True dragons are Danish and speak Danish, a tongue that the Danes themselves describe as less a language than a throat disease. To attract a dragon, one chains a naked maiden to a rock. The maiden must be chained to the rock in such a way that every part of her is visible to the dragon. Many famous paintings demonstrate the technique; Ingres's Angelica Saved by Ruggiero is an example. After the dragon has inspected your maiden to its heart's content, you issue one of the conventional formal challenges, in Danish-'Jeg udfordre dig til ridderlig camp' is the way one usually puts it-and then the fight begins. (Donald Barthelme)

True dragons are Danish and speak Danish, a tongue that the Danes themselves describe as less a language than a throat disease. To attract a dragon, one chains a naked maiden to a rock. The maiden must be chained to the rock in such a way that every part of her is visible to the dragon. Many famous paintings demonstrate the technique; Ingres's Angelica Saved by Ruggiero is an example. After the dragon has inspected your maiden to its heart's content, you issue one of the conventional formal challenges, in Danish-'Jeg udfordre dig til ridderlig camp' is the way one usually puts it-and then the fight begins.

Donald Barthelme

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angelica attract camp content conventional danish dig disease dragon example fight formal issue language less maiden rock speak technique throat til tongue way chains danes

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