Wintersmith is the title of the third Tiffany Aching novel by Terry Pratchett, published on 21 September 2006. These books are set in the well-known Discworld universe, with Wintersmith being the 35th in the series. Pratchett wrote five books about Tiffany Aching: The Wee Free Men (2003), A Hat Full of Sky (2004), Wintersmith (2006), I Shall Wear Midnight (2010), and The Shepherd’s Crown (2015).
Wintersmith is also the title of a 2013 album by Terry Pratchett’s favourite musical group, Steeleye Span. It is their 22nd studio album, and is a concept album based on Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching novels done in collaboration between the band and Pratchett. A lot of the lyrics are based on Pratchett’s works (who has a writing credit on every song), and the author also wrote an introduction in the album booklet as well as contributing spoken word parts. He can be heard on The Good Witch, and it will bring a smile to the face of many Pratchett fans to hear him talk of the loneliness and hard work involved in being a witch.
Violinist and vocalist Peter Knight was interviewed by Mark Linsenmayer on the Nakedly Examined Music podcast, and recalled how the collaboration came together: “The Wintersmith project sort of kicked off, really, with my wife saying ‘When you play at Terry Pratchett’s 60th birthday party, why don’t you ask him if he would be interested in some sort of collaboration?’ So, we played at Terry’s birthday party, and we went for a walk down by the river on Terry Pratchett’s land. I just said to him, you know, have you ever considered a collaboration with Steeleye? And he said, ‘I thought you’d never ask!’ Because he was a great Steeleye fan, you know! He then went and got the books related to a young developing witch called Tiffany Aching, and that’s how the project started.”
Tiffany Aching is a young witch-in-training. The books chronicles her struggles to grow into her job as a witch, as well as her growing up in general. She is nine years old in The Wee Free Men, and reaches her late teens at the end of The Shepherd’s Crown.
Although the album can definitely be enjoyed without having read the novels, those that have will form an instant association with the songs. Understanding the significance of the songs and the references to characters and events is no doubt a huge boost.
The final song on the album is called We Shall Wear Midnight. This is unique in that it has nothing to do with the events in the books, and is written as a personal message – a request, or a plea – from the character of Tiffany Aching to her creator Terry Pratchett. She is bemoaning to her creator that he never lets her experience nice things, asking for her freedom to do the things she wants to do. Ultimately, she is asking to be set free from these stories.
You made me older than my years
I am young and barely grown
And when I cry, I cry your tears
For I have no life of my own
Why don’t you write me some candlelight
And wear your heart of gold?
And I will wear these Aching, heartbreaking years
‘Till one day I shall wear midnight
The song is written by Peter Knight, and is easily one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful songs the band has ever produced. The song came to life out of a desire to avoid typical fantasy cliches, yet wanting to pay a special tribute to the creations of Pratchett.
“We all went away to write three songs each,” Knight says of the process. “I previously did an album called ‘The King of Elfland’s Daughter’, based on a book by Lord Dunsany, which I wrote with Bob Johnson who was in the band at that time. Terry said if this album ended up like that, he’d be very pleased. And I can understand Terry saying that, but I’d sort of done that. And when I came home and sat in my studio here in France, I thought ‘How am I going to get involved in this project and write something original for it?’ I don’t believe in witches, goblins, elves, fairies, and things like that. What I didn’t want to do was to musically illustrate Terry Pratchett’s imagination. So I sat there in my studio, head in hand, trying to find some reason to write something for this project that wasn’t just taking one of the characters and writing about them, or taking a couple of lines from the book and writing around them.
“My thought processes led me to the reality that all of the characters in Terry Pratchett’s books only exist because of Terry Pratchett, but in the minds of millions of people, these characters are real, with identities. But, they are all Terry Pratchett, and none of them have a choice about their existence. Terry Pratchett has created them, they did not create themselves. They are not independent from Terry Pratchett. So I knew that I’d found the seed of something that was worth pursuing as a thought process to write a song about. I thought, okay. Let’s take Tiffany Aching, this young witch, who doesn’t want to be in Terry’s books, she doesn’t want to exist, so my song is about Tiffany Aching, trying to seduce Terry Pratchett into releasing her from her prison, the fiction and fantasy. As soon as I had that, I knew that I could write a song that for me would be interesting. You can listen to the words and this is Tiffany Aching saying to Terry, ‘Hey, come on! Write me out of this!”
The song he wrote got the title We Shall Wear Midnight, based on one of the books in the Aching series called I Shall Wear Midnight. “I just thought that was such a lovely line,” Knight said. “He actually took it from someone else’s line, another writer. The whole line was, I think, ‘When I’m old, I shall wear purple.’ And Terry just took this as ‘I shall wear midnight.’”
Many people have speculated about the meaning of that title. There are a couple of interpretations – not all positive, and it has even been speculated that the song is about welcoming death. A less dramatic take may come to mind if you read the books, which refer to growing up and reaching old age. Remembering the riddle of the Sphinx in the classic Greek tale about Oedipus (“What animal walks on four legs in the morning, two legs during the day, and three legs in the evening?”), morning, day, and night represents the stages of life (childhood, adulthood, and old age). Midnight fits into this as portraying old age. In that regard, ‘wearing midnight’ means reaching old age. This symbolism is also indirectly used in the books, where witches are supposed to wear black. Tiffany is young and likes to wear regular colours, but will wear midnight (black clothes) when she gets old and becomes a witch. This may ultimately be a way of saying that she should be allowed to be young when she’s young. She will be ‘wearing midnight’ soon enough.
It is impossible to not think of Terry Pratchett’s fatal illness in relation to a song topic like this, but Knight insists the song has nothing to do with that. “We knew Terry when he was ill. To be honest, everyone’s fatally ill, aren’t we? It’s just a matter of time. But at that point, none of us were sure how long Terry was going to live for, because the sort of Alzheimer’s that he had was not the worst sort, apparently. And when we spoke to him, I mean, he was compos mentis [of sound mind], he was nobody’s fool. And it was actually a bit of a shock when he died, because it seemed far too quick. I don’t think any of us had any idea that it was going to happen that quickly. My song is not about Terry dying or any of that. I would hate, now that Terry Pratchett is no longer with us, that anyone was thinking that I was writing… I don’t think that when Terry Pratchett put down ‘I shall wear midnight’ he was talking about death. And similarly, I’m not talking about death. But philosophically, I am very aware that we’ve all have that coming for us. And I don’t see that as something morbid or something you shouldn’t talk about. Death is part of life.”
The fact that the title of the song emulates the title of one of Pratchett’s books did not go unnoticed on the creators of either, and they discussed the different ways the phrase came across. Knight said, “Terry really loved my fiddle playing, especially when I took it out a bit and went exploring the possibility areas, and we talked about the differences between the written word and music. Specifically, which says the most to the listener? I don’t actually think we came up with any conclusion, but that’s sort of what I’m saying here, really, is that the song is sort of meaningless. All the song is about, is Tiffany Aching saying to Terry Pratchett, ‘take me away from this’.”
Musically, the song contrasts a lot of the rest of the album, which sees Steeleye Span rock out in a way they rarely have done before. Songs like The Dark Morris Song, The Wee Free Men and Fire and Ice feature loud guitars, heavy-hitting drums and highly energetic performances. While the album offers a lot of variety, We Shall Wear Midnight is the quiet song on the album, offering room for thoughtful pause at the words Tiffany Aching offers to her creator.
Peter Knight plays the violin throughout the song, but holds it almost like a guitar, picking at the strings with his fingers. It adds a lovely texture to the song. “When I was writing the song,” he said, “I was just arpeggiating chords on the fiddle as I was singing and working through the song, working out the melody. And it just stayed.”
In addition to the violin picking, the song does really not contain many parts. There’s piano, a saxophone solo, Peter Knight’s lead vocals, and some very lovely harmony vocals from Steeleye’s lead vocalist Maddy Prior. “Julian Lippman [Steeleye’s guitar player] is also a pretty good piano player, and he added that. I didn’t want bass or drums on it. I think Rick (Kemp, bass) and Liam (Genockey, drums) were a little bit upset with that, but when you’re in a band it’s not necessary for everyone to play on everything. I did want that particular track to be just a little bit sparse. I think that it’s one of those ‘less is more’ things. You can put too much into the mix, and cover up the essence of it somehow.”
Peter Knight is a master violinist, so it is interesting that the point where the violin would normally do a solo is filled with a saxophone, courtesy of multi-instrumentalist Pete Zorn, who joined Steeleye Span in 2009 and stayed on until his death in 2016. “God bless him,” says Knight. “World class musician. Fantastic, clever mind. Great sense of humour, and I loved him. He was a superb man, and a superb musician. He put so much into his playing.”
The Wintersmith album was released on 28 October 2013. Just weeks later, on 14 November, Peter Knight announced his decision to leave the band at the end of the Wintersmith tour in 2014. As one of the main members since their inception in 1970 that was earthshattering news, but he left after contributing heavily to one of the band’s best albums.
As the final track on the album, this also means that We Shall Wear Midnight became the final studio track in Peter Knight’s Steeleye Span chronology. It has gone on to become a fan favourite amongst fans of both Steeleye Span and Terry Pratchett, touching so many with its poignant and heartfelt lyrics and delivery.
“I’ve had loads and loads of e-mail from Terry Pratchett fans,” Knight said, “saying thank you for that beautiful song. That is lovely. Because the whole thing is a fantasy, and my song is fantasy. That’s fantastic in itself!”
I am young, you are old but not heartless and cold
I am warm from the love that you have shown
But you conjured me up from your hat full of dreams
And you keep me in a world of your own
Why don’t you write me a guiding light
And wear your heart’s desire?
And I will wear these Aching, heartbreaking years
‘Till one day I shall wear midnight
And when you lay down on your final word
It will be no comfort to me
I have lived by the pen and I’ll die by the sword
When it’s time to set me free
Why don’t you write me a gallant knight
And wear your honour and sword
And I will wear these Aching, heartbreaking years
‘Till one day we shall wear midnight
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