Author: Golden Owl Hunter

It’s the right path only when the arrow aims at the heart

My first multiplies by gaiety.
My Second offers you space,
My Third from the air, and my Fourth from the water.
When he’s lying down, my Fifth hums.
My sixth is worth a hundred, and my seventh is just one node.
My eighth tastes like laurel,
while my ninth, with astonishment, stays behind.
My tenth is always naked when there’s a link.
My eleventh, finally, is the unknown.

Find my All, and through the Opening you will see the light.

Solvability: Mostly solved

The solution is A_RONCEVAUX a Basque town.

The puzzling out is easier to understand in the French text, but an approximate solution is:

• A because the A is multiplied to form a sound like laughter “AhAhAh”
• space between two words;
• R  for the air we are offered;
• O for the water we are offered;
• N when lying down, looks like the  “Z” symbol of snoring;
• C  in Roman numerals means “cent”;
• E is only E (part of noeud) ;
• V is the sign of victory that is traditionally rewarded by laurels;
• A for an “Aaaahhh” of astonishment;
• U explained by a French grammatical rule;
• X , is the unknown (in mathematics solutions for example).

Roncevaux is a famous place in the history of France, it’s the location for the legendary defeat of Charlemagne and the death of Roland in 778, during the battle of Roncevaux Pass. The story of Roland’s death at Roncevaux Pass was embellished in later medieval and Renaissance literature. The first and most famous of these epic stories was the Old French Chanson de Roland of the eleventh century, in these stories Roland defends the rearguard with his Durandal sword.

The visual

The visual of the 470 seems to confirm the solution, since the rock represents a mini-map of the south-west of France, the sword being planted in Roncesvalles. The place itself could be both the Roncesvalles pass or the village of Orreaga / Roncevalles located in Spain.

The sword is likely to be Roland’s weapon, though some people think it could be Arthur’s famous sword in the stone.

Other points to consider

This clue appears to be mostly solved. Do we perhaps head from Bourges to Roncesvalles?

The style of the clue is almost identical in style to the riddles of the 530,  but the 470 is not rhymed, unlike the lines of the 530.

‘Find my all and through the Opening you will see the Light’, suggests that we consider Bourges the clue with the title ‘The Opening.’ But what is this Light? The many references to the Light is one of the great sticking points with the Golden Owl puzzle.

The debate about the sword is confusing, one of Max’s supplemantery clues mentions Merlin in passing, another said  “It happened in 778”  which seems to suggest this is the battle where Roland used the sword Durandal. 

In conclusion

This clue is almost certainly solved correctly revealing ‘A Roncesvalles.’

It isn’t clear why there is an ‘A’ before Roncesvalles when other town and city clues don’t use this.

The last line probably refers to Bourge as the ‘Opening’ referring to the 530 clue title.

The concept of the ‘light’ is first introduced here, but no one seems to know what this means.

The picture doesn’t seem to add much to the solution, but is this the sword of Roland in the stone?

See also

Clue 4 – 470 enigma text

470 – Madits and links

< Previous clue

Next clue >

AD AUGUSTA PER ANGUSTA

When, at Carusburc, you will have Albion in the back,
Look for the Opening that reveals the Celestial Light.
Do not wait, do not ask for your rest, But get ready to walk on the water.
Twice, Neptune will come to your rescue And lead you away from the icy Septentrion.
Pursue your way and do not interrupt your journey
Before seeing through the opening, the becalmed Nave.
Without deviating an inch, draw a line, and you will not regret what you did.

Solvability:   We start in Cherbourg but don’t have much clue what happens next!

This clue begins in Cherbourg (old name Carusburc) with England (old name Albion) behind us, then a long route is described, involving a few mysterious locations including the ‘Nef Encalminée’ the enigmatic becalmed nave.

How the solution is reached

Only a few elements of this clue are understood. We know we begin in Cherbourg and the opening is almost certainly Bourges, the city found in the clue entitled ‘Opening.’ Walking on water may refer to drawing a line through the blue of the map, particularly as the clue image reflects this. We see ‘the becalmed nave’ through the opening, but what is this feature or place? We are instructed to draw a line from Bourges to the nave.

The visual

The picture shows a pencil drawing a line at an angle, perhaps it suggests a south-west direction from Cherbourg. The waters open and reveal a shell. It doesn’t seem like the image will help us solve this enigma.

Points to consider

A couple of the french words used in this clue have multiple meanings. Septentrion is a complex word that usually means North. “Without deviating an inch” uses the word “pouce” which can be translated to “inch”, but could also be translated as, “Without deviating from a thumb.”

The phrase ‘Nef Encalminée’ could refer to the kind of ‘nef’ which is medieval metalwork in the shape of a ship.

Cherbourg is listed in the 10 towns of the 580 enigma, as is Bourges, though it is not clear whether that is relevant.

‘Seek the Opening that reveals the Heavenly Light’ may refer to the ‘light from the sky’ in Golfe Juan and the previous clue. A line connecting Cherbourg, Bourges and Golfe Juan is perfectly aligned.

We start the clue with our back to England, so we are looking inland. Yet the helpers of Neptune suggest crossing the sea. Some people think the visual clue gives the direction to take, drawing a line southwest at a 45 ° angle towards the Channel Islands. Perhaps the shell represents an island?

We ‘persue our way’ and ‘do not interrupt our journey’ then the next stage of the clue has us at the ‘Opening’ (Bourges?) seeing the ‘Becalmed Nave.’ No one seems clear how we get here from the sea, or what the nave means. However if we ‘see’ the Nave ‘through’ Bourges, that suggests it is east of Bourges.

Some people believe the ‘nave’ of this clue and the ‘Black Perched Ship’ of the 600 are one and the same place. Max connected them in an additional clue, but he didn’t say they were the same place.

At the end of the puzzle we find the Nave and draw a line joining the ‘opening’ and the Nave, this is a line we ‘will not regret.’

The next clue 650 begins on a precise place, so presumably it is the end point of this clue, most likely the ‘nave.’ The madits tell us that “nothing slips between the 560 and 650”, they follow each other perfectly.

This clue’s title is a Latin phrase that means, “to great results by narrow ways.” It’s possible the phrase adds some detail to assist with the solution.

This clue uses archaic words for the place names, but why? Albion recalls the time of King Arthur, does this suggest this clue might link to the sword in the stone of the 470 enigma?

No one seems sure where the ‘Nef Encalminée’ is found. Is the ‘becalmed nave’ the same place as the ‘black perched ship?’

We walk on water, Neptune helps twice, and we escape the ‘icy’ North, but what is our direction? This must be detailed somewhere in this clue or the previous clues. We appear to draw a number of lines in this clue with key places still enigmatic.

In August 2023 Michel Becker gave an additional clue showing an image of a line from Cherbourg, which appears to suggest we draw a line heading over the sea towards Spain. You can find the image, and a discussion of its relevance in the additional clues section.

FROM THE SKY COMES THE LIGHT

C’E-10752-365 LA Q-30667-E L’AIGLE
I-687-90677-RI-687-A
687-ARQ-30667-E DE 10752-E-10752 10752-ERRE-10752
DA-60140- 10752 LE 10752-ABLE,
CENT 4330-O-30667-R-10752 AVA-60140-365 DE 10752-E
CA-10752-10752-ER LE BEC
E-365 Y-CAP Y LAI-10752-10752-ER 10752-E-10752
90677-L-30667-687-E-10752

So lend a bow to Apollo  :
from there, he will count 1969,697 measures towards the zenith.
In a 46,241,860th fraction of sidereal day,
his line will fall.
Hurry to find the arrow.

Solvability:   The place revealed by this clue is well known, but how do we fly and land Apollo’s arrow?

This clue reveals Golfe Juan in an enigma linked to Napoleonic history. Most Golden Owl clues use one theme but this one mixes up Napolean Bonaparte,the greek god Apollo, and the revolution of planets!

The first stage of the clue is solved with the reveal of the location Golfe Juan, but the second stage asks us to draw a line from this town and mark the place where Apollo’s arrow lands.

If we use the 33cm measure Apollo counts 1969.697 *0.33m = 650.00001 = 650m towards the zenith. 

How the solution is reached

We then find this clue:

The way this translates to almost exactly  559km suggests this must be the correct solution. However, even though we know so much about Apollo and his arrow it’s difficult to understand what Max wants us to do with this information.

The visual

The image shows seven symbols for planets in a circle around an orange and black background, it’s not clear what this represents. There is a compass planted in an N for North, is this a clue to the direction we fly Apollo’s arrow?

Points to consider

The line ‘son trait s’abattra’ is translated here as ‘his line will fall’ but the word ‘trait’ has multiple meanings in French including bolt or shaft, which fits the bow and arrow theme.

The word flèche can mean both arrow and the spire of a church. Many people believe this hints at the famous church on the Rock of Dabo. The town is around 559km from Golfe Juan, and the height roughly 650 metres.

It’s not clear why Napoleon and Apollo connect here, it’s almost as if the two parts of this enigma were originally written as two clues. The use of planets perhaps connects to Apollo, with firing a celestial arrow skywards, and links with the Apollo space program?The number 1969,697 also has a vague link to the moon landing of 1969, as does the Eagle.

The theme of light is referenced again in the title. What is this light from the sky? Is it the sun, moon, or a star? Is it the same as the ‘heavenly light’ in the next enigma? Does the firing of the zenith arrow bring light somehow?

The compass in the visual has no obvious explanation, it is used for drawing circles. The alignment of the planet symbols also suggests a circle.

There are some missing planets in this clue. Mercury is not needed because Mars gives us a letter M, however, we would have expected V for Venus to be used for the word ‘AVANT’ (before.) There is no obvious explanation as to why Venus’ rotation of

243 days, is not used. Is ‘Venus’ perhaps a subtle remnant for the super solution?

The use of the term “trait” in the second paragraph, instead of the word “flèche” does suggest that we need to draw a line between Golfe-Juan and Dabo on the map of France. Max has never clearly confirmed this point.

An important clue to the path of the arrow was given by Max in his Tour de France additional clues. He revealed that the Tour de France cycle race crossed the path of Apollo’s arrow on July 15th 1993. On this day the cyclists travelled from Serre-Chevalier to Isola 2000 in the Alps. So it does seem certain that the arrow flies north from Golfe Juan, perhaps towards Carignan.

The fans of Dabo have another reason to support the town, which is just a little over 559km from Golfe Juan. A path to Dabo from Golfe Juan would appear to cross the Tour de France route.

The fact there are 100 letters to this clue and the word ‘CENT’ (one hundred) is revealed rather than coded may be meaningful, or maybe Max was only playing with the Napoleonic 100 days theme?