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''Muddle Earth'' is a
children's novel Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...
by Paul Stewart, published in 2003, and illustrated by
Chris Riddell Chris Riddell ( ) (born 13 April 1962) is a South African-born British illustrator and occasional writer of children's books and a political cartoonist for the ''Observer''. He has won three Kate Greenaway Medals - the British librarians' ann ...
. It is largely a
parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its subj ...
of ''
The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...
'' by
J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philology, philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was ...
. Like ''LOTR'' it is divided into three sections: ''Englebert the Enormous'', ''Here Be Dragons'' and ''Doctor Cuddles of Giggle Glade''. In 2011, a sequel titled '' Muddle Earth Too'' was published.


Plot

Joe Jefferson, a boy from the ordinary world (Earth), has been summoned to Muddle Earth, a medieval fantasy world "full of monsters and mayhem and more", by the wizard Randalf. He is then exhorted as a "warrior-hero". In other words, he must fight evil on behalf of Randalf, who has in turn been contracted by the ruler of Muddle Earth, the Horned Baron. The Horned Baron, however, has problems that even Randalf cannot attend to: his wife Ingrid is a very demanding woman. This is a trait that the evil villain Doctor Cuddles pays heed to, and uses to his advantage in all three sections of the novel.


Similarities to ''The Lord of the Rings''

Characters *Joe: the reluctant hero, who just wants to go home – Frodo *Randalf: Incompetent wizard – Gandalf *Brenda: the warrior princess. Scared of nothing, apart from elves (her only appearance in the
CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...
series was in the episode "Randalf's Memory Meltdown") – Éowyn *Elves: Hardworking, and resembling the house-elves from the
Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
series (though the elves speak English in the book, in the CBBC series they all speak mainly in their own language) – Elves: Proud warriors and elegant beings * Talking Trees: Found in Elfwood – Ents or Huorns *Margot: treasure-loving dragon – Smaug * Doctor Cuddles of Giggle Glade – Sauron (his appearance is similar to the Black Riders / Ring Wraiths) * Quentin The Cake Decorator: A previous warrior-hero of Randalf who has joined Doctor Cuddles – Saruman The White (Leader of Gandalf's order who has joined Sauron) * The Horned Baron: the leader of Muddle Earth – Arguably could be Théoden (i.e., under the control of an evil force, in his case his wife Ingrid) or Saruman (lives near Mount Boom in a tower) Places *Muddle Earth – Middle-earth *Mount Boom: a mountain that intermittently goes "BOOM", thus the name –
Mount Doom In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, Mordor (pronounced ; from Sindarin ''Black Land'' and Quenya ''Land of Shadow'') is the realm and base of the evil Sauron. It lay to the east of Gondor and the great river Anduin, and to ...
*Musty Mountains – The Misty Mountains: where Gollum was found by Bilbo Baggins


Other people and places

People *Norbert – His full title is Norbert the Not-Very-Big, even though he is 15 feet tall. Cannot read. *Veronica – A blue budgie (green in the CBBC versions). Familiar of Roger the Wrinkled, and later Randalf. *Henry – Joe's faithful battle hound. Not seen in the CBBC series. *Roger the Wrinkled – The greatest wizard in Muddle Earth. Was captured by Dr Cuddles. *Bertram the Incredibly Hairy – Wizard. Captured by Dr Cuddles. *Boris the Bald – Wizard. Brother of Bertram. Captured by Dr Cuddles. *Eric the Mottled – Wizard. Captured by Dr Cuddles. *Ernie the Shrivelled – Wizard. Captured by Dr Cuddles. *Melyvn the Mauve – Wizard. Captured by Dr Cuddles. *Colin the Nondescript – Wizard. Helped Dr Cuddles create the Tickle Squad. Captured by Dr Cuddles. *The Horned Baron – Ruler of Muddle Earth. Husband of Ingrid, who always refers him as Walter (his first name). His appearance is a possible reference to the
Horned King ''The Chronicles of Prydain'' is a pentalogy of children's high fantasy Bildungsroman novels written by American author Lloyd Alexander and published by Henry Holt and Company. The series includes: ''The Book of Three'' (1964), ''The Black Caul ...
from The Black Cauldron. In Muddle Earth Too he is retired and it is revealed he is a goblin. He is a major character in the CBBC series. *Ingrid – Unseen wife of the Horned Baron. Is also a minor character in Muddle Earth Too. Described as having huge, pudgy legs and big feet. She is only heard in the CBBC series, though is seen as a dragon in the episode "Don't Go Changing" as a result of a spell gone wrong. *Grubley – Owner of ''Grubleys Discount Department store''. He appears briefly in Muddle Earth Too. So far, he had four appearances in the CBBC series. *Smink – Grubley's assistant. He also appears briefly in Muddle Earth Too. Like Grubley, he had four appearances so far in the CBBC series, though on his first two he is seen working on his own as a travelling salesman (and a con-artist as well, as seen in the fourth episode). *Fifi – Also known as Mucky Maud of ''Mucky Maud's Lumpy Custard Club''. Loves the Horned Baron. In Muddle Earth Too she is the, now retired, Horned Baron's wife. Has made three appearances in the CBBC series so far, the first of which her face wasn't seen. *Englebert the Enormous – Huge ogre. Terrorised Muddle Earth by squeezing sheep while looking for its snuggly-wuggly, which Dr Cuddles stole and sold it to Grubley who made them into singing curtains for Ingrid. A similar ogre appears in one episode in the CBBC series but is unnamed. *Benson – Head gardener for the Horned Baron. Promoted to the Horned Baron's personal manservant. Later promoted to Horned Baron, though in the CBBC series, he remains the Horned Baron's manservant. *Margot – Friendly female dragon. Likes Norbert. Likes shiny things. She does not appear in Muddle Earth Too. Also she is blue (purple in the CBBC series) *Smarm – A gnome who works in Fifi's club. *Lord of the Teaspoons – A small silver teaspoon who travels all around Muddle Earth to seek the cutlery who will not rest till they are led by him. *Quentin the Cake Decorator – Randalf's first warrior hero. Now serves Dr Cuddles. In Muddle Earth Too he is the cake druid and master of the cake competition. Not seen in the CBBC series due to the inclusion of Pesticide. *Dr. Cuddles – A mysterious, cloaked figure; evil, bitter and power-hungry. Constantly tries to take over the land. Revealed to be Randalf's pink (blue in the CBBC series) teddy-bear, Charlie Cuddles, whom Randalf animated by accident. Places *Here Be Dragons – Area of mountains with many caves full of dragons. *Harmless Hill – Quaint looking hill. Quite harmless, you just have to look out for the killer daisies. *Trollbridge – A bridge inhabited by trolls. Very messy. *The Musty Mountains – A very, very old mountain range. They stink because all old things smell at least a little. *Elfwood – A wide forest, once was home to the elves, until they were all employed around Muddle Earth. Its trees can talk, making it an analogue to
Fangorn Treebeard, or ''Fangorn'' in Sindarin, is a tree-giant character in J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings''. He is an Ent and is said by Gandalf to be "the oldest living thing that still walks beneath the Sun upon this Middle-earth.", boo ...
Forest. *Goblintown – A large, cramped city with the buildings all built on top of each other. Home to the goblins. Very characteristic odour. *The Perfumed Bog – A wide purple bog. Smells sickly sweet. Possible analogue to the
Dead Marshes In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, Mordor (pronounced ; from Sindarin ''Black Land'' and Quenya ''Land of Shadow'') is the realm and base of the evil Sauron. It lay to the east of Gondor and the great river Anduin, and to ...
. *The Enchanted Lake – A big, floating lake. Raised by, and home to, the wizards. *Ogrehills – A hilly area. Home to the ogres. Possible analogue to the Emyn Muil. *The Horned Baron's Castle – A big castle in the musty mountains. Home to the Horned Baron. *Giggle Glade – Home to Dr Cuddles. Is a glade with a sweet cottage situated in the middle of Elfwood. *The Sandpit – A pit full of sand. Good for Goblin picnics.


Sequel

In 2011 a sequel named ''Muddle Earth Too'' was published. It was also split into three parts, "Down with Stinkyhogs!", "The trouble with Big Sisters" and "Pesticide the Flower Fairy". It contains parody references from ''The Lord of the Rings'', like its predecessor, but also throws in elements of ''
Twilight Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this il ...
'', ''
Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
'', ''
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'' is a fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1950. It is the first published and best known of seven novels in ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' (1950–1956). Among all the ...
'', ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...
'', ''
Hansel and Gretel "Hansel and Gretel" (; german: Hänsel und Gretel ) is a German fairy tale collected by the German Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 15). It is also known as Little Step Brother and Little Step Sister. Hansel ...
'', '' The Sword in the Stone'', ''
His Dark Materials ''His Dark Materials'' is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman consisting of '' Northern Lights'' (1995; published as ''The Golden Compass'' in North America), ''The Subtle Knife'' (1997), and ''The Amber Spyglass'' (2000). It follows ...
'' and ''
Sleeping Beauty ''Sleeping Beauty'' (french: La belle au bois dormant, or ''The Beauty in the Sleeping Forest''; german: Dornröschen, or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess cu ...
''. It follows Joe returning to Muddle Earth, through a wardrobe this time, with his big sister Ella (who made a minor appearance in Muddle Earth). He finds Randalf is now Headmaster of a new wizardry school named Stinkyhogs, built in the Horned Baron's castle after his retirement. They are competing against their rival school in the Muddle Earth annual game, Broomball, to win the Goblet of Porridge. But it has gone missing and Joe, Randalf, Ella and the others must go on a quest to find it. Along the way they meet the handsome Edward Gorgeous (Ella's love interest), the eccentric Lord Asbow, the peculiar Mr. Fluffy, the pompous Kings Edmund & Peter, the prissy Queens Susan & Lucy, and the ruthless, two-faced Edwina Lovely, before meeting the troublesome Pesticide and the flower fairies. The story features a great many more characters than Muddle Earth. Some of the major new characters include: *Pesticide – A flower fairy. She steals the Goblet of Porridge to become rich but is "not evil", just misunderstood. She also appears in the CBBC series as Dr. Cuddles' accomplice and is depicted as a gothic fairy (her dress sense being intentional, often saying that she doesn't want to look like "something that's fallen off the top of the Christmas tree"). *Nettle, Thistle and Briar Rose – Her accomplices, the flower faries. *Edwina Lovely – The major villain in the story. She appears nice but is in fact a ruthless vampire. *Edward Gorgeous – A handsome student at Stinkyhogs. He is in love with Ella. He has become a vampire because Edwina bit him. *Lord Asbow – The eccentric Dean of the University of Whatever. Has a dog named Damien. *Eudora Pinkwhistle – Muddle Earth's leading witch. A teacher at Stinkyhogs. Lives in Dr. Cuddles' old house. *Mr. Fluffy – The woodwork teacher at Stinkyhogs. He is a
were ''Were'' and ''wer'' are archaic terms for adult male humans and were often used for alliteration with wife as "were and wife" in Germanic-speaking cultures ( ang, wer, odt, wer, got, waír, ofs, wer, osx, wer, goh, wer, non, verr). In ...
hamster. *Kings Edmund & Peter and Queens Susan & Lucy – Pompous heads of Stinkyhogs' rival school. *Eraguff and Delia – Dragons. *Mrs. Couldn't Possibly – Asbow's assistant. *Smutley – Grubley's son. *Mr. Polly – A cyclops and teacher at Stinkyhogs. *Peat – The bog-man. *Titiana and Oberon – Pesticide's parents. Several new places appear in the story as well, some of which were briefly mentioned in Muddle Earth. New places include: *Definitely no Dragons here – Only briefly mentioned in Muddle Earth. It is where the Kingdom of Kings Edmund & Peter and Queens Susan & Lucy lies. *Nowhere – Briefly mentioned in Muddle Earth. It consists of the barbarian camp, the cake competition and King Arthur's palace. *The University of Whatever – Run by Lord Asbow; contains many professors and their pets, all named Damien.


Other parody references

*
Potholes A pothole is a depression in a road surface, usually asphalt pavement, where traffic has removed broken pieces of the pavement. It is usually the result of water in the underlying soil structure and traffic passing over the affected area. Water ...
– the meaning is taken literally, as a hole in the ground for pots for elves to cook things in: "What better place for a pot than a pothole". Variants include kettleholes. *The Teaspoon – A small silver teaspoon. Revealed to be The Lord of the Teaspoons.
''One teaspoon to rule them all,'' ''one teaspoon to heed them,'' ''one teaspoon to bring them all to giggle glade and lead them!''


CBBC adaptations

In late 2006, Muddle Earth was adapted as a one-off story for
CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...
's
Jackanory ''Jackanory'' is a BBC children's television series which was originally broadcast between 1965 and 1996. It was designed to stimulate an interest in reading. The show was first transmitted on 13 December 1965, and the first story was the fairy-t ...
. The Jackanory version covers ''Englebert the Enormous'' only for time, with a light reading of the rest of the book towards the end. Muddle Earth is read by actor
John Sessions John Marshall (11 January 1953 – 2 November 2020), better known by the stage name John Sessions, was a British actor and comedian. He was known for comedy improvisation in television shows such as ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'', as a panellist o ...
and produced and directed by
Nick Willing Nick Willing (born 1961) is a British director, producer and writer of films and television series. Early life Willing is the son of Portuguese painter Dame Paula Rego and English artist Victor Willing and was largely brought up in Portugal, ...
. In 2009, the BBC commissioned an animated series of ''Muddle Earth'' for broadcast in spring 2010. The series consists of 2 seasons of thirteen 11-minute episodes. The programme is produced by CBBC (making the programme its first ever in-house long-form animation series as well as the first CBBC programme with music composed by Maurizio Malagnini and performed by the
BBC Philharmonic The BBC Philharmonic is a national British broadcasting symphony orchestra and is one of five radio orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The Philharmonic is a department of the BBC North Group division based at MediaC ...
), with animation from the Manchester-based Hullabaloo Studios, and features
David Jason Sir David John White (born 2 February 1940), known professionally by his stage name David Jason, is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Derek "Del Boy" Trotter in the BBC sitcom ''Only Fools and Horses'', Detective Inspector J ...
as the voice of Randalf. Sarah Muller serves as executive producer. Episode List: ;Series 1: *Footwear of Doom *Ice Cold in Muddle *Ogre the Hills and Far Away *Muddle Earth Cuckoo *Babbling Brook *Turnip for the Books *Best Wizard in Show *Dragon Wind *Mordrolf the Magnificent *Clothes Maketh the Man *Randalf's Memory Meltdown *Missing Norbert *Love Potion ;Series 2: *Attack of the Trolls *Come into the Garden Mucky Maud *The Great Elf and Spoon Race *The Big Night Out *Don't Go Changing *Stampede *Pesticide Shall Go to the Ball *Ill Wind *Toy Soldiers *Fairy Fairy *Norbert and the Golden Ticket *The Horned Duke *The Big Match There has been no announcement to release the series on DVD as yet.


Characters exclusive to the CBBC series

*Newt – The main character and Randalf's adventurous apprentice, voiced by Paul Leyshon. Very similar in appearance to Joe from the original book. *Fang – Dr. Cuddles' pet batbird, whom he uses as a spy and source of information. Is also willing to work for Pesticide. *The Fairies – fairies that live in Fairy Valley, a location original to the CBBC series. Unlike traditional fairies, they are human-sized. They all wear dresses of varying colour, have different hairstyles and keep stiltmice as pets. The fairy with the bright blue dress is named Fifi and she appears to be their leader. Their sweetness comes from Fairy Dust; without it, they go out of control. *Various unnamed ogres *Gerald – A snuggly-wuggly who was stolen from an ogre by Pesticide under Dr. Cuddles' orders and thrown into the Horned Baron's castle to frame him for the theft, so the Horned Baron was taken by the ogre. Gerald didn't want to be the ogre's snuggly-wuggly again and got his wish when the ogre took Dr. Cuddles instead (due to similarity in appearances). *Tallulah – A red dragon with a nasty temper, and Margot's niece (the two dragons share similarities in appearance). Went on a rampage when her egg (which had her baby, Rupert, inside) was stolen. *The Babbling Brook – A talking, gossiping river. Dr. Cuddles used her to turn Randalf and Norbert against each other, under threat of being drained of her water supply. When Dr. Cuddles fell in as Randalf and Norbert were getting to the end of their duel paces, she admitted the ploy to the two of them. *Mordrolf the Magnificent – A wizard who was Randalf's old friend turned fraudulent thief. He had been stealing from all over Muddle Earth and usurped Randalf's position as official wizard to hide from the authorities. At the end of his episode, he was caught and was banned from practising magic and put on community service for his crimes (Randalf also jokes, "From now on, they can call him Mordrolf the Mucky!"). *Prince Lionel Wolfclaw – the Prince of another land. His father can easily get annoyed should the prince be offended (which would be unlikely as he is oblivious to even Pesticide's actions against him) or should anything happen to him (which was almost made so by an irately uninterested Pesticide). In the end, he was sent to the Mirror Glacier to look for an "ice gremlin", but kept admiring his good looks there. *The Stinky Swamp Demons – creatures that manifest themselves in the form of people's worst fears. Dr. Cuddles conjured up the Stinky Smog to bring them out and terrorise Goblintown on Muddle Earth Day. *The Toy Soldiers – Computer-generated toy soldiers that Dr. Cuddles enchants in response to the Horned Baron's toy tax proposal. They then came to life on the thirteenth hour to capture the Horned Baron. They however turned against Cuddles when they were won over by Norbert's clothes-peg dolls. *The Horned Duke – The Horned Baron's cousin. Wanted to take control of Muddle Earth from him.


CBBC on the web

As of October 2010 Muddle Earth World has been available to the public.Muddle Earth World
It is a casual MMO.


CBBC soundtrack

On 10 January 2011, the soundtrack of the CBBC series was released for digital download.


References

{{The Lord of the Rings 2003 British novels Children's fantasy novels British children's novels British fantasy novels Middle-earth parodies 2003 children's books Macmillan Publishers books