Talk:The Riddle and Fate of Harpalus and his Dwarf

Kerry: We've got to meet up.

Chris: The answer to the riddle is: It fell out of the basket. It's a reading comprehension riddle.

Noah: From where we sit in Albania, and a few things rattling around in my head, I may finally have some insight into this riddle.

  Beautiful was the sky,
  Beautiful was the sea,
  And most beautiful was the earth.
  Facing the north wind,
  Three sisters went gathering posies.

Indeed, we find that the Earthly Beauty does indeed have two sisters, and they are of the sky and the sea. The north wind in Greek is Boreas, and is also known as 'the devourer,' because his chill ends the growing season and is the harbinger of winter. 'Facing' could be as in "facing off" or "opposing." Seems to me like our three sisters here were having difficulties and went looking for some help.

  They plucked one from the White Island,
  One from the Wilderness,
  And one from the Land of the Bat-Eared Fox,
  But the last fell from their basket.

Arben identified Nimua from Letter from Cn. Julius Agricola to his grandson, M. Claudius Cornelius Tacitus as a sorceress who lived on the White Island, and who was associatd with a woman from the Land of the Bat-Eared Fox. Wilderness we know from Commentary on the Three Charms of Ikkulu and Igwulf's Obelisk as Rus, Ikulu's homeland. The Bat-Eared Fox, I do believe, dwells only in Africa.

So we have the three Beauties of Illyria aspiring for some kind of All-Star team up with the Lady of the Lake, Ikulu and Ayesha. Apparently Ayesha wasn't interested... or betrayed them ('fell?')? I don't detect any double meaning on 'basket,' but that doesn't mean there isn't one.

  They replaced it with a flower in the Land of Buds,
  Transplanted from the mountains of the New Bronze Coin.
  And then the sisters were so tired.
  But what became of the flower of the Bat-Eared Fox?

'Buds' in Latin is germenes, as in 'to germinate,' thus we have a flower from Germania... I don't have 'New Bronze Coin,' although I suspect it should relate in some way to Scandinavia, since many German mythological figures have Norse counterparts... which leads me to guess that this personage is a Valkyrie, and there were certainly plenty to choose from. Brunhilde? Kremhilde? They seem about on par with the others in stature.

'Tired' in Latin (taedet) also means disgusted or offended (as in, 'I'm tired of this!'), like maybe they got sick of each other... indeed, there is also that other meaning for 'flower'... what became of the 'flower of the Bat-Eared Fox' (Hal has said in the past that we should be ever on the lookout for double-entendre)... I wonder if there was a man involved...

The Earthly Beauty hates Ikulu for some reason, and meanwhile, unless we have some additional shapeshifting shenanigans or Athena-like miracles, someone at some point had to 'hook up' with Ikulu.

Never mind that, though... where the hell is Tinglymymun?!