Comments on: Financial Times 14,242 by Monk http://www.fifteensquared.net/2013/02/20/financial-times-14242-by-monk/ Never knowingly undersolved. Wed, 22 May 2013 18:06:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: vinyl1 http://www.fifteensquared.net/2013/02/20/financial-times-14242-by-monk/#comment-221101 vinyl1 Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:32:45 +0000 http://www.fifteensquared.net/?p=55877#comment-221101 DNF, couldn’t get ‘treenail’.

I found the use of obscene clues in the FT a little surprising, but the puzzle is so obscure maybe nobody noticed.

Does anyone know what actual lanaguage Tolkien based this on? It appears to be some sort of Turkic dialect.

]]> By: Monk http://www.fifteensquared.net/2013/02/20/financial-times-14242-by-monk/#comment-221043 Monk Wed, 20 Feb 2013 18:45:10 +0000 http://www.fifteensquared.net/?p=55877#comment-221043 Thanks to PeeDee for yet another spot-on blog, and to others (especially Rowland @ 4 :) ) for comments. The Nina additionally linked to 6dn RING and 26ac DARKNESS in the grid, and was inspired by nothing more meaningful than seeing LOTR on TV over the Xmas hols. As a teenage geek, I memorised the verses in the language of Mordor; as a middle-aged geek, I remembered them.

]]> By: PeeDee http://www.fifteensquared.net/2013/02/20/financial-times-14242-by-monk/#comment-221039 PeeDee Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:25:34 +0000 http://www.fifteensquared.net/?p=55877#comment-221039 Well done Tom (and Thomas)!

]]> By: Tom_I http://www.fifteensquared.net/2013/02/20/financial-times-14242-by-monk/#comment-221037 Tom_I Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:06:12 +0000 http://www.fifteensquared.net/?p=55877#comment-221037 Thomas99 @2 is almost right. The nina around the outside is “Agh burzum-ishi krimpatul”, which is apparently part of the inscription in Black Speech which appears on the “One Ring” in Tolkein’s Middle-Earth novels when it is heated.

The whole reads:
Ash nazg durbatulûk,
Ash nazg gimbatul,
Ash nazg thrakatulûk
Agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.

Which translates as:
One ring to rule them all,
One ring to find them,
One ring to bring them all
And in the darkness bind them.

What the significance of it is, I don’t know.

]]> By: Rowland http://www.fifteensquared.net/2013/02/20/financial-times-14242-by-monk/#comment-221013 Rowland Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:12:14 +0000 http://www.fifteensquared.net/?p=55877#comment-221013 Good stuff!! The tight clues I really like, no spare fluff.

Cheers Monk and PeeDee

Rowly.

]]> By: PeeDee http://www.fifteensquared.net/2013/02/20/financial-times-14242-by-monk/#comment-221007 PeeDee Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:22:21 +0000 http://www.fifteensquared.net/?p=55877#comment-221007 My younger daughter currently lives in Middle Earth (only returning here for meals) but she doesn’t recognise it.

]]> By: Thomas99 http://www.fifteensquared.net/2013/02/20/financial-times-14242-by-monk/#comment-220998 Thomas99 Wed, 20 Feb 2013 11:41:23 +0000 http://www.fifteensquared.net/?p=55877#comment-220998 Oh my God! He’s put a Nina round the edge in Tolkienian weirdspeak (sorry I can’t be more precise – I don’t think it’s Elvish)! “Agh burzum-ishi krumpaul” apparently means “and in the darkness bind them”, or something.

]]> By: Thomas99 http://www.fifteensquared.net/2013/02/20/financial-times-14242-by-monk/#comment-220997 Thomas99 Wed, 20 Feb 2013 11:36:52 +0000 http://www.fifteensquared.net/?p=55877#comment-220997 Very hard I thought – but still amusing. Thanks for the blog.

20a is a compound anagram: w (with) + treenail = waterline. But to be honest I haven’t really arrived at a cryptic reading I’m happy with, which is not to say it isn’t out there. I was fairly punch-drunk by the time I cam to this, my last clue, so can’t really be trusted.

I think it’s actually a mixture of hard and easier clues, but the overall effect, with the rare words too, was super-hard for me.

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