Err I haven't been hanging back all this time through modesty. Genuinely tried repeatedly and failed.

Ditto. I had a few thoughts about both 1 and 2, but not enough time to research possibilities, and those that I found didn't work. :(

Look at all possible diagonals, and the password should be easy to guess.


1. Rumil slain in confusion? Initially, but not by this.
2. Great month? In translation, certainly.
CALMINDON: Virginia Woolf’s destination?
CABED-EN-ARAS: Spy a resting place, we hear; then trap note in confusion here.
SAREHOLE: Hamlet adds nothing to reckless eel’s confusion.
SIRIL: Flower returns, gains direction, reveals another. Or does it?

Lembas maybe for password though it doesn't help me with other clues.

- - - - - L: Rumil slain in confusion? Initially, but not by this.
- - - - E: Great month? In translation, certainly.
CALMINDON: Virginia Woolf’s destination?
CABED-EN-ARAS: Spy a resting place, we hear; then trap note in confusion here.
SAREHOLE: Hamlet adds nothing to reckless eel’s confusion.
SIRIL: Flower returns, gains direction, reveals another. Or does it?

I had a feeling that was the password, but only just now did 1 occur to me. I think this deals with the other two clues.

1. Narsil
2. Rethe

Heh, I kept trying to scramble Rumil. Good one!

Nearly there
 

NARSIL: Rumil slain in confusion? Initially, but not by this.
- - - - E: Great month? In translation, certainly.
CALMINDON: Virginia Woolf’s destination?
CABED-EN-ARAS: Spy a resting place, we hear; then trap note in confusion here.
SAREHOLE: Hamlet adds nothing to reckless eel’s confusion.
SIRIL: Flower returns, gains direction, reveals another. Or does it?

Narsil is correct, but Rethe is the wrong month. ;)

March a great month, Squatter? Were you thinking of "In like a lion, out like a lamb"?

Nárië means 'sunny'. I suppose that could be a great month.

Try sorting out the "great" before you translate it into Elvish.

Either Hrive or Laire the long months or short seasons of the elves?#

No. See above. Which month already ALSO means 'great' in English?

Then translate it into Elvish.

Ok, OK I thought you might have meant great as in size but really wish I hadn't tried now..

They were excellent answers, but the real answer is a lot easier than that. And yes, great in size was a logical interpretation. Sorry if I came across as snippy.

There is a month, in English, which also means great as in impressive, exalted, prestigious. All you have to do is take that month and find an elvish translation for it.

I think it's Urime.

NARSIL Rumil slain in confusion? Initially, but not by this.
URIME Great month? In translation, certainly.
CALMINDON: Virginia Woolf’s destination?
CABED-EN-ARAS: Spy a resting place, we hear; then trap note in confusion here.
SAREHOLE: Hamlet adds nothing to reckless eel’s confusion.
SIRIL: Flower returns, gains direction, reveals another. Or does it?

Quite right, Firefoot. :)

The password was solved a long time ago, by Mithalwen. :) So strictly speaking and according to the rules of the thread, it's her go now.

Ok...I think this should be fairly straightforward... the unlikely tropical heat and humidity is not aiding thought... and NB I may not be online on Friday so don't champ at the bit too much if you don't get a quick response.

1, Horse flesh absorbs elemental metal
2, Crazy dance by the sea
3, Mountain ash by another name
4, Slightly confused Italian takes in French seaport
5, Singer follows direction to form a circle

:)

1. Hasufel? Flesh + Au (gold), scrambled.

I can think of several possibilities for 3 (all Entish in origin). But if it's a straight password, Rowan would seem the best in terms of the initial letter (for providing possibilities for the answer). Rowan isn't specifically Tolkienian in one sense, but Treebeard is very fond of them and I think one of the Cotton brothers' real names might have been Rowan. Probably wrong, but I'll try it.

1, HASUFEL Horse flesh absorbs elemental metal
2, Crazy dance by the sea
3, Mountain ash by another name
4, Slightly confused Italian takes in French seaport
5, Singer follows direction to form a circle


Carry on with thinking about 3

Oooooooooohhhh ... Ered Lithui? Ash mountains as opposed to the other name for a rowan tree?

That was the designated garden path. You need to progress on from your original answer rather.

Trying to choose between three possibilities, based on possible password, but I think it might be an offset/diagonal password. Although the only name I could think of would be Helgi from Njal's Saga, who isn't a Tolkien character, I'll try:

Lassemista

because the other two don't look as likely for letter combinations if it IS an 'ordinary' password.

Not Lassemiste

5. Nenya? N(orth) + Enya?

3. Orofarne?

And maybe HUORN for the password?

2. UMBAR (crazy/scrambled version of RUMBA?)

4. Maybe ROMENNA? Roman + en (part of the word French, or the pronoun 'en'? although not sure if that would work).

Although 'en France' means 'in France,' so I suppose 'en' sometimes correlates to 'in' in English.

Yes, all correct. Obviously too easy but I hoped, clearly in vain, maybe that keeping it simple might lure in a few new players.

Not really - I was convinced it was a right to left diagonal for quite a while. They were very good clues.

I only made the last one hard because Squatter was guessing them so easily. (And he joined in because we didn't have enough players then).

Well, I don't think this one is too hard. Although there is one little surprise in it.

1. Troubled knowledge will lead you to him.
2. Trignometric function dislocates itself. It’s hard!
3. Alien annexes half a score of valleys here.
4. Unprolific writer shows rabbitlike tendencies?
5. Shire gal who had dealings with Teddy, Archie and Bruno?
6. Unarms a confused villain.
7. Take apart, remove coat, reveal her.

Is #3 "Ettendales"?

hey there Pervinca

Tricksy hobbitses!!!

Is number 1. Annatar? (for trouble) Gandalf (to trouble)
and 2. The One Ring? (it's very hard - and it does dis-locate (leaves the bearer) itself by dislodging itself)
and 4. Radagast? or -- ORCS --breed like rabbits, and I've never heard any Orc write much down :)
and 7. Lobelia?
...6. Faramir?
is 7. Luthien
I reckon 3. might be Noldor (in the valleys of Beleriand)

Ivriniel, it may help to be aware that most of these seem to be following conventions of cryptic crossword clues rather than suggestion. For example I think Nerwen is correct about 3 because ETTENDALES is made up of ET = an alien, TEN = half of 20 which is a score and DALES which are valleys. It is also a place indicated by here

.5 is probably Goldilocks Took nee Gamgee... she is a girl from the Shire and I think Teddy, Archie and Bruno are bears who appear in the Father Christmas letters IIRC,
4 I think 4 is Milo Burrowes who got a parting gift from Bilbo which referenced him never answering letters. A pen or stationery I can't recall.

The trig function may mean sin cos or tan is in the answer but I haven't done maths for decades and there are a few anagram hints like confused and troubled.

1. Troubled knowledge will lead you to him.
2. Trignometric function dislocates itself. It’s hard!
ETTENDALES: Alien annexes half a score of valleys here.
MILO BURROWS: Unprolific writer shows rabbitlike tendencies?
GOLDILOCKS: Shire gal who had dealings with Teddy, Archie and Bruno?
6. Unarms a confused villain.
7. Take apart, remove coat, reveal her.

The three answers given so far are correct, and for the reasons given (except one minor point - Teddy, Archie and Bruno are characters in Mr Bliss, not the Father Christmas Letters).

Mith, you are on the right lines on clue 2. You don't need any maths knowledge beyond knowing the (full) name of one of the trignometric functions.

Ivriniel, Mithalwen is right about all the clues being cryptic. There are tips for cryptic clues - I think on the first page of the Cryptic Clues thread and maybe this one as well ... I will have a look, but my laptop is being a bit cranky and it took me a while to get into this thread this evening.

Your answers were inspired and very interesting, though!

I thought everything had to be middle earth-esque

Sooo instead is 2. Inverse trigonometric function

The answers have to be Tolkienesque. but the clues may not be .. I meant that the answer might contain SIN COS or TAN as an element - and a lot of ME words have Sin or tan elements - sindarin, atani..however looking closer and with hints I now recall sin cos and tan are in full Sine, cosine,and tangent. Dislocation suggests maybe an anagram but I can't think of anything.

Oh I don't own either but I have the JRRT artist and illustrator and I remember seeing bears other than the NPB. Just about all my Tolkien books are in store atm :(

or - artan arsine arcos (I think), and there - artan - 'atani' - 'dislocates with artan - but Atani are hard?'

um about that 'it's hard' - I can't figure out the emphasis on 'hard'. Are the 'hard' trigonometric functions (or Hard could mean either a 'hard objecty thing' or a 'hard journey' or any of those in the middle earthy word. My head's exploding :)

The 'hard' Maths

Pythagorean, reciprocal and periodic functions - by name (just three)

erm - periodic - Meriadoc is disjoinish and Periodic Functions - are hard.
Pythagorean - Numenorean (if you dislocate at 'ean')
Reciprocal - can't think of any

or for Inverse Pythagorean functions, it's any number that doesn't cross multiply not= 1 or -1. And that's gotta be way too off course hahahaha unless you stretch it - hahaha

Are you allowed to interact with other posters about ideas like this, or are you just supposed to 'pop out the answer'?

I believe #2 is "Isen", meaning "iron".

7 Dis.. dismantle is take apart and a mantle can mean a coat

Of course we can discuss things. If it helps, my own answer is based on interpreting "Trigonometric function dislocates itself. It's hard!" as "A word which is the anagram of a trigonometric function and which means (something) hard". Thus sine = Isen = iron. Whether I'm correct or not in this case, that is a typical way for cryptic clues to work.

Oh, and "Unarms a" is an anagram of Saruman, the "confused villain" at #6.

Hmmn. If we're all right, the password can't be made of initial letters...

I've never got The Silmarillion far away. Novels get opened to different times in the history more often these days. The North Kingdom is a lot on my mind of late. I've had a look at some of the artwork about Annuminas and Fornost pre and post Angmar. I love bearing with the Amon Sul and Annuminas Stones.

I'll go with

2. Meriadoc as the choice from my post. Periodic Trignometric Functions are hard, and Meriadoc either disjoins/dislocates from Periodic.

Pervinca, is #1 "Eorl"?