Competition Time!

I now intend to introduce a new regular feature to this blog, viz., a series of competitions related to Verne Studies, literature generally, and Translation Studies.

The first competition, set out hereunder, is what I call the Verne Conundrum Competition. If you are a fan of the board game Scrabble, or of such television programmes as Channel 4's long-running words (anagrams) and numbers puzzle show Countdown, or of the French afternoon quiz Des Chiffres et des Lettres, you may particularly enjoy the type of puzzles I am giving here. You will probably also enjoy unscrambling these particular anagrams if you are a fan of the works of Jules Verne.

If you are interested in entering this competition, please email your answers to me at kieran.odriscoll3@mail.dcu.ie including a postal address to which I can send you the prize, which is, for this first competition, a copy of the newly republished The Tour of the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne, translated by the Philadelphia-based translator Stephen W. White in 1874. This is a beautiful edition with all of the original illustrations and new critical material, and is published by the Choptank Press, USA. It is not available in bookshops, but only through http://www.lulu.com/ and will constitute a valuable addition and collector's item in the library of any Verne reader or book lover generally.

This book will be posted to the e-mailer of the first fully correct set of (5) answers to the five 'scrambled word' puzzles below..

So here's what you have to do: I set out hereunder five words which are all in some way connected to the themes of Jules Verne's Extraordinary Journeys to the known and unknown worlds (Voyages Extraordinaires dans les mondes connus et inconnus), his lifelong opus of approximately sixty novels and novellas on themes of exploration, geography and science, among other topics.

The letters of each word have been randomly scrambled, so you need to rearrange them and tell me what the five words are. This puzzle is based on the exact same principle as applies on each of the Countdown letter games and conundrums/teasers, all of which involve solving anagrams. It is similarly based on Scrabble principles.

To make this first competition relatively easy, and to encourage as many blog readers as possible to enter, and emerge from the cyber-woodwork, I have given a clue as to what each word might be. These clues are somewhat akin to the Teatime Teasers on Countdown, the difference being that the following clues are not funny or pun-based, rather, they are straight and po-faced. First, here are two examples:

NAOHRPORE. Clue: This was the profession of Ned Land in Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas. Answer: HARPOONER.

OSODCNEIL. Clue: This word describes what France did to certain African countries and features in such Verne works as Voyages d'Etudes. Answer: COLONISED.

So here are the five conundrums you need to solve in order to win the Verne book collector's item which is the prize for this first competition:

1. T E R V A E D U N
Clue: This word describes a primary theme of practically all of Jules Verne's fictional works.

2. O L I E G X R P N

Clue: This word also describes a theme of virtually all of Verne's works, and is to the forefront in such novels as 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' and 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'.

3. Y R O D I C E V S

Clue: This word again describes a theme of most of Verne's fiction.

4. R A S B U I E M N

Clue: This word is the name of the mode of nautical transport captained by Nemo in 'Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas' (a giveaway, this one!)

5. D E L O U T I N G

Clue: A geographical measurement concept which proves important in 'Around the World in Eighty Days'.

As I say, if you are interested in taking part, please send your five answers, together with a postal address, by e-mail to me at kieran.odriscoll3@mail.dcu.ie . The book will be immediately posted to the winner.

The second competition will be published on this blog in about a month's time. The theme of this second challenge will be to solve ten conundrums/anagrams all relating to concepts in Translation Theory. And this time, there won't be any clues, so I will be upping the ante! The prize will be another Verne-related book.

Future competitions will include varied themes such as short quizzes on Verne's life and works, and quizzes on other writers, which could include anybody from Philip Pullman to J.K. Rowling or Lemony Snicket, including questions on the French translations and translators of these popular authors. There will also be occasional competitions seeking a short essay on a set topic in Translation Studies and literary studies. The best essays will be published on this blog. Future prizes will also include - apart from books - copies of the Scrabble and Countdown board games.

So, I hope you will enjoy this, and future, competitions. And I look forward to receiving solutions in the coming days!

Bonne chance et bon courage!