The Adamanta Chubb Librarian

[Chrysophylax Dives]

The dragon figured all was safe, descended to the ground on the swing, and joined the party.

"@Arnyn! How very good to see you my dear Ranger! Please forgive all that confusion at the beginning. I know I said that the pinkie-shake would be performed in our tower but, well, when you arrived I was too scared to allow you up and wanted the Librarian to descend first so I could see how dangerous you were. But - the Librarian lives! So here I am."

The dragon held out a pinkie.

[Arnyn]

The Elven Librarian had made it down! Arnyn held back a relieved sigh. Good. Progress.

At @Saranna's bow, Arnyn returned it in a similar fashion. "Thank you for your welcome, Lady Librarian. I was surprised, and pleased, to receive the dragon's invitation. I can assure you that I mean you no harm." Hopefully that would set the Elf's mind at ease somewhat...

As the dragon started his descent once again, the Ranger's eyes darted up to watch him. A dragon on a swing. Now that... was not a thing you saw every day. Or decade. Century. Age. Ever??

The swing lowered swiftly, and Arnyn had to remind herself she was a representative of Gondor in order not to take a step back, now face to face with such a mythical creature. She nodded at the dragon's words, processing his proximity and his words a moment. A person could be dangerous but not act on it, she thought to herself. A person could be dangerous, but in control. Then those with genuine and positive intentions, fuelled by the goodness in their hearts, therefore need not fear her.

"Greetings, @Chrysophylax Dives. Here you are, indeed! And here I am, as well..." In turn, she held out her own pinkie and curled it around the dragon's. A sight she'd never quite forget.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

The dragon breathed out at last! He had been convinced that the Ranger was going to leave him hanging all weekend. Pheww.

With the two pinkies curled together, the dragon recited the huorn peace formula:

Shoilem shoilem le'olam, broigus broigus af'pa'am.

(The pinkys going up and down a total of 8 times).

Now all that was required was for @Arnyn to repeat the formula and there would be peace between them forever!

[Arnyn]

Thankfully, the dragon's exhale did not include fire. Did this dragon breathe fire, she suddenly wondered? A question which she shoudl have, perhaps, asked beforehand...

"Shoilem shoilem le'olam, broigus broigus af'pa'am," she repeated, hoping she was getting the pronunciation right, as the pinkies moves up and down as they were supposed to. When they were done, she tilted her head questioningly at @Chrysophylax Dives. "Peace," she repeated one of the words, yet in the common tongue, as a way to confirm the result of their brief ceremony.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

The dragon was so overwhelmed that he uttered his very first Haikuu. He was so happy that he almost kissed the Ranger, but then remembered that stuff about her body being a weapon and decided that discretion was the better part of celebration. Then he looked around to make sure that nobody else was close enough to hear, leaned over to the Ranger, and whispered I'm sorry. Then he felt a bit embarassed and felt a sneeze coming and so wandered off a bit to look on the view.

[Saranna]

Saranna felt a curious sensation of pleasure coming on as she gazed at the two beings, now reconciled and able to move forward in some degree of peace and harmony. She was particularly relieved about that as she knew that, on the occasion of the Ranger's first visit to the Tower, she herself had done what she believed the Hobbit Folk called : 'Putting your foot in it.' Into what feet were put on such occations she was not quite sure, but she hoped that her own foot was now definitively out of whatever 'it' was. An enormous sneeze from the dragon startled her out of her reverie; she hoped that @Chrysophylax Dives had managed to avoid actually sneezing a large dragonly sneeze all over the Ranger, @Arnyn fearing that such an accident might reawaken tensions between the two. Falling back onto her usual resource, she called out to them both, 'Would you like me to make you some tea? And I believe there are also cakes.'

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Saranna, my dear Librarian. There are no cakes upstairs. I was nervous waiting for the Ranger, and ate all of them. Sorry. Also, no tea. None! And there I am completely innocent. Librarian, it is the fault of the Dwarves!

Even as the noble efforts of Elostirion to make peace were culminating in the visit of the Ranger - who is now our trusted friend and ally - even as we were doing the pinkie shake, the Dwarves of the Black Pit were banging their war drums. They demand vast quantities of huorn eggs for each delivery of tea, and are not willing to hand over their Dwarvish art to the Library for safe-keeping, as is only right and proper. Khazad-dûm is a threat to all the free peoples of Middle-earth, Librarian. You are from Rivendell, you know about these kind of things. We must have a Council and decide how to deal with the menacing of our post offices. In the meanwhile, I am returning immediately to Orthanc to continue my cataloguing of Saruman's Lore books because I believe that I am on the verge of discovering a secret weapon with which we shall win the war and establish the dominion of Lore over all the kingdoms of Middle-earth under the benign dictatorship of the Adamanta Chubb Librarian.

Ranger, @Arnyn, peace be upon you and your colleagues, even the crabby one.

Librarian, @Saranna, I return soon with more 'special collections' for the Library.

[Saranna]

Saranna read twice and then again the message from @Chrysophylax Dives Then she read it yet again. Sadly she addressed the talking cat; 'No tea! No cakes! And some other stuff.' 'Infuriating!' said the cat, then it vanished again amid the shelves.

[OOC -is it Godmoding to speak with a cat that no-one is running as a character?]

[Chrysophylax Dives]

A few days later... Back up in Elostirion, drinking more tea with the Librarian and lots of cats.

Well, dear Librarian, I'm glad that is all tidied up and the Ranger - who is now our good friend - is not going to kill us. I must say that I feel that I can now enjoy this cup of tea! It is a very good cup of tea indeed. Thank you.

On all these cats. I don't know the deal with Nukomtdeaapuitdemouw, the talking cat from the havens, who is quite possibly lurking around the shelves somewhere. But these cats are NPC - I think that is the term, and like the hourns can be multiplied and god-moded at will. It is only IC plaza-members who have rights. We could drop these cats out the doorway and see if they splat on their feet, if we wished. I am joking, Librarian! Sorry. Yes, it was in very poor taste. No, really, I am very sorry and see the error of my ways. I will try to never make a cat joke again whilst in Elostirion. I am very happy we now have so many cats in the tower. Sorry.

Some more tea?

Plans? I don't really have any at the moment. Now that it looks like the security situation is moderately sustainable I was considering some foreign travel. Or reading a book. Something different, you know? But yes, I will sooner or later get round to forging some Rings of Power down in Rohan. But that requires control of the Rohan post office, which requires negotiations with the Ranger and her colleagues, so everything slows down to 'professional time', which is something that the younger plaza generation have invented. I don't really understand it but basically the aspiration is to slow time down to the maximum so that the past never vanishes and the hit from the ever-vanishing nostalgia fix is intensified. Something like that. Anyway, it means we have to wait on others once again. So I'm back on the Huorn farm, but - obviously - don't like to talk about that side of our Library business.

Well, yes, Librarian. You can always read me. I did have a question, if I may. Seeing as you know books and also them that use the books, I wanted to ask you about readers. Are they always a bad lot? And might we, the Library, ban them from entrance to our tower?

It is just that, in my experience, nothing good ever came of a reader. True, when they first pop up they appear radiant like an unexpected sunrise. But then they take off their masks and reveal themselves as feuders and litigants and generally problematic folk who don't know about butter. So what I say is that readers are not worth it and we should explicitly ban readers from our Library Tower of Elostirion.

What do you say?

@Saranna

[Saranna]

Saranna sighed deeply on reaching the end of the long message from @Chrysophylax Dives
'What's wrong, Librarian?'' asked Nukomtdeaapuitdemouw languidly. 'You disturbed me while I was washing my right back leg!'
Saranna apologised hastily, and found herself telling the cat all about the message. How it sometimes seemed that nothing she told @Chrysophylax Dives ever stayed in the dragon's head. That readers were good things for libraries, indeed libraries exist for the sake of the readers. And of course for cats. Nukomtdeaapuitdemouw purred loudly and turned to washing his left back leg. Saranna was relieved that someone at least seemed to agree with her about something. If a purr could be so construed. Then the cat said, 'I like libraries, I find those shelves of very old parchments and papers really comfortable to sleep on and wriggle about in. And -well- other things.'
Saranna sighed deeply.

@Chrysophylax Dives

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Alright, Librarian. Some readers is good. I grant you that. But some is not. That is all I am saying.

What I'm thinking is this. A book is something between an author and a reader, right? The author writes the book, the reader reads the book. And the job of the Library is to mediate, yes? As in, the author gives the book to the Library and then readers come to the Library and read the book.

Well, you seem a bit fixated only on only one end of this process, and the foppish, dilettante, whimsical side of it to boot. A Library is for its readers, you say. But what about us authors? We seem to get nothing out of this at all.

It just does not seem fair to me, Librarian. I think we should be more severe on readers and stop pandering to their capricious demands. I think we should demand more of readers, place conditions on their reading in our Library.

Obviously, you are the boss.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Librarian, I fear you are departing on foreign travels at a delicate moment. Elostirion is still besieged by Enemies. Well, two (known) feuders remain. At the moment, our pressing problem is restless Dwarves. We had a diplomatic incident on the Westmarch Huorn Farm over the weekend. The state of tea-negotiations is critical.

And I must confess, dear Librarian, that especially careful diplomacy is required in the case of both of these feuders - yes, both are readers! So for this reason, the feud is bitter and concerns deep issues touching on the very nature of a Library.

What I was wondering is, if you are not OK with banning readers - the simple solution, should we consider inviting these two feuding-litigants for the pinkie-shake? I was wondering if we might try an overture at least to the Dwarf, who of the two is marginally the more fluffy and cuddly, or put another way, a tiny weeny bit less scary; well, to speak plainly, our feud seems less grevious.

I am more than OK with leaving this matter. As we now know, making peace with feuders is hard work and requires coordination and tact, and possibly Elostirion can handle two feuds now we are in perpetual peace with the actual administration? But until these feuds are resolved I hope you understand the pressing security constraints under which we are operating. It is not just about the need for armed huorn patrols in Undertowers or our stockpiling weapons in the middle tower. We must maintain a close watch on the doors and windows, Librarian. While feuders lurk beyond, hidden watchers observing our every conversation, we must be viligant in guarding our borders and turn back any readers who look suspiciously like Dwarves or Geese. I don't like it either, Librarian. But consider the damage these rogue readers might do to our Library.

@Saranna

[Saranna]

Saranna felt she had a lot to sigh about these days. Yet facts were facts and not everyone who sets foot, paw, hoof, wing or any other relevant appendage inside a library is necessarily there with scholarly, entertaining or learning activities in mind. Some would be seeking books and scrolls of value, to steal and sell. Some would destroy any kind of written text out of fury at the stuck-up types who thought they really were somebdy just because they read things. Some would - no doubt - cheerfully destroy a librarian just to find out what kind of beast it was. A sound rather nearer a scream than a sigh escaped her. @Chrysophylax Dives had said: 'Obviousy, you are the boss.'
But how obvious was that in reality? There were plenty of haters still in the world, and not all of them hunkering in their noisesome dungeons, caverns, scary castles or torture chambers. The objects of their hate might easily include: elves; females; stuckup folk who read stuff; people whio drink tea! People in towers......
Saranna screamed......

@Chrysophylax Dives

[Chrysophylax Dives]

I'll take that as a no, shall I, Librarian. Let sleeping feuders lie. No pinkies for readers. Must say I think you are right on that, at least.

As for your question, well: OBVIOUSLY it is OBVIOUS. I have not eaten you, your donkey that is a pregnant mule, nor anyone else whilst on Library grounds. I am offended.

I think I am going to fly away for a holiday down South. Orthanc, maybe, or Helms Deep. Somewhere where folk value books less and precious stones more. I want to drink beer not tea. I want to hear the horn blowing in the wind, gaze on the sunrise over Meduseld, and eat Rohan pig cooked on the spit.

Enjoy your books, Librarian.

@Saranna

[Chrysophylax Dives]

The dragon believed that the Librarian had gone away on foreign travels and so took the opportunity of putting into place the correct Library policy toward readers. Eventually the Librarian would come to her senses and see that readers were a bad lot. But until then it was only the dragon that stood between the Lore of the Library and the vandalism of armies of errant and irresponsible readers. Well, this sign should keep them at bay for a while, at least until the Huorns were fully armed and ready for the planned campaign against the massed readers of Middle-earth.

[Saranna]

[Chrysophylax Dives]

@Chrysophylax Dives
LIBRARIAN SECRET no: 2342: Every library has some secret collections. Secret because of violent, erotic or otherwise distasteful matter, offensive to at least a few persons who have demanded the items be kept under lock and key.
I think each request needs to be judged on its own merits.

Secret collections are that part of the Library that has banned readers.

I agree that each case needs to be judged on its own merits. All I am suggesting is that our default position is that all of the Library is a special collection. I am prepared to judge each individual reader on their own merits, before sending them packing with a flea in their ear.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

@Saranna, how about a compromise such that we allow entrance to bona fide readers only?

I am prepared to sign up to the idea that the Library is for readers and that all readers are free to use the Library.

However, I must insist on a high bar. From bitter experience, I have learned that not everyone who says they are a reader is a real, genuine, bona fide reader.

We could devise a questionnaire that had to be filled out by anyone who wishes to gain access to our Library, asking about moral turpitude and that kind of thing. Basically, we need to weed out anyone who is not going to see eye to eye with our authors.

All I am concerned about here is protecting our authors. I feel they are badly neglected. The disgraced and the exploited, the disrespected of the plaza.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Librarian, possibly we are arguing to no purpose. Reports from Lore appear to confirm my sneaking suspicion that readers are mythological.

I know that both of us believe that we have encountered readers before, but could it be that we were living in a fantasy?

I don't think there are any readers, Librarian. And maybe there never were?

We have been fooled! But by whom? And why?

What is this place, Librarian?

[Saranna]

Saranna's return journey to Elostirion was slow and slightly mournful. The old House of Elrond had harboured dust and spiders instead of light and song. The door into the library had fallen and shattered when she pushed it open. Things scrabbled across the floor and up and down the shelves, which seemed to hold very few books.

After a stay of only a few days, she had stuffed what books she could find into a sack with only a few small holes in it, and set off towards the west, in slow donkey mode. She dismounted to lead the donkey through the waters of Bruinen, which chilled her feet and left them dripping as she went on her way. A long way. She scarcely believed she would make it as far as Elostirion, but eventually reached the borders of the Shire, and was waved across the Brandywine Bridge by a sleepy guard who had apparently never consulted a dictionary in the interest of discovering what 'Guarding' meant.

She saw hardly any hobbits as she crossed the Shire, and those were only concerned to avoid her.

At last the Towers came into view and her heart lightened; home was Home, however strange it might be at times. She thought fondly of the Hills, of her friendly talking cat, Nukomtdeaapuitdemouw, and the enigmatic and ebullient Chrysophylax Dives. She thought of tea, of fresh clean books to read, and of enthusiastic readers (assuming CD had not frightened them all away.)

At the foot of the Tower Hills she stopped, dismounted, and began to unsaddle the donkey. As she turned away to set down the saddle and the disapointingly small sack of books, Nukomtdeaapuitdemouw came running. 'Watch out' he cried, 'That Crisslyfax has been writing you notes by the million and wants you to have a library with no readers and possibly no books, as far as I can tell. Like you said - in one ear and out the other with that one. Shall I get the Hills to make some tea?' He dashed off, and Saranna stood wondering whether to sigh, scream, or just run away.

@Chrysophylax Dives

[Chrysophylax Dives]

The Librarian was back!
But she seemed in her usual state of about to scream, which unsettled the dragon, who had failed to catch all her meaning. Well, this was the right place for that - up the stairs and down the corridor and middle shelves are all dictionaries - just got to get the right language... volume...

ebullient

(of liquid or matter) boiling or agitated as if boiling.
"misted and ebullient seas"

The dragon blushed scarlet. Spoken by the great water essayist of our times! He felt like a storm in a tea-cup, the best kind of storm.

Putting the dictionary back on the shelf, and momentarily carried away by a rare warm glow inside, the dragon resolved to accept the word of and see eye to eye with The Librarian on the great question of our Times: What doom shall the Elostirion Library enact on errant readers?

@Saranna

[Saranna]

Punishment list for errant readers; by; Saranna, Adamanta Chubb librarian.

1 - Any reader who removes any page(s) from a book shall be locked up in a small cupboard and not allowed out until they have repaired the book.
2 - Any reader who spills liquid of any kind on a book, scroll, or librarian, shall be chained to the sink in the librarian's kitchen and made to wash up all teacups, plates, spoons, and glasses for a period of no less than three months.
3 - Anyone who rushes about screaming 'Help.help there's an ebullient dragon in the library!' shall be banned from re-entering the library for 6 months, during which time they must submit to a course on 'Not making such a fuss about dragons, for heaven's sake!' Their certificate of success in this course must be shown at every successive entry to the library.
4 - Any reader found snapping their fingers at the Hills and shouting, 'Fetch me some tea at once' shall be banned for a year.
5 - Anyone caught pulling the tail or whiskers of Nukomtdeaapuitdemouw the talking cat will need no punishment from the Librarian; but she will not offer the use of the first-aid chest for the resultant injuries.

@Chrysophylax Dives

[Chrysophylax Dives]

What about readers who bite?

readers who attack authors?

readers who don't pay fines?

Absent readers?

Bad readers?

Goblin readers?

@Saranna

[Saranna]

@Chrysophylax Dives

Saranna wished her dragon colleague would give this a break. It looked as if she might spend several centuries listing every individual act by readers, that might conceivably be in some way against the moral codes of the library. She turned back to the list and added the new categories left by @Chrysophylax Dives

Biting: readers who bite will receive a return bite from Nukomtdeaapuitdemouw, unless of course they are merely biting into the Hill-made cakes they have purchased to eat with their cups of tea in the refreshment room.

Fines: this particular librarian has never believed in FINES and will resist any attempt by CD or anyone else to impose them. A bevvy of Hills will be sent to recover overdue books.

Absence: The absence of readers should be looked upon as a chance for a staff tea-party.

Badness: readers who are bad in the sense of immoral should be told to leave and never darken the strange entryway of the Library again. Readers who are bad in the sense of not being very good at reading should be helped and encouraged (No hungry dragon may eat them!)

Goblin readers: I had no idea it was possible for anyone to read a goblin; certainly we have no store of them upon our shelves.

@Chrysophylax Dives

[Chrysophylax Dives]

@Saranna, my dear Librarin, by all means let us move on to more profitable conversation. I would be happy to listen to you tell of your adventures in the wider world, or discourse on water. Or anything, really. For my part, I would talk of the rounding of the world.

[Saranna]

@Chrysophylax Dives

I should be delighted to know all you have to tell of the rounding of the world; indeed, it would make a splendid volume to sit upon the library shelves for readers to enjoy and marvel at.

Meanwhile, I shall begin on my recent adventures and journeys to my former home and back again. Once upon a later time there will have been a book in existence called 'Travels with a Donkey.' This might also serve as a title for my own experiences.

On the morning of my departure, I walked around to the seaward side of the towers, and looked westward for a while. I could not see down into the Gulf of Lune to the Havens, but pictured to myself the scene so long ago at the departure of the Last Ship, that crossed to the West by the Straight Road.

But I had no time to remember too much - work lay ahead. Gathering my bundle of necessities (10 books, one large notebook and one change of clothing) I turned my face to the east and descended to Underhills, where the Small Hills had the donkey ready for me, saddled and bridled. Passing Greenholm and onto the East Road, I headed for Michel Delving in the Shire.

As I rode I thought of the War of the Ring, and how two Hobbits, of all Folk, had been among the travellers on that Last Ship. I hoped the Hobbits of today would welcome me. I hoped the Dragon had taken note of my insistence that he should refrain from eating Hobbits, however plump.I put that thought out of my mind, and urged the donkey on.

@Chrysophylax Dives

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Well, I do wonder if we are in the wrong age of the world. The Fourth Age being pretty absolutely disenchanted and, as such, kind of on the same magical level as now, which aint too hot. I worry that we should have situated Undertowers as a Wild West colony of the late 3rd Age. Then we could have had an Elf-tower with a Stone within it, rather than all these adventures as I trade, beg, and steal Seeing Stones from around the place.

[Saranna]

How very true - sentimental as I am about the past, both as Saranna and whoever else I may be, I too feel a sense of deep loss pervading the 4th age.

I wonder if we could alter the scenario by 'discovering' that we have each been caught in an enchantment (by who or what?) and then escape it to find that the towers are unchanged and the Stone is there. Possibly our (tiny) audience might respond scathingly?
@Chrysophylax Dives

[Chrysophylax Dives]

@Saranna - good one! Give me a few days to think on it. I am sure we can work it out.

OOC. I decided to try email notifcations. Yours was the first. For a second my blood ran cold as it came in the form of an email from the plaza admins and I assumed I was in trouble again.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Librarian,

To step back into the late 3rd Age would be easy as pie, in theory. In practice, it requires some building work. We will have to rummage up both material (Elvish stone) and some builders - unless you and I are going to get our hands dirty?

The secret of Elostirion is its staircase - or two staircases, as you insightfully suggested some months ago. The enchantment of the staircase is two-fold: (a) to ascend the staircase is to step back in time, at least with regard to what you see in the view, and (b) at the top of the stairs is the reward of a view, straight and far - though one may take a Seeing Stone and use it on the ground.

Obviously, this being an Elvish tower, we enter on the ground by stepping inside from out of the green grass of our own present. At the moment we then ascend the spiral staircase, winding around and around until we step out where we are now - early in the 4th Age.

So if we wish to relocate to the late 3rd Age we need to build another storie - another spiral of stairs that takes us up to an earlier age of our world.

@Saranna

[Saranna]

@Chrysophylax Dives How clearly you explain things, my friend. Librarians like to believe that all knowledge and all clear expression belong to them, for they are imbued with centuries of deep reading. But something has come back with me from my not very successful journey eastward, a feeling of loss. To add that extra storey and step back into the past - is that a grand plan or a form of escape?

While we contemplate that, should I continue with the record of my journey? After all, that is the kind of thing Libraries were created to hold!

@Chrysophylax Dives

[Chrysophylax Dives]

While we contemplate that, should I continue with the record of my journey? After all, that is the kind of thing Libraries were created to hold!

Yes please!

[Saranna]

It shall be done!

[Saranna]

Saranna left the Dragon to continue manipulating the mysteries of time and space and stone and building, and returned to her office to examine the few books and scrolls she had retrieved from Imladris after her long slow donkey-ride.

Her attention was soon riveted to the largest of her finds, a splendidly bound book with elaborate gold leaf embellishing its cover, and the opening pages of each chapter. She read it for so long that she lost all sense of her surroundings, and seemed to have fallen into an earlier age. Within the covers of this book, Imladris seemed to live still. There were poems - one composed by Master Elrond himself - there were pages of musical scores, there were tales of times so long ago that Saranna could not number their years.

After many hours, she felt the need of a cup of tea, and brewed a potful; before long the massive head of the dragon thrust throuuh her doorway, and his deep voice said, ''Tea, Eh?' [NB I believe this two word remark to be barely Godmoding at all!]

While they drank their tea amicably, Saranna continued to dwell on her sense of moving in time by means of reading. Suddenly she said '@Chrysophylax Dives! Your extra storey, the ladder to the past, is as one with my tales of the past! If your building goes well, then the library will become a way into other times through STOREYS and STORIES alike.'

[Chrysophylax Dives]

The dragon digested the remark of the Librarian, and nodded.

A story begins in time and moves forward, so to begin a story one steps back in time, the time of the story. We have built our tower in this story, or upon the ruins of this story - but it is enough. It is the Library that builds itself a new turn of the spiral staircase, and takes us back in time. All we need to do is think about it.

@Saranna

[VelvetineZone]

Liking the storey / stories thing

[Saranna]

@VelvetineZone

So glad you like it!

Also glad that @Chrysophylax Dives digested my remark as well as digesting the tea.

Time for some Deep Thought. The answer may not always be 42, of course.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

@VelvetineZone please meet @Saranna, Saranna may I introduce you to VelvetineZone?

You are both Librarians, as well as good friends of mine, and I have spent the last 36 hours attempting to think of an appropriate collective noun for a group of librarians, but have failed.

[VelvetineZone]

Hi @Saranna! Nice to meet another librarian.

[Saranna]

Hi both - I have just looked online and there are several proposed collective nouns for librarians:

A shush
A catologue
A sheaf
A volume
A stack
An index

None of these is particularly exciting, however.

Perhaps, @VelvetineZone, it would be more appropriate for us to think of something? These seem to me to be collective nouns for books, papers, misconceptions about librarians and library tools. Hmm.

@Chrysophylax Dives I still seem to be struggling to find much time here on the Plaza, but am doing my best. Please don't give up on me or blast me with your dragonly flame!

Do we know the collective nouns for :

Dragons
Striving writers
Creative thinkers.

Next time I will try to be more Saranna and less her alter-ego.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

A wilderness of dragons.

I would counsel a sheaf of librarians, at least for our purposes - Sheaf being a name for the king of ancient myth who came out of the sea (a babe on a boat with a sheaf of corn beneath his head).

But a hush of librarians is actually pretty good.

@Saranna

[VelvetineZone]

I like all the suggestions.

Also:
A coven of librarians
A power surge of librarians
A knowledge storm of librarians

[Saranna]

Those are all excellent, @VelvetineZone

As for Dragons:

A wingbeat of Dragons
A flammifer of Dragons
An overflight of Dragons
A suddenness of Dragons
A slyness of Dragons
A cunningness of Dragons
A writhing of dragons.
A roaring of Dragons.

We should like to hear from @Chrysophylax Dives on these.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

@Saranna, @VelvetineZone,

The correct term is wilderness, as all Tolkien fans should know. In 1912, R.W. Chambers complained of Beowulf as a story that has folktale monsters at the center and good heroic stuff on the outer edges:

Nothing could better show the disproportion of Beowulf, which puts the irrelevances in the center and the serious things on the outer edges,’ than this passing allusion to the story of Ingeld. For in this conflict between plighted troth and the duty of revenge we have a situation which the old heroic poets loved, and would not have sold for a wilderness of dragons. (Chambers 1912, 79-80).

This elicited the following from Tolkien in 'Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics'.

‘A wilderness of dragons.’ There is a sting in this Shylockian plural, the sharper for coming from a critic, who deserves the title of the poet’s best friend. It is in the tradition of the Book of St Albans, from which the poet might retort upon his critics: “Yea, a desserte of lapwyngs, a shrewednes of apes, a raffull of knaues, and a gagle of gees.’

The Book of St Albans was printed in 1486 and contains essays on hawking, hunting and heraldry. According to Wikipaedia: "The tradition of a large number of such collective nouns which has survived into modern Standard English ultimately goes back to this book".

A Wilderness of Dragons was used by John Rateliff as the title of a collection of essays in honour of Verlyn Flieger.

[VelvetineZone]

I like a roaring of dragons.

[Saranna]

@Chrysophylax Dives

That book in honour of Verlyn Flieger is excellent. I am sorry not to have made it clear that I was seeking extra possibilities for collective nouns describing dragons; 'correct' is a matter of personal taste in many ways. Especially the ways of persnickety elven librarians!

From 'A Kindle of Cats' one might extrapolate 'A Blazing of Dragons.'

In times of flood/or death by arrows above a lake, mayhap 'A quenching of Firedrakes'?'

Is any of this wandering random thought the sort of thinking that might restore the Third Age? Perhaps not but it is quite enjoyable.

@VelvetineZone I agree about the roaring.

[Saranna]

PS has either of you seen Nukomtdeaapuitdemouw recently? I miss him. :(

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Speaking as a dragon, and thinking of the others, wilderness does us just fine, thank you. No need to multiply words without reason, it only confuses things.

I thought Nukomtdeaapuitdemouw was a she?

[VelvetineZone]

I don't know who Nukomtdeaapuitdemouw is but it sounds like a cat name?

[Chrysophylax Dives]

I don't know who Nukomtdeaapuitdemouw is but it sounds like a cat name?

Bingo!