[draghkar]

well done !! For reference the full poem below:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

The Sun does arise, And make happy the skies. The merry bells ring, To welcome the Spring. The sky-lark and thrush, The birds of the bush, Sing louder around, To the bells chearful sound, While our sports shall be seen On the Ecchoing Green. Old John with white hair Does laugh away care, Sitting under the oak, Among the old folk. They laugh at our play, And soon they all say, Such such were the joys, When we were all girls & boys, In our youth time were seen, On the Ecchoing Green. Till the little ones weary No more can be merry The sun does descend, And our sports have an end: Round the laps of their mothers, Many sisters and brothers, Like birds in their nest, Are ready for rest: And sport no more seen, On the darkening Green.

[QAlchemist]

/Very/ nicely done!

[Cephalopod]

Sorry for the cryptic description before - here it is reordered with the relevant letters in bold.

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

T H E G G W M R E P D G I E A N E N U S N O E L E O A M R S W R S T H E M E R S R R O A I W E B T T V Y P D Y T T S T G D D U R I M E A K R Y B E L L S R I U N D O E E F Y N Y O E H E E F A O F A O W W R B A L F N O H R I N G T O W E E E A M B G O P D I W R R T N U L B E O E E N D R D R E N N L C O M E T H E S S A R I S T T I E H U L E S A Y O H O R L E R R E B D P O F E E I G P R I N G E A N D M A K E H I N N W O O E C . R O M P T T O Y I T N E Y U M O . D N E T A P N E E O W F W O D N N M L A H W O T H S L O T Y R P T G R H E S K Y L A R P Y T G P Y N I A O D E I E Y E S E T U I I H I U I O E L H Y A K A N D T H R H E S S H O D K L U I S N A O A K R H R S T O E S T U V E I O L U S H T H E B K I E G E U E N L L N P G W W S A B I A N H U V H F R E A S U D I R D S O F X

[snorkle256]

OIC

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

put the lines in order, rows not columns like I thought. the first I is the first I, if you understand that then take how many letters based on what # the row, go down, then repeat it starts to get a little hazy by VI so i am not sure exactly.

[Cephalopod]

Well, this is at least a partial solve (meaning I think I figured out at least part of the puzzle, but I've got no idea what to do with it).

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

If you do the lines in order of pi as suggested above, starting with the beginning of each and then skipping over to the end for a second pass, you get this - The sun does arise and make happy the skies The merry bells ring to welcome the spring The sky lark and thrush the birds of X. Which I think means that's the end of the poetry. These are the first few lines of The Ecchoing Green by William Blake.

ETA - Okay, I just got the connection with the color. Probably should have noticed that immediately . . .

Edit 2 - Sent the info to Howard.

[snorkle256]

Minz wrote:

Code: S R R O A I W E B T T V Y P D Y T T S T G D D U R I M E A K R Y B E L L S R I - I E E A M B G O P D I W R R T N U L B E O E E N D R D R E N N L C O M E T H E S - I A P N E E O W F W O D N N M L A H W O T H S L O T Y R P T G R H E S K Y L A R - II T H E G G W M R E P D G I E A N E N U S N O E L E O A M R S W R S T H E M E R - III K I E G E U E N L L N P G W W S A B I A N H U V H F R E A S U D I R D S O F X - III U N D O E E F Y N Y O E H E E F A O F A O W W R B A L F N O H R I N G T O W E - IV S A R I S T T I E H U L E S A Y O H O R L E R R E B D P O F E E I G P R I N G - V H E S S H O D K L U I S N A O A K R H R S T O E S T U V E I O L U S H T H E B - V P Y T G P Y N I A O D E I E Y E S E T U I I H I U I O E L H Y A K A N D T H R -VI E A N D M A K E H I N N W O O E C . R O M P T T O Y I T N E Y U M O . D N E T - IX

-FIXED- Added in the Roman Numerals for better reference.

Speaking of, since those are sideways, does that make them columns not rows?

I think the columns should be rearranged to form Pi, and then what?

[Ofiuco]

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

The Paul Giffney/crescent/blackhelix stuff is OOG, in case you didn't already figure that out. Somebody forgot to edit their metadata, be nice. ;) And you - you're welcome. You know who you are. :)

[Minz]

So far nothing i've tried on the table produced anything usable unfortunately

I've tried blacking out columns corresponding to the PI sequence (and the exact opposite) but no luck so far.
I've also tried several other variants of only blacking out but either i'm not getting the right columns or they have to be rearranged before or afterwards

Nevertheless, here is the entire table in text form for anyone who wants to give it a go :

Code:

S R R O A I W E B T T V Y P D Y T T S T G D D U R I M E A K R Y B E L L S R I E E A M B G O P D I W R R T N U L B E O E E N D R D R E N N L C O M E T H E S A P N E E O W F W O D N N M L A H W O T H S L O T Y R P T G R H E S K Y L A R T H E G G W M R E P D G I E A N E N U S N O E L E O A M R S W R S T H E M E R K I E G E U E N L L N P G W W S A B I A N H U V H F R E A S U D I R D S O F X U N D O E E F Y N Y O E H E E F A O F A O W W R B A L F N O H R I N G T O W E S A R I S T T I E H U L E S A Y O H O R L E R R E B D P O F E E I G P R I N G H E S S H O D K L U I S N A O A K R H R S T O E S T U V E I O L U S H T H E B P Y T G P Y N I A O D E I E Y E S E T U I I H I U I O E L H Y A K A N D T H R E A N D M A K E H I N N W O O E C . R O M P T T O Y I T N E Y U M O . D N E T

[JehosephatDostoevsky]

hmm, the fact he was rather dismissive of my square makes me think that might not be the right route :/

The question is - was the Dewey reference just a 'librarian joke'? (We all know what a fun-loving lot librarians are ) OR is that some sort of clue for the letters? I'm thinking specifically the roman numerals might come into play here. I checked, and '112' is now an obsolete (eliminated?) category under the Dewey system... but it used to be the reference for the category 'methodology'.

The obvious flaw in that tentative connection is the Dewey categories are always three digits, and we have 10 numerals :/

[draghkar]

Just had a conversation with howard:

Howard: Any more progress?
Sent at 11:34 PM on Tuesday
me: not so far, we think that we need to eliminate letters in the grid, ending up with a 10x10 grid..
we also think we need then use some circular shaping to end up with a clue..
Howard: to go from, what 400 to 100 seems a lot...
Sent at 11:46 PM on Tuesday
Howard: Codes were never my thing - apart from Dewey! - I will have to go shortly - I am travelling to gain experience regarding a ritual to be conducted. This will occur until next week some time. I cannot be any more sure until then. Please, tell others who may be assisting that I wil be out of touch until then? Thanking you.
typo: [will]
me: the roman numerals to the right side translate to numbers which, when sorted differently represent PI.. we however think that this not fully relevant..
I will tell them..
Howard: Thanks. mmm would make sense of the circle comment at the bottom possibly? I will play around while on the train down to Avesbury. See you all next week.
typo [Avebury]
me: hope to hear from you soon, happy travels.
Howard: I'd send a postcard, but have no addresses for anyone...
Sent at 11:50 PM on Tuesday
Howard: The phone is ringing - I must go. Off tomorrow morning so packing tonight. Bye for now.

I think it has some hints in there...

[draghkar]

sent an email:

Draghkar wrote:

Hello Howard.. Pleased to meet you, I am Draghkar.. Very happy to help, A few questions for you.. * What is Axelrod? * Are there more books from your great-uncle that you can research for clues on the parchment? * Does the back of the parchment show something? I would be happy to know the answers to this.. regards, Draghkar

And got a reply back:

Howard wrote:

Axelrod? He's called David Axelrod, he has his own website: http://www.davidaxelrodmusic.com/- really cool earlier stuff. Regarding parchment-back - nope - nothing visible. Books - LOADS - but one thing at a time. He was heavily into this stuff... I'm getting there myself but not too sure about it. Hope this helps Howard.

[JehosephatDostoevsky]

hope i got this correct and the jpg is embedded in this post, sorry if not. also uploaded it as an xls document to make it easier to copy/paste

[draghkar]

yes please

[JehosephatDostoevsky]

Zobot257 wrote:

I tried running an elimination of all the letters in the first row using the method you suggested, and I'm still just getting a jumble of letters with no sense to them. Although maybe we have to re-arrange the letters to form words or maybe it'll make sense when we do the entire thing? When I have more time I'll go back and do the whole thing... a friend of mine, the same one I keep mentioning, may be interested enough in this to help out. If she has any more input I'll either badger her into creating her own username or repost what she suggests. Whee! Puzzles!

Well, I think there's two options (if I'm barking up the right tree) - either the letters left behind are significant, or the letter taken out are significant. If you look at the 'eliminated' letters, you get a 10x10 square. My mind's gone completely blank but isn't there a square-based cipher? If the message is warning us that 'circles lead to insanity', and pi being an irrational number, then if we think squares rather than circles, maybe there's something there?

I've got the 10x10 square of eliminated letters but couldn't make anything out of it. But maybe someone else can do something with it? Anyone want me to post the 10x10 square of letters?

[draghkar]

The clue tells me to eliminate first, and than we need to rotate something.. no clue yet what and how, but I think we will end up with a web address.. somehow..

just a hunch..