Inquisitor 52/Noel by Schadenfreude

This looked like it was going to be a tough puzzle but the theme dropped out quickly and helped me to fill in most of the answers. Initially I considered that Noel might be some devius trick like “No el” but it turns out it was more straightforwardly Christmassy.

The perimeter, which I got after getting just a couple of letters on the top row, and the internal oblong of 24 letters spelt out,

IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER
FROSTY WIND MADE MOAN
EARTH STOOD HARD AS IRON
WATER LIKE A STONE

This was written by CHRISTINA ROSSETTI and thus I had the missing letters available to me after having solved only a couple of the thematic clues. I only knew the first line but waking up my partner, she’s quicker than Google, I soon filled in the rest.

Afetr typing up the blog I realised that I’d filled in some answers without solving the clues. I leave the explanations as an exercise to the reader, or me if I have time to check before starting this week’s Listener.

The thematic clues below are listed with their grid entries and extra letters first. This is followed by the clue answer.

Across
8	HYAENA — alternate letters + A
9	INCHON — INCH+ON — this one had me for a while as I assumed that Yellow belonged to the word play and so the answer ended in OR. It turns out that Inchon is Korean port on the Yellow Sea.
10	DITHER + C – DITCHER — DIT+CHER
11	MOLOSSI — MO + (S+S in OIL*) — S is a medieval Roman numeral for 70. MOLOSSI are feet in verses. I assume “black” is being used as an anagram inicator here.
12	OTTAR + H – THROAT — THRO + TA<
15	EGOS + R – GORSE — S in GORE
16	IDOIST — IDIOTS* — Ido is a breakaway from Esperanto.
17	TEEN — ?
18	HOSENET — (ON THESE)*
19	SEROSA — SORE< in SA
21	DEWIER + I – WIERDIE — ?
24	METHUEN — MET + U in HE + N — Tom = Collins = English publisher threw me initially.
28	AS OF — A+S+O+F
29	TENSON — TENS+O+N — TENS are honor cards, N=Knight in chess. Finally, a TENSON is a competition between two troubadors.
30	TAIT + S – ?
33	REALO + T – ?
34	AUSTRIC — comp anag. OBSCURATION – BOON
35	ALTERS + I – SALTIRE — (A TILER IS – I)*
36	SCORNS — S+CORN+S
37	REGLET + N – GENTLER — L in G+ENTER

Down
1	TATTLER — ATTLEe in TRue
2	ENERGY — GREEN* + Y
3	BARDO + A – ABROAD — A+BROAD
4	ENOSIS + R – SENIORS — I in SENORS
5	KHOR — K+HO+R —
6	MOSSIE — O+SS+I.E. after M
7	INSIST + O – IONIST — (z)IONIST
11	MASORETIC — O in MASTER* +I.C. —
13	TWEE + S – SWEET — WE in SET
14	IDEE — (IE + DE)* — chIEfs and elDErs
20	SHOE — S+HOE — not sure about this one on reflection.
22	ISRAELI — R in IS+A+ELI
23	EORL + S – LOSER — S in ROLE*
24	MEDUSA + E – ?
25	ENESCO + T – CENOTES — C.E. + NOTES
26	UNKIND — UN+KIND
27	BIRLED + T – DRIBLET — DRIBLET
31	ALARM + I – LARIAM — I in LARA + M — ref Brian Lara.
32	ATOM — ATO+M — but I’m not sure how ATO comes from college – censor?

1 comment on “Inquisitor 52/Noel by Schadenfreude”