Witches Abroad

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Several people were immediately reminded of Fritz Leiber’s Hugo award winning novelette Gonna Roll The Bones, which ends: “Then he turned and headed straight for home, but he took the long way, around the world.” Terry has said there is no conscious connection, however.

“Seeing the elephant” also resonates nicely with The Lord of the Rings, where Bilbo complains wistfully that he never got to see an elephant on his adventures ‘abroad’: “[…] Aragorn’s affairs, and the White Council, and Gondor, and the Horsemen, and Southrons, and oliphaunts — did you really see one, Sam? — and caves and towers and golden trees and goodness knows what besides. I evidently came back by much too straight a road from my trip. I think Gandalf might have shown me round a bit.”

Also, “to have seen the elephant” is British military slang dating back to the 19th century, and means to have taken part in one’s first battle, while during the 1849 California Goldrush, “going to see the elephant” was widely used as a phrase by people to signify their intention to travel westwards and try their luck. (See e.g. JoAnn Levy’s 1999 book They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush.)