e i piccoli uomini liberi" (Italian)
*"Mazie brīvie ķipari" (Latvian)
*"Mažieji laisvūnai" (Lithuanian)
*"Skrellingene" (Norwegian)
*"Wolni Ciutludzie" (Polish)
*"Scoţiduşii liberi" (Romanian)
*Вольный народец (Russian)
*"Små Blå Män" (Swedish)

Film

In January 2006, it was revealed that director Sam Raimi has signed up to make a movie based on this novel, from a script by Pamela Pettler, the writer of Tim Burton's "Corpse Bride". Sony Pictures Entertainment have recently acquired the rights to the book. The producers are Josh Donen, Vince Geradis, and Ralph Vicinanza.No other details have been released about the film adaptation. [http://www.chud.com/index.php?type=news&id=5672] [http://www.paulkidby.com/news/jan2006.html]

In a June 2008 interview, Pratchett said "I saw a script that I frankly thought was awful. It seemed to be "Wee Free Men" in name only. It had all the hallmarks of something that had been good, and then the studio had got involved. It probably won't get made." ["Tough at the Top", "SFX SF and Fantasy Literature Special", June 2008, Future Publishing]

References

External links

* [http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/the-wee-free-men.html Annotations for The Wee Free Men]

! colspan="3" | Reading order guide
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