Okay, so let’s break this down. The poem has 8 stanzas (please forgive me if I’m using my poetry jargon incorrectly). It’s late and I feel I’m half dreaming this. Anyway…
I believe the poem has a book-like pattern. Four stanzas with a particular rhyme scheme followed by another four stanzas that mirror that rhyme scheme. So the stanzas look a bit like this
1
2
3
4
4
3
2
1
The poem is bookended by two stanzas with ABAB rhyme schemes. The first two stanzas have this pattern as do the last two stanzas. So the beginning and end of the poem looks like this:
ABAB
CDCD
(insert big part of poem here)
PQPQ
RSRS
Now, the part of the poem that falls in between those “simple” stanzas are the four “mourning” stanzas. Each stanza is an animal offering its lament at the Minnying of Ojorad (which I’m assuming means funeral or memorial of some kind).
The first mourning stanza is AABBCC. Three couplets in a row.
The second is completely different. It’s AABAAC. A couplet followed by a single line, another couplet, then another single line.
The third mourning stanza also follows the couplet, single line, couplet, single line pattern but with a different rhyme scheme: AABCCD.
The fourth mourning stanza (where we believe we are missing two lines) is a bit tricky to figure out. This stanza should be AABBCC just like the first mourning stanza. Three couplets in a row. BUT, in this stanza the couplets all rhyme. Which would indicate that the missing two lines should end with words that rhyme with toad. Like road, load, etc.
Do we believe those lines are out there somewhere still, even though the Traveler has, sadly, disappeared and taken all of his gems with him? Or do we think they’re gone and we have to work with what we have.
It’s late, I’m grasping at straws, and I barely passed my collegiate poetry classes. I’m just hoping something jumps out at us.
If ( and this is a big if) traveler is related to DG, seen from the answer he gave to that question “lv” which might be the word love, then there is a chance however slim that may be that she has heard this poem before and knows the missing lines, and that only works out if we can actually contact her. The comment I sent is still under moderation so I don’t know if she has control of her comment section back or not. While we’re all picking at anything and everything, it’s the only thing we can do untill something pops out at us
Is it just me or does the poem mention the guilds “Ebends” “Forged” and “Thorns” i mean they are capitalized like names I just think its weird . Also we should be on the look out for more sets of 4.
I just noticed the words above the “They did not die” spell “Here nor there”…i haven’t seen this mentioned and everything on his sight seems to be a clue.
Good thinking. I was thinking I would do the same today if no one else had. He (She?) might have insight into the missing lines we need. Also @crow great find! I am going to divert my attention to this for a little bit and see if there is some clue in there
srial asked:
What were your favorites list books as a
child? I read a ton about magicall world’s also as a kid: Tolkien (of
course), the Thomas Covenant Chronicles, some C.Springs. Lewis and
Ackerly Green’s Guide to Magiq! Oh and Lovecraft during my moody
teenage years (also of course).
Srial! Sorry, I didn’t see this message until you sent the
second one. I’m not much of a poetry reader, so can’t help you with the
poem, but I’m a big reader, and I’m a fan of EVERY book you mentioned,
all of them, though I remember some less than others. It’s exciting to
talk to someone who also remembers them. Would love to talk more about
them.
I think y’all are probably on to something so I don’t want to steer the discussion down a wrong path. But I don’t want to sit on things in case they turn out to be relevant.
My train of thought: We assume we are missing two lines and due to the way we’ve pieced the poem together we believe those two lines would come from the section about the toad:
“And finally, the julbous toad
in his gown of winking woad
sang a stark yet stirring ode
on the hauce his master rode”
What if the poem is a reference to an actual event from history? The death of some famous person. Is the missing line about the (figurative or literal) horse they rode? Could the name of that “horse” be the key to unlocking the book?
I’ve poked around but not had much luck. Like I said, probably not a good path to go down. Just putting it here in case it sparks something for someone else.
This is awesome! Clearly CRSumner remembers the Guide to Magiq. They might not remember much, but they could be a valuable resource moving forward as we try to unlock the Book of Briars.
http://crsumner.tumblr.com/ Since he doesn’t know about the poem he’s not really related to this specific fragment. There’s a thread on him specifically I’ve been meaning to post to that I will now.
Alright, I am just going to give a quick update onto what I have been working on this past weekend, solely for the purpose of it maybe sparking someone else’s thought process. Prepare to put on your tinfoil hats. The length of the poem is really intriguing for me, for one reason. Binary uses 8 character (bits) to create a string (byte) which can be translated into characters of text. For instance, 01100001 translates to “a”.
Now what does that have to do with the length of the poem?
Well 40 is perfectly divisible by 8, 5 times. Which leads me to think that the next word or phrase needed to unlock the next fragment in the Book of Briars is 5 characters long. Now I haven’t had a ton of luck just yet. I have tried syllables per line, rhyme scheme, words per line, and tried to find some pattern that could convert into binary. I had a thought that if a line followed a certain rhyme scheme it would be a “1” and if it didn’t, it would be a “0”, but there doesn’t seem to be such a pattern. I have also been at work all day today but plan to mess around with it a little more tonight. I also haven’t had a chance to double check my work incase I made a mistake.
Now I am also hazarding a BIG word of caution that this could all be one giant dead end. A big art of me thinks this is a little too “techy” for something like the Book or Briars and the Guide to Magiq, and doesn’t really fit the rest of the puzzles we have had to go through. But I also have the same thought process as Johanna that all things should likely be posted here, just in case it sparks someone else’s thought process. I mainly just want to start a discussion and brainstorm on the different thought processes.
I feel like I’m a monkey staring at a monolith here. I look at this poem, and I want to club it over the head with a bone…that metaphor got weird sorry.
When in doubt I like to pretend I’m dumb (It’s really not difficult). I go back to the drawing board, start rebuilding without any assumptions and see what I can see.
I’ve pulled all the original stanzas as we discovered them, and I’ve reassembled them for my own attempt to make order. Even doing that, I have questions. I have 2 sections that could be swapped entirely, and 1 section that doesn’t even belong in this poem. Anywhere, here’s what I got. What does anyone else think?
The minnying of Ojorad
was held at Vidivinty’s glade
a notion Good King Capra had
that proper reverence be paid
The four who stood in mourning voiles
with deep respect their tributes said
to one who fell on Baryn soil
in diamond coat of blue and red
In vermulid tones the cat first spake
Through briaring fronge her tones did rake
?maybe (this could be swapped with the other maybe)?
from catafalque to ancient tree (Some people are swapping this stanza’s order around from the original Traveller post I believe).
Said she, “Here Magister Woodland lies
A brave sourl released from jewelled eyes
bereft of home, his light soars free.”
?/maybe?
The second, the Unowl
evinced a brillatent scowl
for she found not the words to mote
So she unfurled her cowl
to charm fallen and fowl
with the weaves of an outstretched wing
From the third, a mouse with girlish hair
as her mournful tears clad hallowed air
?maybe (this could be swapped with the other maybe)?
declaim’d the Plaint of Nhadastra
“Lo, the stars shine less intently now
in the firmament of glory’s crown.
The lustre of our friend moves on.”
?/maybe?
And finally, the julbous toad
in his gown of winking woad
sang a stark yet stirring ode
on the hauce his master rode
?perhaps missing stanza?
To mark the end of their lament
King Capra rose o’er gathered sways
“We’ll sing no more! Dance our assent
to morrows and our yester days!”
(And somewhere in a far off poem is…)
The Merest part a way of weather
when Watch elects the final frinning
Ebends unbound Mora’s tether
and Forged the Thorns in drubbin minn’ing
I typed in the actual rhyme scheme into the SUBMIT field in the BoB website (assuming the “missing” couplet was the same OO rhyme as the rest of its stanza) and it gave me a single word:
Obenhedge.
I tried typing it into the website like the other fragments but nothing. Going to try again since I was doing it on my phone.
Quick edit. I wonder if we have to find the missing two lines in order to unlock the fragment? It would make sense since that’s how KR and his Burrow operated. Perhaps that keyword above is what we put into the BoB website but it won’t recognize it until we find the missing couplet.
