I am sorry, but I have to jump in with the password, which is Ring bearer.

I guessed that a few posts back, but I think it was wrong.

Oh my! :o I'm so sorry. I must have missed it, because that's entirely correct.



1. SAURON Finnish invention replaced article with conjunction, tangled lord.
2. ESIWMAS Hobbit's reflection confuses action and location of fish.
3. ANNATAR Rodent jumped back after girl beguiled Elves.
4. G____ Small big boy girl puzzled king.
5. BILBO I replaced you in plant part before exclamation was heard by hobbit.
6. DEAGOL Leave in the middle of a bargain? Don't want to share assets.
7. ALATARIEL Science fiction princess lies back on top of sacrificial table for a crowned maiden.
8. ___R__ One of stone folk stumbles over nomad wizard.
9. ____E__ Revive muddled point, get near-palindrome.
10. _____R__ Dazed, cropped element joins thankless star for smith.



EDIT: Oh, I found it now. I think that was an edit which I cross-posted with. Sorry! :o

Oh! I thought Ringbearer was just a thematic password, if true. I didn't realise it was hidden in the letters.

No need to apologise, Galadriel!

Actually I was wrong. I put Ringbearers (plural), thinking every answer was one. So Urwen guessed it, really.

I am going to guess Celebrimbor for the smith, based on the position of the R. I made a list of all the smiths I could find, and he's the only one who would fit. But I also initially thought of him because he was a Ringbearer for a while.

Celeb is an element, but not cropped. Bor(on) could be said to be a cropped element. So, in a way, is brim(stone), the old-fashioned word for sulphur. But I think a cropped element has to join the thankless star and then the whole lot needs to be dazed/mixed. I still can't make it all work.

There are many different kinds of stars. ;)


1. SAURON Finnish invention replaced article with conjunction, tangled lord.
2. ESIWMAS Hobbit's reflection confuses action and location of fish.
3. ANNATAR Rodent jumped back after girl beguiled Elves.
4. G____ Small big boy girl puzzled king.
5. BILBO I replaced you in plant part before exclamation was heard by hobbit.
6. DEAGOL Leave in the middle of a bargain? Don't want to share assets.
7. ALATARIEL Science fiction princess lies back on top of sacrificial table for a crowned maiden.
8. ___R__ One of stone folk stumbles over nomad wizard.
9. ____E__ Revive muddled point, get near-palindrome.
10. CELEBRIMBOR Dazed, cropped element joins thankless star for smith.


Edit:As for the password, it's a bit of both - At first I was just going to make it thematic, but then I went for spelling it out as well. So you're both right in a sense. Ummm... rock paper scissors? :Merisu:

Edit2: ...Celeb is an element? :confused:

Celeb is silver, which is an element (Ag).

Ah, a cropped version of celebrity. I had thought of ty for thank you, but those letters weren't in anything I found.

I was even starting to play around with things grown as crops, or even the word hair, because hair can be cut/cropped.

Hang on ... it's not cropped celebrity, but thankless celebrity = celebri ... bor for a cropped version of boron ... but where do dazed and the M come from?

Or is it Br for bromine (I think) and O as an expletive/a gasp one might utter when dazed?

9. Nerwen? Renew + n, a near-palindrome, and a ringbearer (another name for one we've already had ;) ).

Ah, ok, the Elvish version. ;) I was just a bit confused for a second. :)

I was just meaning to scramble brom(ine).


1. SAURON Finnish invention replaced article with conjunction, tangled lord.
2. ESIWMAS Hobbit's reflection confuses action and location of fish.
3. ANNATAR Rodent jumped back after girl beguiled Elves.
4. G____ Small big boy girl puzzled king.
5. BILBO I replaced you in plant part before exclamation was heard by hobbit.
6. DEAGOL Leave in the middle of a bargain? Don't want to share assets.
7. ALATARIEL Science fiction princess lies back on top of sacrificial table for a crowned maiden.
8. ___R__ One of stone folk stumbles over nomad wizard.
9. NERWEN Revive muddled point, get near-palindrome.
10. CELEBRIMBOR Dazed, cropped element joins thankless star for smith.


Alright, the last two shouldn't be too hard given the password and theme. :)

As you said Olorin is wrong, the only one I can make fit for the Wizard is Tharkun. I didn't think it contained a dwarf name, though, unless Nar is one (yes, he is! Looked it up). The nomadic tribe element made it very difficult, because there are so many of them, and even then it probably has to be scrambled!

Galadriel contains girl and lad, but that leaves A and E. Perhaps E could be 'small big' as in very small version of enormous? King? Errrr ... still drawing a blank.

Or maybe LAD for boy, IG for small big, R for king
(Rex) and LEA for girl?

Maybe nomads are Thurk?

We need another R, though.

Reasoning is not right for Tharkun, but I think I may have had a hand in that.

Stone-folk was meant to refer to the people of Gondor, which translates as Stone-land. They are called Tarks by orcs. Tharkun is tark overlapping with hun.

As for #4, many right elements but wrong person. I can only think of two other Ringbearers off the top of my head whose names start with G. ;)


1. SAURON Finnish invention replaced article with conjunction, tangled lord.
2. ESIWMAS Hobbit's reflection confuses action and location of fish.
3. ANNATAR Rodent jumped back after girl beguiled Elves.
4. G____ Small big boy girl puzzled king.
5. BILBO I replaced you in plant part before exclamation was heard by hobbit.
6. DEAGOL Leave in the middle of a bargain? Don't want to share assets.
7. ALATARIEL Science fiction princess lies back on top of sacrificial table for a crowned maiden.
8. THARKUN One of stone folk stumbles over nomad wizard.
9. NERWEN Revive muddled point, get near-palindrome.
10. CELEBRIMBOR Dazed, cropped element joins thankless star for smith.

Gil-Galad ... were the three given to him before at least one was passed on to Cirdan?

LAD plus GAL plus IG.

Precisely so! I believe he wielded Vilya before giving it to Elrond.


1. SAURON Finnish invention replaced article with conjunction, tangled lord.
2. ESIWMAS Hobbit's reflection confuses action and location of fish.
3. ANNATAR Rodent jumped back after girl beguiled Elves.
4. GIL-GALAD Small big boy girl puzzled king.
5. BILBO I replaced you in plant part before exclamation was heard by hobbit.
6. DEAGOL Leave in the middle of a bargain? Don't want to share assets.
7. ALATARIEL Science fiction princess lies back on top of sacrificial table for a crowned maiden.
8. THARKUN One of stone folk stumbles over nomad wizard.
9. NERWEN Revive muddled point, get near-palindrome.
10. CELEBRIMBOR Dazed, cropped element joins thankless star for smith.



The list of names that didn't make it into the password was about twice as long as the password itself, and included a couple Dwarves. I've tried rearranging the password so many times to get more variety into it, but this is the best I was able to come up with, and even so, I had to reverse a name to make it fit. Gah! Maybe I should pick shorter words or better themes in the future.


Urwen, you've guessed the actual letters of the password, so I guess the thread goes to you (but kudos to Pervinca for getting the theme). The floor is yours. :)

Odd thing is, I did think of Gondor, but got sidetracked by the word Rammas, thinking they were a kind of stonemason people of Gondor. It was Peter Vaughan as BBC Denethor who wrong-footed me by the way he said a line: 'The walls ... that the Rammas built with so great a labour' was what it sounded like. I remember tarks popping into my head too. And Gil-Galad because of ringbearing, but I was nonplussed by boy girl large small and wondered if there was a king of Numenor called Tar-Oxymoron.

Anyway, a brilliant, challenging, enjoyable and quite inspirational Password puzzle!

P.S. If I'm honest, I was trying to make the Tharkun clue work with trolls as well. ;)

Ahahaha! Oh man! Tar-Oxymoron, the big small boy girl king queen of Numenor-not-Numenor. Sounds like a character from one of the Russian folk tales, where a king sends his servant to I-Don't-Know-Where, to fetch I-Don't-Know-What. Ah, if only...

It's probably because there was an Ozymandias and I always used to mistake the Z in it for an X ....

And that folk tale sounds very like the errand Dumbledore sent Harry on. ;)

Hehehe! Too true. :D

Well, I'll have to pass. I have exams coming up and don't have the time needed. Later.

I have one ready. Shall I post it?

All yours.

Inspired by Galadriel's. :)

1. Credulous fellow gains a thousand and a vital element. In turmoil is he revealed.
2. Lion sound? Horse? Mingles for a king.
NIARHT: Shire chief runs back, gaining direction. Stocky, stubborn bloke reflected.
DNORLE: Swinburne's poetic form muddles and loses you, we hear? Reflects a kindly lord, though.
ARWEN: Maiden close, with point in a muddle.
6. Matriarch in chaotic prison ship reflects him.
7. Hoopy chap in a spin.

I keep thinking Thrain for 3, even though that doesn't account for all the directional terms.

4. Elrond (roundel - u, scrambled)

5. Arwen (near + w)

Given the current discussions in the Books section, number 6 makes me think of Gollum's Grandmother. :D

All three are correct. Only one direction is mentioned, and R does the job, (added to THAIN spelled backwards, of course).

1. Credulous fellow gains a thousand and a vital element. In turmoil is he revealed.
2. Lion sound? Horse? Mingles for a king.
NIARHT: Shire chief runs back, gaining direction. Stocky, stubborn bloke reflected.
DNORLE: Swinburne's poetic form muddles and loses you, we hear? Reflects a kindly lord, though.
ARWEN: Maiden close, with point in a muddle.
6. Matriarch in chaotic prison ship reflects him.
7. Hoopy chap in a spin.

Is #2 "Aragorn"? ("roar" + "nag").

1. Credulous fellow gains a thousand and a vital element. In turmoil is he revealed.
ARAGORN: Lion sound? Horse? Mingles for a king.
NIARHT: Shire chief runs back, gaining direction. Stocky, stubborn bloke reflected.
DNORLE: Swinburne's poetic form muddles and loses you, we hear? Reflects a kindly lord, though.
ARWEN: Maiden close, with point in a muddle.
6. Matriarch in chaotic prison ship reflects him.
7. Hoopy chap in a spin.

Yes, and this password puzzle was inspired by Galadriel's in another way, besides some of the answers being spelled backwards. There is a connection between the answers, like Galadriel's connection, but with a slight twist.

Hey, Pervinca, can you remember the answer?

I will ping a message to her on Faceache.

Sorry, got my password wrong yesterday (the one for the forum ;)), and could not get in to post. I kept all my cryptic and password clues in a Word document, but could not find that one. I think there must be a later version of the document stored somewhere else. I will look again and also at the clues and see if I can remember ....

Supposing whoever wants to posts the next one and I keep hunting? I don't have time to put another password together.

We could still guess... and maybe you'll remember when and if we get it right.

Let's see... perhaps 1. is "Gollum".

Gull (credulous fellow), mixed up (in turmoil) with M for a thousand and O for oxygen.

Ring any bells?

And 6. could be "Lumahk" (i.e. Khamul backwards).

Ma (matriarch) inside mixed up (chaotic) letters of hulk (prison ship)- and then the whole name is "reflected".

I mean, those might not have been your solutions, but I think they're quite decent ones. Perhaps you could adopt them.

Though I don't have any idea what would link all these people...

Wait! The answer is "Gandalf".

You may not remember, Pervinca, but just look at it- it has to be!

I was going to say that prison ship could only be hulk and matriarch would be Ma. And credulous fellow would have to be fool or gull.

Yes, you are right. I am sure GANDALF is the password, and having read a post I made upthread I remember the connection between the clues (and also the password) was that all were connected with a Ring / in some way a ringbearer if you counted the Ring of Barahir (it was inspired by Galadriel's previous one, which had Ringbearer as the password and in which the answer to every clue was a Ringbearer). I also had to put some of the answers backwards to get a password, and I think Galadriel did that with one of hers, too.

The last of the clues should be easy now. ;)

Is it a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" reference? Frodo = anagram of "frood" = synonym of "hoopy" (in hitchhikerese).

Yes. Over to you!

GOLLUM: Credulous fellow gains a thousand and a vital element. In turmoil is he revealed.
ARAGORN: Lion sound? Horse? Mingles for a king.
NIARHT: Shire chief runs back, gaining direction. Stocky, stubborn bloke reflected.
DNORLE: Swinburne's poetic form muddles and loses you, we hear? Reflects a kindly lord, though.
ARWEN: Maiden close, with point in a muddle.
LUMAHK. Matriarch in chaotic prison ship reflects him.
FRODO: Hoopy chap in a spin.

Mark of a good password: can be solved without anyone's knowledge of the answer!

Nice cracking, Nerwen!

She certainly knows where her towel is. :p

Well, then-

1. Heating alcohol confuses unpleasant character.
2. Wronged king wanders among Central Asian mountains to discover her.
3. Deception and pursuit mingle for enchantress.
4. Radiant maiden is found where a backward age meets contemporaneity.
5. She is central to the current thing, we hear.
6. Muddled swamp track leads to another wronged ruler.
7. After a slight rearrangement she becomes fighting fit.