6

I remember seeing an illustrated dictionary or encyclopedia of fantasy stories or fairy tales in a book store during the period of 1961-1968.

I remember a few details about some of the entries.

The entry on dragons began: "Dragons drag." And it accused dragons of basically doing nothing despite their great powers.

The entry on dukes mentioned that dukes were almost kings, so close to being kings that the difference made them bitter and they were always plotting against kings.

It was mentioned that wizards usually lived in towers.

And I remember an illustration, a chart with specimens of the various fantasy or fairy tales species side by side for identification.

1 Answer 1

10

Byfield's Book of Weird (1967) by Barbara Ninde Byfield, also called The Glass Harmonica: A Lexicon of the Fantastical1.

A quote from the book:

Dragons drag: they are lazy, sluggish and prefer to live on their reputations.
Source

A wizard's tower is shown on the right side of this scan.


Found with the Google search "dragons drag" encyclopedia, i.e. searching for the exact phrase "dragons drag" and the word "encyclopedia" or synonyms/other spellings.

The alternate name was referenced here, then, to verify it was the same with another source, I found an Amazon page for it under that name and then got a link to the review that I saw on the page by looking at the user's profile and scrolling down a lot.

4

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.