Talk:4401-HârnMaster Religion

What's a Libram?

What's a Libram? Orin MacGregor, whose blogspot site is named “Libram of Curiosity” asked the question about the etymology of the word Libram. Here is his initial post on March 24, 2009 that started a relevant thread on the origin of the word:

It occurred to me after talking with my English professor that most people probably don't know what a libram is. It has no real definition being an imaginary item. One might assume it is Latin, coming from liber 'book', but it is not a valid declination. Some digging around the internet has revealed that the word traces back to 1950 in Jack Vance's collection of stories, The Dying Earth. The word 'libram' occurs several times in the fantasy novel, The Eyes of the Overworld (1966) by Vance. From then on I assume Dungeons and Dragons made the word more mainstream, and has since appeared in many video games (mostly MMO's of the fantasy genre).

To which Ariel Almanzar replied:

An Imaginary Book: *Libram

Just when you thought your system has had as many surprises as it could handle, I've got one more for you. If you were very, very lucky, your D&D character might, after years of hard labour, be lucky enough to find a magical Libram of Gainful Conjuration, a magical book of great power. Trouble is, there's no such thing, or at least, there's no such word. *Libram is, as far as I can tell, a complete fabrication. And yet today, it is widely used in role-playing games, and has over 8,000 Google hits, and I have yet to find one of those hits on an English page that suggests a non-gaming origin. I simply have no idea where it comes from. I don't know how it ought to be pronounced (Lee-brum and Lie-brum seem equally plausible). It isn't even good Latin; assuming that it must be from liber 'book', 'libram' is not a valid declination. It is the accusative singular form of the feminine noun libra 'balance, scales', but I presume that's not what we're after! And the less said about the "Libram Libris Bestiis Chaotis" from the Warhammer Fantasy Encyclopedia rulebook, the better!.

I'm completely baffled as to the origin of this term. And yet, I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out that Gygax was not the originator of this term, but was merely reproducing a word he found in his wide reading of fantasy and science fiction of the 1930s to 1960s. For instance, while he did not coin the terms, he is the popularizer of teleport and psionic, both of which feature prominently in Theodore Sturgeon's compelling 1953 SF novel More than Human, and eldritch, an old Scottish dialectal term used by pioneering fantasy authors such as Lord Dunsany and H.P. Lovecraft. I wouldn't exclude the possibility that *libram has a similar origin.

Update (May 31, 2007): An astute reader has emailed me to note that the word 'libram' occurs several times in the fantasy novel, The Eyes of the Overworld (1966) by Jack Vance. This precedes any D&D book by several years, and is a plausible source for the word. Using this tip, I was then able to find this Usenet post from December 2006 which traces it back to 1950 and Vance's collection of stories, The Dying Earth. This provides further support for the position that the word originated in genre fiction (probably that of Vance himself) and was later borrowed by Gygax (consciously or unconsciously) for D&D.

Ĝan Ŭesli Starling then added:

Beyond doubt, the term in D&D was derived from Jack Vance. Gygax himself admits that his inspiration for D&D was found in the Dying Earth, as he states here...

JACK VANCE & THE D&D GAME

This word "libram" is elsewhere defined as "the singular declension of libra". And so it may also be. It is of particular interest to me as I am presently translating "Cugel the Clever" (formerly "Eyes of the Overworld") into Esperanto. I can't go with "libramo" since that would simply mean "love of books". And I don't want to leave it simply as "book" for fear of losing the flavor. So I must likewise coin a new word. It shall likely be "librumo" which in Esperanto rules would mean "book-whatsit". And since my Esperanto ebooks are published with built-in dictionaries, I shall give it one I found long ago. "An unbound, loose-leaf book, clapped between wooden or leather covers. Or possibly semi-bound, the leaves edges clamped on one side under the fixed end of a hinged cover."

Unknown concurred saying:

Being a veteran Role Player; and I say that only do to the extent of years playing these fantasy type games. The word is indeed a book. More so not just any book. But one of Old, ancient or hidden lore, facts, information, and secrets. As some of us even associate real life things with that of fantasy it is completely valid for us to refer a recently found book of let's say ancient Mesopotamia as a libram. But mainly it would refer to such a book as having delved into secrets of power or magic. Since nothing like that exists in the real world. The definition stays to the realm of fantasy. However since it is being used more and more. I could see it making it's way into real life dictionaries.

So using this as a jumping off point, fleshing out a full definition of a libram as an article itself, will hopefully be undertaken as the larger body of work is ported into this Encyclopedia Hârnica.

— Mitchell Gore (talk) 11:25, 1 June 2020 (UTC)