Someone was remarking the other week that we hadn’t seen an eimi puzzle for ages. This was a good ‘un, but those sleepwalking into it and expecting the usual easyish Monday morning fare might have been woken up with a bit of a start.
The first thing that struck me was the grid, screaming nina in the outer squares. Unless CEFT is a word then I was wrong on that one. So I’m guessing that the unusual grid was there just to allow the setter to fit in his theme this morning: the works of SEAMUS HEANEY, the Irish poet (and much else) who passed away just a fortnight or so ago. The poet himself features at 22 across. I’m not personally intimately familiar with his work, but a quick post-solve flirt on the internet shows that the following are works of his: SPIRIT LEVEL, BEOWULF (in translation), STATIONS, SEEING THINGS. There may be others that I have missed; Heaney aficionados can no doubt put me right.
I found this tough, but a fine tribute to a man whom the Independent described on his death as ‘probably the best-known poet in the world’ . Bravo, eimi.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
5 Night Genesis performed while hallucinating
SEEING THINGS
(NIGHT GENESIS)*
8 Operatic heroine caught ape
MIMIC
A charade of MIMI, the operatic heroine from Puccini’s La Bohème, and C for ‘caught’.
9 Solving acrostic and learning by asking questions
SOCRATIC
(ACROSTIC)* with ‘solving’ as the anagrind. The Socratic method was based around asking and answering questions.
10 French comedian surrounded by natives in Waterloo and Victoria?
STATIONS
An insertion of TATI in SONS for ‘natives’. Jacques TATI, the French director and actor; my favourite of his is Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot.
11 Charlie Lincoln, an African leader
MUGABE
A charade of MUG and ABE Lincoln. I think eimi is being a bit kind to describe him as a ‘leader’. I could think of other words.
12 Feels regret about cripples without books
LAMENTS
An insertion of NT for ‘New Testament’ or ‘books’ in LAMES.
14 An old tale in book, the return of illness and misery
BEOWULF
A charade of B for ‘book’ and a reversal of FLU and WOE. The Anglo-Saxon tale that Heaney translated.
Hwæt! We Gar-Dena in gear-dagum
þeod-cyninga, þrym gefrunon.
Listen! We of the Spear-Danes in the days of yore
of those clan-kings heard of their glory.
16 A shade rum, perhaps
SPIRIT
A dd, which I couldn’t see until I looked in Collins. Definition 8 of ‘shade’: ‘literary, a ghost’.
18 Neglected old widow on the outskirts of Dundee
DERELICT
Collins is getting dog-eared. ‘Relict: an archaic word for widow.’ So it’s a charade of DE for the outer letters of ‘Dundee’ and RELICT.
20 King’s concealing pound in underwear
KNICKERS
An insertion of NICKER, for the slang word for ‘pound’ in K’S for ‘King’s’.
21 Uniform, either way you look at it
LEVEL
Because LEVEL is a palindrome.
22 Yes, a muse somehow inspired the man, a Nationalist poet from Northern Ireland
SEAMUS HEANEY
An insertion of HE for ‘man’, A N for ‘a Nationalist’ in (YES A MUSE)* ‘Somehow’ is the anagrind and ‘inspired’ (breathed in) is the inclusion indicator. Seamus Heaney was born in Northern Ireland but spent much of his life in Dublin, so I am going to describe this as an &lit clue. And a clever one.
Down
1 Rebuilt temple with ornamental drapery
PELMET
(TEMPLE)*
2 Pilgrimage site not to be considered? Excellent!
KNOCKOUT
More Irish references: KNOCK is a place of pilgrimage in County Mayo and OUT is ‘not to be considered’. If Spurs, just to take a random example, are OUT of the FA Cup, then they are ‘not to be considered’ for the next round.
3 Secret police’s arrest
STASIS
STASI’S. A dd.
4 Old TV regulator involved in any unfinished TV show
SITCOM
An insertion (‘involved’) of ITC in SOM[E]. ITC was the Independent Television Commission, which finished its work in 2003.
5 Tree in which an MP urinates perhaps
SUMATRAN PINE
(AN MP URINATES)* Not the best-known tree on earth (this is an eimi puzzle) but PINE looked likely for the four-letter part of the clue and the rest made sense from the anagram fodder and a couple of crossers. MPs have committed myriad transgressions, but weeing from a tree is not one of them. Yet.
6 City equally good in warmth of feeling
GLASGOW
An insertion of AS G for ‘equally good’ in GLOW.
7 Left one with a coil badly fitted – worse than badly
DIABOLICALLY
(L I A COIL BADLY)* ‘Fitted’ is the anagrind (if you ‘fitted’, you’d be shaking about). I don’t want to dwell on the surface reading of this too much, and I’m a man.
13 Not all clear a cheque, which is a pain
EARACHE
Hidden in clEAR A CHEque.
15 Breaking golden rule, not starting with university drop-out registered
ENROLLED
Slightly naughty. You have to take ‘golden rule’ together as the bit you have to ‘not start’, so that gives you OLDEN RULE. Drop U for ‘university’ from that and you’ve got OLDEN R[U]LE. Make an anagram (‘breaking’) of that and you’ve got your answer.
17 Louise’s friend cast in Hamlet
THELMA
Referring to the film Thelma and Louise. Great film; sad ending. (HAMLET)*
18 Stop MI6 probing dead alien
DESIST
MI6 is the Secret Intelligence Service or SIS; put that in D for ‘dead’ and ET for the setters’ favourite ‘alien’, and DESIST is your answer.
19 Abscond from somewhere in the Middle East
LEVANT
Collins has taken a hammering this morning: ‘levant: to bolt or abscond, esp to avoid paying debts’. And with its capital letter, the LEVANT is a word for parts of the Middle East. Comes from the present participle of the French verb lever, meaning ‘rising’, since the sun rises in the East. I never knew that. But as is usual with an eimi puzzle, I normally know more when I’ve finished than when I started. Thanks to him for today’s thoughtful offering.
Thanks, Pierre, for a great blog of a great puzzle – what a lovely tribute. Many thanks to eimi.
Excellent surfaces throughout but 22ac is an absolute gem. Other favourites were 9, 18 [I’m the widow of a Dundonian, but never lived there!] 20 ac and 5dn.
The only other Heaney work I can see is LAMENTS [translation].
I knew the ‘Middle East’ meaning of LEVANT but not the verb. I’m sure I’ve seen RELICT on tombstones.
Re your comment on 17dn, Pierre: you could say the same about ‘Hamlet’!
I enjoyed learning a few old-fashioned (archaic?) words in this puzzle. New words for me were LEVANT = abscond, Charlie = mug/fool, RELICT = widow, NICKER = pound sterling as well as SUMATRAN PINE, PELMET, and KNOCK shrine.
I liked 17d, 6d, 14a, 10a and my favourite was 5a SEEING THINGS.
I couldn’t parse 18d, 18a.
Thanks Eimi and Pierre.
Merci Pierre, I didn’t find the too hard at all, wasted a bit of time looking for Ninas (Only spotting Manchester United player Nani but discounting that due to Eimi’s known preferences)
Heaney’s works are/were largely unknown to me so thanks for the spade work.
15d I wonder if Eimi would have allowed this construction by anyone else as it really reads as [GOLDEN (r)(u)LE]*
Thanks Eimi for the fun.
I didn’t find this too hard despite not knowing any of the Heaney works, and I found it an enjoyable solve.
I agree with flashling’s comment about 15dn.
I didn’t know the SUMATRAN PINE but the answer seemed to be obvious enough from the anagram fodder, and DIABOLICALLY was my LOI.
I got my 20ac in a twist trying to fit in an L for pound, before I bowed to the obvious without understanding the parsing. I had heard of the tree, but not any of the poet’s body of work. I thought this was a perfect Monday crossword- toughish, but solvable in a reasonable time ( well under the hour), and no esoteric words from the outer reaches of the dictionary.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Thanks eimi for an enjoyable puzzle and Pierre for the blog. As usual, the theme passed me by, but, also as usual, this did not matter.
In 5dn, I wondered if the MP was a reference to a cricketer rather than a politician. Given that 2dn was my last clue solved I thought for some time that there might be a Nina on the top row related to this – or am I just owning up to a seriously dirty mind?
Thanks for the parsing of 15dn. I did not work it out myself, but can see nothing wrong with it.
Nicely themed puzzle with a great clue for SEAMUS HEANEY.
Thanks Pierre; I too was a bit misled by the non-starting golden rule but it became obvious with the crossers.
I particularly liked BEOWULF and the nicely hidden EARACHE.
We weren’t aware of the setter and had we known who it was we would have looked further – as it was the theme passed us by!
What was also strange was completing the puzzle last thing at night as we normally do when we aren’t blogging and then finding that the blog was not up and running to check things! It’s now just after 5:30 am here so we’ve had a good sleep in the meantime and really enjoyed reading your blog this morning Pierre – as much fun reading it as we had solving the puzzle.
Thanks Eimi and Pierre!
A good puzzle and very topical, as we see in The Indy often. Thanks Eimi for the celebration of a graet life.
Rowly
22a is very good.
We need a name for clues like this. It actually works as a regular 2-part clue with the def as indicated, but then you can extend the def leftwards bit by bit until even with the whole lot it still works (if you’re happy to let it – which I am) as a def.
Maybe Nationalist should have been lower case in Heaney’s case as in the Irish context it has a particular meaning which the capital N emphasises at the expense of the more general one. Heaney was never far from that issue but studiously avoided partisanship.
I don’t think I’ve ever complained about capitalisation before.
Nice tribute puzzle.
Merci, Pierre and thanks to all commenters. It’s true that the crossword Muse hasn’t been seen around Eimi Towers much lately but I thought the passing of a great literary figure should be marked.
I can see why 15D might be considered a bit misleading but I’d suggest it could be taken the way I meant it and at least one commenter agrees.
Perhaps I could start a trend of concealing Nanis rather than Ninas, but Flashling is right about Nani not being popular with Spurs fans, although he did inspire one of my favourite chants heard at the Lane, when sporting one if his more ridiculous hairstyles: “Shit Michael Jackson, you’re just a shit Michael Jackson”.