Lords and Ladies

40

This sentence used to have me completely stumped, until I discovered (with the help of the ever helpful alt.fan.pratchett correspondents) that this refers to a well-known British fairy tale of Scandinavian origin called ‘The Three Billygoats Gruff’.

That tale tells the story of three billygoat brothers who try to cross a bridge guarded by, you guessed it, a mean troll who wants to eat them. Luckily, the troll wasn’t very smart, so the first two goats were able to outwit him by passing him one at a time, each saying “Don’t eat me, just wait for my brother who’s much bigger and fatter than I am”. The third goat, Big Billygoat Gruff, was big, all right. Big enough to take on the troll and butt him off the bridge and right over the mountains far from the green meadow (loud cheers from listening audience). So the troll was both tricked and trounced.