Golden Owl Clues |
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PRESENTATION |
Launched in June 1993, the Chouette d’Or is a legendary hunt. Due to its duration, its complexity, the diversity of the areas it addresses, the incredible coincidences that punctuate it, it gradually acquires the envied status of the Holy Grail of treasure hunters. Isn't she, after all, now also sitting on two millennia?
And to think that initially, its author, Max Valentin, thought that it would last 8 to 16 months...! Today (March 2005) we are about to enter the 13th year of the quest, without any truly decisive progress having been made. It must be said that the Owl was a trial run for Max, and we can bet that apart from the calibration over time, he has achieved a masterstroke in other areas: the puzzles are concise and, apparently, of a disconcerting simplicity (at least at the beginning), and the paintings by Michel Becker which illustrate them are just dense enough for us to believe we understand them at first glance—before spending dozens, even hundreds of hours to understand them. go through the details, magnifying glass in hand (a futile approach, moreover... well, probably).
One of the most fascinating things about The Owl is the author's skill at “hooking” the reader. Indeed, once the first obstacle of putting the riddles in the correct order has been overcome (now common knowledge), the first riddles to decipher are childishly simple: the OPENING riddle is a weak charade which gives the starting point of the hunt (Bourges), easily confirmed by the associated table (the owlers say “the visual”).
The second enigma (FIRST STEP...) gives an obvious general direction (the south) and a measurement which is no less obvious. The third (IT IS ONLY THE RIGHT WAY IF THE ARROW AIMS AT THE HEART) is another charade which will not go down in history and whose title also gives the instructions!
When we get there, we say to ourselves: “Already three riddles solved... Four with the one who gives the order... A third of the way is done... Not so difficult as that, Owl! » This is, of course, where the trouble begins.
Indeed, the charade that gives “Bourges” is easy... but what to do with the last two lines, which apparently serve no purpose? And the visual, apart from the rooster's eye centered (more or less) on Bourges, what does it look like? If we start drawing lines on this visual and inspecting what is hidden in the rooster's plumage, we are gone for a while...
As for FIRST STEP..., this story of the thug and the coachman, hasn't it been dismissed with a little too lightness? And the ellipses after “PAS”, are they there to look nice? In a super-concise riddle that only has four lines and 19 words?
And so on. But when we start asking ourselves these questions, it's too late: we're hooked, and the author just has to calmly move up the line... We've become addicted to the Owl, and for a long time !
More than any other hunt, due to longevity, the Owl has its aficionados . Many of them refuse to be interested in another hunt, whether by Max Valentin or another; others are unfaithful to him but return sooner or later. With the increase in hunting and the arrival of hundreds of new enthusiasts, a “non-owl” population appeared. These new hunters have never looked for the Owl, nor even looked through the book, which has become very difficult to find since all three editions are out of print. “Old” and new treasure hunters all recognize the specificity of owls, their sometimes strange habits and language, their propensity to expound ad nauseam on theories that seem vague, capillitracted and/or frighteningly complex, their inclination to talk to each other. tearing apart learned exegeses which ordinary hunters have no problem with, and also the herd instinct which arises from their almost cult-like adherence to this extraordinary treasure hunt.
Max Valentin assured in 2002 that, even after 9 years of hunting, it was still possible to attack the Owl with a chance of success, and has repeated this several times since. Indeed, most of the “primary” solutions are available on numerous sites and it is easy and quick for a newcomer to get to grips with them. Multiple summaries, official or not, have been made on different sites.
In addition, a fundamental novelty, all the questions and answers (Q/A) asked to Max on 3615 MAXVAL (now closed) were made available free of charge on the Internet to researchers on the lachouette.net domain . These Q&A represent an enormous mass of information that until now it was unrealistic to hope to analyze in full, if only for reasons of cost. However, according to Max, the tens of thousands of public responses made to researchers between the summer of 1995 and December 2001 bring together 95% of the information necessary to find the Owl... Will 2005 finally be the year of discovery?
The main difficulty of the Owl comes from the fact that the puzzles do not include any intermediate validation. In other words, we progress throughout the hunt on unstable foundations, without any intermediate result objectively confirming the preceding discoveries. The only validation of the theories that we build along the way will be... the discovery of the treasure, and so far no one has received this kind of validation!
If you want to try it, don't expect to be able to easily obtain the book of riddles. As I have already said, the three successive editions, printed by Manya, Hermé and Michel Lafon, are out of print and no reprinting is planned to date. All that remains is to try your luck at second-hand bookstores or second-hand book sales, or to rely on Web resources, and there are many of them... starting with my Chouette d'Or pages where you will find very good reproductions of the visuals.
The domain www.lachouette.net , mentioned above and managed by Velo, hosts, in addition to the public Q/A database which can be consulted using a search engine, a discussion forum, which is still very active. This forum (hosted for several years on the antidabo.com domain, now closed) followed a previous one, hosted by Edelweb. The Edelweb forum has been closed for several years but the archives can still be consulted at http://www.edelweb.fr/Guests/Chouettedor/ .
The main sites devoted to the Owl appear in my Links. Do not hesitate to write to me to submit new sites to reference.
