Tag Archives: Code

Œ is for Œdipean Riddle

You live in the house of two mothers immersed:

One births the other and the other births the first.

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Present

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Night Riddle

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The Way

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Shh

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For Anybody Who Rests With Them

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Arrows

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X≠Y≠Z: What is that?

Y: That one on the left looks dangerous.

X: The one on the right looks more joyful, but it’s a moody joy.

Y: Moody. Who are they? They’re staring and it’s creeping… More

Axaxaxas mlö

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IO is for I/O

01001001 01100110 00100000 01011010 01100101 01110101 01110011 00100000 01101000 01100001 01100100 00100000 01110100 01110101 01110010 01101110 01100101 01100100 00100000… More

COW

\d M
moo: “];” / 0: end loop
mOo: “p-:1;” / 1: dec mem ptr
moO: “p+:1;” / 2: inc mem ptr
mOO: “. M@(!M)@m p” / 3: eval
Moo: “.:[m… More

Everything is Temporary

I am so terribly sorry for your loss. I’ll be thinking about you and will light a candle. Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you in your time of grief, while you are… More

Octave

The rune carvers, the people who knew the Rune Poem by heart, probably sang it. There’s a lot of evidence for that, not to mention putting a story to music makes the retelling easier… More

Decode

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Alphybettyformed Verbage
A is always for apple. B is for a lot of stuff. Ball, bear, boat, banana, so many B things. Very early we learn from the one to the infinite is but a step.

The Old English Rune Poem is an alphabet book. It looks like an alphabet book, but like a modern alphabet book there’s infinitely more to it, if you look close. Every stanza of the poem describes a letter, a rune. In Old English the word rune means secret. The secret is these letters weren’t just for writing. In secret, when nobody was looking, people could carve the runes into bits of wood and cast lots with them. Find out their fates. Answer a few questions. Solve some problems. They could do this because each stanza of the Rune Poem, gives a little bit of wisdom, a little picture of life, sometimes a warning. Always in the form of a riddle. The Rune Poem is a collection of riddles that could divine the future.

This poem has another secret hidden in its folds that fascinates me. There’s a riddle in this collection of alphabet riddles, deep in its structure. Take the letters, cut them apart from each other, carve them into bits of wood if that helps you, and line them up in a row. Now fold your line in half so number 1 is next to 29, 2 next to 28, etc. Make the pairs and read them together. They match each other. They sing duets about light, renewal, a song of home and exile. A song of the water cycle. A beautiful weapon is one thing but a thorn can really hurt you. Some things are dependable. Everything is temporary. The runes sing these things to themselves in the mirror, duet by duet, until you get to the clue, the key to the secret, number 15 in the middle -- Helix, standing alone all twisted, singing we should twine this poem aound itself and look at it again.

-- Vern Tonkin

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