Yrch?

And is (one of) the password(s) YULE?

Yrch is correct. Yule is not *quite* correct.

YRCH: ‘Oo, those awful ...!’ Quite translated.
2. Ancient people of divine spirit?
LALA: Two notes assemble to laugh.
4. Finesse changes note for a resplendent thing.

The only other word I can think of for a vertical is Yale - unless it's a diagonal. Ainu(r) for #2?

Is 4 elen? ELAN swapping the a for an e...

Indeed - Yale, the area of the Shire which Mithalwen once used as the answer for a clue.

'Elen,' meaning star, is also correct, for the reason that Mith gave.

'Ainu' - yes, I googled it and it is the name of an ancient people.

YRCH: ‘Oo, those awful ...!’ Quite translated.
AINU: Ancient people of divine spirit?
LALA: Two notes assemble to laugh.
ELEN: Finesse changes note for a resplendent thing.

So, over to Galadriel ... but can you tell me the other password first?

HUAN, the cute little talking puppy. :p

I looked up Ainu now, and they are a people from the Japan / Sakhalin area. That's really cool, I didn't know that before.

Will have a password up the next couple days.

Indeed!

And I didn't know about the ancient Ainu people either, until I googled the word.

YRCH: ‘Oo, those awful ...!’ Quite translated.
AINU: Ancient people of divine spirit?
LALA: Two notes assemble to laugh.
ELEN: Finesse changes note for a resplendent thing.

Oh I knew about Ainu from when I learnt Japanese but never thought of them.

Voila! Some of these might be a bit too tricky, so hints will be provided.


1. Confused, fool tells lie to small company. Twice noted helping hand.
2. Note the direction upheave male name for messenger.
3. Princes direct queue back.
4. Allow rodent to reverse. Broken by negative argument from king.
5. Short girl with unusual name sends storm north in the future.
6. Hero charged particle after broken record announced food.


Happy riddling!

Could the first one be FOLCO? Fool slightly muddled, plus C, small part of company (although I though at first it would be CO, standard abbreviation of company).

Folco lent a helping hand to Frodo when he 'moved' from Bag End (packing etc), and possibly he was only mentioned twice, although I think he was a conspirator as well (at least to some degree). Tells lies - didn't all the conpirators lie or at least deceive, to protect Frodo's secret?

Right person, and almost right name. The full answer accounts for all parts of the clue - your explanation puts too many as straight clues.

FOLCO BOFFIN.

I only know a Boffin as a sort of computer genius, though ... or an expert in a particular field.

Yes, curious fellow, Folco. Goes home after lunch and we don't hear of him again. Perhaps he wasn't in the 'full' conspiracy at all.

There is FIB for 'tell lies' (which I did try to work into the answer from the beginning), and I suppose the O in Boffin could give us CO instead of C, but that still leaves a spare FN that I can't account for.

3. ERNIL? Line backwards with the direction R in it?

FOLCO BOFFIN Confused, fool tells lie to small company. Twice noted helping hand.
2. Note the direction upheave male name for messenger.
ERNIL Princes direct queue back.
4. Allow rodent to reverse. Broken by negative argument from king.
5. Short girl with unusual name sends storm north in the future.
6. Hero charged particle after broken record announced food.


I broke down Folco Boffin into anagrams - fool=loon, lie=fib, small company=co, twice noted=FF.

I have been trying to make 4 a king of Numenor because their names are usually prefixed Tar- which is rat backwards. I wondered about Telemmaite because it starts with let (allow) backwards but I can't make the rest work.. back to drawing board?

Let and rat are correct. Not king of Numenor, but related to them.

PS: I realized that my clue for 5 doesn't follow proper format. I really like the clue, but I'll edit it to make it more solvable.


FOLCO BOFFIN Confused, fool tells lie to small company. Twice noted helping hand.
2. Note the direction upheave male name for messenger.
ERNIL Princes direct queue back.
4. Allow rodent to reverse. Broken by negative argument from king.
5. Short girl with unusual name sends storm north in the future to the forest.
6. Hero charged particle after broken record announced food.

Telcontar?

Not sure about the con - it's swindle, or else learn in Shakespearean, or with i Italian, I think, none of which work. Perhaps there is a Latin term used in debating that I don't know?

I was just going for con, as in pros and cons. :confused: Maybe it's not as used your side of the pond?

FOLCO BOFFIN Confused, fool tells lie to small company. Twice noted helping hand.
2. Note the direction upheave male name for messenger.
ERNIL Princes direct queue back.
TELCONTAR Allow rodent to reverse. Broken by negative argument from king.
5. Short girl with unusual name sends storm north in the future to the forest.
6. Hero charged particle after broken record announced food.

Oh! Excellent clues. I was just thinking of the wrong kind of argument - a debate (where you'd have things like non-sequiturs) rather than the arguments for or against doing something.

2. Note the direction upheave male name for messenger.

Could this be GELMIR, the messenger of Cirdan?

Had to work backwards, but I managed to find REG (male name) heaved backwards; L is a direction; MI is the name of a note.

That was perfect reasoning, but sadly wrong messenger.

Maybe CIRION?

C for note, R for direction, and can 'Ian' also be spelled 'Ioin?'

If it's correct, I can see ERIO (Sindarin for 'risen') going up the second column of letters, but I don't know anything with only two letters before that; Eglerio is one letter too long. I can also see BOIL as a diagonal, but that's not much good either. ;)

Not Cirion. This messenger has been used recently in another password - can't remember for sure but I think it was even one of your own. :)

Also, neither password is correct. :p

If crap messengers count, I'll try to do something with Barliman. ;)

Brian + l + a ... but alas no m.

I guess messengers have to complete the job to qualify. ;)

Ok... You're looking for a male name that is actually an animal, at least etymologically.

Hope this helps you find the right one.

My bad. It wasn't your password. I just looked it up and it was one of Urwen's.

Ebor = E+Bo+R?

I read in a book that Bo could be a male name.....

Not Ebor. Remember, etymologically the name means a certain animal - and you wouldn't have to check the dictionary to recognize this one.

Ceorl? Roe reversed + C + L

It's Ceorl, but the male name in question is Leo. Roe also works here, but it's female. Good catch, I haven't even considered it.

FOLCO BOFFIN Confused, fool tells lie to small company. Twice noted helping hand.
CEORL Note the direction upheave male name for messenger.
ERNIL Princes direct queue back.
TELCONTAR Allow rodent to reverse. Broken by negative argument from king.
5. Short girl with unusual name sends storm north in the future to the forest.
6. Hero charged particle after broken record announced food.

I think 5 is Eryn Lasgalen

You think correctly.

Excellent work. I get everything except 'the future.' Is there another name for the future tense, or the future tense in another language, perhaps?

Wait... oooops. :o

Massive screw up. :o


The final answer is not Eryn Lasgalen. Thank you Pervinca for noting the "future". The rest of the clue codes for Eryn Lasgalen, but you need the last bit to get to the final answer.

I'm really sorry for this confusion. I was posting off my phone, saw a familiar word, and didn't bother checking it with the clue. I will try to be more careful with that in the future. :(

All I can think of is Mirkwood or Taur-nu-Fuin, because that forest would be called Eryn Lasgalen in the future.

If I put Mirkwood in, I think I can read Crickhollow down the fourth column of letters followed by the fifth, if a) the last row/line is not used the second time round or b) the answer to the final clue is short enough not to stretch to line 5.

I have thought all along, though, that the final clue ends in ION, and I now think the fourth letter of it is H. I have toyed with Erchamion (or Cuthalion), but simply couldn't make the letters all work (apart from HAM for food in Erchamion).

Oh, hang on, is ERC enough of record for broken record? I kind of wondered stuff like this, but thought it too much of a long shot.

Bravo!


FOLCO BOFFIN Confused, fool tells lie to small company. Twice noted helping hand.
CEORL Note the direction upheave male name for messenger.
ERNIL Princes direct queue back.
TELCONTAR Allow rodent to reverse. Broken by negative argument from king.
MIRKWOOD Short girl with unusual name sends storm north in the future to the forest.
ERCHAMION Hero charged particle after broken record announced food.

I had an idea to do a password that goes to the second column and had to find a word that would be long enough, not obvious enough once you got a couple letters, and have decent letter combinations. At first I couldn't think of anything with KW, but Enc. of Arda suggested Mirkwood, so I stuck with Crickhollow as the password.

Sorry again about the confusion with Mirkwood. And yes, ERC is broken REC, which stands for record.

So over to you now. :)

That was a challenging one. I searched and searched for that password!

Where was the 'announced' bit, though?

Isn't it another way of saying precedes?

Yeah, that's what I was aiming for.

I think some of the best clues on the cryptic thread are those that read as completely normal sentences, and only upon very careful dissection appear as clues at all. I try to make mine that way, but it doesn't always work. But if I can find a synonym that works better within the sentence, I think it makes the clue better.