Muggle-Wump

"Muggle-Wump" is a fictional character in some of Roald Dahl's books for children, and "the Muggle-Wumps" are his family. A Muggle-Wump appears in The Enormous Crocodile and there is a Muggle-Wump with a family in The Twits. A character resembling him (shown in Quentin Blake's illustrations) also appears in The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me. The first two stories have him almost as a symbol of retribution to the antagonists of the overall tale, whereas in the last one he is happy and safe.

The Muggle-Wump of The Enormous Crocodile, after reasoning with the wily reptile that it is wrong to eat little children, loses his temper and, very nearly, his life, when the Crocodile bites into his tree to catch him. He gets revenge, however, by following the Enormous Crocodile and thwarting his chances at catching a child when they are about to come near him. In doing this he angers the Enormous Crocodile into wanting to eat more children, only to be thwarted by the Roly-Poly Bird (another recurring character in Dahl's books) and Trunky the Elephant who hurled the Enormous Crocodile into the sun.

The Muggle-Wump in this story has a wife and children and is subject to animal cruelty at the hands of Mr and Mrs Twit, who are retired circus trainers. They force the Muggle-Wumps to balance on their heads, one on top of the other, or else stand and walk on their hands- all at the peril of feeling Mrs Twit's "beastly [walking-]stick" across their bodies. Occasionally, it is said, one of Muggle-Wump's children will faint of the rush of blood to their heads. To add insult to injury, they are kept (when not subject to command) in a cage overlooking the Twits' garden, at the centre of which is a large dead tree that Mr Twit smears with glue to trap birds for his favourite dish of Bird Pie. When the monkeys shout warnings, the birds cannot understand their language and so are always caught.

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