Presenting -- for December 11, 2011 -- THE NEW!

DROMGOOLE’S

P.Y.M.™ PUZZLER “Your Radical Puzzler For Our Radical Times”

Asaph P. Dromgoole, Editor

HIDDEN PICTURES

HOW MANY HIDDEN NOOSES CAN YOU FIND ? But first … !!!

OCCUPY AOI !!! Last week’s Puzzler ran as scheduled… but, as Players may recall, with complications attending our dedicated efforts to obtain authorization from the Bodiddlian Library, to run images of the three vowels A O and I -- appearing in sequence, and frequently, in MS Digby 23. We were unable to persuade the AUTHORITIES to okay our use of samples – the K.W.M. has a two- week minimum turn-around time: he prefers to use real letters – epistles, that is -- and not virtual ones – e-mails that is -- and send them by air-mail, or slow-boat to China. AND there were threats of further strikes in London!! And demonstrations this weekend in Russia!! Such times we live in. Furthermore, we had our own problems in the office, following a break-in – perhaps by the F.Y.P.Y.M. Footage is still being analyzed. In these circumstances, your Editors determined that we had no alternative but to assert our inherent human rights to these vowels, and their common letterform representation; even and also to the point of including the unique sequence, AOI, as appearing in Digby MS 23 – and thus, absent any external authorization, we acted as agents of our own destiny -- and yours too, O Players -- to OCCUPY AOI!!! The Puzzler heard the cry of AOI !!! and responded by converting an ordinary Puzzler into a revolution. Literally. The AOI are liberated from London control !! … leaving only the EU enslaved.

For now: for, hear this: the Puzzler’s avowal to OCCUPY ALL vowels. We will return, and …. OCCUPY the EU!!

Until then, at this writing, a week later, we still have not heard back from the K.W.M., (Keeper of Western Manuscripts) formerly the G.K.W.M. (Great Keeper of Western Manuscripts) authorizing our use of these images. NOW, we find that a branch Occupy movement is planning on closing West Coast ports here -- in the United States -- on Monday: tomorrow, which could very likely have a ripple effect, soon, even on air-mail deliveries to our New York offices. See, http://www.westcoastportshutdown.org/content/wall-street-waterfront And this shut-down will certainly affect mail deliveries coming slow-boat from China, like the K.W.M.’s., if air-mail is unavailable due to the London strikes!! Hence, given the radical nature of these times, as a matter of necessity, OCCUPY AOI !!! continues. See, OCCUPY AOI!! (December 4, 2011), esp. our letter, P.Y.M. to K.W.M. @ p. 4. But … what have we started…?

Digby 23, folio 4v

Digby 23, folio 5r

Digby 23, folio 5v

Digby 23, folio 6r

Digby 23, folio 6r

Digby 23, folio 6v

Digby 23, folio 6v

Digby 23,folio 7v

Digby 23, folio 8r

Digby 23, folio 8r

However, after a flurry of Player e-mails, we were alerted to the fact, that images of the entire text of MS Digby 23, both the Chanson de Roland and the Timaeaus, as well as the remarkable illuminated diagrams featured in the Timaeus, are already available for Players’ viewing at any time, through LUNA browser at a completely different website – namely http://bodley30.bodley.ox.ac.uk:8180/luna/servlet/view/search?QuickSearchA=QuickSearchA&q=chanson+de+roland&sort=Shelfmark%2CDate&search=Search These images can be downloaded, circulated, used, looked at, etc. without the prior written approval of the K.W.M., and thus taking the risk of waiting for his Keeperness, to get back to us in two weeks, by airmail, surface mail, slowboat mail etc. or while the British working class is walking out on strike ….

YOU KNOW, though: we did what we had to do!!! to wake the rest of you up, to tell us, that we had already entered the Promised Land of fair use, and the FREE SAMPLE of a copyrighted text. And, as it turns out, by sheer coincidence, last issue was our FREE SAMPLE promotional issue in our continuing not quite desperate subscription drive….

So, welcome back to OCCUPY AOI, intrepid and loyal P.Y.M. Players. You have self-initiated into the ranks of the…

Advanced Cryptological Resolution Order of Pierre’s Youngster Membership

A.K.A. The A.C.R.O.P.Y.M. LEVEL UP!!

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You are the A.C.R.O.P.Y.M. YOUR MISSION: OCCUPY AOI!!! There are two ways: One is by blindly asserting our inherent, natural, God-given right to run fair use samples of MS Digby 23, as we have done; yet another, more insidious way, is to OCCUPY the meaning of AOI, with direct but keen observations, reframed by a creative, dynamic intellect, so that AOI will never ever again be retreaded into yet another well-meaning but misguided Ph.D. thesis. Not even one. Hence, to recap:

Last week, we briefly summarized some of the scholarship on the Roland, with emphasis on E. Bulatkin’s important, Structural Arithmetic Metaphor in the Oxford “Roland,” Ohio State University Press (1972). More to the point, we summarized some of the theories on the meaning of AOI: Was it a war-cry “the wild Aoi!”? Or a refrain; the verb aoire, meaning to increase or augment? Or was it a complicated contraction of vowels: a mnemonic use of the vowels EUOUAE in the seculorum amen of the church’s liturgy? Storost believed that EUOUAE must have been crossed with AEUIA from alleluia before becoming AOI. Was AOI really EUOUAE crossed with AEUIA?

Euax Que. We like that one: lots of superfluous vowels for P. E.I.E.I.O. But Grace Frank, in “Aoi in the Chanson de Roland,” PMLA, Vol. 487, No. 3 (Sep., 1933), pp. 629-635, gives a statistical analysis of the occurrence of the AOI relative to the narrative structure and development of the story of Roland, and concludes, at p. 631:

This analysis revealed that, in general AOI was present at the end of a laisse whenever some sort of interruption occurred, that is, specifically, when the following laisse introduced a change of scene, action or speaker, when in the following laisse a speaker turned from one auditor to another … It was found, on the other hand that AOI was absent when no interruption took place.

Frank pointed out that AOI corresponds closely to an interruption in the text. In short, AOI occurs at a stanza break. The meaning of AOI is thus pretty simple – perhaps too simple to make a good journal article. AOI is inter-office scribal notation: a directive to one scribe in a scriptorium, to another, to:

Add Ochre Initial In short, AOI is not a word — and it is not part of the text. It looks like a word, but it is only notation. The type of notation is not “shorthand,” but is a form of shorthand: a common form of data compression known as the ACRONYM – something that Editors and all Players at P.Y.M. Puzzler exercise as a specialty. A.O.I.

This may be why so many of you highly-trained, highly exercised Players “guessed” right: figuring out the AOI in the context of a P.Y.M. Puzzler – where we specialize in acronyms and other common forms of encoding -- is like falling off a log. Even the renegade F.Y.P.Y.M. helped with the solution for this one – little did they know!! Because the word is an acronym, and not a “vocabulary” word, the word does not yield to any plausible etymological explanation, and is not found in any other Old French of Anglo-Norman text – isn’t that strange? Nevertheless, it appears dozens of times in MS Digby 23. This is also why it is in all caps – something that may also be unique to Digby 23 – and is often larger and darker than the actual text of the poem. For instance in folio 5v, it can even be observed that the AOI is a different SIZE script than the text of the poem itself, at a more upright angle–almost a backslant – and runs below the line:

5v

Hmmmm. Which should recommend the idea, that it was added later to the text, after the text was written, but before the Ochre Initials were Added. And this is of course the case. AOI.

Or look at 6r, where the AOI appears twice – in each case, noticeably larger, separated from the text, and angled back against the direction of the script of the poem. In 6r for instance, the line of text tapers downward, but the AOI … ?

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6r

6r

In some cases, such as Digby 23, folio 5r (see p. 2) the letters are spaced out – separated, like INITIALS. On the other hand, in other proximate occurrences, AOI may appear to be “more of a part” of the text. See 6v, for two instances. Indeed, at this point, Players can refer to the actual OCCUPY AOI!! Images at the Bodelian website, at http://image.ox.ac.uk/show?collection=bodleian&manuscript=msdigby23b – as an OCCUPY agent, proceeding directly through the virtual copyright barrier … Or, Players can examine the alternative lower-res imagery, at http://bodley30.bodley.ox.ac.uk:8180/luna/servlet/view/search?QuickSearchA=QuickSearchA&q=chanson+de+roland&sort=Shelfmark%2CDate&search=Search available through LUNA – also seeming to be connected with the Boodillyian.

But throughout the MS there are no instances where the AOI occurs without an Added Ochre Initial – i.e., AOI . And, the AOI regularly appears, either in the line immediately preceding the Ochre Initial – OI -- or directly opposite it. Or … are there contrary instances? And the Green Initial? AGI? Check for yourselves…..

The upshot is, of course, that inasmuch as the AOI is a simple acronym, it must be read out, or expanded, into a full linguistic phrase – and the only language which rationally expands the AOI, is English – even Middle English renders a rational “read-out” for AOI, whether as Add Ochre Initial, or, perhaps as Add Ornamental Initial. In French, would it be AId’O ? Or something. P. is on a coffee run, so I can’t ask him. This of course, means that the AOI was added to the text in an English scriptorium, and therefore raises the strong presumption, the pretty much conclusive presumption, that the Chanson de Roland was transcribed in England, and Digby Ms 23 is an original English MS, and likely as not, was composed by an English author, well “versed” in French and French poetry. This should come as no surprise, since the language of the poem is, after all, “Anglo-Norman.” The Puzzler can indeed confirm that the poem was written by an Englishman, not in the 12th or 13th as conventionally accepted, but originally in the early 14th C. Stay tuned for further developments!

And hear the battle cry of OCCUPY: A.O.I. !!

oooooooooooOOOOOOOOooooooooooo

WHERE IS ADAM SNAKESNOUT? Meanwhile, we have had NO LUCK locating the ADAM SNAKESNOUT file that was scheduled to run this week. Sorry. Don’t know why – it was probably not the F.Y.P.Y.M. – more likely just bad filing. Stacks everywhere. Debating at length over what to run, P. just lost the coin toss, and gone to get the coffee. DANGER! HIGH VOLTAGE Wait … what’s that on his desk, under that pile of legal briefs? Not supposed to be in here … Uh: it’s some HIDDEN PICTURES! P … a closet Imperialist?! Grab ‘em! I’ll run these for leverage: Al-Harouche will have kittens! OH! Oh, crap!! NOT the water … no.. nooOO!! Agghh! It’s wet. But just a little on the edge. Kill the light. We’ll figure the rest out, when P. gets back with my mocha …

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HOW MANY HIDDEN NOOSES CAN YOU FIND ??

William Quiller Orchardson [Urquhartson?] Napoleon on Board the Bellerophon (ca. 1880) Eaux Que. The uncopyrighted image above, is by an artist who died about a century ago, and whose estate does not claim a continuing copyright interest in his work – much less a seven hundred year old copyright interest in the work of an unknown Poetic Master. That’s something like patenting a genome. Can you do that? Hmmmmmm?

In particular, this is Wm. Q. Orchardson’s painting of Napoleon aboard the Bellerophon. The situation depicted in the painting, is that of a period shortly following Napoleon’s surrender to Capt. Frederick Maitland of the H.M.S. Bellerophon, off the coast of RochFort, France: marking the end of his Imperial Rule over Europe. Bonaparte is shown during his incarceration aboard the H.M.S. Bellerophon, the vessel bound to Torbay, England, for a rendezvous with the H.M.S. Northumberland, which would then transport the Little Dictator to his eventual island captivity on St. Helena. Behind him, grouped, are depicted the French officers who in dedication to Bonaparte, accompanied him on the voyage and stayed with him after reaching St. Helena. This is a beautiful work of draftsmanship, of composition, and of execution in oils, and needless to say a remarkable piece of art “in its own right” – that is, seen more or less conventionally.

The full import of Orchardson’s painting was not expressed until it was later engraved by Armytage: at which point the block and tackle gear, in the rigging directly overhead of the mortified officer corps, looming “before the mast” as it were, seem – some of them anyway – to rotate: turning sideways, their pulley wheels obscured, their breeches and sheaves invisible, and beginning to lose – or losing entirely -- mechanical definition, and physical tension: Did Armytage’s stylus slip? Was it an engraver’s error? Cf. WHAT’S שR٥ ν& WITH THIS … . . PICTURE PUZZLER? (October 2, 2011) Or are they HIDDEN PICTURES?

Now compare the original painting, with the COPYRIGHTED image of the J.C. Armytage engraving, which follows…

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ADVERTISEMENT

The following image is COPYRIGHTED © Asaph P. Dromgoole, as it is a unique original photograph (okay: scan) of MY PERSONAL COPY1

www.davidrumsey.com

of Armytage’s public domain engraving of Orchardson’s public domain painting – and it is clearly identifiable as such by the COPYRIGHT and by the unique and original WATERMARK in the upper margin, where I spilled some water on his desk, near it -- making it unlike on any other copy of this engraving ANYWHERE. I get it. What a great idea. I have to hand it to the Boodidlian and that map guy …. Own it!!! I mean … only to protect the integrity of the image, of course.

© Asaph P. Dromgoole !!

High resolution copies of this engraving are available from the Puzzler at pympuzzler@rocketmail.com Please provide your full name, date of birth, full address (with apartment number), Social Seurity number, telephone number, IP address, annual income, gmail and Facebook account passwords, and submit the non-refundable $20.00 processing and handling fee, and tell us how you intend to use the imagery. You must promise not to remove the identifying WATERMARK. We, in turn, promise to keep this information confidential, sharing it only with our colleagues at Google.

If we approve of you, you will be contacted at an indeterminate time in the near future, by MS letter written with a quill pen, delivered by Pony Express, and given our decision. Other images of this engraving are available on the internet.

A.O.I.!!!

WE NOW RETURN TO OUR PUZZLER IN PROGRESS 1 Eaux Que – I know -- it’s Bleaudry’s copy: but it has my original watermark, and P. is still out getting my MOCHA.

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NOW LOOK CAREFULLY: First at the Orchardson painting, then at the Armytage engraving: Armytage has hidden something in his engraving!!

Orchardson

Orchardson/Armytage

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NOOSES! But …. Is it one, two or … more nooses? HOW MANY HIDDEN NOOSES CAN YOU FIND ??

All images Copyright © Asaph P. Dromgoole

Better put these back now.

NEXT WEEK

I still have no ideas for next week – or even if we should take a break and let the staff get their Kwanzaa shopping done. It’s become difficult with the ongoing litigagtion, the break-in, the files in disarray, all the copyright hassles with the K.W.M. and … others. To make the schedule is almost unmanageable. We try though – hard -- so you’d never know it. P’s light’s not on – that’s the door on the right marked HIGH VOLTAGE. I ‘ll have to discuss the subject of next week’s Puzzler with P. for once, when he gets back, I think. We need an idea! Four French themes in a row -- and we’re supposed to be on a subscription drive!!! It’s late. He’s still not back with my MOCHA. And the ginger nuts. Where could he be?