I think I was a bit mistaken concerning your proposal, Findegil. I see absolutely no need to change "serpents", "drakes", "dragons", and so forth to "streams of flame", "machines", et cetera. In the old tale, the serpents and drakes in question are in fact machines or streams of fire. If eliminate the change whereby these things become actual, living, ordinary dragons, then we are back exactly where the old tale was. Why then alter the language of the tale at all?
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