Terry Pratchett’s elves have no redeeming
qualities; they are vicious, cruel, malevolent and dangerous to humans. I have
quoted some of the things that he says about them in an article featuring
energy vampires .
Jonathan Stroud says similar things about his
ghosts. They are malevolent and dangerous to the living. There is nothing good
to say about them.
Terry Pratchett’s elves enter the world
through gaps in the defences, through what could be described as weak points in
the barrier between Fairyland and the Discworld; the ghosts too enter via
windows or portals, spots where the barrier between this world and the next has
grown thin.
Both the elves and the ghosts cause their
victims to experience terrible feelings; they may even lose the will to live.
It takes the Discworld witches to deal
successfully with the elves; in the alternative London of the Lockwood series, only
children and teenagers with certain psychic talents are able to detect, deal
with and destroy the ghosts.
While his stories are very amusing, Terry
Pratchett gets serious from time to time and gives some warnings about his
elves; it is the same with Jonathan Stroud and his ghosts; the Lockwood books
are very funny, but some of the ghost material is very alarming.
Just as Terry Pratchett’s words about elves
really resonate, so do some of the chilling things that Jonathan Stroud says
about his ghosts.
In The Empty Grave, he says that ghosts are
attracted to passive victims, people with psychic wounds, people who lack
physical and mental strength.
The ghosts sense vulnerability and home right
in on it.
They target the weak, the enfeebled and the
despairing. People who give off strong
emotions, anger and sorrow and pain for example, attract them. The ghosts sense
sadness and take advantage.
Distress signals attract predators.
The ghosts are attracted to people with a
weak connection to life, people vulnerable to psychic or supernatural glamour.
Their enchantment works on those who, for one reason or another, are looking to
the next world.
In other words, the ghosts go for the
low-hanging fruit, easy marks and ready-made victims.
Some of the writers’ words about elves and
ghosts have a wider application. They could be used to describe energy vampires
and other real-world predators, exploiters, saboteurs and victimisers.
Terry Pratchett and Jonathan Stroud both
mention iron and silver as providing some protection from predatory elves and
ghosts; sprigs of lavender and salt bombs are also used against the ghosts.
Unfortunately, these weapons work only in the
world of fantasy books. Different defences are needed in the real world.
