Prototype Cards: Number 219
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Card info
- title: "The Master of Secrets"
- card value: 55 Perplex Points
- Full card text and image
- Perplex City Card Catalog, large scans and details
- Unfiction thread
- category: Black Pixel Set
- set value: 220 Perplex Points
- marked "Limited Edition Pre release wave 0.5", "Prototype Card", "Group 333"
- Guest Puzzle Architect Margaret Maitland, Guest Artist Adrian Hon
Solve
This card contains Egyptian hieroglyphs. They can be transliterated (using computer transliteration and not standard conventions) to:
ink imAh nsw ink mrrw n it=i iw Sdy=i r mSdt kA iw sS n=i aSAt Hr sS iswt nt kmt iw sw(A)D n=i r n kmt iw srd.n=i hAw Hna nht ink sS ikr n Dba=f ink kAry wAD n Dba=f ptr rn=i
Which can in turn be translated to:
I am the King's backbone (literally: spinal cord) I am the love of my Father I suckle the ford bull ## The scribes of the old times of Egypt hand over to the mouth of Egypt I made the plants grow together with the sycamore I am the trustworthy scribe of his fingers I am the great green gardener of his finger Who/What is my name?
the ## relates to a line in transliteration which at the present time is not fully translated into english. It can be translated somewhat into "the multitude of scribes to me"
The solution to the riddle is the River Nile as this is all those things to Egypt.
The glyphs all seem to be taken from Urk IV
An alternate solve was provided by a new translation and interpretation of the text by Sarah Burns and Glenn Godenho:
I am one revered by the King, I am one beloved of my father, I was educated at the ford of the bull (Oxford), I have written many books about the writings of Ancient Egypt, I made flourish the words of Egypt, I made the plants and the trees grow, I am a scribe whose fingers are excellent, I am a gardener who is green of his finger, What is my name?
The solution given then is the famous Egyptologist Sir Alan Gardiner. Reasons he is the answer:
He was ‘revered by the King’ by having a knighthood He was ‘beloved of his father’ as his father paid for every thing, he never needed to work, He was educated at Queens College, Oxford, He wrote about the writings of Egypt, He ‘made flourish the words of Egypt’ by writing books that helped people learn Egyptian grammar, His name was Gardiner, he wasn’t a gardener!
