J.K. Rowling fans are not unfamiliar with riddles and anagrams being peppered throughout her fantasy works. The 'Harry Potter' series' arch-nemesis, Lord Voldemort, created his name by making an anagram of his birth name, Tom Marvolo Riddle. And there were tons of hidden riddles and anagrams throughout the Potter series: The poison potion riddle that could stop Harry and friends from getting to the sorcerer's stone, the golden egg hint during the Triwizard tournament, and the inscription on the Mirror of Erised.
Now fans have a new brainteaser to solve. Rowling, who's sporadically active on Twitter, jumped on the social media platform on Sunday after a brief absence to let fans know what she's been up to.
Very busy at the moment working on a novel, tweaking a screenplay and being involved in @lumos campaigns. Back when I've finished something!
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 5, 2014
The screenplay she mentions almost has to be "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," a Potter spinoff and trilogy that has been in the works for some time. But when a fan expressed enthusiasm over what the unidentified novel might be, the bestselling author tweeted: "See, now I'm tempted to post a riddle or an anagram. Must resist temptation... must work ..." Ms. Rowling obviously wasn't working too hard because early Monday morning she returned to Twitter with a mysterious conundrum:
Cry, foe! Run amok! Fa awry! My wand won’t tolerate this nonsense. — J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 6, 2014
Hard to say what this alludes to or what it ultimately could be in terms of a puzzle, but fans are trying their best to crack the code as this is being reported. Could it be a new novel set in the "Harry Potter" universe? Only time will tell, I suppose... (Thanks to the Huffington Post for the tip.)
UPDATE: A short while ago a Twitter user named Emily Strong (@EmyBemy2) posted this:
@jk_rowling Newt Scamander only meant to stay in New York for a few hours... #anagram
— Emily Strong (@EmyBemy2) October 7, 2014
And not long after that Ms. Rowling posted this as a response and/or subtweet to Strong's answer.
.@EmyBemy2 YES!!!!!!!!!!!! People, we have a winner! — J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 7, 2014
So, one can gather from this that there will be a book coming that's set in the "Harry Potter" universe, but won't deal directly with Potter and his compatriots. It seems that fictional author Newt Scamander will be taking a trip across the pond...
