Could the keys refer to the keys on a piano? Seven keys in an octave (not counting the actual octave) ABCDEFG. Could the six keys surround a seventh? For example. ABC and EFG surround D. Just a thought.
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Morning thoughts.
After a couple days pondering I’ve put together a video of what I know so far based on these clues. Also at the end I’ve added my self-assessment of my progress.
So… I’ve tried to connect these clues to the map. No luck.
I’ve tried to make some sort of coherenet case that these clues refer to some object of art. No luck.
I’ve tried cryptic crosswords, synonyms, all sorts of calendars with various animals and objects representing months. Nothing.
Let’s go back to square one. We used to just have a map, and clues from this journal. Can anyone even remotely see something in the map that refers to this?
For ‘Six Keys Surround Another’ I see the Castle of Seven Towers, and the SEVEN DWARVES. Neither really fit.
I’ve tried looking for some location named ‘CC’ to look above. I see ‘Cockpaidle Cape’ In Elfin Sound) right inside the double rainbow. But nothing really interesting above it. Are there others CC;s?
‘Millenary Outstretched Arms Reveal Sadko’s Temptation’
Milenary means ‘for a thousand years’. Arms outstetched might mean waiting? Sadko’s Temptation might mean wealth? Am I even same at this point?
So…how are you?
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Millenary can also refer to people as an adjective (as it is used here). Reading the story of Sadko, his temptation looked to be “three times 300 mermaids”
So “a thousand outstretched arms shows mermaids”… not that that helps me find anything obvious
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New email. Titled “Friday the 16th”
Good afternoon,
I just wanted to send a quick update before the weekend. The packages Carfax shipped have started arriving and I’ve left them in your library, as requested.
I’ve received a few more RSVPs and I will upload an updated RSVP list to your index this evening or Monday.
Also, I finally booked my flights for Christmas. I’ll be flying out Friday the 23rd and be returning the evening of the 27th, but I will of course be available during that time if you need anything.
And last thing, if you don’t mind, I’ll back in the loft this weekend to continue my work with the journal.
Safe travels,
LE
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@Robert there is one other CC I can spot - the Caves of Chrysolite (far right, near Andromeda and Perseus or the Southe Beacon). Above this CC is the Beach of Pearls - pearls maybe could have been a temptation of Sadko’s?
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I’ve got so little useful to share, but I think I may have found one, tiny, sliver of a thing.
“Six Keys Surround Another”
I’ve been looking at the map a lot and I notice one of the items in the legend is a key symbol that stands for a Dwarf’s Treasure. After looking a while I’m pretty sure there are exactly 6 of these key symbols on the map. (Cut to 5 minutes from now when someone points out I’ve missed 3 more and this theory is crap). All 6 are in the same area, and kinda, sorta form an perimiter that could…if you squint and wish upon a star…might surround something?
1 Just below Rapunzel’s tower
2 North of key 1 past Bogles corner
3 NE (traditional NE, not this backwards E-W) of key 2 over the word ‘Japonel’
4 SE of key 3 by the words TomTitTot lives here
5 S a ways of key 4 just beyond the great wall
6 NW of key 5 in the middle of the dwarf caves
I don’t see anything obviously helpful in that area it surrounds though. The dwarven caves are in there. Belle’s castle. Dormante. The Relpies Hamlet. And Hanzel and Gretel are in there.
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Stumped here too. Are we looking for a bunch of places on the map? What about the coordinates? I’ve attached the picture of the keys you found @Robert - just for those of us who are more visual.
Kind of makes an irregularly shaped hexagon? Seems like this would definitely fit for the 6 keys part
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Thank you, my image manipulation skills are non existant.
That’s the area the chicken runs through in the last leg of the story before she takes off for her swim. Is that meant to be a clue where she entered the water? Don’t know.
And yeah, what about the 5 other lines from the journal? So many questions.
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Yeah… I’m upstairs reading bedtime stories to my 3 year old trying to cast one of the most difficult spells I know ‘Go the heck to sleep’. I’ve read her 7 books, and she asks me to read another one. No exaggeration, this was the conversation.
“Okay, which one?”
“The one on the table”
“The owl one?”
“No, that one” (pointing)
"Oh, the halloween one, okay’
“No the other one.”
“Honey, there’s only two books here.”
“Oh, never mind it’s gone.”
Now, this isn’t the first time she’s pointed at something that ‘isn’t there’. But it still sent a shiver down my spine. Then I finally get her out and come down to find @The_Book_of_Briars has edited one of my posts… They highlighed ‘SEVEN DWARVES’ in an earlier post of mine.
Remind me not to piss off my daughter…
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Your daughter is clearly magical (magiqal?)
So the Seven Dwarves…what are we supposed to do with them?
For dark water writhes - maybe the Greate Whirpoole or the Storm Area has something to do with it? I don’t know what they would have to do with Castor though
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Well fun fact I just learned. The original 7 dwarves from Grim’s stories didn’t have names. I’m glad I don’t have to spend time trying to work ‘happy and sneezy’ into the Book of Briars.
The only names that were in circulation I can find at the time this map was created (1920) were from a 1912 stage play of the story. Their names in that play were.
Blick, Flick, Glick, Plick, Quee, Snick, Whick
I’ll be honest I don’t get what the connection to the rest of these lines is though.
Maybe the line
“Heart. Bone. Pig. Spider. Vinegar. Sheep. ???”
is suppose to be the names of the dwarves? With 6 named and we have to come up with the 7th? I don’t see any kind of pattern there though.
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I’m tapped out. I’ve just gone through the map for another hour. In the very likely event someone smarter than me is reading this. This is what we know and this is what we need.
-We don’t know for certain where the chicken made landfall. We can’t seem to figure out who the ‘man on the shore pointing the way’ was or where they are pointing. For a while I was thinking the man was someone she met before she entered the water. But upon rereading the clue maybe it’s someone she met while she was swimming. The only clear person I see on a ‘shore’ is a shapeless kinda blob on never never land. No idea where they are looking.
-We don’t know why the volume 1 journal has the symbol for psyche on it. Psyche is on the map, but is that important?
-We don’t know what “Dark water writhes, less reptile than Castor?” means. Castor seems to refer to the son of Zeus and Leda who was born from an egg. What the heck does ‘less reptile than Castor’ even mean? And what dark waters? Heck, we don’t even know why it’s phrased like a question, or why all the words in it aren’t capitalized like all the other lines.
-We don’t know what the numbers 26.49757 or 168.327325 mean. Maybe they’re lat and long? Are they lat and long of our world…or supposed to be positions on the map? Or are they nothing of the sort?
-We DO know what “Six Keys Surround Another.” means. It refers to the 6 key symbols on the map that surround the Dwarven Caves. So the caves, or the dwarves are a ‘key’. We have no idea what significance this is. There are actually 8 dwarves on the map. Is that important?
-We don’t know what “Millenary Outstretched Arms Reveal Sadko’s Temptation. Look Above CC.” means. Is that C.C. as in the abbreviation for a name? Does it mean C’s, or seas? maybe? Look above the seas? What does a thousand outstretched arms mean, and what is Sadko’s Temptaion? Gold, pearls, mermaids, adventure?
-We don’t know what “Heart. Bone. Pig. Spider. Vinegar. Sheep. ???” means. I assume the point of this is to tell us to figure out what they 7th item in the list is. Are those first 6 items places on the map? Are they references? Are they synonyms?
At this point we are so in the weeds I’m not even sure there’s any point to asking the Book for a clue. It’d just be stacking more obscurity onto the existing obscurity.
However, if it does come to that @Piki or @Leigha I believe you have the words. Are either or both of you thinking the time might be coming to use one?
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Sorry - i totally missed that - where is that symbol?? (Search function didnt help…)
—maybe the “less reptile” part refers to the egg-born Castor - just because reptiles are bron in eggs too?
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Deeds mentions the symbol is on the second page of her journal in the blog post.
She tried to take a photo of it, but it wouldn’t photograph. I imagine much the same way Laureen had so much trouble scanning the third journal.
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I just traced over the map where I think the chicken went and I think they ended up at Ferlie Firth? Like. The area exactly East of the man on Neverland pointing. There are three areas specifically, which are Cockpaidle Cape, House of the Sorcerers, and Here Are Leprechauns.
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There’s a symbol above the Seven Dwarves that looks a bit like the pagan symbol for Spring, also.
Edit: I found the same symbol in other areas and it highlights the area from Lake of the White Nymphs to The Greate Walle, stopping at the Dwarven Caves. Not sure if it’s anything.
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I am pretty sure that is the wishing well symbol (there is a key in the top right)
I think something else we haven’t yet dealt with is the odd script under the compass and Oberon’s shield (which has the 4 elements on it)
I have identified a few of the symbols (Tau, delta, omega, possibly ‘a’ in hieroglyphics) and have some ideas on a couple of the others, but not a proper message/translation
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Alright I’ve made headway.
“But Robert…I thought you had given up on this” “Shut up voice in my head! You don’t own me!” Sorry, I’m getting a bit punchy here.
I know what the line “Heart. Bone. Pig. Spider. Vinegar. Sheep. ???” means for the most part.
If you look to the right of the dwarf caves, past the great wall you come to what I’m calling 'Fairy Tale village".
Within the village you’ll see the following places.
Heart: Knave of Heart’s Courage
Bone: Old Mother Hubbards Home - “To give her old dog a bone”
Pig : Tom Piper’s Home - “Tom, Tom, the piper’s son, Stole a pig, and away did run;”
Spider: Miss Muffet’s House
Vinegar: Here Jack and Jill were married. “With vinegar and brown paper.”
Sheep: Little bo peep
???: I have no bloody idea.
So, can anyone see any sense or pattern to this to figure out what the ??? is?
Edit: I’m sure the other lines have to do with something on the map. Maybe once we have all the places figured out they do something.
Edit 2: If you draw a line from little Bo Peep to the Knave of Heart’s Courage you pretty much pass through every other nursery rhyme listed above. There are 2 other places potentially on that line.
M. Dame’s Cottage (I have no idea who this is)
or
The Palace of Old King Cole.
Given the general age, they’re all Brittish nursery rhyme and level of popularity of these rhymes I’m going with Old King Cole being the 7th item in the list. That could make the 7th word ‘Pipe’ or ‘Bowl’ . It could even be ‘Soul’ or ‘Fiddler’ if we want to get more obscure.
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