Moth and Cobweb is rife with shout-outs. Among others:
- The Green Knight and King Arthur appear from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- The Swan Knight from other Chivalric Romance (mostly titled The Swan Knight)
- Most of the elfs appearing come from Celtic Mythology.
- Mention is made of Houyhnhnms from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels
- Also of Borrowers from Mary Norton's The Borrowers
- Ruff mentions The World Tree from Norse Mythology
- Mention is made of how Titania raised the changeling from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, though Oberon did not claim the child from her; also the family names are based on the fairies in the play.
- The Man in the Dark Room is from G. K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday
- Mars is described by one character as a mix of figures from Edgar Rice Burroughs's John Carter of Mars and C. S. Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet
