What are the treasures the Fair Folk bring? Easily named, and lovingly told: Fairies of England proudly bear Garnet, crown-jewel of their Queen. Brilliant as eyes of Celtic folk, Cold morning green, their Emerald. The Hadas of Iberia: Sapphire, shy as a wild field flower. Turquoise the Fays of France keep: stone Rare as a blue midsummer's day. Dwarves' treasure: purple Amethyst, Imperial star of Germany. The Opal of the Lowland Gnomes: A cloud of shining, shifting smoke. A Topaz is the Russian prize: The royal sunstone, frozen fire. Peridot of old Italy: Antique, and olivine, and rich. The Ruby out of Araby: Scarlet of desert sky at dawn. Africa's Diamond, earth-born star, Bright harvest of the midnight rock. The Nymphs of Hellas cherish sweet Aquamarine, spring-water clear. From far Cathay, the dragon's Pearl: Chaste, perfect as the silver moon. Each jewel in its weird-wrought casque, Gift of the Viking craftsmen Elves. Wonder and glory thirteen-fold: These are the treasures the Fair Folk bring. Here's a worksheet I've put together (updated 9/24/13): https://mega.co.nz/#!5tEgWIxK!BR5XRF6rP ... E5Dze-rv5Y I think each of these fragments helps us along to figuring out what to do with each verse/image pairing. Fairies of England proudly bear Garnet, crown-jewel of their Queen.  BADGE (something worn with pride)  Find a link to some heroic event. Brilliant as eyes of Celtic folk, Cold morning green, their Emerald.  VISION (a test of vision)  Find lit orbs. The Hadas of Iberia: Sapphire, shy as a wild field flower.  FLOWER? Turquoise the Fays of France keep: stone Rare as a blue midsummer's day.  SOLSTICE (Roll a wheel from the top of the hill to the bottom. High and low points) find the top of something and the bottom. Dwarves' treasure: purple Amethyst, Imperial star of Germany.  LEADER (someone who commands)  Who is this leader related to Germany? The Opal of the Lowland Gnomes: A cloud of shining, shifting smoke. SHADE (blocking the sun)  look for a shelter. A Topaz is the Russian prize: The royal sunstone, frozen fire.  COLD WAR(stalemate, standstill) find an event where war was imminent. Peridot of old Italy: Antique, and olivine, and rich. (?) The Ruby out of Araby: Scarlet of desert sky at dawn.  STAR (Sirius, Dog Star) Why mention the brightest star in the sky? Africa's Diamond, earth-born star, Bright harvest of the midnight rock.  MOON (reflecting the light source)  Find something that is just like the moon and it's ability to reflect light from a source. The Nymphs of Hellas cherish sweet Aquamarine, spring-water clear.  LIBERTY (flowing free, bounds) find a way to freedom. From far Cathay, the dragon's Pearl: Chaste, perfect as the silver moon.  AEGIS (pure, fully round and reflecting like the moon) find a spot for reflection.

In another thread you just said "The LotJ does raise some interesting points but it doesn't seem all that useful.".....but then go on to make an entire thread about it, adding your strange idea about Corbett on the bottom of the list to make it sound more plausible.  Well played sir.

Omg, you got me to take a closer look at the LotJ...now I'm completely jazzed by its usefulness..I'm but a slave to your persuasion. Or perhaps my fickleness is a response to your stubborness. The reality is this is a place of discussion.  Most of what I write is just rough as all hell draft.  I edit whenever but I don't have a perfectly clean and polished presentation to supplement your perspective.  I will work on that.  Many ideas are in the wind.  Some are simply unrefutable without a casque being physically found.  I'm not hiding behind that arguement.  I'm just setting them all out on the table. We can't say which is for certain correct but we can look at them more closely and test their glue.  Its really not that hard to do.  For example, lets say the clues seem to instruct us to  stand on a hill and look east.  We see just two things worth noting: a lighthouse and an island near the eastern coastline.  Do any of the image or verse clues seem to apply to either?  "Sails pass by night / Even in darkness" , okay, if a ship is navigatingat night it can use a lighthouse, but if its foggy, a light will not work, the simple option is right before you on the eastern shore: a radio beacon type lighthouse. " I can still hear the honking", and there is Goose Island.  The only two notable items in the landscape and both are described by the poem.  At first its unclear whether it means we should go to those or to just see them from where we are on the hill.  Other clues make it clear by fitting into an intelligent structure.  Preiss does a good job discerning thefar off features from immediate surroundings.  Each location becomes more and more obvious once you properly use all of the verse.  I believe there's a succinct linearity to that.  In the vent that multiple points of reference are being defined it should be obvious whether they are bread crumbs or strict points defining a casque position.  Thats how I envision his process, anyways.

I've been taking a moment to consider the cryptic relevance held in the LotJ.  Apparently all of the references fit precisely with my notions.  Each jewels couplet feeds perfectly into the image and verse combo I've landed on and precisely concerns something unique to the solution.  I'm totally stoked.

fox wrote:: In another thread you just said "The LotJ does raise some interesting points but it doesn't seem all that useful.".....but then go on to make an entire thread about it, adding your strange idea about Corbett on the bottom of the list to make it sound more plausible.  Well played sir. Unknown: Byron Preiss stated that the contents of the story itself are not related to the wherabouts of the casks. There are no hidden clues within the story itself. A hunter should be able to find success with the Verses, the images, and the litany of the jewels So, aside from it being comical that I initially believed only the verses and images were needed to solve the treasure hunt, which is technically true, I assumed the rest of the book was nonessential, which also was technically true.  I made the mistake of thinking the introductory story and the LotJ included was part of the nonessential portion.  I took a closer look and found what looks like very convincing cause to believe the Litany of the Jewels has some value to the hunt.  Even now I don't know for a fact that Preiss confirmed the LotJ was intended to be of help, but I just now read this from the wiki: So Verses + Images + LotJ is the right way to go.  WTF hasn't more people made use and reference to this?  I've read much of the forums and looked at all the deep referencing of the LotJ to various cultures and gems, followed by birthstone month associations, etc., but I find NOTHING where people show any measure of actually paying attention to it's details.  In other words, people have taken a set of lines such as "Africa's Diamond, earth-born star, / Bright harvest of the midnight rock," and only taken it to mean AFRICA + DIAMOND = P2, 4th month, and daisy. [side note] Daisy?  I take it people are settling for "aster" = star.  Yes, the daisy is earth-born star, but what makes it a bright harvest of the midnight rock?  The fact that the moon gathers it's illumination from the sun?  The second line may be an elaboration, or it might be a well designed clue to the nature of how the moon reflects the light it gathers.  This is why I find the idea of a lighthouse even more appealing.  This makes additional sense when you see that I found an actual photo of the 1827 lighthouse on Cape Romain taken from the top of the 1857 lighthouse where tourists use to be allowed to climb (unsure if they still can, but the 2004 date is proof they allowed it then) and that photo matches perfectly the ovalesce shape of the daisy center.  It's an image match, derived from a popular ghost story and the perfect fit of understanding the line "white house close at hand" as a fit to the vice president, and collaborating with the idea that the Civil War puts us in the time of Abraham Lincoln's presidency, and then learned Andrew Johnson is also the same name as that lighthouse's keeper!  What are the freaking odds?!![end side note] Anyways, my point is people haven't been working very hard or treating the LotJ with greater attention.  The extent of our investigation of the LotJ shouldn't end abruptly with "this means this", it should open things up with "these are the possibilities" or "these would be possible options to the intended meaning, but for this reason A and/or reason B, etc, the only option we have left is ___".  These are challenging riddles, we should honor them as such. Fox, you call my treatment of the Corbett site "strange", can you clarify or expand on that notion? I wonder what is strange about considering how a flower is shy?  That a flower is the type that offers some indication that it doesn't like to be picked is actually a keen deduction.  There may be more to consider, but I've reasoned that flowers with thorned, thistled, or spiny toothed holly(aquifolium) fit this criteria best.  Hedges are often used to create privacy and so the holly might be the best fit.  I liked my initial idea of going with "afraid to be picked" and I found it to be etymologically consistent with the word 'grape', which is offers the possibility of going with the Oregon Grape, which is also an aquifolium.  Holly is holly my friend, and I challenge you to come up with a THOUGHTFUL idea that makes more sense when answering the not so strange question of why does Preiss make reference to a 'shy wild field flower'.  Shouldn't we be just a little more attentive and practical in how we treat the LotJ?  Even more so now that I've found out that Preiss said it DOES have to do with the treasures? My goodness, I'm having so much fun with this.  We have much to discuss.

Chicago: Turquoise the Fays of France keep: stone Rare as a blue midsummer's day. I realize this is a challenging fit.  Some might want to pair this with the New Orleans site.  France is just obvious and abundant.  Some might try to work verse 7 since it mentions a stone wall.  I prefer to focus on image 5 and verse 12.  I like how it's first line uses the word stone, but also how the image has a primarily turquoise coloring to the hat on the head of the giant.  Another idea is to do with the day of Midsummer which has some old history having to do with flowers such calendula and St. John's Wort (warts?)

A challenging fit indeed since Chicago is the emerald, plain and simple.

So, what do you think that means for the green jewel in image 11? I prefer to treat this as a puzzle.  It involves overcoming the challenge of trickery.  If it is really as plain and simple as you would like it to be it wouldn't be a puzzle.

i havent seen my book for awhile, could someone remind me,where what was lowland,  of the Lowland Gnomes

cw0909, seems like a Scot reference but it might apply better to the Scandinavian or Dutch. The shining shifting smoke portion of the line is interesting.  The word shine is commonly thought of as a radiant quality but it cqn also mean to shadow or black something.  It might also be a reference to Native indian smoke signals.  I'm thinking it goes well with verse 10 and image 9.

"Lowland" is a reference to the Dutch. I don't have my book with me, but I seem to remember the map showing one of the immigration paths leading from the Netherlands / Belgium area. The casques themselves are the 13th "jewel," hailing from Scandinavia ("Each jewel in its weird-wrought casque / Gift of the Viking craftsmen Elves").

Thanks FB, I was having trouble seeing what he meant by "thirteen-fold". Here's my worksheet on how I've listed each pair of lines, image, verse, and first line.  I'm working towards something systematic mainly in the verses.  I've seen a few people's ideas on how to treat the puzzle as a whole and I think this arrangment works best, at least it has no conflicts for me and it represents all the ideas that work in an unexpected near linear and mostly literal way. https://mega.co.nz/#!8g0SgJyJ!WNwaIl7pl ... sY6ey4JtuY

So...damn....I must be making progress, at least in a personal perspective, since I'm now aware of the turquoise in image 7.  Ilthat leaves the best choices for green stones as emerald and peridot.  Celtic and Italian.  Chicago and Boston.  Does it make better sense to link Chicago with Italy?  It looks like a glaring error was made in that Preiss gave the emerald jewel to the Chicago finders.

The emerald for Chicago was NOT an error. That is the emerald in the picture. It's one thing to try to disprove all of the hard work done on unfound casques...but now you're trying to disprove a found one? Oh boy

cw0909 wrote:: i havent seen my book for awhile, could someone remind me,where what was lowland,  of the Lowland Gnomes Seems like a lot of folks have a book around... somewhere... Here's a nifty pocket guide I ran some OCR on: https://www.dropbox.com/s/09da4fpbxbrlpyl/The%20Secret_OCR.pdf

Cool, thanks! This will be handy - I can even keep it on my phone.

forest_blight wrote:: Cool, thanks! This will be handy - I can even keep it on my phone. And when open it on your computer, there's even some handy bookmarks! None of which is conducive to having a job

(Nice one 421; I've uploaded a copy to the Wiki.)

Turquoise the Fays of France keep : stone Rare as a blue midsummer's day. Now that I've got it sorted, the crescent shaped turquise in image 7 and New Orleans' France born heritage, I may look more closely at verse 2 for location specifics. At the place where jewels abound Fifteen rows down to the ground In the middle of twenty-one From end to end Only three stand watch As the sound of friends Fills the afternoon hours Here is a sovereign people Who build palaces to shelter Their heads for a night ! Gnomes admire Fays delight The namesakes meeting Near this site. Outside-the-box: Does the word "keep" from the LotJ come from a children's bedtime prayer?  Both the prayer and the verse reference where heads go for the night and both relate to the word "wake". Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep , If I shall die before I wake , I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen My idea stems from the alternate sense of the word 'wake' as a vigil relating to a funeral.  Is the sound of friends in afternoon hours the sound of a wake? I previously referred to the use of reference to the Preservation Hall most requested and Louis Armstrong favorite: When The Saints Go Marching In.  This is a funeral dirge, basically an upbeat wake tune. Oh, when the saints go marching in Oh, when the saints go marching in I want to be in that number When the saints go marching in In the middle of twenty-one = "in that number". This brings me back to the the Fays of France keep: stone and At the place where jewels abound , both being end-of-line words, I find there's a commonality and possibly a major wordplay leap that will be hard for some to swallow.   Abound means "great in number".  I ask, what is the greatest number?  Posed as a mini-riddle, I think the answer is "No. 1".  Even though it's considered the smallest whole number, it's also used to represent the number everyone wants to be, better than the rest, or winningest.  Is the word 'stone' a play on words? stone = st.one = concatenated version of "Saint One" or "Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1". The next line "rare as a blue mindsummer's day" may be using the word 'rare' to mean 'unique' or "only one".  A midsummer's day only happens once a year?

I need to edit huge chunks of my theory on the LotJ. Will do that soon. Some new notes I want to attempt to integrate into the solves is more about characteristics of the verses.  I think its common understanding that verse 3 and verse 9 involve some good poet references.  Longfellow, Keats.  I think verse 10 could follow that tiny trend for verse 10 with Native poet Pauline Johnson.  Th LotJ ties in with that Celtic reference to Cold morning which really seems like a good way of suggesting Frost, so we have an additional poet on the ticket there in Boston. Deuce has the idea that verse 9 shared some keywords with Longfellow as well.  Are there other poets anyone would like to mention? Verse 1 has some mention of writers Ayn Rand and definitely Melville.  We have RLS in verse 6.  Others? Given just the small sample of words per each two lines in the LotJ does anyone have any other authors that come to mind?

I spent a bunch of time puzzling over the LotJ.  I'd like to think I had some success with a less ambitious strategy.  Every pair of lines is like a two sided coin.  On one side, there's the cultural reference, while the other has a keyword or phrase that assists in the focus for a particular location. I'm stuck on the lines for Chicago.  I'm using the Peridot for that. I felt Emerald worked better as an all around fit for Boston given the focus on 'eyes' as paired with the falcon and the Celtic connections. Cleveland was harder than I expected.  I've settled on LIBERTY as that which the nymphs cherish sweet.  Their freedom from restraints or bounds.  The words 'spring' and 'clear' are connectable to the word 'bound'.  A rectangle or a wall are 'boundary' associated. Does anyone think the moon may be considered 'earth-born'?  I'm not sure of what the offical word was on that theory in 1981, but ever since I can remember the idea is that the moon was a chunk that spun away from the earth.

I dont understand, why wouldn't Chicago be paired with the jewel that was paired with it.? anyway, carry on, I personally feel any research into the litany of the jewels and/or the rest of the book a waste of time. yes they certainly contain connections, and correlations. but since BPs instructions were specifically you only need a verse and a picture, I feel the odds that clues from the rest of the book helping to find a casque less than the odds of of red herrings in the rest of the book hindering or getting us farther from a casque. So I am ignoring or giving little or no value to anything based on the rest of the book.

maltedfalcon wrote:: I dont understand, why wouldn't Chicago be paired with the jewel that was paired with it.? anyway, carry on, I personally feel any research into the litany of the jewels and/or the rest of the book a waste of time. yes they certainly contain connections, and correlations. but since BPs instructions were specifically you only need a verse and a picture, I feel the odds that clues from the rest of the book helping to find a casque less than the odds of of red herrings in the rest of the book hindering or getting us farther from a casque. So I am ignoring or giving little or no value to anything based on the rest of the book. If Cleveland got the wrong jewel, confirmed by Egbert, then Chicago may have gotten the wrong jewel. Aquamarine and Sapphire are both BLUE type gemstones. Emerald and Peridot are both GREEN type gemstones. Ambiguity seems to be the prevailing syndrome with this hunt. Preiss said the Litany of the Jewels was of use in the casque lcations, confirmed by Egbert.

What's it called when something is similar and opposite? 'frozen fire' compared to 'glacial erratic'.  I'm attempting to see the nuance of comparing the Statue of Liberty's torch to the rock formation with the Daughters of the American Revolution plaque. Edit, just to clarify my associations: immobile/hot compared to moving/cold.  I'm thinking of something besides juxtaposition...but maybe that's it.

An oxymoron.

I found these shy flowers recently:

What holiday is closest to June 10th?

erexere wrote:: What holiday is closest to June 10th? my Bday LOL, or memorial day, fathers day, or are you talking about fed holidays designated by Congress

I'm looking for any alternatives to Midsummer's Day.  Any special days celebrated in New Orleans would apply.  Possibly something of French origin.  I'm just trying to cover my bases and then consider how any of those dates coincide with any of the days significant to the Alcoholics Anonymous orginization.  It seems to me that New Orleans is ALL-IN when it comes to drinking..., so it's somewhat odd to see a reference to AA, in my humble opinion.

Brilliant as eyes of Celtic folk, Cold morning green, their Emerald. This makes more sense now if we take the word 'brilliant' as a clue about a light fixture straight across from the arch and post of the fence in along Grant Park.

I keep having to scrap my old ideas and try to approach things with a fresh perspective. I believe now that Byron intended for us to draw inspiration from the lines of the LotJ. The specific inspiration needed to understand his method of placement. Image 4, "The Nymphs of Hellas cherish sweet / Aquamarine, spring-water clear." I think words 'spring' and 'clear' are meant to suggest jumping up or over something. I haven't been to the site so I can't confirm this, but there is that line in the verse about hopping up steps. Was where the casque found, the only place which a person would have to climb or hop up to dig? Also, I think words like 'cherish' and 'sweet' might have to do with putting something up on a pedestal or putting something like a chocolate in a small square box. Using the LotJ in this manner was unnecessary based on the verse being so comprehensible with counting stones to the spot. It would seem the other verses are far less helpful. Image 5, "Brilliant as eyes of Celtic folk / Cold morning green, their Emerald." I've been thinking more about this quite a bit and I think I've finally caught on. What makes eyes brilliant? How about cosmetics? Eye shadow or eye liner applied to the lids or the lashes. Reading the words 'cold morning' made me think of what happens to the hairs on my skin when standing outside on a cold morning: they stand up, they bristle. Thinking of tiny hairs and thinking of eye lids/lashes, seems to fall into place with a plan. The last line "Hush" may be applied to directing someone or a group to settle down when agitated or unruly. Hush the crying baby. Hush or calm a bristling crowd. Image 5 is a giant wearing a hat with a castle. Perhaps the Chicago finders are to pretend they are standing on the giant as they search for the casque in Grant Park. The question is, what objects would represent giant hair bristles? Trees? Fence posts? Lamp fixtures? Four21 took a photo of the street lamps on the restored bridge and they have new dates on them, but I don't think that means there weren't old lamps which were replaced. Maybe the chicago finders or some photo could help and verify that there were lamps along the bridge wall back in the early 80's. I think this line in the LotJ really helps suggest that we look for vertical things standing up, set in stone, and that the casque was found central to the two.

Image 10, "Dwarves' treasure: purple Amethyst, / Imperial star of Germany." I'm thinking the word 'Imperial' has to do with the measurement system introduced in 1824. I thought it would be cool if this date matched the founding of Milwaukee, but no, that happened in 1846. The reason I'm going with the system of weights and measures is because there is a preponderance of the use of the word THREE in verse 8 and I derived the idea that a "distance in time" combined with a "distance in space" could possibly be the unit of measure known as a LEAGUE, which is the distance a person travels by walking in one hour. According to the Imperial Standard, this distance is exactly 3 miles. The use of the word 'star', I believe also has to do with measurement in a way. In terms of military service, rank in many cases is measured by the star, typically assigned to a general rank officer. If anyone is familiar with my theory of using a draft compass on a standard city map, there are some interesting points that are spaced out by a distance of approx. 3 miles. The reason for the draft compass is it helps assign a point center of a circle, and then allows a heading to be chosen at the specific degree of 200 from a site at the 200-block of Grand Avenue. I think it's possible to use this method to arrive at Kosciuszko Park and discover the statue of a Polish 1-star general, standing tall and proud for being on a horse and having rank that is a FIFTH of the max rank of a 5-star general.

Image 6, "The Hadas of Iberia: / Sapphire, shy as a wild field flower." I believe this is quite an interesting riddle. What does 'shy' have to do with flowers? Shy people tend to be closed off and are no longer considered shy once they open up. Flowers, at least most flowers that I know of, have the ability to close and open. When I study this image, I see a soldier bearing a standard (a flag) and standing at the top of a rock feature as if he's conquered or overcome some great obstacle. Down below in the distance is another obstacle: an iceberg. When I thought about this for some time I realized the name of the type of ship that specializes in clearing shipping lanes of ice obstruction is known as an "icebreaker". I realized there is a beautiful and undeniable word association in play: imagine a group of people meeting for the first time, at first they are shy, but then there is a moment when something happens or someone says something, which is known as an "icebreaker", which breaks the social awkwardness and removes the condition of shyness. I believe we must consider something about the "removal of obstacles," perhaps ice in particular, as a factor involved in Byron's method for locating the casque for this image.

Most of my theory on the LotJ has been pure crap. Oh well. I like the Topaz and Sapphire lines most. I think my latest notion on Pearl has something to it. Pure silver is 999, maybe Priess uses it as a clue for Rodin's sculpture, the Gates of Hell.

erexere wrote:: maybe Priess uses it as a clue for Rodin's sculpture, the Gates of Hell. ToLazytoGoogle where excactly is that sculpture located?

Oh, thats a good question. think of it as a workin progress. Basically it's a gigantic sculpture and various pieces or smaller works were setseparately but are still considered pieces of a greaterwhole

Is it or any part of it in San Francisco?

more importantly was it in San Francisco, and the answer is sort of. The thinker is a major piece of the gates of hell and the three shades is also a major piece. The shades sat on top of your plinth.

erexere wrote:: more importantly was it in San Francisco, and the answer is sort of. The thinker is a major piece of the gates of hell and the three shades is also a major piece. The shades sat on top of your plinth. the thinker is in view also

Topaz, the Russian prize: "to pass" = Topaz, having to do with motions of parliamentary procedure aka Roberts Rules of Order.

The Opal of the Lowland Gnomes: a cloud of shining, shifting smoke. Lowland or the Netherlands Gnomes may(must?) have a particular purpose in the Image 9 puzzle. I think the hint here has to do with an ice rink. The surface of a rink is typically cloudy but also shiny. I wonder if smoke is being used in the same informal sense that ice may be used to kill or shoot someone.

Jotting some notes before I forget, Spring water clear = translucent Cold morning green = sickly from heavy drinking (Lush) on St. Patty's Day Desert sky at dawn = star gazing

been thinking cold morning green is more about some kind of electrical conduit that I recall seen connecting to the fixture on the wall in Grant Park.

erexere wrote:: been thinking cold morning green is more about some kind of electrical conduit that I recall seen connecting to the fixture on the wall in Grant Park. Oh! Cold morning green makes way more sense with the realization that the color green is reserved for electric ground.

Africa's Diamond, earth-born star, bright harvest of the midnight rock. Coal(carbon) is mined for burning. Diamonds are also made of carbon. What does Coal have to do with the puzzle? Maybe it's the color black as a comparative. The hardness of diamonds might be the analog to the Africa spirit in it's fight against oppression. The burning of coal is used for heat, but also for industrialization and transportation. Regardless of skin color, when you leave a coal mine your skin is black. The LotJ seems to be making a point of being bright, which is more of a visual, like the dark coal is producing something of a light source. Bitumous coals are classified accourding to either being “dull, bright-banded” or “bright, dull-banded”. Naphthalene is the molecule of twin-benzene rings that is derived from coal tar. It's been widely used as a moth repellent.

erexere wrote:: Oh! Cold morning green makes way more sense with the realization that the color green is reserved for electric ground. Perhaps we should take a different sort of perspective, Brilliant as eyes of Celtic folk, Cold morning green, their Emerald. Cold = low temperature = Celsius/Farenheit Maybe the letter F, typically used for Farenheit is a clue to look to the verse for another use of F for foot-measure.

I was just looking at this as a link to Lowland Gnomes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantre'r_Gwaelod The dominant opal producer in the 1800's was New South Wales. Of possible interest to the Canada puzzle: In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, opal began to fall out of favour in Europe. It was wrongly branded as bringing 'bad luck', and was associated with pestilence, famine and the fall of monarchs. Queen Victoria, however, did much to reverse the unfounded bad press. Queen Victoria became a lover of opal, kept a fine personal collection, and wore opals throughout her reign. Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester, gave an opal ring to her niece Queen Victoria in 1849. This opal ring had been previously owned by Queen Charlotte since about 1810. Queen Victoria's friends and her five daughters were presented with fine opals. Opal became highly sought after because the Royal Court of Britain was regarded as the model for fashion around the world and fine quality opal had recently been discovered in far-off Australia. In the latter years of Queen Victoria's long reign, various Australian opal fields were discovered and worked.

Been looking into this... I know BP stated we only need the images and verses to find a casque but the litany, IMO, is a gold mine.

Ive been thinking of the Charelston puzzle lately, Africa's Diamond, earth-born star, Bright harvest of the midnight rock Earth-born star sounds like the moon Diamonds are bright when interacting with light and are relatable to coal, black carbon. To harvest something is more of a word used to describe farming, though mining for diamonds can be seen as a harvest. A mythological perspective. In Greek mythology Phoebe is the moon and also titan of bright intellectuals. In terms of harvest or what Phoebe produced, one of her children, Leto, gave birth to fraternal twins Apollo and Artemis on the "floating" island of Cos. This reminded me of the verse 6 call out to a fraternal twin connection in Edwin/Edwina, which we know is more to do with Edward Wilmot Blyden. The topical connection I'm hoping to explain is if Cape Romaine is the location where the Charleston settled African Tree spirits moved their jewel once the civilization landed Charleston shores, then the interesting notion that romaine lettuce also known as "cos lettuce" could be a nice place hint for Cos island where Leto had her twins. Lettuce is certainly harvested and a favored food of moths. I think this might be a good example of how to apply the LotJ as an added source for justifying a general area of interest, but doesnt overreach the specifics to the dig spot which is the job of image and main verse.

The Opal of the Lowland Gnomes: A cloud of shining, shifting smoke. Where there's smoke, there's fire? I sometimes think this is a reference to gunpowder or gunfire. It also seems like a magical disappearing act or something to do with transformation. Are we to think of light an dark clouds, or some weather related motif? Maybe the general idea of "Burns" is the link we're looking for.

Adding the Litany note that the bubble-flower in image 3 is symbolic of being held up and kept safe, basically a rebus fornthe word "bouy". The fairies of England proudly bear garnet. Also, earlier this week I found a good explanation for Chicago's location. Cold morning green = 50 degree average temp low in May for Chicago. Green is an idiom like greenbacks, so the idea if a 50 dollar Bill helps land is in Grant Park, since Grant is on that bill.

erexere wrote:: The Opal of the Lowland Gnomes: A cloud of shining, shifting smoke. ...the introduction also has: "Can you picture Yo-Rib and his companions standing, at length, in a few small, heartbroken bands, their backs to the Pacific, as the sky darkens with the oncoming smoke of trains, and trade" as a possible link with George Stephen. (Elected to the Montreal Board of Trade, and first president of the Canadian Pacific Railway.)

What is with that name Yo-Rib anyway? Alas poor Yo-Rib.

Hi, first time poster and relatively new to the hunt. Love the podcast so far to those of you involved. I recently started with trying to at least pair the specific jewels from the LotJ to the ones in the photos. See working draft below. Has this been exhausted by someone yet with any sense of certainty? Some don't seem to be very obvious (none look like a regular old "Diamond") and of course a lot of the blue ones can be confused with one another. hxxp://www.imgur.com/a/NgdzO The number next to jewel name is the birthstone month. I guess one possible use for this was seeing if there could possibly be any chance of correlation between number of birth month, number of verse, etc. This is also a way to concretely tie an image to one of the immigrant groups from the LotJ. To me, this deserves some good thought to get off on the right foot. *Note that my choice of jewel on the "New Orleans" image is maybe controversial. Just not 100% convinced that the blue shape is the jewel. The thing I used is the center of the clock hands. IF that blue shape is the jewel, it's not nearly as obvious as all of the other paintings. If this has been picked apart in a thread, please feel free to point me there. Thanks! Keep up the good work all.

danielrisk wrote:: *Note that my choice of jewel on the "New Orleans" image is maybe controversial. Just not 100% convinced that the blue shape is the jewel. The thing I used is the center of the clock hands. IF that blue shape is the jewel, it's not nearly as obvious as all of the other paintings. Howdy....and, I don't see a gem in the center of the clock hands. That blue gem above the clock face is a turquoise, which in the LotJ fits with the fays of France...I think that's a gem you missed.

I forget when it was, but someone pointed the same thing out to me and I realized that blue half circle shape is surely the turquoise. I understand a clock also has a "jewel", though it's just a term for a type of bearing that typically uses a sapphire or ruby pivot.

danielrisk wrote:: I recently started with trying to at least pair the specific jewels from the LotJ to the ones in the photos. See working draft below. Has this been exhausted by someone yet with any sense of certainty Hi danielrisk - yes, most people would agree that the jewels on the Wiki are correct. They're confirmed by birth flowers, nationalities and clock numbers.

Hey guys, I decided to become a bit more active on the forum. This post is probably not going to get us anywhere new, but I thought I might share it anyway.. I found a quote in the litany of the jewels part (perhaps it was already known, but searched the forum and did not find anything on this): page 19 : ' Catch a Leprechaun, they say, and demand of him his golden treasure: you'll sleep a hundred years and wake with dead leaves in your pocket- he keeps his word.) 'Dead leaves in your pockets' is likely to be from the song 'the little land' by Malvina Reynolds. fingers crosses posting this image of the lyrics works (there's a first time for everything)

mariska....I'd say that was spot-on correct, for the reference. (Written in '58, published/released in '60. Imagery in the song regarding the fair folk of Ireland, but, was probably about Hollywood.....which doesn't matter. The line from the song is used directly, where you indicated.)