2005-06-08

The oath of Elfconner

Then Elfconner swore a terrible oath. His four sons leapt straightaway to his side and took the selfsame vow together, and red as blood shone their keyboards in the glare of their monitors. They swore an oath which none shall break, and none should take, by even the name of Christopher, calling the Everlasting Dark upon them if they kept it not; and Marquette they named in witness, and Blackburn, and the hallowed bookhouse of Bodley, vowing to pursue with vengeance and hatred to the ends of the World Norwegian, Frenchman, or American as yet unborn, or any creature, great or small, good or evil, that time should bring forth unto the end of days, whoso should hold or take or keep a manuscript reading from their possession.
     -- The Tolkiendillion, IX

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is sort of how I feel about my tax dollars going to support research projects, after which I still need to pay the Association of Computing Machinery a subscription feed to read the results.