Once More With Footnotes

his axe and ordering two of his servants to drag Morose over to the window, where the light was better. At this point Morose hastily amended his request to "as much gold as he c ould carry", whereupon Hugen agreed and merely had one of his arms broken. "For," he said, "all should know that while Hnaflbaflsniflwhifltafl teaches preparedness, strategy, boldness, and quick thinking, it is also important to know when not be too drhg' h gin clever by half."
     
                  Troll games are closely bound up with troll religion and some are quite hard to understand. There is a game like a simplified form of chess, in which play consists of putting the pieces on the board and waiting for them to move, and another in which stones are thrown up into the air and players bet on whether or not they will come down. Quite a lot of money can be won that way.
     
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    Koom Valley
     
                  The traditional enmity between dwarfs and trolls had been explained away by one simple sta tement: one species is made of rock, the other is made of miners. But in truth the enmity is there because no one can remember when it wasn't, and so it continues because everything is done in completely justifiable revenge for the revenge that was taken i n response to the revenge for the vengeance that was taken earlier, and so on. Humans never do this sort of thing, much.
     
                  There are at least three sites in Koom claiming to be the Koom Valley and at least fourteen major battles are now believed to have be en fought there, wherever there turns out to be.
     
                  The most likely site of Koom Valley, which is in Koom Valley, is a lonely, foreboding place. Even storm clouds go around it. It has been suggested by some wizards in the History Department at Unseen Univer sity that the rock formations in the valley, in the path of the prevailing winds, vibrate at a frequency that causes considerably unease and ill-temper in the brains of dwarfs, trolls, and men, but attempts to prove this experimentally have failed three t i mes because of fights breaking out amongst the researchers.
     
                  The most recent battle was between a party of young dwarfs from Ankh-Morpork, who were visiting the area as part of a cultural tour. City dwarfs feel that it is very important for their offsprin g to stay in touch with the toots of dwarfishness, and often send them back to Copperhead or Ü berwald for what is known as some "mine time". On this day, unfortunately, a party of young trolls were also visiting the area for very similar reasons, and after some name-calling they fell to fighting and gave a very spirited recreation of the earlier battles.
     
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                  The game of Thud was devised as an alternative to the fighting. It was considered by some older dwarfs and trolls that a non-fatal means of contest mi ght be a boon to peace in the mountains and, besides, they were running out of people. And, in recognition of the general state of all unsuccessful fighters in the wars, it is a game of two halves.
     
                  "For," according to the trollish philosopher Plateau, "i f you wants to understan' an enemy, you gotta walk a mile in his shoes. Den, if he's still your enemy, at least you're a mile away and he's got no shoes."
     
                  Legend says that a large war party of dwarfs and a smaller one of trolls were hunting one another i n the valley, and that on this occasion the leader of the trolls tried an artful strategy. Usually, both groups would hunt each other among the big rocks that litter the valley, but this time the troll leader positioned his company right out in the middle of a stretch of open ground, reasoning that the dwarfs would never look there.
     
                  "After all," he is recorded as saying, "dey always find us when we hide behind fings 'cos dey look behind fings, so if we stands out in the open they won't find us 'cos dere's nuffin to look behind."
     
                  This major step in trollish thinking had some success because of the heavy fog that, most unusually, had fallen that morning. However, it lifted shortly after sunrise, and the trolls were, to the confoundment of what seemed like impeccable logic, immediately spotted. Battle ensued, both sides claiming foul play on the part of the other, and both sides claiming to have