Password

[Pervinca Took]

1. Food storage source, albeit deep? So long!
2. Palindromic dwarf? Different nasal and a shuffle produces a place of mirth.
3. Wax lyrical, grain! One hopes it’s happening to bread.
SHINY: Glistening part of a leg – wherefore, we hear?
5. Song comes between article and element for him.
LORIEN: A well-governed Dashwood is nonetheless in turmoil here.
7. Press this substance.
NOSE: Organ of negative direction.
9. Pluralise a palindrome that sounds like another. They’ll stare you in the face.
10: Oswald Alving craved it. The last thing he ever craved.

[Galadriel55]

I am now completely at loss for the other clues, but have a few beginnings of thoughts that may or may not be going in the right direction.

2. Going through various dwarves in mh head, I can only think of Mim. Swap an M for an N and shuffle, and you get... MNI? IMN? Do I even have the right dwarf?

3. Going through different types of grain hasn't inspired an answer, but if you can hope something is happening to bread, you hope that it will RISE?

[Pervinca Took]

You are so close ... Mim is the right dwarf. And you have the right nasal. But the nasal consonant appears twice. 'Different nasal' meant change to usage of a different nasal. In other words, use that different nasal in all/both instances.

RISE is almost the answer, but what do we hope our bread will BE DOING? Make that adjustment and you'll be ordering a cereal to wax lyrical.

The two that you guessed first - SHINY and NOSE - are actually the most difficult, theme and password-wise, because they are 'joking' fulfilments of it. And together, they *sort* of almost hint at the theme in a way I didn't think of when I chose them.

[Galadriel55]

There was an INN, a merry old INN. Nice.

RISING?... Oh. As in rye sing?

[Pervinca Took]

1. Food storage source, albeit deep? So long!
INN: Palindromic dwarf? Different nasal and a shuffle produces a place of mirth.
RISING: Wax lyrical, grain! One hopes it’s happening to bread.
SHINY: Glistening part of a leg – wherefore, we hear?
5. Song comes between article and element for him.
LORIEN: A well-governed Dashwood is nonetheless in turmoil here.
7. Press this substance.
NOSE: Organ of negative direction.
9. Pluralise a palindrome that sounds like another. They’ll stare you in the face.
10: Oswald Alving craved it. The last thing he ever craved.

[Galadriel55]

10. So I am not familiar with Oswald Aling, bit looking up the play I wonder if it might be DEATH.

[Pervinca Took]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

10. So I am not familiar with Oswald Aling, bit looking up the play I wonder if it might be DEATH.

A good answer, but not the right one. He does ask his mother to kill him if he has another attack and ends up unable to do anything for himself.

But I'm after the thing he asks for in the *very last lines* of the play.

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Pervinca Took

A good answer, but not the right one. He does ask his mother to kill him if he has another attack and ends up unable to do anything for himself.

But I'm after the thing he asks for in the *very last lines* of the play.

You're gonna make me read the real thing, right?

...the sun! Give me the sun!

[Galadriel55]

I am a bit at loss at what the theme or the password could be, though there are certainly plenty of letters. But it just occurred to me that the Moon might in some way be a connecting point with several of these. "Shiny" and "rising" are reasonable descriptions, the Inn is where the Man in the Moon goes to drink his fill, and someone (Frodo?) is befuddled by the moon after leaving Lorien, not realizing a whole month has passed. Don't know about nose, but maybe Tilion had a honker.

[Pervinca Took]

1. Food storage source, albeit deep? So long!
INN: Palindromic dwarf? Different nasal and a shuffle produces a place of mirth.
RISING: Wax lyrical, grain! One hopes it’s happening to bread.
SHINY: Glistening part of a leg – wherefore, we hear?
5. Song comes between article and element for him.
LORIEN: A well-governed Dashwood is nonetheless in turmoil here.
7. Press this substance.
NOSE: Organ of negative direction.
9. Pluralise a palindrome that sounds like another. They’ll stare you in the face.
SUN: Oswald Alving craved it. The last thing he ever craved.

The theme isn't the sun or moon or anything particularly shiny, I'm afraid.

My advice: ignore 'shiny' and 'nose' for now, and look carefully at the letters you have guessed so far.

[Galadriel55]

FIRST LINES for the password?

[Pervinca Took]

F: Food storage source, albeit deep? So long!
INN: Palindromic dwarf? Different nasal and a shuffle produces a place of mirth. (There is an inn, a merry old inn)
RISING: Wax lyrical, grain! One hopes it’s happening to bread. (Out of doubt, out of dark, to the day's rising)
SHINY: Glistening part of a leg – wherefore, we hear? (When Bilbo found that shiny ring)*
T: Song comes between article and element for him.

LÓRIEN: A well-governed Dashwood is nonetheless in turmoil here. (In Dwimordene, in Lórien)
I: Press this substance.
NOSE: Organ of negative direction. (I sit on the floor and pick my nose)**
E: Pluralise a palindrome that sounds like another. They’ll stare you in the face.
SUN: Oswald Alving craved it. The last thing he ever craved. (West of the Moon, East of the Sun)

* From 'Frodooooo of the Niiiiiine Fingerrrrrrrs, and the Ring of Dooooooom.'
** From the parody of 'I sit beside the fire and think' in 'Bored Of The Rings.'

[Galadriel55]

THEODEN = the + ode + N

Thank you for providing the asterisked sources. I have spotted most answers but was very puzzled about which poem I was missing that could possibly begin with "nose".

[Huinesoron]

Could that final E be EYES, the plural of eye (which sounds like also-palindrome I)? I can't think of a poem that has it in the right place (one stanza of Aragorn's condensed Lay of Leithian opens with 'As Beren looked into her eyes', but that's as close as I get), but it seems to fit.

This is a very clever password!

hS

[Mithalwen]

Hello and Farewell for F Fare & well?

[Pervinca Took]

Eyes, Farewell and Theoden are correct. Sorry, no time to put them in just now.

Huey: 'Day is ended, dim my eyes.'

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Pervinca Took

Huey: 'Day is ended, dim my eyes.'

Ooooh yeah, that's a lovely song.

So just the I... could it be IRON? An iron presses clothes, and it appears in Ere iron was found or tree was hewn, when Gandalf plays the riddle-game and Theoden concedes.

hS

[Pervinca Took]

IRON is correct. Was that the last one? If so, well done all, and over to G55.

[Galadriel55]

Thanks, Pervinca! That was a wonderful password!

Unfortunately I probably won't be able to get anything up in the next few days. If anyone wants to go ahead, the floor is open. Or I'll put one up mid-next week.

[Pervinca Took]

FAREWELL: Food storage source, albeit deep? So long! (Farewell sweet earth and northern sky)
INN: Palindromic dwarf? Different nasal and a shuffle produces a place of mirth. (There is an inn, a merry old inn)
RISING: Wax lyrical, grain! One hopes it’s happening to bread. (Out of doubt, out of dark, to the day's rising)
SHINY: Glistening part of a leg – wherefore, we hear? (When Bilbo found that shiny ring)*
THEODEN: Song comes between article and element for him. (Arise now, arise, Riders of Théoden!)

LÓRIEN: A well-governed Dashwood is nonetheless in turmoil here. (In Dwimordene, in Lórien)
IRON: Press this substance. (Ere iron was found or tree was hewn)
NOSE: Organ of negative direction. (I sit on the floor and pick my nose)**
EYES: Pluralise a palindrome that sounds like another. They’ll stare you in the face. (Day is ended, dim my eyes)
SUN: Oswald Alving craved it. The last thing he ever craved. (West of the Moon, East of the Sun)

* From 'Frodooooo of the Niiiiiine Fingerrrrrrrs, and the Ring of Dooooooom.'
** From the parody of 'I sit beside the fire and think' in 'Bored Of The Rings.'

[Galadriel55]

Well, I'm back. And by the look of it I am still up. So here is one. But fair warning, the theme on this one turned out a bit looser than I initially intended.


1. In it you might sail a kayak, almost, overturned after the beginning of the end.
2. No number, no note, just a messed up kingdom.
3. In a forest, cars glad with a one and a one and an endless honk.
4. Read, sign, move around, tower over the valley.
5. Remainder of the northmen? In the fen.
6. See hear, rise as grim as the shaken mountains.
7. In the heart of the dark land, all you need is love! No, not love: l ---.
8. Short mass arm chore in a muddle. Take the second half of the wall.
9. Green land, after the resurrection.

[Pervinca Took]

3. In a forest, cars glad with a one and a one and an endless honk.

CARAS GALADHON?

CARS + GLAD + A + A + HON(K)

and it's in a forest.

[Huinesoron]

#6: 'See hear' = C + rise as grim = CRISSAEGRIM, part of the Encircling Mountains of Gondolin.

hS

[Pervinca Took]

Could 5 be Deadmen's Dyke? I think a dyke can mean a marsh or fen, and that one could contain remains of northmen.

[Galadriel55]

Yes to the first two, but no to Deadmen's Dyke.


1. In it you might sail a kayak, almost, overturned after the beginning of the end.
2. No number, no note, just a messed up kingdom.
3. CARAS GALADHON: In a forest, cars glad with a one and a one and an endless honk.
4. Read, sign, move around, tower over the valley.
5. Remainder of the northmen? In the fen.
6. CRISSAEGRIM: See hear, rise as grim as the shaken mountains.
7. In the heart of the dark land, all you need is love! No, not love: l ---.
8. Short mass arm chore in a muddle. Take the second half of the wall.
9. Green land, after the resurrection.

[Huinesoron]

#1: CELON is a 4/5 letter match for 'canoe', and... y'know... sailing, river.

5: The fens I can think of are Serech, Aelin-uial/fens of Sirion, the Gladden Fields, and the Nindalf/Wetwang at the Mouths of Entwash. The Sirion delta might also count. I can't conjure up an answer from those areas though.

hS

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

#1: CELON is a 4/5 letter match for 'canoe', and... y'know... sailing, river.

On the right track, but one step simpler than your answer.

Originally Posted by Hui

5: The fens I can think of are Serech, Aelin-uial/fens of Sirion, the Gladden Fields, and the Nindalf/Wetwang at the Mouths of Entwash. The Sirion delta might also count. I can't conjure up an answer from those areas though.

You have the right fens in there, but the fen is not the answer, rather a clue to the (rather unusual) answer.

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

You have the right fens in there, but the fen is not the answer, rather a clue to the (rather unusual) answer.

... it's not Isildur's Bones, is it? I mean, he was King of the North Kingdom, and they were canonically found in the fen area.

I'm assuming not, but I'd kick myself if I didn't ask...

hS

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

... it's not Isildur's Bones, is it? I mean, he was King of the North Kingdom, and they were canonically found in the fen area.

I'm assuming not, but I'd kick myself if I didn't ask...

hS

No. But the silliness is of the right kind to get you there. Different fen, and different, erm, bones.

[Pervinca Took]

Is it the candles of corpses in the Dead Marshes?

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

No. But the silliness is of the right kind to get you there. Different fen, and different, erm, bones.

See now you've got me thinking of Finrod's honour-guard at Serech.

For these it was, the chosen men
of Beor's house, who in the fen
of reedy Serech stood at bay
about King Inglor in the day
of his defeat, and with their swords
thus saved of all the Elven-lords
the fairest; and his love they earned.

The Lay implies that Barahir's outlaws were the last survivors of Serech, which makes it a brutal winnowing indeed.

... oh heck, Huor died at Serech during the Nirnaeth, along with 'all the valiant Men of Hador'. That's two of the Houses of the Edain practically wiped out in the same sodden marsh. o.O And apparently Celegorm destroyed a massive orc-host there, too... place must have been hecka haunted.

Oh, there's the Dead Marshes, too; but I think you said I'd already found the right fen.

(Why does Tolkien like covering marshes in bodies so much?)

hS

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Pervinca Took

Is it the candles of corpses in the Dead Marshes?

No. It is more literal than you might think, and the specific wording of the answer is found in a passage. This is a weird clue, especially to start with.

[Huinesoron]

Letting the dead lie for a moment, and going on to #9: could this be ERYN LASGALEN (or 'Wood of Green Leaves')? It's the new name of the Greenwood after it was restored ('resurrected') from being Mirkwood.

#1: 'cano' is a Quenya/Telerin word ('commander' or 'herald') but I don't think that's very useful. I suppose it could always be CANON...

#4: purely based on the possible straight clue ('tower over the valley'), this could be CIRITH UNGOL. 'Cirith' is pretty close to 'cirth', which brings in the reading connection.

It's taken me embarassingly long to realise that the Downs puts serifs on 'I', and so clue #7 ends with a lowercase L instead. The structure of the clue suggests it could be LIKE (or LUST, if you're feeling slashy), but more literally, what you need in the dark land is LIGHT.

hS

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

See now you've got me thinking of Finrod's honour-guard at Serech.

The Lay implies that Barahir's outlaws were the last survivors of Serech, which makes it a brutal winnowing indeed.

... oh heck, Huor died at Serech during the Nirnaeth, along with 'all the valiant Men of Hador'. That's two of the Houses of the Edain practically wiped out in the same sodden marsh. o.O And apparently Celegorm destroyed a massive orc-host there, too... place must have been hecka haunted.

Oh, there's the Dead Marshes, too; but I think you said I'd already found the right fen.

(Why does Tolkien like covering marshes in bodies so much?)

hS

I totally missed this post, as I've cross-posted my reply to Pervinca! The Valiant Men of Hador are the correct answer, but by a different term, found in the same paragraph. The reason for that is two-fold: for the letter, and for the somewhat frivolous reason it belongs in the theme.

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

Letting the dead lie for a moment, and going on to #9: could this be ERYN LASGALEN (or 'Wood of Green Leaves')? It's the new name of the Greenwood after it was restored ('resurrected') from being Mirkwood.

Good thought, but you're looking for a different green land and resurrection.

Originally Posted by Hui

#1: 'cano' is a Quenya/Telerin word ('commander' or 'herald') but I don't think that's very useful. I suppose it could always be CANON...

It's not "canoe" or its derivatives.

No to the other two (and yes, that's an L---).

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

I totally missed this post, as I've cross-posted my reply to Pervinca! The Valiant Men of Hador are the correct answer, but by a different term, found in the same paragraph. The reason for that is two-fold: for the letter, and for the somewhat frivolous reason it belongs in the theme.

They're the REMNANT OF HITHLUM in that same passage, which I think is a direct synonym of 'remainder of the northmen'. Other than that, they're 'a heap', which seems a bit blunt.

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Good thought, but you're looking for a different green land and resurrection.

Well, I mean, technically...

Originally Posted by Silm

They buried the body of Felagund upon the hill-top of his own isle, and it was clean again; and the green grave of Finrod Finarfin's son, fairest of all the princes of the Elves, remained inviolate, until the land was changed and broken, and foundered under destroying seas. But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.

But that sparks a further thought, which points me down to TOL GALEN, the Green Isle of the Land of the Dead-that-Live.

(The Lay must be the most resurrection-y story in all of Tolkien...)

hS

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

They're the REMNANT OF HITHLUM in that same passage, which I think is a direct synonym of 'remainder of the northmen'. Other than that, they're 'a heap', which seems a bit blunt.

"A heap" is perfect.

Originally Posted by Hui

But that sparks a further thought, which points me down to TOL GALEN, the Green Isle of the Land of the Dead-that-Live.

Tol-Galen was what it was before the resurrection. You want the name once the Dead-That-Live lived.




1. In it you might sail a kayak, almost, overturned after the beginning of the end.
2. No number, no note, just a messed up kingdom.
3. CARAS GALADHON: In a forest, cars glad with a one and a one and an endless honk.
4. Read, sign, move around, tower over the valley.
5. REMNANT OF HITHLUM: Remainder of the northmen? In the fen.
6. CRISSAEGRIM: See hear, rise as grim as the shaken mountains.
7. In the heart of the dark land, all you need is love! No, not love: l ---.
8. Short mass arm chore in a muddle. Take the second half of the wall.
9. Green land, after the resurrection.

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Tol-Galen was what it was before the resurrection. You want the name once the Dead-That-Live lived.

Dor Firn-i-Guinar, then? I don't think they renamed the actual island, but that's what they called South Ossiriand.

And later still, looking at the composite map, it ought to be somewhere in Harlindon. There might even be enough wiggle room to place it directly under Harlond, the haven on the southern banks of Lhun.

hS

[Galadriel55]

1. In it you might sail a kayak, almost, overturned after the beginning of the end.
2. No number, no note, just a messed up kingdom.
3. CARAS GALADHON: In a forest, cars glad with a one and a one and an endless honk.
4. Read, sign, move around, tower over the valley.
5. REMNANT OF HITHLUM: Remainder of the northmen? In the fen.
6. CRISSAEGRIM: See hear, rise as grim as the shaken mountains.
7. In the heart of the dark land, all you need is love! No, not love: l ---.
8. Short mass arm chore in a muddle. Take the second half of the wall.
9. DOR FIRN-I-GUINAR: Green land, after the resurrection.

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

Dor Firn-i-Guinar, then? I don't think they renamed the actual island, but that's what they called South Ossiriand.

Huh, didn't know that. I thought the Land of the DTL was the island itself, and Dor FiG was the Elvish translation.

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Huh, didn't know that. I thought the Land of the DTL was the island itself, and Dor FiG was the Elvish translation.

I think the text ascribes both names to "the lands about Tol Galen"; what exactly that constitutes is unclear.

(A slightly rejigged map confirms it's right down in Harlindon, nowhere near the Haven; you can see the Adurant as the final blue/purple line running right through the word 'South'.)

hS

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

I think the text ascribes both names to "the lands about Tol Galen"; what exactly that constitutes is unclear.

In that case, my apologies. I was fully convinced it was synonymous with Tol Galen, and wouldn't have chosen that term if I knew it referred to lands beyond the island.


1. In it you might sail a kayak, almost, overturned after the beginning of the end.
2. No number, no note, just a messed up kingdom.
3. CARAS GALADHON: In a forest, cars glad with a one and a one and an endless honk.
4. Read, sign, move around, tower over the valley.
5. REMNANT OF HITHLUM: Remainder of the northmen? In the fen.
6. CRISSAEGRIM: See hear, rise as grim as the shaken mountains.
7. In the heart of the dark land, all you need is love! No, not love: l ---.
8. Short mass arm chore in a muddle. Take the second half of the wall.
9. DOR FIRN-I-GUINAR [Tol Galen]: Green land, after the resurrection.