© 2016- FennClues.com About Us | Links | Terms & Conditions | Buy the Book
So, tell me… Which clues exactly are the 9 Clues?
We are told that the poem contains nine clues. But, which nine clues? That is the $64,000 question…
There are many possibilities for the 9 Clues, let’s take a look at some of the more likely candidates:
From Start to Finish (Begin to Cease/End)
Each Clue is a Sentence:
1. Stanza 1
2. Warm waters, canyon, walk
3. Home of Brown
4. Meek, nigh, no paddle creek, loads
5. The blaze, tarry scant, marvel gaze
6. Leave my trove
7. Answers, tired, weak
8. Hear me, worth the cold
9. Brave, in the wood, title
There are nine sentences in the poem - and nine clues. Coincidence??? It would make perfect sense if each sentence is a clue. And, this would go a long way in explaining the poem’s rather odd punctuation. Like that semi-colon for instance. Not to mention all those commas serving no purpose but to lower the sentence-count.
Starting from the top of the poem version of the 9 Clues:
The ‘Begin at WWWH’ interpretation of Fenn’s clues:
The first stanza might be rather important version:
If the first option isn’t correct, then it’s a mighty big coincidence that there just so happen to be 9 distinct clues between Begin and Cease. But, not just that, all nine of those clues are in the paragraphs where the author is telling ‘you’ to do something. All the paragraphs that talk about what the author did in the past are clues that help you know what to do in the present. It fits just a bit too nicely to be wrong. So, until we hear a better option, we’re going to focus on variations of the first (not excluding anything, of course).