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From: CAIN@SRI-AI.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Book of Kells
Message-ID: <3485@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Fri, 30-Aug-85 12:21:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.3485
Posted: Fri Aug 30 12:21:30 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Aug-85 08:55:38 EDT
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Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: Ron Cain <CAIN@SRI-AI.ARPA>

	*** Mild spoiler warning ***

	Though I can't claim to know how the real Book of Kells figured
into the opening of the time portal, I rather suspected that its opening
had more to do with the peculiar intricasies of Celtic knotwork.

	There have been theories (as yet unproven with any real rigor)
that the ancient Celtic knotwork (with which the BOK's illuminated
manuscripts abound) were a form of musical notation.   The connection
between music and the spirals was always quite clear in the book.
Hence, the opening of the time portal was not so much due to the
cross John was tracing, but the geometry of the spirals themselves.

	A subtle but crucial point about the green portal opened in
the height of the final battle is that John was fingering the knotwork
around the band of his hat at the time -- once more making the connection.

	Just my ideas, of course.

							... ron cain
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