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The Blog of Axel Lidenbrock : June 5th 1863

From: Harry Hayfield <harryhayfield~at~googlemail.com>
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2008 13:30:55 +0100
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

BlankWell, I suppose it had to happen eventually. For the last few days we
have had glorious sunshine from sunrise to sunset and today the Atlantic
decided to play with us. It wasn't as bad as it could have been (one of the
benefits of travelling in June I suppose) but still the wind was very gusty
indeed and when it rained it rained. Some of the storms were so intense that
I had no choice but to stay in my cabin (which by the way is where my uncle
has been the whole trip). I suppose it's not that odd after all he is a
scientist of the land having to cross the sea! Mind you if I had had the
courage of my convictions when I first read that message and burnt it in my
uncle's hearth perhaps I could have saved him the trouble.

But just as I was going to my uncle returned so very quickly placed the
document back on the table. For the next three hours my uncle never looked
up once, ignored supper and carried on working right through the night (as
he was still working away when I woke up the following morning). I wondered
if perhaps I should just make a suggestion (for instance say "Have you tried
full stops?") but then realised that he was going to solve it no matter what
and that as a result he would go anyway.

And so it carried on until two o'clock that afternoon (a full day since he
started) when he suddenly got up and was about to go outside again. I
couldn't take it any more and thrust a piece of paper at him and said "Read
that!". He crumpled it up and threw it back at me dismissing it as rubbish
and I have to admit I lost my patience with him.

"No, nothing until you proceed to read from the end to the beginning." I
shouted at such a volume that the drivers of the carts outside woahed their
horses

"Aha, clever Saknussemm!" he cried. "You had first written out your sentence
the wrong way." and with that he got straight to business and a few moments
later had come up with:

"In Sneffels Joculis craterem quem delibat Umbra Scartaris Julii intra
calendas descende, Audax viator, et terrestre centrum attinges. Quod feci,
Arne Saknussemm"

Having spent the best part of a day working his way through it he wasn't
going to let a bit of pig Latin get in his way and so translated it which
produced the following:

"Descend, bold traveller, into the crater of the jokul of Sneffels, which
the shadow of Scartaris touches before the kalends of July, and you will
attain the centre of the earth; which I have done, Arne Saknussemm"

or to put it into modern day parlance:

"Go into the crater of the Sneffels volcano, which Scartaris' shadow touches
before July 1st and you'll find a way to the centre of the Earth. I did it
myself, Arne Saknussemm"

And that is precisely what we are doing as we speak. This ship will arrive
in Iceland in a week's time (June 12th) and give us just over 18 days to
reach the Sneffels volcano and then journey to the centre of the Earth!

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Received on Thu 05 Jun 2008 - 15:31:07 IDT

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