What is the solution to
Maze by ?
Solution:
In room 29, a door to room 17 is hidden upside-down to look like a table. Notice that the two leftmost candlesticks are not connected to the stand. In addition, the two candles for those sticks are casting shadows back toward the fool, away from the lit candle on the stand. This is also hinted at in the first room by the two banners on the ground, nearest the entryway. They contain the words "Go" & "17."
Using this door it is clear that there is a 16-step path through the Maze:
1 26 30 42 4 29 17 45 23 8 12 39 4 15 37 20 1.
Ian McManus has mapped all of the rooms that have
unnumbered exits.
The year after the book was initially published, VENTURA ASSOCIATES, INC. a fulfilment house retained by the publisher provided the following additional clues in a
letter to those who wrote to them requesting a solution.
--- begin quote ---
Each of the additional clues below applies to one word of the riddle to be found in room #45 of MAZE:
1) I'll tip my hat if the two of you can solve this.
2) You can get into these two shoes only if you don't go anywhere.
3) You will find two names on the table, and they go together like doughnut and hole.
4) You must choose between two pictures.
5) There are no two ways you can read this sign.
6) You can see that another two pictures demonstrate their own kind of symmetry.
--- end quote ---
The various components of room 45, put together properly produce the following question:
"What house will all live in?"
W + hat = What
shoe + U (horseshoe shaped) = House
Will (common to both names "---- iam shake spear" and "wood row ---- sun")
awl = All (versus nun = none)
elvi = Live (third reading is "vile")
eye + N (sideways Z) = In
On the table, there is a row of up-ended logs and a poster with a shaking spear and an ideographic sun. These can be interpreted as "wood row Will's son" or Woodrow Wilson. A quote attributed to President Wilson is: "Without God, the world would be a maze without a clue"
Beginning at the first room of the path, a hint can be phrased:
"Like Atlas, you bear it upon your shoulders."
1: Like is written backwards on the banner hanging near the entryway.
26: salt + A = Atlas
30: From text, "Why 'O' & 'U'?" = You
42: A Bear is the main feature of this room.
4: The holes and pegs are a form of intelligence test, abbr. I.T. Alternately, the torches are I's and the gavel is a T
29: up + on = Upon
17: Why + Oh + You + Are = Your
skip room 45
23: Taken from the text is the word "shoulder" to which we add the S from room 8. This is not entirely satisfying, because the next rooms do a good job of providing most of the letters, but not in quite the right order.
8: S
12: U D
39: R and on the tire O
4: "ELL" in maze on wall spells L
15: hat, hare, heart, helmet, house, hero all start with H
37: sphere, bottle, vase, cone, dice all end with E (clued in text)
20: S
The acceptable answers were "The World, Earth, or Globe."
Scott "Fool" Purdy wrote the earlier version of this answer and thanked Andrew C. Plotkin for the information provided by the publisher and Narciso Jaramillo for his assistance in determining the reasons for several statements. Chris McManus proposed the 8 room path through the Maze. John Bailey located the Woodrow Wilson quote.
Additional hints and clues found in the rooms are discussed
here.
Rebecca Sweat has compiled an
inventory of the items in the various rooms.
This page contains an article written by Ian Finley speculating on the identity of the guide through the Maze.
Original FAQ entry: Scott "Fool" Purdy
Update: July 5, 2000 John Bailey jbaile2@rochester.rr.com
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