Well an explorers home on the sea ship was first in mind
however bilbo could be considered an explorer and he had many homes bagend rivendel but most notably on the sea

Lake-Town?

nope

go with you're first thought Morsul ;)

well Eriol was the explorer he went to the cottage of lost play so i looked at the lost tales for eriols ship i didnt find it however....

Vai is the outer ocean with the world ship on top of it so...

Since the Cottage is west I would have to Say

NUME?

Unfinished business
 

It's Unfinished Tales rather than The Book of Lost Tales in which we must look for this answer.

This floating palace is Eämbar, or Sea-home, which was built by Aldarion, king of Númenor. It was a home both for the king himself and for his guild of explorers, so it's an explorer's and an explorers' home, literally on the sea. :smokin:

The Squatter of Amon Rûdh I salute you!

You may proced :)

More encryption for the crypt
 

And I you. I like fiendish clues.

Without further ado I shall begin to make use of my newly acquired thread. Tell me, ye luminaries, the meaning of this.

King, for example, backed by unconventional advance, builds a nation

ok

thorondor?
hes king for example EG kind of like eagles

King for eagles his origin is unknown(unconventional advance)and he built eyries in the high mountains of someplace(i dont know what an eyrie is buti looked over all the kings i couuld think of and this one fit best

Gwaihir the Windlord?

unconvential advance could mean the wind pshing him...

Far too avian
 

Nothing to do with eagles, I'm afraid.

The Kraken Wakes
 

I'm not so patient as the Green Knight, so I'm sending this monster back to the surface. If it shames an answer out of anyone it's worth my saying that my clue isn't difficult:

King, for example, backed by unconventional advance, builds a nation

Clue: you've probably already seen the answer today.

I guess unconventional could be signalling an anagram..

Unconventional
 

Indeed it could.

I think we've all but given up on this one a few hints if you would my good sir

How many letters would be useful :D

It looks to me that the answer is going to consist of the name of a or a synonym for king, followed by an anagram of "advance" and will spell out a nation. I'm not very good at cryptic clues though, so I'm wondering if anyone else has had the same idea. The clue seems awfully straightforward.

That is what I would expect Jenny but it hasn't got me any closer. :(

Hints and tips
 

I'm not telling anyone the number of letters in the solution, but I will expand on Jenny's interpretation of the clue. As usual, if it seems too simple to be true, it probably is.

A lesser-known cryptic technique, known to such as the benighted souls who do the Grauniad crossword, is for the word that is an anagram to be defined in the clue but not actually given. For example:

'Youngster always allowed to run amok' = Anagram of 'ever let' = Leveret.

I also draw your attention to my use of the phrase 'for example', which is significant, although not at all cryptic in its meaning.

This will be hopeless - I am too Telegraph-minded!

And I'm too Nation-minded, but . . .

Cardolan ? ;)

A king is one type of card, and a loan is an advance . . .

Inevitably, yes
 

I hope I'm not expected to congratulate you for following my highway to the answer. Good to see you back on the thread all the same.

See what I mean, folks, about having already seen the answer today?

Thank you for solving my three and a half month old puzzle - is that what you meant to say? :p

I'll try to think of a new one today.

Thank you for solving my three and a half month old puzzle
 

Well, that too, obviously. I didn't realise it had been so long. How time flies when you're in stasis. :smokin:

Fish lost its tail: 'carp' minus its 'p' - car
Endless perdition: 'Hell' without its last letter - hel

Which would leave us with Helcar, a sea.

Well, Squatter's had me compeletely stumped, but I think I have an idea about this one.

Endless perdition = Hel minus l = Hel
Tailless fish = Carp minus p = Car

Tailless fish swimming after endless perdition = Helcar

Helcar is an inland sea.

So, Helcar. :smokin:

Bah! Pipped to the post. Curse you, Squatter! ;)

Btw, good to see you back, Turambar. :)

Thank you!

I'm thinking that it would take a difficult puzzle indeed to stump either of you. Not that Helcar was very tough.

I'm going to try make my next one a true poser.

Here goes again
 

Hopefully this manages to avoid the Scylla of dispensing clues for three months, although it may easily be sucked into the Charybdis of being answered within an hour.

Merchant town: her togas are in a terrible state.

Being in such a state of disarray, I feel it my duty to rearrange her togas forthwith, to provide Esgaroth, the merchant town of the Long Lake.

Reconstituted laundry
 

I didn't realise you were such a dab hand with linens. Esgaroth it is.

and for once i knew that too sadly saucey had beat me by a good long while

Only those composed of threads such as this one ... :rolleyes:

Next up:

Plague victim features in novel transposed after discovery of old city.

well lets see...THe best-known symtom of the plague were red rings(from which derived ring around the rosey) the symptom being Rings

in novel Lord of the Rings

Transposed changed moved....War of the Rings?

Im assuming because the War of the ring is slightly less detail than LOTR you want to know which city(an old one is Missing from the text) and since I do not

for now my guess is

The War of the ring

(i think i got the first part right(the plague thing) the rest is rubbish)

I am afraid that you are on the wrong track, Morsul ...

That's a tough one! It's "features" not "featured", right?

*goes to ponder*

you know what im betting it is "featured"

Earendil the mariner?
He found the undying lands but then chose to be immortal for his wife so transposed after discovering the lost city he was a victem of morgoths wrath(he went to ask the valar for help)

at first i thought "Plague victim features in novel " transposed meant that entire phrase was an anagram for an old city but unless i missed it i couldnt find any cities that would be an anagram of that phrase

Sauce: am i ever actually on the right track ;)

My guess is that "Plague victim" is the straight clue ..and that has just given me an idea of where to look... :D But I don't have the book on me *Curses*

Telemnar was the King of Gondor who died int eh great plague but I can't make the clue fit. Meh...

I thought old city was the straight clue and I note that M. Michel was a victim of The Plague (Camus), but Michel Delving doesn't fit the rest of the clue and in any case Michel isn't transposed (as it should be) in the guess.

So . . . . where were we? :eek:

The other Tolkien-related plague victim I remember was Lalaith/Urwen.

Turambar - you have mentioned the correct answer. Now all you have to do is work out which one it is and give me the reasoning ... :p ;)