Box of the Celts
Tied in knots
How do you fit all the “Gauls, Celtiberians, Gallaecians, Galatians, Britons, Gaels and their offshoots” (Wikipedia) into a little box? That stunt would take some gall, I imagine. The Celts were a wide ranging culture that spread across much of Europe and western Asia, thought to have originated during the Bronze Age. The Insular Celts refers specifically to the population from regions of Britain and Ireland, where the Celtic languages flourished and still exist today. The earliest Celtic literary records are from Ireland, where Old Irish (Old Gaelic) was and is still spoken, and the cultural mythology derives from Ireland and Wales.
Box of the Celts by Numbskull Puzzles
The Box of the Celts is unlike anything that would have been found in Ireland two thousand years ago. It is certainly not made of bronze or iron. It is instead one of the finer examples of the new wave of computer modeled and 3D printed puzzles that have emerged in the past few years from a crop of brilliant designers who are pushing the medium to limits unattainable with traditional materials like wood. The “Box” is an impressively weighty, large cylinder embossed with a classic triquetra, often used in Pagan connotations to symbolize various triplicities such as earth, sea and sky, or the triple goddess, but in modern Celtic connotation meant to convey the Christian trinity and commonly referred to as the trinity knot. One of my favorite uses of the triquetra is in connection with “time travel” and the idea of the cyclical nature of time. The knot is a gateway here, and the journey will involve an experience very similar to the idea proposed by Jack Krijnen of a sequential puzzle discovery, although in this case everything seems even more entangled in a knot.
Trinity Knot
The Box’s inventor, Matt, a software developer, envisioned a puzzle box full of as many different puzzle genres as he could imagine, and pack inside. As he describes, "The Box of the Celts is a complex multi-stage sequential discovery puzzle box with many, many steps, designed with the experienced puzzler in mind – a true “puzzler’s puzzle”. It is a unique hybrid puzzle that draws together puzzling elements from many different genres – tool-based sequential discovery, puzzle boxes, puzzle locks, disentanglements, coordinated motion, mazes, hidden mechanisms, dis-assemblies, dexterity challenges, packing puzzles, and more." Matt brings long time experience and serious puzzle acumen to his creation. “Growing up, I always had a special fascination with puzzles, games, magic, and origami. You could say I've been puzzling for all my life. While my parents shopped, I'd camp out in stores that had a display of "tavern puzzles" and solve them all one at a time between trips. I always had a collection of interesting puzzles at home that I received as gifts, including my favorite as a kid - the Rubik's Magic and Rubik's Magic Master Edition. … My Grandpa had a traditional Japanese puzzle box which entranced me and inspired my current fascination with puzzle boxes. I got a Rubik's cube when I was young - it sat unsolved for many years until I learned the algorithms from a book - but I picked it up and have renewed my obsession with it several times throughout my life. I … have since learned to speed solve (~25 sec), solve one handed, and blind-solve - really, I just wanted to able to boast that I could solve a cube "blind folded with one hand tied behind my back". I got a 6x6 as a gift and my twisty obsession kicked into overdrive - I now have over 100 twisties of all shapes and sizes and mechanics, and I'm quite proud to say that I've learned to solve every one of them on my own, working out the algorithms and techniques myself without any internet assistance.”
the original inspiration
photo courtesy of the designer
Matt purchased his first 3D printer in 2018 and has been honing his development skills since, creating unique modifications of twisty and packing puzzle types over the past few years. Box of the Celts is not his first design, but his first completely novel one, which he began in 2019 with a few objectives in mind. “First and foremost, I wanted to design a puzzle for myself that I personally wanted to have in my collection. I felt like a lot of the SDs and puzzle boxes out there were too easy or felt a little anticlimactic with only a handful of steps or tricks. I wanted to design a complex, multi-step SD puzzle / puzzle box targeted at experienced puzzlers that would give even experienced puzzlers a good challenge. I also wanted to push the limits of the 3d printed medium, making a puzzle that showed off the techniques and capabilities of medium that would be extremely difficult to replicate in the more traditional mediums of wood or metal. And I wanted to incorporate elements from a number of my favorite genres in ways that I hadn't seen in other puzzles. I am proud of the final result and I personally think it hits the mark on all of these points.”
iterations and development of the knot
photo courtesy of the designer
Matt’s incredible puzzle box literally started with the knot. “I've always been fascinated with the cool geometries of Celtic symbols (part of my own heritage) and felt like it was just begging for a puzzle that took advantage of the complex weaves. There are a couple other puzzles that involve Celtic knots as part of the puzzle, but I couldn't find any that used it to what I felt was its full potential.” He describes how the original puzzle concept was completely different from the ultimate direction it went, and only included the outermost design layer. “Originally it was just a box, and I thought that folks would enjoy another challenge more than a little extra storage space (who actually uses puzzle boxes for storage afterall?)” In time this grew organically, from the outside in, and likely benefitted from the part-time nature of this project. Matt had no deadline, or production pressures that face many full time puzzle makers. “I just couldn't ever call it finished. I was constantly adding one more twist or trick or puzzling element to it until I basically ran out of space to add anything else and was forced to call it quits. The last element of the puzzle was actually something I added even after the first round of playtesting!” There are so many “discoveries” to be made on this extremely challenging and enjoyable journey. Nothing is truly hidden, and hints are provided in ways that do not reveal anything, but remove the anxiety of the unknown which can plague a poorly designed or blind puzzle. Box of the Celts is a triumphant achievement, a true puzzler’s puzzle box from a true lover of puzzles.
Emerald Old Fashioned by Joaquin Simo
I’m raising my glass to the Box of the Celts with a wonderful Old Fashioned by a legendary barman. Joaquin Simo was studying English and religion at Boston University with thoughts of a career in academia. Working as a doorman, then barback, then bartender, led to other plans, and he joined the opening team at New York’s famous Death and Company, where he went on to gain fame and fortune. Named Best US Bartender in 2012 (Tales of the Cocktail), Simo is credited with many modern classics, including this one, which he created to celebrate the incredible Knappogue Castle Irish whiskey.
can you Spot the difference?
Named after a fifteenth century castle in western Ireland, the distillery is famed for offering the oldest and rarest Irish whiskey in the world, the Knappogue Castle 1951. Simo was commissioned to create a line of cocktails to celebrate the distillery’s twelve year aged expression, with notes of spice and citrus fruit. For his Emerald Old Fashioned, he envisioned a more refined drink to celebrate the Emerald Isle, adding green Chartreuse and Genepy des Alps, which he says lend “whispers of herbal complexity and lashes of floral honey.” A touch of wildflower honey syrup finishes the drink off sweetly for an elevated experience. It’s a truly delicious Old Fashioned. Sláinte!
a bonnie pair
Emerald Old Fashioned by Joaquin Simo
2 oz Irish whiskey (Knappogue Castle 12)
1 tsp green Chartreuse
1 tsp Genepy des Alps
1 tsp wildflower honey syrup (2:1)
Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a favorite glass. Mint garnish.
Explore this category: