Clues by Raich and Grid by Rikki
Theme: The Magician’s Nephew, published May 1955
Winner: Mark Nichols
Review of the May 2025 3D crossword
A tall and extra unch-y 7 x 5 x 6 grid, gives us a normal number of lights, but longer and freer ones in the vertical directions. There are some shaded squares to give us an “eponymous character” so the theme should be pretty simple to suss out.
There’re many names and places in the answers that lead us to the theme of the Chronicles of Narnia and specifically the origin story, The Magician’s Nephew. I’m familiar with the mythology, but have not read the books.
Most of the names used are not uncommon, so knowledge of the subject matter isn’t crucial. CHARN and JADIS are probably the least familiar, though they are clued simply. There are quite a few 6-letter theme words (ANDREW, FLEDGE, LILITH, NARNIA, and NEPHEW), justifying the taller puzzle, which is nice, but I always feel adding a third layer of unchecked letters is sort of a cheat. It might have been better to highlight another word with those extra letters so they’d serve more than one purpose.
Non-theme vocabulary is good with a few odd words. CAJUPUT was a nice check with the necessary JADIS and POLLY, and the cluing is nice, and I don’t believe I’ve ever seen it in a crossword before. Similarly GUDRUN was a nice alternative to the three or four other words it could have been. We were warned about SKYSAT, but it doesn’t seem egregious and is clued well.
Cluing throughout is smooth and straightforward. I didn’t flag any of them for further review or reexamination. There’s a good mix of different techniques.
The visual clue shows an apparently very large and hungry kitten that has swallowed nearly half a planet and a letter. This gives us CA(JUP(iter) + U)T. I find this both adorable and truly terrifying.
The shaded letters spell our Easter egg DIGORY Kirke, the titular nephew of the magician Andrew Ketterley.
With a large amount of thematic content and smooth cluing, this was a breezy solve for spring after a long winter.
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Grid solution
Visual clue
A slightly guilty looking cat sits beside the solar system, having bitten off slightly less than half of Jupiter and a tiny nibble of Uranus. Thus we have:
JUP(iter) + U(ranus) inside CAT = CAJUPUT
Background image
The backdrop to this month’s puzzle is ‘Trees Forest’ by Mike Wilson (CC0 1.0 licence). The still pool surrounded by trees evokes the Wood Between the Worlds where Digory, Polly and Queen Jadis travel between Earth, Charn and Narnia.
Clues and explanations
Thematic solutions are indicated with an asterisk.
| Day | Solution | Clue | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ANDREW* | 5d Uncle is with right bridge team (6) | Uncle: AND+R+EW The magician |
| 2 | ANGELIC | 5ac Article with setter in charge — that’s heavenly (7) | heavenly: AN+GEL+IC |
| 3 | ASLAN* | 3aw Lion in divergence from direct line? Not entirely (5) | Lion: ASLAN(t) |
| 4 | ATYPIC | 3d Departing from normal in sweaty picture (6) | departing from normal: Hidden in sweATY PICture |
| 5 | CACHET | 9d Conceal term for most distinguishing characteristic (6) | distinguishing characteristic: CACHE+mosT |
| 6 | CAJUPUT | 15ac Head across approximate centre of Tijuana for aromatic oil (7) | aromatic oil: tiJUana in CAPUT |
| 7 | CASTRO | 8d Actors upset President (6) | President: ACTORS* |
| 8 | CHARN* | 9to In place imagined making tea with sailors (5) | place imagined: CHA+RN |
| 9 | CHUCK | 24to Get rid of feature of lathe possibly (5) | Get rid of; feature of lathe possibly: Double definition |
| 10 | CIDER | 15to Drink given by party person, we hear? (5) | Drink: “SIDER” Pun on side = party |
| 11 | CORONET | 9ac Company singer recalled ornamental headdress (7) | ornamental headdress: CO+(TENOR)< |
| 12 | DIDDLES | 14ac Swindles perpetrated — 550 English suffer at first (7) | Swindles: DID+DL+E+Suffer |
| 13 | EQUATOR | 22ac Unexpected quote about a radius or imaginary circle (7) | imaginary circle: (QUOTE* around A)+R |
| 14 | EXCRETE | 23ac Discharge from Greek island at one time earlier (7) | Discharge: EX+CRETE |
| 15 | FACET | 4aw View of expert accepted by newspaper (5) | View: ACE in FT F(ACE)T |
| 16 | FLATTEN | 4ba Amaze female with extraordinary talent (7) | Amaze: F+TALENT* |
| 17 | FLEDGE* | 4d Promise to get new start (Flat initially) for flying horse (6) | flying horse: PLEDGE with F for P as first letter |
| 18 | GORSE | 21aw Lodging in Bangor see prickly shrub (5) | prickly shrub: Hidden in BanGOR SEe |
| 19 | GUDRUN | 6d Darius oddly wearing modern weapon for Norse heroine (6) | Norse heroine: GUN around DaRiUs |
| 20 | INKLING* | 19ac Writing material, linguist half dropped hint (7) | hint: INK + LING CS Lewis was one (The Inklings was an Oxford literary group) |
| 21 | IRENE | 19aw Girl needing free rein, energy (5) | Girl: REIN*+E |
| 22 | ISTLE | 20aw Fibre first associated with the French (5) | Fibre: IST+LE |
| 23 | JADIS* | 16to Queen starting out just after dawn in summer (5) | Queen: First letters J A D I S |
| 24 | LILITH* | 7d 23’s mother, unfortunately ill, I think, with no writing material (6) | 23’s mother: ILL*+I TH(ink) |
| 25 | NARNIA* | 1d Northern melody about Northern land (6) | land: N+(ARIA around N) |
| 26 | NEPHEW* | 11d Relation bringing back writing instrument he won at the outset (6) | Relation: PEN REV+HE+Won |
| 27 | POLLY* | 17to Girl’s voting process unknown (5) | Girl: POLL+Y |
| 28 | REJECT | 10d After resistance throw out imperfect article (6) | imperfect article: R+EJECT |
| 29 | RESTYLE | 13ac In new way fashion time off, with cathedral city on return (7) | In new way fashion: REST+ELY< |
| 30 | SKYSAT | 25up Observers up from South Kentucky acted as model (6) | Observers up: S+KY+SAT |
| 31 | TASTE | 18to Liking Strauss then on regular basis (5) | Liking: Alternate letters of sTrAuSs ThEn |
| 32 | TETHER | 12d Annette, the rancher, holds confining rope (6) | confining rope: Hidden in AnnetTE THE Rancher |
| 33 | TIGER | 2aw Row about ultimately annoying cat (5) | cat: TIER around annoyinG |
| Easter egg | DIGORY | The eponymous character’s name (6) |
Solvers’ comments
ok [RC]
Some tricky spelling choices to catch me out. Very enjoyable. Fingers crossed x [RE]
A magical tribute to the Narniverse. [NI]
Feels like an awful lot of theme for a puzzle with no snakes! [NY]
15ac was new to me. As an Aussie I’ll have to see if I can lay my hands on some. [KD]
The theme was well used in this puzzle and, as usual, a couple of new (to me) words. A few of the parsings seemed not quite what we’re used to from 3D setters, so looking forward to next month’s newsletter to see what we haven’t understood. Enjoyable overall, nonetheless. Thank you Raich and Rikki. [CW]
I’ve managed to live through 70 years of TLTW&TW without ever knowingly reading a single sentence, but thankfully Raich has set clues that an ignoramus like me can cope with. My two stock quiz answers, ASLAN and NARNIA, are both there, as well as a host of others that I’ll try and file away for the next big anniversary (!). Got to admit that the GDIYOR fodder needed help from elsewhere though. [PA]
Much enjoyed it as usual, knew zilch about Narnia so that was a voyage of discovery! Thans to Raich and also to FrankPaul, his drawing helped with Day 6 even if it did need some staring at. [SC]
Lovely puzzle, beautiful photo, and it brought back happy memories, not of my reading for first time, but reading to my enchanted children! [MS]
I wasn’t familiar with “The Magician’s Nephew” (though I knew some things about the Narnia Chronicles), so this was tough in places. However, there were many clever and enjoyable clues along the way, and I always like learning about new things and delving into unknown themes. Thanks to Raich and Rikki. [JA]
Enjoyed this despite being unfamiliar with the book – thank you Raich and Rikki. [DB]
Narnia business! [JT]
With thanks to Raich and Rikki for an interesting puzzle and grid. Many many words new to me. Drawing for this month was extremely odd. Generally good fun. [JC]
Loved the theme… once I had dismissed Lolita as a book with the same anniversary! Have got the book out again as I had forgotten details like Fledge. Nearly thwarted by Skysat. Thank you as ever. [HH]
Years since I read the books but the names came back to me. [PD]
Excellent [LA]
It took me until day 12 to solve a clue. Finding Fledge gave me an idea of the theme, which made some of the clues easier. I haven’t read the book for years. 22 nice clue, 24 I think Lilith is a more distant ancestor rather than mother. [MJ]
The picture clue made sense! Straightforward clues with gently themed solutions for a book I read many years ago made for a pleasant diversion for an evening. [DR]
Really enjoyable and solved in the quickest time ever [SB]
Not too difficult, as long as you know the thematic works👌😃 [MN]
Most enjoyable, a pleasure to solve, thank you. [SF]
Having completed this puzzle, I now know an awful lot more about this book series than I knew before. [MH]
Excellent [RL]
Time I read this series again. [MM]
An interesting puzzle on a worthy theme that I did not know much about. I do like the variety of these 3D puzzles by different setters and designers. [AB]
A clever reference to the “eponymous hero” which had me baffled for a bit until the penny dropped. I really loved these books as a child – and then passing them on to my own children. It was also a bit deceptive that this is a 70th anniversary – as of course it was not actually the first in the series, but a ‘prequel’ to fill in the background. And it was nice to find “inkling” sneaked in with reference to CS Lewis himself. [SB]
Another fantastic puzzle… and perhaps the push I need to finally read The Chronicles of Narnia?! 🤞🏼 I needed to do some double-checking with Google for the thematic clues due to my woeful lack of familiarity with the novels, but managed to get most of them thanks to the excellent cluing. The visual clue was especially satisfying to solve after spotting that sneaky little nibble of Uranus for the second U! [MS]
Lovely with some very witty clues and nice double takes, but I will have to eat humble pie if eventually persuaded that there is any definition or usage of “eponymous” that can be applied to Digory. [EF]
I had to resort to google to check some answers as I was not familiar with the Narnia books, I wasn’t confident about my answer for 16, and still struggle with the drawings! For all that, it was an enjoyable solve as usual, and I’ve improved my general knowledge, so all good! [SB]
A very satisfying puzzle with some straightforward clueing. Thank you. [JB]
Excellent amount of thematic material, fun puzzle. [MD]
Lovely puzzle with a well-weaved theme, one that I was not familiar with but could fathom from the clues and a little research. Thanks very much to all. [BS]
Asian and Narnia were the giveaway, but I know nothing else. Clear cluing helped with rest so only quick check & to solve the final anagram! [DM]
Found it harder than other months. I felt less confident in answers and I didn’t know the theme text at all so that threw me off a bit. Some nice clues though. [HM]
Nice clear clues. Loved the Inklings reference! [JS]
Lovely puzzle thanks Raich and Rikki. [GW]
A lovely reminder of previous reading! [AR]
Good puzzle [JM]
I’d only read The Silver Chair so it was interesting picking up on the themes of the collection. [JC]
In response to EF:
I’m afraid that the meaning of eponymous has expanded. Chambers gives the following definitions of eponym:
1 A person, real or mythical, from whose name another name, esp a place name, is derived
2 The name so derived
3 A hero invented to account for the name of a place or people
4 A character who gives a play, etc its title
5 A distinguishing title
It is definition 4 that applies here. Digory is the nephew of Andrew the magician, so Digory is the character who gives the book its name, even though neither his name, nor any word derived from it appears in the title.
Best wishes
Nick Inglis
I do apologise and Nick is spot on, but I am slightly defensive. I genuinely thought that I had eaten humble pie already by editing my solver’s comment on line when I read the Hints and Tips and realised that no-one was claiming that Digory was the name of the wardrobe!… The Hints and Tips mail showed me that I had jumped to the wrong conclusion about the novel concerned and I fessed up. If the team can work out why that resubmission did not work, others might be spared embarrassment in the future.
PS it is quite interesting to me how many comments indicate an awareness of the theme without any great depth of knowledge of the books!
Comments are only ever copied after the deadline has passed so they are the latest versions. In your case, no edited version was received. When you resubmit the form, you should receive another email as confirmation.
Thank you everyone for the comments.
AB’s comment in the review about six-letter words is very interesting. When a cuboid grid is n x n x 5, the designer can often become coerced into using certain words repetitively – I won’t say what they are! 6/8 letter words in this sort of grid can offer some snake-free relief! 50% checked letters is I personally think absolutely fine, but then I am used to the Guardian, where certain 2D grids will give you even as many as eight lights with fewer than half the letters checked. It wouldn’t do for The Times of London – let alone the NY variety! Designers wanting to avoid too many unches have made some very clever uses of interstitial and unchecked end layers in recent Calendars: obviously that imposes even more severe constraints than usual on the gridfill, but it does allow the solver at least some way of calculating what letters might be there.
On other matters, I loved the inclusion of CAJUPUT (to which some scholar of ancient puzzles in the distant future, assuming there is one, may attach the magical term hapax legomenon) and especially that wonderful picture clue.
I also think a brilliant feature of the puzzle is to have set as Easter Egg DIGORY – some who did not know the book will have found out that he is the title character.
The Chronicles of Narnia are in my opinion among those texts worth reading over and over again. Some sideways thoughts of my own: interesting how Lewis and Tolkien came so close together in their presentation of Creation Myth involving music, in this book and in The Silmarillion; amazingly moving pieces of writing in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and in the climactic scene of The Silver Chair; a dark echo in Rowling’s use of Diggory (sic) as a character who is moved around by touching a certain object in her fourth HP novel; and a chilling eschatology in The Last Battle, where we can detect characters rather like Shift in our news stories every day.
This was a prize-winning puzzle from Rikki, and Raich totally did it justice with his superb setting.