The Trolls, The Pedants, and The Fox: A Parable

The Pedants sat in a small pub, discussing their trade (Pedantry, or course). When a new student would arrive with an interest in Pedantry, the Pedants would offer the student insights, and sometimes give them whole books, or objet d'art, or basic yes and no answers for all occasions.

The Fox snuck into the pub, as a fox is want to do, and listened. He neither asked questions, nor contributed to the Trade of Pedantry. Doing so, he thrived, and grew great with knowledge and devious tricks.

A Troll sat on a dunce stool in the town square, and watched as the students who walked into the small pub came out with books and scrolls. They chanted strange phrases he did not understand. He saw how this impressed the townsfolk, and even caused some townsfolk to give the students money.

The Troll did not want to understand, but did want to impress the townsfolk and be given money too. So he walked into the small pub. The Pedants saw him, listened to his request, and assuming he was a student as those before him, they gave him a tattered bit of papyrus. He smiled and left.

When he got outside the pub, he chanted the incomplete phrase and nothing happened. So he went back into the pub, loudly proclaiming it didn't work. The Pedants were surprised, and after much back and forth, filled in all of the rest of the scroll for the Troll. The Troll walked outside, and read his prize, a simple love poem. He was excited, and left to show it to the other Trolls.

When he read the poem, the Trolls demanded to know where he got it. "I got it from the Pedants in the small pub. If you tell them a chisel doesn't work, they send you away with a sculpture. If you tell them their papers are busted, they send you away with a new book. I bet if you challenged them that something could not be done, they would do it for you."

So, the Trolls began to frequent the Small Pub, one at a time. Their silly games wore on the Pedants. Soon, apt pupils (who had not yet learned how to ask or say anything pedantically) were being mistaken for Trolls, and being ushered from the small Pub.

This annoyed the Fox greatly, as, if the Pedants were not being Pedantic, he would have to return to foraging for tricks and tidbits for his cache.

So the Fox followed the Trolls back to their cave. He waited until they left for the small pub, where they would continue to displace apt pupils, and where they would harass the Pedants, saying how the people in the pub knew little skill, and would laugh amongst themselves at their own cleverness.

The Fox snuck into the cave, as a fox is want to do, and ate their babies.