Guardians Of The Lost Library is a 1993 comic book story created by Don Rosa, originally published in the Danish Anders and Co and produced at the request of the European Disney publisher Egmont to commemorate 1993 being chosen by Norway as The Year of The Book. The story revolves around Scrooge McDuck and his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louey embarking on an adventure to discover the fate of the long-lost Great Library of Alexandria
, which contained all the knowledge of the ancient world.
Our story begins at the grand opening of the new Junior Woodchucks museum, where a bored Donald chaperones his nephews as they marvel over the many artifacts on display, including the first-ever merit badge, the eternal campfire, and most importantly - the oldest known copy of the Junior Woodchucks Guidebook, which once belonged to Clinton Coot, the founder of the Woodchucks and used by it's first members. While Donald doesn't find anything interesting about a worn, old book (aside from wondering how the original Woodchucks managed to carry the massive volume around), the nephews are excited, seeing the ancient tome as a symbol for the preservation of knowledge, something the Woodchucks take very seriously.
However, their visit is interrupted by commotion coming from the scoutmasters office, and the Ducks arrive in time to see Scrooge being ejected, having had his request to buy a copy of the Guidebook rejected for the umptenth time, as only official Woodchucks are permitted to possess it, and buying it is forbidden under any circumstances. Scrooge is disgruntled, as he knows all too well how valuable knowledge can be, and complains to his relatives that he wouldn't even need the Guidebook if he could only find the books he really wants - the lost Library of Alexandria, a massive collection of scrolls containing information and knowledge from countless civilizations and cultures, many of which have been completely forgotten in modern day. However, despite the general assumption that the library was destroyed at some point during the past 2000 years, the nephews point out that this isn't actually confirmed by the Guidebook, and there's a chance the library still exists somewhere. When Scrooge states that he could find the library if he was only able to combine his money with the Woodchucks Guidebook, the scoutmaster, who's overheard the argument, readily agrees, as the Junior Woodchucks will allow the use of the book for such a noble purpose, and even gives them the assistance of General Snozzie, the official Woodchuck bloodhound, an expert tracker who can even track the scent of ancient papyrus. With the backing of the Woodchucks, the Ducks are off to Egypt, with the exception of Donald, who remains behind to guard the Money Bin.
In Alexandria, the Ducks meet with historian Hassan ben Fedyet, and discover that the original library was moved to a secret location by Cleopatra during the Roman invasion in 49 BC. After an initial detour through a newspaper kiosk, the Ducks discover the library, a massive chamber hidden beneath a football stadium, which not only contains the scrolls, but also serves as the tomb of Cleopatra and Alexander the Great, in whos honor the library had first been founded by one of his generals, Ptolemy of Sotar. Unfortunately, the scrolls themselves have crumbled to dust over the past millenia, as papyrus scrolls are really nothing but glued grass strips, and the adventure seems to have ended up failure. However, in a side gallery, the Ducks find a few surviving parchments revealing that Cleopatra foresaw this problem, and had founded a secret society known as the Guardians of The Library, who were tasked with preserving it's knowledge no matter how much time passed. Before the loss of the original Library, this group had managed to copy it's contents to parchment scrolls and sent them to the new capital of civilization - Constantinople, or as it's known today, Istanbul.
The Ducks fare little better in Istanbul, as the parchments were destroyed in a fire a few centuries later, but the Guardians had managed to save the contents, as well as adding information from the great books of Islam, by copying it into a large set of books, which were unfortunately stolen during the sacking of the city by Crusaders in 1204. The books then made their way to Venice, where the monks made further additions to the library with books given to them by Marco Polo after his journey to the Far East. However, the books were lost once again when the monestary's bell tower collapsed, and while the Ducks manage to find their way down to the chamber, the books themselves have long since rotted away. Fortunately, before the collapse, the monks had made a set of 1000 copies, thanks to the invention of the printing press, which eventually fell into the hands of none other than Christopher Columbus himself, working as an agent for Lorenzo Di Medici, only to keep the books and sending them to Santo Dominga in 1498, but was arrested by the Spanish crown before he could use them for anything.
Deciphering Columbus's personal notes in his journals at Biblioteca Columbina, the Ducks realize that the next clue might be in the Spanish logs Scrooge himself had obtained during previous adventures, and the group race back to Duckburg, where they discover that not only did the library eventually end up with Francisco Pizarro, who added even more books to it taken from the defeated Incan empire, these books were eventually stolen in 1579 by Sir Francis Drake, shortly before his construction of Fort Drake Borough... better known as Fort Duckburg, the land of which the Money Bin itself stands on!
Having journeyed halfway around the world only to find out that the Lost Library might have literally been under their beaks the whole time, the Ducks quickly rush into the long-abandoned tunnels beneath Killmotor Hill, and eventually find the elusive books behind a collapsed passage... or, sadly, what is left of them after having been used as a buffet by the local rat population for the past 200 years. However, there is one more clue left behind, in the form of a metal case with the same Symbol of Toth the Ducks saw back in Alexandria, the emblem of the Guardians of the Lost Library. A carving reveals the final words of the last Guardian and sole survivor of Fort Duckburg - while the books were kept at the Fort, a group of scholars took it upon themselves to find and write down every piece of information and lore the Library contained which could not be found anywhere else, assembling all this knowledge into a single volume. Much to Scrooge's frustration the metal case is empty and this final book is lost as well...
...except not only is it not lost, it's been right in front of Scrooge this whole time. As the nephews point out, there's something very familiar about the Symbol of Toth used by the Guardians - upside down, it just so happens to resemble the letters J and two W's, as in the initials and logo of the Junior Woodchucks! The final copy of the Library isn't lost at all, it's the same worn, old tome that once served as the first Woodchuck Guidebook, the cover was simply so faded by the time Cornelius Coot found it that the Toth emblem was no longer legible, and his son Clinton had used it's general outline when he founded the Woodchucks, meaning that Scrooge's quest ends with the one book no amount of money can ever buy him, the Junior Woodchucks Guidebook.
While understandably depressed about the whole thing, Scrooge's spirits are lifted somewhat when the nephews point out that even if he'd found the original Library intact, he wouldn't have been able to keep it, since the Woodchucks would have insisted it be returned to Egypt as a cultural and historical relic rather than a treasure he could just claim for himself. That, plus the fact that he just avoided 2000 years of late library fines, makes Scrooge happier about the situation, while Donald complains about their chatter drowning out his guardstation TV.
"As if messing with books was as interesting as watching TV! Hah, that'll be the day!"
Tropes:
- Adapted Out: In-Universe example - when the Library was converted into books during it's time in Constantinople, the ancient Greek poetry and plays were unfortunately left out, leaving them completely lost when the parchments were destroyed in a fire. While the lore and general knowledge was more important, the cultural loss is still immesurable.
- Artistic License – History: The story claims that Alexander the Great founded Alexandria to be the capital of his empire; that was Babylon, Alexandria was always meant to be the capital of Egypt.
- Bittersweet Ending: The original Library is lost forever, and Scrooge can never get his hands on it's successor, but the adventure has led to some incredible historical discoveries, including the tomb of Alexander and Cleopatra, and the Woodchucks are revealed to be the modern-day successors of the Guardians of the Lost Library, even if they didn't know until now.
- Deadpan Snarker: The Woodchucks usually take respecting the elderly seriously, but the scoutmaster makes an exception for Scrooge; after Scrooge tries to Rules Lawyer his way into getting his hand on the Guidebook by outright joining the Woodchucks, the scoutmaster points out that to be a Senior Woodchuck, you have to start out as a Junior Woodchuck first, and Scrooge passed the age limit for that around the turn of the century.
- Demoted to Extra: Donald doesn't come along this time and stays behind in Duckburg to work security at the Money Bin.
- Due to the Dead: Cornelius Coot buried the remains of the last Guardian when he found the chamber beneath Fort Duckburg.
- Funny Background Event: During the argument outside the scoutmasters office, there's a bit of a commotion in the background due to an incident with the museum's Eternal Campfire, including the fire brigade and a Senior Woodchuck running by with a sign for "impromptu first aid lessons".
- Girls Have Cooties: Huey, Dewey and Louey are horrified when they realize that, as the modern incarnation of the Guardians of the Lost Library, the Woodchucks were technically founded by a girl!
- Great Big Book of Everything: The twist of the entire story is The Reveal of why the Woodchuck Guidebook is a Great Big Book of Everything in the first place - it contains all the information from the Lost Library and it's various incarnations over 2000 years that has been completely lost to history. While the loss of the rest of the Library is regrettable, the knowledge at least survived via other sources, but the information in the Guidebook was never recorded anywhere else. It only survived thanks to the Last Guardian, who wrote it down in the tome that would eventually become the first Guidebook.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: Scrooge knew about the tunnels, but since most of them were caved in when he bought Fort Duckburg, he never bothered looking around down there, and just electrified the metal door to use as a trap against burglars.
- No Antagonist: There's no actual enemies this time around, unless you count the passage of time.
- "Reading Is Cool" Aesop: The whole story was written to celebrate books as a medium, and goes into detail about their value and importance throughout history, along with their predecessors before book binding was invented. For humorous contrast, there's also Donald, who spends the whole story sitting on his ass watching TV in the Money Bin.
- Scarily Competent Tracker: General Snozzie, who's been trained to recognize and follow virtually any scent to it's source no matter how faint. This includes tracking the smell of ancient papyrus across Alexandria, even though the library itself is hidden underground.
- Surveillance Station Slacker : Donald has a job as security job at Scrooge's Money Bin, but spends his time watching television. This becomes a problem when the search goes out into the grounds surrounding the Bin. Scrooge assumes Donald will see what's happening and turn off the defenses, but since Donald's attention is on the boob tube...
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: While he takes it reasonably well, Scrooge is understandably miserable that he travelled across half the world and spent millions of dollars only to wind up right back in Duckburg with a book he's not allowed to own.
- Sole Survivor: The last Guardian was also the only survivor when angry natives overran Fort Duckburg, sealing himself up in the chamber to protect the library.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Every iteration of the Great Library was either lost or destroyed over the centuries, there's just no way to reliably preserve writing for that long unless it's been carved into stone. The original Egyptian scrolls just outright fell apart by themselves despite being sealed in brass tubes and hidden underground.
- Tracking Device: Invoked rather unusually with the Smell-O-Matic, a hand-held device created by Gyro that can be used to emmitt any smell imaginable. The Ducks use it so General Snozzie will know what to look for.
