MineArchiveSchmaltzberg
Fictional record. This page describes a mine from a fictional setting, not a real place. Information is based on the cited canon, with adaptations and interpretation distinguished where necessary. It is kept separate from the real MineArchive corpus — see Fictional.
| Setting | Discworld (Terry Pratchett) |
|---|---|
| Location | Überwald, centred on and beneath the city of Bonk. Described in-text as a region of 'fatbearing strata' rather than a single pit — a named subdivision, the 'Schmaltzberg Bend levels', is mentioned in passing. The Low King's political authority is defined in the text as covering 'those areas of Uberwald that are below ground'. |
| Commodity | Schmaltzberg Fat |
| Type | Mineral |
| Worked | Not dated; the Scone-of-Stone coronation rite performed there is said to date to the reign of B'hrian Bloodaxe, roughly 1,500 years before the novel's present |
| Extent | Described as a vast complex of caves and tunnels beneath and around Bonk — loud and busy enough that Vimes at first mistakes the noise of the underground city for a riot. No map, depth figure or total extent is given anywhere in the text. |
| Controlled by | Rhys Rhysson (From the events of The Fifth Elephant onward; no calendar year is given) |
| Status | Researched |
Overview
A dwarf mining region in Überwald whose deep fat deposits are, by its own account, the best on the Disc — and whose politics run just as deep: a coronation tradition fifteen hundred years old, a succession crisis, and a cultural split over whether to trust a modern safety lamp.
History
Schmaltzberg supplies Überwald's, and much of Ankh-Morpork's, candles, soap and lamp oil, drawn from what the text calls 'the deep fat mines'. Local legend explains the deposits as the remains of a fifth Disc-bearing elephant — one of five, not four, that once stood on the back of the great star turtle Great A'Tuin — which lost its footing and fell, its wreckage becoming the region's fat-bearing strata; a survey document in the story is titled 'The Fatbearing Strata of the Schmaltzberg Region ('the Land of the Fifth Elephant')'. Schmaltzberg is also a political identity: 'Schmaltzbergers' are the traditionalist dwarfs who reject the safety lamp and 'patent gas exploder' that modernising Copperhead dwarfs have adopted, sticking instead to 'the old ways'. The novel's plot turns on the coronation of a new Low King, an office whose authority is defined as covering every part of Überwald that lies below ground: the traditionalist Albrecht Albrechtson stands against the reformist Rhys Rhysson, himself from 'a little coalmining clan near Llamedos'. The rite requires the ancient Scone of Stone, on which every Low King has been crowned since B'hrian Bloodaxe some fifteen hundred years before; its apparent theft — actually its destruction, concealed by mixing the remains into the floor of the cave where it was kept — nearly derails the succession. Samuel Vimes, sent to Bonk as Ankh-Morpork's ambassador specifically to negotiate increased fat imports, is drawn into investigating it, and Rhys Rhysson is ultimately crowned.
Workings
The text distinguishes fat drawn from 'wells and mines' — implying both liquid or semi-liquid deposits raised much as oil would be, and solid deposits dug out as ore is — though no process is described for either. A grading and pricing system is given directly: 'one [cent, per barrel] highrendered, three cents for grade two, ten cents per barrel for heavy tallow', measured on what one character calls 'the Ironcrust scale'. Beneath and around Bonk, Vimes describes a vast, echoing underground space of caves and tunnels lit by candles fixed to dwarfs' helmets, loud enough with distant crowd noise that he first takes it for a riot. The wider region is also said to hold 'huge untapped reserves of coal and iron ore', which the text does not describe as being worked.
Real-world mining concepts used here: Safety Lamp (Davy Lamp), Sedimentary Beds and Seams
What became of it
Under the rule of Low King Rhys Rhysson following the events of The Fifth Elephant, still the Disc's principal source of fat; the Copperhead/Schmaltzberger cultural and technological split over the safety lamp remains part of wider dwarf politics in later books.
Canon & adaptations
A fan-maintained reference wiki (citing the official companion volume The Compleat Discworld Atlas, which this record has not itself been able to verify) describes Schmaltzberg additionally as having guarded surface gates in Bonk and a shared railway terminal, as part of a 'Bonk-Schmaltzberg conurbation'. That detail is not confirmed against either the novel or the Atlas directly and is not treated as canon-confirmed here — see internal_notes.
Related fictional records
Recorded claims
Each claim is marked with its basis — explicit canon, MineArchive inference, adaptation only, or fandom interpretation — and attached to the source(s) below. Where tellings disagree, both are kept.
- Fat is drawn from 'wells and mines' in the fatbearing strata beneath and around Bonk — the text's own phrase implying two distinct extraction methods. (explicit canon) 1
- In-world legend holds the deposits are the remains of a fifth Disc-bearing elephant that lost its footing on Great A'Tuin's back and fell, crashing into Uberwald. (explicit canon) 1
- Schmaltzberg gives its name to the traditionalist dwarf faction that rejects the safety lamp and 'patent gas exploder' used by modernising Copperhead dwarfs. (explicit canon) 1
- The Low King's political authority is defined in the text as covering every part of Uberwald that lies below ground. (explicit canon) 1
- Every Low King has been crowned on the Scone of Stone since the reign of B'hrian Bloodaxe, roughly 1,500 years before the novel's present. (explicit canon) 1
- A wiki citing the official Compleat Discworld Atlas describes guarded surface gates in Bonk and a shared railway terminal forming a 'Bonk-Schmaltzberg conurbation'; this could not be verified against the novel or the Atlas itself and is not treated as confirmed. (fandom interpretation, uncertain) 2
Sources
- (primary canon) The Fifth Elephant — Terry Pratchett, 1999 (Discworld #24)
- (interpretation) Schmaltzberg — Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki (citing The Compleat Discworld Atlas) — Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki
Record created: 25 August 2026 · Last researched: 25 August 2026