July brings a puzzle from a new compiler to me – Vagans. I await my illumination. The preamble took several reads to reveal four words to comprise a book’s title and four key witnesses as the unclued entries, 34 cells that are omitted in wordplay (all to be highlighted) and 17 extra characters in clues confirming the page of the book’s location. Then in each quarter symbols for each witness need to be highlighted or replaced with illustrations.
Nice and complex it certainly was though the subliminal text rather quickly had me thinking of illuminated religious manuscripts. Not our own Lindisfarne Gospels, currently exiled with the British Library (we do get it occasionally on day release), but the Book of Kells – produced by Columba with links to Iona on onwards to Lindisfarne.
The omitted letters combined with the two unclued entries in the perimter highlighted teh entirety of the perimeter and the our unclued entries clockwise from 12 MATT, MARK, JOHN and LUKE.
The extra characters in 17 clues yielded IE TCD MS 58 FOLIO 27 V specifying the page and its location in Trinity College Dublin (https://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/concern/folios/gf06g2906?locale=fr) – oddly there is a copyright notice on the image, or it seems odd to me anyway.
The illumination (click the link above to view) specifically shows a lion, eagle, bull and man (angel) going clockwise from 12. Which can be highlighted in the grid or replaced with more contemporary images to depict the four gospel writers.
My modern take – no one will want to view in 1500 years time, if indeed now.
Thanks Vagans – a hard slog but pleasurable and a highly effective end game. Took me a while to realise the 17 extra letters were correct
Key: * anagram; DD double definition; underline definition;
| Added | Missing | Across |
| D | 12 Early English flower found in Chester (3) | |
| ee (early english) = DEE | ||
| U | 13 Power lacking at first in Massachusetts musical piece (7) | |
| Ma (Massachusetts) around force (power) – f = MORCEAU | ||
| E | 14 New style letters (3) | |
| ns (new style) = ENS | ||
| I | 15 Mmm: am I a somewhat genteel parent? (4) | |
| Hidden mmM AM A = MAMA | ||
| A | 16 Heraldic flower girl (4) | |
| Lis (heraldic flower) = LISA | ||
| E | 17 Scots scrape distinction (5) | |
| clat (scots scrape) = ECLAT | ||
| E | 18 Cate’s cross, and sozzled after fool’s return (5) | |
| Rev, git (fool) + on (sozzled) = TIGON | ||
| M | 19 Humblest local river retreat (7) | |
| ea (local river) + nest (retreat) = MEANEST | ||
| R | 20 Life-giving drink accepted after caught in snare (6) | |
| a (accepted after c (caught) in net (snare) = NECTAR | ||
| E | 21 New French head infatuated in Nice (6) | |
| n (new) + tete(French head) = ENTETE | ||
| E | 23 Chatter about concerning bribe (6) | |
| gas(chatter) around re (concerning) = GREASE | ||
| R | 28 Refresh memory of Al? (6) | |
| E mind (AI) = REMIND | ||
| S | 30 Car firm with ordinary typists (6) | |
| audi *car firm) + o(ordinary) = AUDIOS | ||
| L | 32 Master antique point (4) | |
| ord (antique point) = LORD | ||
| T | 34 Squeaking sound of runt found in cloudy Kenya (5) | |
| c(cloudy) + eak(Kenya) around r = CREAK | ||
| C | 35 Mexican dish closing appeal for Spanish donkey (5) | |
| burrito(Mexican dish) – it (appeal) = BURRO | ||
| M | 36 Sullen gourmand no longer teetotal working (4) | |
| glutton (gourmand) – tt (teetotal) – on (working) = GLUM | ||
| R | 38 Difficult base trench on moon (5) | |
| ill (difficult) + e (base) = RILLE | ||
| D | 39 Rand reportedly freed from fibrous growth (6) | |
| Homophone of ran hared = HAIRED | ||
| E | 40 Behind in the Orient (7) | |
| astern (behind) = EASTERN | ||
| L | 41 Beetle! Ecstasy in frenzied view (6) | |
| e(ecstasy) in (evil)* = WEEVIL | ||
| YND | 42 Poetic expression of Elizabethan India (3) | |
| Definition = YND | ||
| EYRY | 43 Will’s stock of children (4) | |
| Definition = EYRY | ||
| Down | ||
| ADEEM | 1 Legally cancel with sale (5) | |
| Definition = ADEEM | ||
| F | 2 Nut leads church to receive stolen goods (5) | |
| en (nut) + ce(church) = FENCE | ||
| M | 3 Some items lack magnetic unit (5) | |
| hidden iTEMS LAck = TESLA | ||
| S | 4 Elegant colour worn by cast (6) | |
| man (cat) in hue (colour) = HUMANE | ||
| 5 | 5 Zeta 5th in French rank? The opposite (4) | |
| Hidden zETA Th = ETAT | ||
| 8 | 6 Problem arising in competition puzzle(6) | |
| Rev. sum(problem) in bee (competition) = BEMUSE | ||
| F | 7 Dash beneath floor endlessly leaking (6) | |
| oo (loor endlessly) + zing (dash) = OOZING | ||
| O | 8 King and Queen crossing moat in South African park (6) | |
| k (king) + er(queen) aaround rug(mat) = KRUGER | ||
| L | 9 Paper over lone German deception (5) | |
| ft (paper) around ein (one German) = FEINT | ||
| G | 10 Fife’s ungenerous in bid for face protection (7, two words) | |
| sma (Fife’s ungenerous) in ask (bid) = GAS MASK | ||
| 11 In away disposed to fall out (13) | ||
| QUARRELSOMELY | ||
| 21 Drink named for PM (8, two words) | ||
| EARL GREY | Definition EARL GREY | |
| I | 22 Corporation backing muti (3) | |
| Rev. mut = TUM | ||
| O | 24 Repetitive strain from man-o-war I oared (4) | |
| Hidden man-o-wAR I Ared = ARIA | ||
| N | 25 Summer child forward in embrace of Alderaan princess (7) | |
| Leia (Alderaan princess) around on (forward) = LEONIAN | ||
| 26 Trick last adults playing children’s games (7) | ||
| S | kid (trick) + ult (last) = KIDULTS | |
| 2 | 27 Re 2 rums I mixed for slippery customers (7) | |
| (re rums i)* = MURRIES | ||
| 7 | 29 A red TR7 performing badly in blistery skin condition (6) | |
| (a red tr)* = DARTRE | ||
| V | 30 Stomach in Val moving slowly (6) | |
| craw (stomach) in al = ACRAWL | ||
| E | 31 Rank dead heron missing tail (6) | |
| d (deda) + egret (heron) – t = DEGREE | ||
| 33 Old rogue that’s incomprehensible to me (5) | ||
| DD GREEK | ||
| Y | 37 Bulgarian bread tax (4) | |
| lev (Bulgarian bread) = LEVY |
Loved this, fairly close to a “perfect Inquisitor” in my view – tricky but doable clues, an interesting theme and a wonderful end result which looks remarkably like the page in question.
Thank you both!
I should have said “perfect EV”. Or perhaps “perfect barred puzzle of advanced complexity”. Oops 🙂
Yes, impressive. Vagans has had two puzzles in the Listener series. Born in Sunderland, I believe, as was Raich (Carter)