FAQ Modification Project

3.  Frequently Asked Questions about Dragons
    3a.  What is a dragon?
    3b.  Do dragons exist?
    3c.  Where does the legend of dragons hoarding gold originate from?
    3d.  Spelling of dragon in other languages?
    3e.  What are some of the creatures related to dragons?
    3f.  I would like to talk with a dragon, where can I find one?
    3g.  Where can I find archived post for alt.fan.dragons?
    3h.  Where can I find the latest version of the faq,
         NQCBGT Dragon Art, The CENSUS and the AFD Phone Book?
    3i.  Is A.F.D writing a book about dragons?
    3j.  Regarding A.f.d's short description, what do dragons have to
         do with automobiles and Pennsic?
    3k.  I heard about some a.f.d tee-shirts, whats happening with them?

3.  Frequently Asked Questions about Dragons

3a.  What is a dragon?

drag-on \'dragen, -raig-\ n -s [ME dragun, dragoun, fr. OF dragun, dragon, 
fr. L dracon-, draco serpent, dragon, fr. Gk drakon serpent; akin to OE 
torht bright, splendid, noble, OHG zoraht bright, clear, Goth gatarhjan 
to mark, Gk derkesthai to see clearly, look at, drakos eye, MIr derc eYe, 
Skt darsayati he causes to see; basic meaning: seeing]

1: archaic: a huge serpent
2: a fabulous animal generally represented as a monstrous winged and
     scaly serpent or saurian with a crested head and enormous claws
3: a: the heraldic representation of a monster with a griffin's head, a
        scaly winged body with four legs and claws, and a long barbed tail
        and tongue borne as a charge or used as a supporter
   b dial Brit: a paper kite of dragon form
   c: a beneficent supernatural creature in Chinese mythology connected
        with rain and floods
4: a violent, combative, or very strict person; esp: a woman that watches
     fiercely and vigilantly over the welfare of her charges
     <jealous and touchy, but a very faithful old ~ with the family--
      Ngaio Marsh>
5: any of several arums popularly associated with dragons: as
     a: GREEN DRAGON
     b: JACK-lN-THE-PULPIT 1
     c: WATER ARUM
     d: a plant of the genus Dracontium
6: a: a short musket formerly carried hooked to a soldier's belt; also:
        a soldier carrying such a musket
   b: an armored tractor for artillery
7: [trans. of NL Draco]
     a: any of numerous small brilliantly colored arboreal agamid lizards
        (genus Draco) of the East Indies and southern Asia having five or
        six of the hind ribs on each side prolonged and covered with a web
        of skin forming a sort of wing and aiding them in making long
        gliding leaps from tree to tree Q called also flying dragon
     b: any of certain other lizards of related genera: as
        (1): JEW LIZARD
        (2): WATER DRAGON 1

3b.  Do dragons exist?

Yes, they actually do, but not always in the historical/mythical from that 
most individuals are familiar with. There are several lizards that bare 
the name dragon, the best known being the Komodo Dragon. Dragons also 
exist in symbolism's, history and the largest free roaming habitat of all, 
the imagination.

3c.  Where does the legend of dragons hoarding gold originate from?

The Legion of dragons hoarding gold originally came from an Italian 
religion that worshipped the god Cernunnos, the horned lord of the 
underworld. He was the guardian of wealth, commerce and health. Cernunnos 
was often accompanied by his horned dragon who was also associated by 
wealth, especially that found underground.

3d.  Spelling of dragon in other languages?

Please note I'm not a linguist, the word dragon has many meanings 
(see 3a).  The first meanings listed are probably the closest to the 
"mythical" meaning of dragon. No accents or special characters are shown 
due to keyboard accent marks vary in location from computer to computer.

        African: nrgwenya
        Chinese: lung
          Dansk: drage
          Dutch: draak
        English: dragon
 Middle English: dragun, dragoun
       Faeroese: eitt dreki, eitt flogdreki, ein fraenarormur
        Finnish: Lohikaarme, (iso-latin) Lohikiirme
         French: dragon
     Old French: dragun, dragon
         German: Drache (pl. Drachen), Lindwurm (pl. Lindwuermer)
                 Maybe: tracho, dracho
          Greak: drakon serpent, drako
       Hawaiian: Kelekona, (plural) Na Kelekona
         Hebrew: drakon (plural) drakonim
      Hungarian: Sarkany
      Icelandic: dreki
        Islamic: Th'uban, Tinnin
        Italian: drago, dragone, volante, dragonessa
       Japanese: ryu, tatsu
          Latin: draco, serpens, dracon, draco serpent, dragon
          Norse: ormr
      Norwegian: drake, dragonet, orm
         Polish: smok
     Portaguese: dragao
          Roman: draco
       Romanian: dracul
       Russsian: drakon (roughly translated, stress on KON)
        Spanish: dragon
        Swedish: drake, draken, lindorm
          Welsh: draig

3e.  What are some of the creatures related to dragons?

There are a number of creatures similar to dragons that sometimes get thrown 
into the category of "dragon" but also have a category of their own.

 Amphisbaena: A creature with heads at each end of its body that is capable
              of moving in two directions.

    Basilisk: A lizard like creature that can kill with a glance, has
              nasty breath.

  Cockatrice: Often looks similar to a rooster with a lizards tail. Said to
              be a serpent that has hatched from a chicken's egg.  Has a
              deadly glance.

     Chimera: Fire breathing creature, with a lion's head, goat's body and
              serpent's tail. Sometimes also depicted with 3 heads: a goat,
              lion, and dragon. May have wings.

Quetzelcoatl: the name of a South American Indian god.  He was believed
              to sometimes take the shape of a winged serpent.

     Griffin: Creature with the head, forelegs, and wings of an eagle and
              the body, hind legs, and tail of a lion.

       Hydra: A many-headed serpent, often portrayed with the body of a
              dragon.

   Manticore: Creature with the head of a man, body of a lion and tail of
              a dragon or scorpion. Often has wings.

  Salamander: Lizard-like creature that has the ability to endure fire.

      Wyvern: Very similar to a dragon except it only has four limbs
              (2 wings, 2 hind legs, no front legs) Usually in all other
              aspects, it is like to a dragon. They are generally not
              characterized as breathing flame, but some do.

3f.  I would like to talk with a dragon, where can I find one?

Believe it or not, you can chat with a dragon. The only problem is that 
he's not very friendly. "CHAT" Conversational Hypertext Access Technology 
has a language information system program on the internet that allows you 
to chat with a dragon using plain english.  To try it out telnet to:

  debra.doc.ca (port 3000)

  EX: telnet debra.doc.ca 3000
  or via the web: telnet://debra.doc.ca:3000

Type in "Maur" at the "Select an Information File:" prompt.

for more info about the program contact Thom Whalen (thom@debra.dgbt.doc.ca)
 or  Andrew Patrick (andrew@debra.dgbt.doc.ca). You can also see their web
 page at http://debra.dgbt.doc.ca/chat/info.page.html

3g.  Where can I find archived post for alt.fan.dragons?

See ftp sites: ftp.dragonfire.org /pub/dragons/text/afd

3h.  Where can I find the latest version of the faq, NQCBGT Dragon Art,
     The CENSUS and the AFD Phone Book?

If you have web access you can get the latest updates from: 
http://www.dragonfire.org/

For the latest copy of the CENSUS web to: 
http://www.brad.ac.uk/~aclodge/Dpfold/dp.html
Or contact Pendragon. Email: aclodge@bradford.ac.uk

3i.  Is A.F.D writing a book about dragons?

Yes, a group of individuals is putting together a poetry and short 
story book about dragons from various authors who post to A.F.D. The 
editors are still in the process of looking through the submissions. The 
books working title is "Soaring Heart and Soul: The Stories and Poems 
of Dragons" Submissions deadline is July 15, 1996. For more information 
browse http://www.dragonfire.org/afdbook/afdbook.html or contact 
Quelonzia (lonzia@dragonfire.org)

3j.  Regarding A.f.d's short description, what do dragons have to
     do with automobiles and Pennsic?

The short description for the a.f.d newsgroup at most news sites 
currently is listed as:

 alt.fan.dragons         People just love automobiles at Pennsic.

Pennsic is a yearly "war" or live-action role playing festival 
enacted by the SCA in which several Kingdoms battle each other and have 
a lot of fun during the Memorial day weekend in the central USA.

SCAers apparently love automobiles because that's their transportation 
to the yearly Pennsic meeting. The automobiles are called dragons by 
the SCAers. (SCA) Society for Creative Anachronism

The current description really has nothing to do with alt.fan.dragons.
The original description was suppose to read:

 alt.fan.dragons         A discussion on all aspects of dragons.

David C Lawrence who maintains the short description list was asked 
why we have the current description and he answered:

  When I inherited the list of alternative newsgroup hierarchies from
 Professor Spafford at Purdue, he requested that I continue the
 tradition of whimsical alt group descriptions.  I have complied with
 his wishes and will continue to do so.  Typically the groups that get
 such descriptions are ones that did not have a properly formed
 newsgroups line in the control message that created the group.
 It is extremely unlikely that I will change descriptions that have
 been around for a very long time unless I have a very compelling
 reason to do so.  That's what you get for the anarchy of alt.*.

3k.  I heard about some a.f.d tee-shirts, whats happening with them?

There have been several attempts to produce tee-shirts for afd by 
different individuals. So far no one on afd has seen a tee-shirt appear. 
So currently there are no tee-shirts available. If this changes in the 
future, updated information will be added to this section.

Viriatha:

3h: Take this section right out? Replace it with something else? Add new URL's for new bits published by current posters to the group?
3i: Quelonzia: is this project still current? Should I change your email address?

Pyros:

3c, typo "The Legion of..." should be "The legend of..."

3d, typo "Greak" should be "Greek" Also, does anyone happen know what specific language the "African" term is?

3e - idea:  I personally prefer the spelling "gryphon" to "griffin," but both are fairly commonly used.  Perhaps make a mention of the multiple spellings?  (By the way, does this even fit in the category of "creatures related to dragons"?)

3f - site appears to have gone to that Big Hard Drive in the Sky. Perhaps replace this with a reference to AlfandriaMUCK here (with connection info and a link to their FAQ, of course)?

3h - I vote to remove this, unless there's another nice reference somewhere...