[PW] Carter's wormkiller, 1902

[Peter Macinnis]

Did I say I was offended?  Relax -- only furriners offend, the rest is 
rich ocker badinage.

Somewhere in the basement-level store-room, where all the old books go 
to recuperate, there is probably a children's book on Dragons, most 
probably published by Rigby-Usborne, and it had more on the worm/dragon 
thing.  It appears to be hiding.

It further appears that in other respects, I was speaking through my 
hat.  Grendel is indeed not a dragon -- Beowulf killed both Grendel and 
Grendel's Mum AND a dragon.  I was busy with a deadline, and did not 
double-check my facts.

Mea culpa, may I be plagued by Giant Gippsland Earthworms, rattling cans 
of spray-on homicide.

(My mystery vermicide, by the way, *may* have been pyrethrin-based, I 
now suspect.  That, at least, is the angle currently being pursued, 
given that it was toxic to fish.)  I doubt if I will ever find out.

peter


FERGUSON Timothy wrote:
> Sorry Peter, I was unclear.  I did not mean to offend.
> 
> I write role-playing game books, and at the moment one of the ones I'm working on contains descriptions of the lindwurm / orm.  I was interested in your source because it would be really useful for the book I'm working on, since I'm using Grendel already, too.  I wasn't having a go at you: it's just every version of Grendel I've seen has him as a sort of troll. If he was a dragon, or called a dragon, then that would link him in a useful way, for me, to Fafnir, who is the dragon mentioned in the link you have quoted below.
> 
> So, I wasn't having a go: I apologise for my abruptness.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org
> [mailto:project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org]On Behalf Of
> Peter Macinnis
> Sent: Tuesday, 6 March 2007 9:30
> To: list at project-wombat.org
> Subject: Re: [PW] Carter's wormkiller, 1902
> 
> 
> I was being subtle -- I am well aware of the vermin/worm link -- but in 
> the past, 'worm' had other meanings.  All vermin were "worms", just as 
> spiders were insects, once upon a time.  Carl von Linné spoiled a lot of things, and that was one of them.
> 
> Many dragons were referred to as worms in the past.  See 
> http://csis.pace.edu/grendel/projs991a/prelude.html
> 
> There was a degree of humour in my comments.  This is unlike me, and I 
> apologise.
> 
> peter
> 
> 
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-- 
  _--|\   Peter Macinnis, feral wordsmith, & science gossip,
/     \  friend of flatworms, pseudoscorpions and onychophorans;
\.--._*  confidence advisor, Australian skydiving trampoline relay team
      v   http://members.ozemail.com.au/~macinnis/index.htm