Le Serpent Bleu

[Petter Holmberg]

Here's a little something I came up with about a year ago. It's a take on the famous Le Serpent Rouge puzzle, which was adapted into a really cool puzzle in Gabriel Knight 3.

This version describes a journey around the globe, with stops at many famous places. The clues are taken from history and require quite a bit of research to figure out. No one has solved it to date.

Yup, only the slightly mad would venture into this web of mystery and hidden double meanings... The question is, are you mad enough to try?

If you are, you'll probably need to cooperate. No clues will be given. If you solve it, you'll end up at a location that there's no way you could just be lucky and guess...

[1 Taurus]
The beginning is the end and the end is the beginning. OUROBOROS coils around himself and purifies the soul. The journey ends where it first started. But I am not there, even if it would seem so.

[2 Gemini]
Where does the shrub grow juicy fruit? Where did The Admiral find port the second time? Where Reigned Sir Henry, ruler of the Reed? The three know the answer to the secret: Where are the five of 19 that were in the sky? But the question to ask is: Where did the five START their journey?

[3 Cancer]
The origin is not the start. I look to its counterpart in the OLD WORLD, hoping to find parts of one of the holy four here. My search for them leads me to the area that is the biggest of the six. Here, a general acted architect. He who made his pictures is the same who painted one of the seventh. One who the general threw out of his home.

[4 Leo]
What a home it is! The secrets it holds are many. I look up and marvel at the great master's work. His origins are further north, and it is here that the writer was born before him. His journey saw 8-7-9, and near the end there was the Orb of Righteousness, which is also the fifth and has more children than any of the others. The BIGGEST brother is a prince. Oh, how long his kingdom has been in ruins!

[5 Virgo]
I walk around in his city, but I do not know: Is it real or a figment of imagination? He who imagined, imagined again. And in his mind was two beasts. She who legend says was not caught by them could also say "ET IN ARCADIA EGO" and her name reminds us of that which was lost and also of that in which maybe it was lost.

[6 Libra]
The search for it is fruitless! do I go north, south, east or west? The captain who is Nobody and still a prince knows, FOR HE HAS SEEN IT! He leads me to his homeland, where the greatest TOMB is overlooking the GARDEN OF PARADISE. I look at its four parts. The RED, the WHITE and the YELLOW have earthly origin, but the fourh is also present in all the others and is the purest quarter.

[7 Scorpio]
As I contemplate the symmetry of the garden, I realize that THE PURE ONE is a returning theme in my journey. I wish I could conquer it, like the shepherd of the famous Painter POUSSIN in front of his obstacle. But I feel like the children of ISIS as it comes over me. If this the answer or only the bringer of more questions I do not know.

[8 Ophiuchus]
It guides my eyes on the clear night sky, and I think that this is where KEPLER would have started. But where I stand now it is not the beginning, neither is it the end. I have found the reason for why I am lost! The serpent gazes down on me and DELIVERS ME FROM THE MIRE. Here then, dear readers, lie the answers. ENLIGHTENMENT comes to him THAT DOES POST.