Re: YASID: The Long Memories of Dragons

On Sat, 25 May 2024 19:00:54 -0600, John Savard
<quadibloc@servername.invalid> wrote:

I remember reading somewhere a mention of a memorable scene in a
fantasy novel.
>
A young man, who had devised a new and accurate calendar, noted that
one of the corrections it required to keep in accurate synchronization
with the seasons and so on... would happen only at very rare
intervals. He feared that the long  period of disuse might lead ot the
correction being forgotten.
>
And so he went to the abode of the dragons. He made a request of them;
with their long lives and long memories, could they come and remind
humanity, which had adopted his calendar, of that correction when it
came due?
>
On hearing of this request, many of the dragons laughed.
>
The dragon to whom he spoke would not explain why they were laughing.
>
Of course, the reason is obvious to the reader - the long memories of
the dragons included the fact that, for long eons, no human
civilization had ever survived for nearly as long as the interval
until that calendrical correction would be required.

First, I wondered where I might have seen that quotation, and so I
searched to see if it was in Calendrical Calculations, by Dershowitz
and Reingold, but it was not.

Then I wondered if I might have asked this question before, and so I
went to Google Groups, which still retains archival Usenet postings.

And indeed from there I saw the answer, which David DeLaney had given
me; I had gotten some details wrong; it was a woman, Segnbora, who
spoke to the dragons - and the passage was from a supplemental chapter
at the end of "The Door into Shadow" by Diane Duane.

John Savard