Blood on the Snow, Soot on the Carpet: Belief as Pedagogy in Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather

Like most of Terry Pratchett's Oisworld novels, Hogfather begins with a brief disquisition on the cosmology of the Discworld. Mirroring real-world mythological accounts of the universe, its structure, and its origins, Pratchett describes the Discworld as mounted upon the backs of four enormous elephants who are themselves carried through space by an even more enormous turtle, Great A'Tuin. Since the Enlightenment, science and philosophy have encouraged educated people to regard such descriptions of the cosmos as fanciful and ignorant. Pratchett flips this script, using the novel instead to argue that it is our propensity for fantasy that is the essence of real education: belief in things that might seem ridiculous trains people to believe in the ideals that are necessary for society to function. It is children in particular who need to believe in things like Tooth Fairies, Hogfathers, and Soul Cake Ducks, and their belief makes these figures real. Pratchett's Hogfather is not a seasonal allegory for giving and generosity; he is a literal fat man in a red and white robe who flies through the air on Hogswatch Night in a sled pulled by enormous boars, who drops down chimneys, consumes pork pies and copious amounts of sherry, and leaves gifts for children who behaved themselves in the past year.