The (almost really) Complete Works of Lewis Carroll

This pamphlet is a portion of a volume, now in preparation, of original Games and Puzzles: it is published in this form, for the convenience of readers of “The Lady,” with a view to the possibility of another Syzygy-Tournament being started in that Paper.

I have proved, by experiment, that the Puzzle of “Syzygies” is also available as a Game for two Players, and that it is well adapted to relieve the tedium of a railway-journey; since it involves no reading (so tiring to the eyes of travelers) or talking (so tiring to their voices and ears). The only materials needed are writing-materials——say a couple of memorandum-books. Each Player thinks of a good long word, the longer the better. When she has thought of hers (I assume the two travelers to be a ‘he’ and a ‘she,’ and that ‘she’ is the quicker thinker) she says ‘Ready!’: then, when he has thought of his, the two words are announced, watches are consulted, and the Game begins, each Player trying to make a ‘Chain’ to connect the two words. At the end of ten minutes (or whatever period they like to fix) the Chains are exchanged and examined, and the scores recorded. Then they think of another couple of words; and so on. Whichever first scores 100, wins: or, if both score it, the highest score wins.

I have taken this opportunity to publish the Rules for “Lanrick,” in order to make this game known rather sooner than it would otherwise be, and with the hope of receiving criticisms on it, so as to render it as perfect as possible when published in the volume. Not that much increase in perfection can now be hoped for, as the first version of the Rules was written on Dec. 26, 1878, and I have been improving them, off and on, ever since! Every change in the rules has necessitated the playing of several games, to see how it worked.

The chief novelty of this Game——the attempt to play all the men on the Board into a set of squares, whose number is less than that of the men——was suggested to me by the well-known game for children, “Musical Chairs,” where the number of chairs is one less than that of the children trying to occupy them. Mine is, I believe, the first attempt to introduce this principle into a game of skill.

Also Rule 5, on p. 21, was suggested to me by the common expedient, practised by school-boys, for securing a fair division of a cake or an apple, namely “one cuts, the other chooses.”

The name “Lanrick” was suggested by a passage in “The Lady of the Lake,” where Roderick Dhu, when summoning his clan to the appointed rendezvous, says