[HPforGrownups] Live Dragons/Sleeping Dragons

[Aberforth's Goat]

No: HPFGUIDX 10362

The Cabin Boy requested,

> Could (a) someone translate that into Latin and (b) someone with a Hobbit
to
> hand (doesn't THAT sound dodgy?) provide a bit of context? A couple of
> quoted paragraphs would be fantastic.

I'll take a pass on the translation, but I can give you the context. Bilbo,
having paid a visit to Smaug wearing his magic ring, has managed to carry
off a fairly successful conversation. Feeling clever, he says,

"Well, I really must not detain your Magnificence any longer,"he said, "or
keep you from much needed rest. Ponies take some catching, I believe, after
a long start. And so do burglars," he added as a parting shot, as he darted
back and fled up the tunnel.

[Smaug takes objection to the remark and very nearly manages to barbeque the
fleeing hobbit.]

"Never laugh at live dragons, Bilbo you fool!" he said to himself, and it
became a favorite saying of his later, and passed into a proverb. "You
aren't nearly through this adventure yet," he added, and that was pretty
true as well.

Baaaaaa!

Aberforth's Goat (a.k.a. Mike Gray)
_______________________

"My own brother, Aberforth, was prosecuted for practising
inappropriate charms on a goat. It was all over the papers,
but did Aberforth hide? No he did not! He held his head high."