Motivation:
Here is an intriguing quote from Mr Sanborn:
• “I will say that I have left instructions in the earlier text that refer to later text.”
- Jim Sanborn, excerpt from interview in Wired Magazine
Well, if this quote is to be given any credibility at all (and I don’t have a solid reason to dispute Mr Sanborn, given that he is the maker of Kryptos!) then it seems reasonable to look for the former text somewhere near the beginning, such as in K1. Furthermore, it doesn’t seem likely to look for such text in K2 or K3, not just because of their location, but also because of their content, which seem to reference specific actions or events but not text. Compared to these, the plaintext of K1 is downright alluring and could easily refer to “later text”.
• “Between subtle shading and the absence of light lies the nuance of iqlusion.”
-Jim Sanborn, Kryptos Part One
I was convinced from the very beginning that this was a riddle that required interpretation. While contemplating it, I was reminded of the riddle faced by Gandalf and his Fellowship of the Ring while standing outside the magical doorway to the Mines of Moria. It turns out (not to give any spoilers, in case you haven’t read The Lord of the Rings yet) that the key to answering that particular riddle was to interpret it in the most literal way possible. So I endeavored to do the same here. And it didn’t take long to find a potential solution.
Pre-Step Observations:
There appear to be three things described by K1,
• Subtle Shading
• Absence of Light
• Nuance of Iqlusion,
and apparently, the latter one is supposed to be (somehow) between the other two. Attempting to apply literal meaning to two of the three (“subtle shading”, and “absence of light”) is not a cake walk. However, the third has a very literal interpretation: the “nuance of iqlusion” quite literally could mean the “nuance” of the word “iqlusion”. And the nuance of that word might be the “Q” that shouldn’t be there. This seemed like a decent premise to me, and so I searched the later text for a “Q” that might be between two other things that revealed themselves (upon further interpretation) to resemble “subtle shading” and “absence of light”.
Well, at the end of K3, there is a renegade “Q”, just sitting there not part of any word. And I subsequently noticed that the preceding text about seeing details through the mist and darkness of King Tut’s tomb could very well be indicative of “subtle shading”. Unfortunately, directly after that renegade “Q” is K4. Not so spiffy.
However… the K2 plaintext begins with “it was totally invisible”, which is just about as close of a match to “the absence of light” as one could hope for. But the “Q” is not anywhere near that phrase. So then it occurred to me that if K1 truly is a set of instructions regarding the later text (K2 and K3) then perhaps its meaning is to swap the location of these two bodies of text. That would certainly honor the “instructions” of K1: the “Q” would now be nestled right between subtle shading and the absence of light.
Step Process:
Swap the locations of K2 with those of K3 (on both layers of the palimpsest) and you will obtain the figure labeled “The Passage” below. There is nothing meaningful about the label I have assigned, i.e. there is no “passage” indicated here. I just think it is a neat name in the context of what is yet to come.
Post-Step Observations:
The instructions in K1 have been interpreted and applied. This is the second step along the path of creating the desired “original matrix”.
