Ghyll:Blivingdel
Though brought up in relative poverty, the little grub known as Blivvy grew up to be a powerful intellect in a range of historic and lexicographic fields.
Blivingdel was born -57 EC in a small village northeast of Cranee. He was orphaned at a very early age, but survived well enough to travel to Bute at age 13 and entered the university the following year.
He graduated from Bute University in -37 EC with advanced degrees in whingelism and theoalchemy.
After several years as Chairman of the Department of Bakery, a teaching fellowship in the Department of Gravitas, a two year hitch in the Navy, and the failed courtship of Lane Smallwood, he was offered the presidency of the Bureau of Forgotten Knowledge in -11 EC, succeeding Awal (of whom little is written).
Although the Bureau of Forgotten Knowledge doubtless hired him on the strength of his groundbreaking work on Theoarchaeology, Blivingdel is also known to have made extensive study of the Wadjidir and has published on the topic in Quester and Phorrus. Despite such recovered knowledge work, the concept of the forgotten landscape posited in Blivingdel's theoarchaeological work has become a key element of the Bureau's study during his presidency.
Blivingdel is also a noted linguistic scholar. He and Sir Rumsfeld Tiggerwort are the only Ghyllians known to be able to read 2.5ary script (see Ziggurat Scrolls; his interpretation of the Ziggurat Scrolls in -4 EC, is widely held to be a far more exact and accurate translation than the rush job put out by Sir Rumsfeld Tiggerwort two years earlier), and he has also published translations of Ternary Script (see AuroAnthropology). He is said to be presently developing a complete dictionary of core script, despite the conflict between such obvious and deliberate documentation and the work of the Bureau.
Blivingdel suffers from an advanced case of fatal retrackets, which has not yet seriously impacted his work, but which is likely to end his life within a year or two. He has begun evaluating possible successors as the next president of the Bureau of Forgotten Knowledge, but a clear heir apparent is not yet named.
Blivingdel's Bibliography (partial)
| Date | Publication |
|---|---|
| -27 to -9 EC | various articles on the Wadjidir in Quester and Phorrus |
| -24 EC | Fylesgate Annals: Ternary Fragments 23-147 (trans.) |
| -23 EC | recipe for baked lemming pie |
| -19 EC | lyrics to "Across the Waves" in Naval Gazing Gazette |
| -12 EC | paper on the foundations of Theoarchaeology |
| -4 EC | translation of the Ziggurat Scrolls |
| forthcoming | dictionary of core script |
Citations: retrackets, Bureau of Forgotten Knowledge, core script.
--Brother Arfrus 14:27, 27 May 2005 (EDT)
