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Conference thebay::joyoflex

Title:The Joy of Lex
Notice:A Notes File even your grammar could love
Moderator:THEBAY::SYSTEM
Created:Fri Feb 28 1986
Last Modified:Mon Jun 02 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1192
Total number of notes:42769

1129.0. "Here be dragons" by PEKING::SULLIVAND (Not gauche, just sinister) Tue Jan 10 1995 03:10

    Can anybody enlighten me as to the origin of the phrase "Here be
    dragons"? It's not in my quotation dictionary. I thought that it might
    either be biblical, or perhaps the origin was those old cartographers
    who wrote "Here be dragons and all manner of straunge beastes" on the
    bits of the map that were still unexplored.
    
    nothing to do with Pern...                 :-)
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
1129.1LJSRV2::KALIKOWPentium: Intel's Blew-Chip SpecialTue Jan 10 1995 03:441
    I always thought the cartographers were responsible for that phrase.
1129.2SMURF::BINDERgustam vitareTue Jan 10 1995 05:2515
    It actually originates in Mediaeval religious beliefs based on the
    Bible.  Cartographers did "invent" it, using as their justification
    widely held adherence to the premise that the following verse was
    literally true:
    
        1 In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword
        will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting
        serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea. (Isaiah
        27:1, RSV).
    
    When Europeans were just getting their feet wet, as it were, in the
    navigation business, a fairish number of them went out and didn't come
    back; it was only natural in that superstitious age to assume that some
    beastie had done them in.
1129.3CLPR01::MAILLARDDenis MAILLARDTue Jan 10 1995 07:524
    Another interpretation that I've heard is that Roman and high middle
    age maps were only marked "hic sunt leones" (here be lions) for the
    inland (unknown) part of Africa.
    			Denis.
1129.4JRDV04::DIAMONDsegmentation fault (california dumped)Tue Jan 10 1995 17:065
    Here there be tygers, Ray Bradbury.
    
    Here there be bunnies, Hugh Hefner.
    
    Here there be bugs, Grace Hopper.
1129.5Y ddraig goch ddyry cychwyn...PEKING::SULLIVANDNot gauche, just sinisterTue Jan 17 1995 07:214
    There's a mediaeval Welsh romance called "Here be Dragons" by Sharon
    Kay Penman, apparently (it's a romance about mediaeval Wales, not one
    written in mediaeval Welsh!).
1129.6NOTIME::SACKSGerald Sacks ZKO2-3/N30 DTN:381-2085Tue Jan 17 1995 07:351
In a fight between dragons and w[h]ales, who wins?
1129.7JRDV04::DIAMONDsegmentation fault (california dumped)Tue Jan 17 1995 20:126
    >In a fight between dragons and w[h]ales, who wins?
    
    Godzilla.
    
    (Oh sorry, that's gorilla and whale.
    ����� = GORIRA = gorilla; ������ = KUJIRA = whale.)