To Michael Donohue and his students,

At first reading I thought your solution had some things going for it, so I returned to Pale Fire to see if your reading would "fit." I am glad I did. Since I last read PF,  I (and we collectively) have been more or less taken up with Ada, that difficult bitch. How lovely to read again the VN of PF - - a restorative if nothing else.

I would like to point out that the crown jewels are not a collection of jewels,   but three destinct pieces: diamond crown, ruby necklace and "gemmed" sceptre. The Bera mountains, however beautiful & glittering (and that "foil" would of course only be an adjunct to paste jewelry) do not really strike me as being jewel-like (the "intercalated" bits of cotton are a lovely touch, but do not strike me as a clue). Mt Glitterntin's back-lit zigzag ridge could be a reference to a diamond crown - - but where are the necklace, the sceptre?

The "family jewels" joke would work if the jewels were a collection of round stones, perhaps, but  the three pieces already contain the phallus symbol (sceptre), so it would be a rather messy joke and therefore I tend to doubt the solution has been discovered yet.

I took the opportunity to look back through our archives to see what solutions might have been discussed previously.  Sam Schuman: "My theory has always been that the Crown Jewels are actually hidden...IN the Index!" Jasper Fidget had an alternate theory:"The crown jewels then are the cards of John Shade's poem Pale Fire." I also found reference to Rachel Trousdale's paper "The Crown Jewels" but no hint as to her solution. Priscilla Meyer in her book on Pale Fire sees the search for the crown jewels as part of a web of references to the historical (i.e. British) Charleses I & II. Some have thought that Kobaltana was an anagram of "Nabok alta," but I fail to understand this. Brian Boyd's book could not be searched (its index I suspect is intentionally useless).

Mr Donohue and his students made a good stab at answering the question "why did Disa laugh?" In order to posit an answer to that question, I would have to re-read Pale Fire and - -  I think I will.  My thanks to Mr D & his students for giving me the impetus.

Carolyn



p.s.  Steinmann is the German word for cairn, & the plural would be Steinmänner.