Anyone know what Rincewind wears?

Rincewind is a character from the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.  He appears in several of the 40+ books and I'm having trouble finding out what he wore (in the books)

Here he is in the TV miniseries The Colour of Magic (which is one of my favourite shows of all time and of course, Tim Curry is a brilliant villain.)



Normally I can google "what did Rincewind wear in the book quote" and after an hour or two of bouncing around the different rabbit holes, come up with some quotes from the books.  But I'm having about as much luck as Rincewind did at avoiding danger.  

So I went to the library and asked if I can borrow the books, but the wait list is long (and I'm a slow reader and those are a lot of books).  I put a hold on them and we'll see.

Anyone else out there got better luck with google and able to find some quotes that describe how Rincewind dresses?  

I can't google it, but give me a few and I'll find it in the books.
Basically a hat that says WIZZARD on it, and robes that are usually ripped up due to his lifestyle, and sandals that are loose that he can leave behind when he runs.
Let me find quotes.

Hm. Not a lot of good description, more ambiance of who he is than detail. From the books, in order.

The Color of Magic:

a face blotched with superficial burns and punctuated by tufts of singed beard.

Scrawny, like most wizards, and clad in a dark red robe on which a few mystic sigils were embroidered in tarnished sequins. ... Around his neck was a chain bearing the bronze octagon that marked him as an alumnus of Unseen University

The Light Fantastic:

Tall, thin man, a bit scraggy

Sourcery:

He is tall and thin and has the scrubby sort of beard worn by people who weren't cut out by nature to be beard wearers. He is dressed in a dark red robe that has seen better days, possibly better decades. But you can tell he is a wizard, because he's got a pointy hat with a floppy brim. It's got the word "wizzard" embroidered on it in big silver letters by someone whose needlework is even worse than their spelling. There is a star on top. It has lost most of it's sequins.

Eric:

"... the wizard Rincewind?? The one with the-- " the Bursar gave a shudder--- "horrible Luggage on legs?"

Interesting Times:

It was red, or at least at some time had been red. It might well have once been a pointy hat, but the point had crumpled and most of the brim was burned away. A word had been ebrodidered on it insequins. Many had been burned off but   WIZZARD  could still be made out as pale letters on the scorched cloth.

"Wizzard?" he said. "What kind of sad, hopeless person needs to write WIZZARD on their hat?"

(after being on a desert island for years)

The disheveled scarecrow in the center of the circle staggered to it's feet and beat out one or two small fires in it's clothing.

It was a pointy hat. In a way. A kind of cargo-cult pointy hat, made out of split bamboo and coconut leaves, in the hopes of attracting passing wizardliness. Picked out on it, in seashells held in place by grass, was the word WIZZARD.

Somewhere in there he had ripped his robe off so it was above his knees. And that was NOT a pretty sight.
The Last Continent:

A stained and battered pointy hat bobbed in time with the tuneless tune. The word WIZZARD had, perhaps, once been embroidered on it in sequins. They had fallen off, but the word was still there in a brighter red where the hat's original color showed through.

Although they were impossible to run in, they were easy to run out of so that you were a smoking dot on the horizon while the enraged bug or caterpillar was still looking at your shoes.

He'd had to run away a lot. Every night he made  new pair of thonged sandals, and every day he left them somewhere in the desert.

Somewhere in this book he hung a bunch of corks off his hat on strings to attempt to deter flies.

Really not a lot of description. I think that's the best of them. More an impression than a description.

That is brilliant!  Thank you so much!

You are welcome. I know next to nothing about Star Trek or almost any movie, but I can quote Discworld books easily.  
We all have our quirks. Discworld is one of mine.

:D

The Art of Discworld book and the illustrated book The Last Hero have several takes on Rincewind. This one from Art sums him up pretty well.

Around his neck was a chain bearing the bronze octagon that marked him as an alumnus of Unseen University

I've been thinking about this a lot.  Any thoughts on how to make one at home?  What would it look like (would there be a turtle?)?

No turtle. That's heresy.
Octagon is just a medallion, as far as I can tell from reading. Bronze, so not octarine colored.
All the wizards wear one.

How to make one at home.. how big are you thinking? What scale is Rincewind?
Personally, I'd start with a penny and good sharp metal shears, and cut it to shape, then paint it accordingly.
And you can have a turtle, it's not required you stay 100% accurate, is it? It's a fictional character.

It would be for me to wear.

No pennies here anymore.   Maybe some old plumbing pipe could be bent?  But how to make it look good?

Not rincewind,  but related

r ranson wrote:
No pennies here anymore.   Maybe some old plumbing pipe could be bent?  But how to make it look good?

I could send you an old penny. I think if you got a worn one and cropped it, Britannia might look a bit like a wizard with a staff.

Oh, if it's for you to wear, you would want bigger than a penny. A normal medallion on a person is about 1.5 inches across.

I'd start with something round and flat, a coin, a thing off an award, etc and cut it to octagon


A octagonal thing off an award, I don't know it's name

Since it's yours and can look like what you want, I'd put the turtle on it  A turtle jewelry part

Any flat brassy metal would cut into an octagon easily, I'd look at thrift stores etc and see if there was something I wanted to cut up. Lots of odd brass things around sold as decor that could be worked with.
I still like the turtle part I posted above :D

I went looking online, and it seems like this is the most common design: octagon with spellbook inside

 

I almost wonder if you could get a sheet of copper and cut it to shape with tin snips and then push the book design into it? You could also try it with multiple layers of aluminum foil and sort of draw the design on to it. Or by cutting open a can, flattening it out, and cutting it to shape. All of these would need some way of smoothing out the rough/sharp edges, though!

Another option: Cut the shape out of wood and then cover with metal tape. It would be silver instead of bronze, though.

Another option, if color isn't important and you have skills, is to carve the design into a block of wood, and then melt pewter and pour it into the mold, like Morgan Donner does in these videos (she uses stone, not wood...but maybe wood would work?):

Another option might be to buy an octagon pendant off of etsy or some other seller. I like supporting small businesses on etsy when I can

This is a search for "octagon pendant" with sellers in Canada (so shipping should hopefully be faster & cheaper for you) https://www.etsy.com/search?q=octagon+pendant&explicit=1&locationQuery=6251999&ship_to=CA. If I did things right, each image below is a link to the listing.

$20

$14

$30

$35 blank, can be personalized

$25

What color shirt and pants would he have? The movie makes it look like things are set in a pseudo-Victorian/steampunk era (at least by the men's coats, hats, white shirts, etc). But, do the books have the Victorian feel, or are they more medieval or something else?

Not rincewind,  but related

Thanks, I wasn't aware of that adaptation! The older I get, the more I appreciate the adventures of Cohen and the Silver Horde. My favorite horde character is Mad Hamish; my wife has a soft spot for Vena The Raven-Haired.

This might be a good excuse to play with casting.

But first,  a design.   Octagon with words?  

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unseen_University#:~:text=The%20official%20motto%20of%20Unseen,now%20you%20don't%22.

r ranson wrote:

Around his neck was a chain bearing the bronze octagon that marked him as an alumnus of Unseen University

I've been thinking about this a lot.  Any thoughts on how to make one at home?  What would it look like (would there be a turtle?)?

This technique would make a nice octagon pendant.

I don't know anything about this technique though I found this on Pinterest.  It is called  "Layered Paper Veneer DIY Jewelry":

This could easily be made from different colored construction paper, flour glue, and maybe a transparent milk paint.


source


source


source


source

r ranson wrote:It would be for me to wear.

No pennies here anymore.   Maybe some old plumbing pipe could be bent?  But how to make it look good?

I just keep thinking about this this, and it makes me really sad. I LOVED the few Queen Elizabeth II pennies that made it over the border to me. I have pennies ranging from the 1970s to the early 2000s, with young Queen to older Queen, and they were my absolute favorite coinage to play with as a child, especially the ones with the younger Queen on them. At that time, all the US coins were dudes. But my Canadian coin not only had a woman, but a QUEEN. Plus, she faced the opposite direction as my American Lincoln penny, so I could imagine she liked him better than the other coins (who all faced the same way as her), so I could situate Lincoln and the Queen talking.

It makes me really sad that there's no more Canadian pennies. I had no idea that this happened. (I just looked, and it happened 10 years ago in 2013!) Did people turn them in? Do they no longer exist there other than in coin collectors collections? Do you want a Queen Elizabeth penny?

We found some octagonal earrings in a thrift shop.  They look perfect.  I just need to learn how to solder a loop thingy on them and snap off the pointy thing.  

These pics are wonderful!  Especially of the horde and Mad Hammish!  I love the diskworld series and am currently making my way through the audible books at work.  It keeps my mind busy as the work is very boring.  I do data entry for hours on end every day. LOL  Terry Pratchett makes the day go by much faster!  Thank you for posting these pics.

Annette Henry

stumbled on this today

Nicole Alderman wrote:What color shirt and pants would he have? The movie makes it look like things are set in a pseudo-Victorian/steampunk era (at least by the men's coats, hats, white shirts, etc). But, do the books have the Victorian feel, or are they more medieval or something else?

I think it varies by book. The earlier books to me have a medieval feel, but they get more Victorian/Steampunk in the later books (I've not watched any films - only some early animations of the Witches of Lancre). So Rincewind comes under the medieval era, but Sam Vines in the Ankh Morpork guard I always think of as a bit Cromwellian. Later there are steam trains, newspapers and Semaphore signalling, which are all a bit more steampunk. Pick which ever era you like best!
Terry Pratchett always said that writing was the most fun you could have by yourself and I think it comes across in the books how much fun he was having.