Chickens
This is something I began quite a long time ago, and which I only ever do very little with. Since I'm too impatient for my ideas to pop up, I hereby invite all of you to join in the fun as well by answering the eternal question à la any of the characters of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - even ones I've already answered for.
Why did the chicken cross the road?
The Gentleman with Thistledown Hair
Why, this is nothing but another proof of the wickedness of Englishmen! They insist upon knowing even the movements of the animals they enslave for their own selfish purposes!
Thomas Lanchester, from his Treatise Concerning the Language of Birds
Even flightless birds possess that gift of effortless travel to the Other Lands. The chicken, for example, has long been known to demonstrate its own particular magic by crossing a road.
Mr Norrell
Chickens crossing roads! Mystical nonsense! My magic relies on no such incoherent babble.
Sir Walter Pole
[Said with a look of Surprize.] But, surely, you cannot mean to say the chicken crossed the road!
Jonathan Strange
It's in the exact same predicament I am! A chicken, just as much as a magician, can get nowhere with books, and where better to understand the roots of English Magic than upon the King's Roads?
Lord Wellington
Clearly because it was one of the roads Merlin conjured up. Really, I think the more remarkable circumstance is that none of the soldiers caught it to eat.
As you can see, I haven't yet gotten terribly far. So please, add your own ideas!
Why did the chicken cross the road?
The Gentleman with Thistledown Hair
Why, this is nothing but another proof of the wickedness of Englishmen! They insist upon knowing even the movements of the animals they enslave for their own selfish purposes!
Thomas Lanchester, from his Treatise Concerning the Language of Birds
Even flightless birds possess that gift of effortless travel to the Other Lands. The chicken, for example, has long been known to demonstrate its own particular magic by crossing a road.
Mr Norrell
Chickens crossing roads! Mystical nonsense! My magic relies on no such incoherent babble.
Sir Walter Pole
[Said with a look of Surprize.] But, surely, you cannot mean to say the chicken crossed the road!
Jonathan Strange
It's in the exact same predicament I am! A chicken, just as much as a magician, can get nowhere with books, and where better to understand the roots of English Magic than upon the King's Roads?
Lord Wellington
Clearly because it was one of the roads Merlin conjured up. Really, I think the more remarkable circumstance is that none of the soldiers caught it to eat.
As you can see, I haven't yet gotten terribly far. So please, add your own ideas!