Live Dragons/Sleeping Dragons

[foxmoth at qnet.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 10369

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, John Walton <john at w...> wrote:
> I found out an interesting Fact today (yep, it was interesting
enough to
> merit a Capital Letter!). I have a feeling that "Draco Dormiens
Nunquam
> Titillandus" (Never tickle sleeping dragons) is a direct prod at
The Hobbit:
> in Chapter 12, there's a quote:
> 
> "Never laugh at live dragons".
> 
> Could (a) someone translate that into Latin and 

Dracones vivi nunquam ridendus


(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.


[Bilbo Baggins, having penetrated Smaug's lair with the aid of a
magic 
ring which makes him invisible, has just discovered that the dragon  
has a flaw in his armor]

	After he had seen that Mr. Baggins' one idea was to get away. 
"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.
	It was an unfortunate remark, for the dragon spouted terrific 
flames after him, and fast though he sped up the slope, he had not
gone nearly far enough to be comfortable before the ghastly head of 
Smaug was thrust against the opening behind. Luckily the whole head
andjaws could not squeeze in, but the nostrils sent forth fire and
vapour to pursue him, and he was nearly overcome, and stumbled blindly 
on in great pain and fear. He had been feeling rather pleased with the 
cleverness of his conversation with Smaug, but his mistake at the end 
shook him into better sense.
	"Never laugh at live dragons, Bilbo, you fool!" he said to 
himself, and it became a favourite 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.
J.R.R. Tolkien -- The Hobbit 

 IMO the Hogwart's Library boasts a copy of the The Red Book of 
Westmarch
Pippin