What is the solution to _The Key to the Kingdom_ by Tony Meeuwissen?
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New entry, edited from material collected for the archive and not yet in a released version.
Problem
What is the solution to _The Key to the Kingdom_ by Tony Meeuwissen? Key to the Kingdom is a pack of transformation cards. Transformation cards are like normal playing cards except the conventional suit signs are transformed into artistic designs. The deck used in the contest was created by Tony Meeuwissen. The deck comes with 53 cards and a book with all 53 cards and a poem associated with each card. The actual puzzle was to decode a phrase from clues contained in another poem contained in the rules. The poem held cryptic clues to 14 cards which once found were supposed to allow you to figure out the code. After you found the mystery code you were to rearrange the letters of the words "Spades, Clubs, Hearts, Diamonds" to form a sentence. The sentences submitted were to be judged on sophistication and relevance to The Key to the Kingdom theme. The prize was 10,000 dollars. -- D. Baisley <dmb13@columbia.edu> [ Editor: the first line is the editor's. The archive's treasure/treasure.biblio lists the book (Pavilion, 1992, ISBN 1 851 45925 1) with a prize of 5,000 cash. ]
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Andrew C. Plotkin <ap1i+@andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:
>Wonderful. I have no idea how they got this answer. "Dieu et Mon
>Droit" plus some grobbling through a dictionary comes out as "God and
>my right", more or less, although there may be a better idiomatic
>translation. ("Right" as in legal rights, not the direction.)
>
>Back when I was working on the puzzle, I managed to figure out most of
>the 14 cards referred to in the poem. The answer given has 14 letters,
>so presumably you can get one letter from each card, but I don't know
>how.
Well, I finally retrieved my copy from my parents' place. Here's how
the solution goes:
The rhyme refers to 14 cards. The relevant phrases are:
An insect wedding ==> the ten of hearts
The ache disturbed ==> the six of clubs
(the ache is anagram of cheetah)
a man's unlawful house ==> the eight of diamonds
(unlawful == crooked)
rare Ben's rhyme ==> the five of hearts
(Ben Jonson's tombstone is inscribed
"O rare Ben Jonson")
five operas by Strauss ==> the five of clubs
(Strauss wrote "Die Fledermaus"
[Editor: spelled "Der Fliedermaus" in
the original], which means "The Bat")
Dark news from 1912 ==> the three of diamonds
(The Titanic sank then)
a tannin-shortened life ==> the ace of hearts
precocious cephalopod ==> the eight of spades
(cephalopod == octopus)
A vital joke ==> the six of spades
zygodactyls plod ... ==> the two of diamonds
(zygodactyl refers to certain birds, of
which the parrots are one. I have no
idea what the German countess has to do
with this, though.)
a fruit sharp words .. ==> the three of spades
(I assume some word play on pear/pare)
confectionary's cute .. ==> the six of hearts
way in of way out type ==> the ten of clubs
a verse from selfsame
pen as Cherry Ripe ==> the nine of spades
(Robert Herrick wrote both Cherry Ripe,
and the verse for the nine of spades.)
So we have the following cards:
clubs: 5, 6, 10
diamonds: 2, 3, 8
hearts: A, 5, 6, 10
spades: 3, 6, 8, 9
We have to convert these into letters, and then anagram them into the
right phrase. ("Shuffling is, or should be, all you need.") The
correct method is to let the 2 through Ace of clubs and hearts
represent the letters from A to M, and the 2 through Ace of spades and
diamonds the letters N to Z.
Two obvious questions about this:
1) Why is it 2 to Ace, not Ace to King? Or rather, how are you meant
to deduce which it is?
2) How are we supposed to deduce that clubs and hearts are low, rather
than some other permutation of the suits?
I tried looking at the order of the cards in the deck provided, but
that didn't shed any light. I can't recall whether or not I changed
their order, but the order they are in at the moment is not any order I
would have chosen personally, so I must have attempted to retain it.
In any case, neither question was answered by the order. Perhaps
someone else who is sure of the order could check?
Anyway, this leads to the letters DDEEIIMNOORTTU, which can be
anagrammed to "Dieu et Mon Droit" (rather fortunate really, considering
we know that is the answer :). "So English yet un-English" is the
descriptive phrase, which applies here. It appears in some connection
with English royalty (I'm not sure precisely what. Is it on the royal
seal?), yet it is French.
-- Geoff Bailey (Fred the Wonder Worm) <ftww@cs.su.oz.au>
[ Editor: Andrew Plotkin's posting "The Key to the Kingdom (answer)"
(June 1994), part of which is quoted in this entry. ]
Just got this letter:
-------------------------
The Jay Group
General Offices
60 North Ronks Road
Ronks, PA 17572
717/687-8641
FAX 717/687-6987
Dear Participant:
Thank you for your interest in The Key To The Kingdom contest. We
have received your request for the answer. The answer is:
Dieu et Mon Droit
Again, thank you for your interest in our contest.
Sincerely,
The Jay Group,
Agent for Running Press Book Publishers
-------------------------
Wonderful. I have no idea how they got this answer. "Dieu et Mon Droit"
plus some grobbling through a dictionary comes out as "God and my
right", more or less, although there may be a better idiomatic
translation. ("Right" as in legal rights, not the direction.)
Back when I was working on the puzzle, I managed to figure out most of
the 14 cards referred to in the poem. The answer given has 14 letters,
so presumably you can get one letter from each card, but I don't know
how.
-- Andrew C. Plotkin <ap1i+@andrew.cmu.edu>