BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND -- OCCUPY AOI !! THIS JAM-PACKED, GIM-CRACKED, CLASSIC-BACKED issue of the old PYM (TM) PUZZLER has long been unavailable in stores, and insatiate curiosity of the younger set, anxious to relive those bygone days of the 2011 OCCUPY movement, is driving it now up the internet fan-rankings, the question on everyone's mental lips being, forsooth, "WHAT does it in fact mean, to "OCCUPY AOI !!"?? "Pray tell." THE ANSWER OF COURSE, as is herein revealed, lies in FLAGRANTLY FLOUTING the UNWARRANTED ASSERTION of a COPYRIGHT CLAIM IN THE WORKS OF OTHERS -- including works that were original originally, as opposed to printed, or works that have long fallen into the public domain. As in, seven or eight centuries before the copyright claimant was born, or in the case of an institution, founded. We know this drives us all nearly nutty. Ramsey does it all the time, even today -- although his copyright claim notices are now in infinitesimal print....this is how he purports to "slit the baby". THEREFORE HERE, the former editors and operatives of the erstwhile P.Y.M., namely the former, but never late, interim editor Asaph P. Dromgoole and his now-formerly close companion, the now-late P., formerly living, tackle the fraudulent copyright claim(S) of the great English K.W.M, formerly the G.K.W.M., asserted in the imagery of an original work, -- a MS of the Chanson de Roland, in fact: never printed, but indeed, created before printing even existed!! THE NERVE !! These former PYM officials rip the mask off this international fraud -- and live to crow about it: OCCUPY AOI !!! All this is yours for the taking, in this FREE SAMPLE !!

1. 1
Presenting -- for December 4, 2011 -- THE NEW!
DROMGOOLE’S – “Not for fools!”®
P.Y.M.™
PUZZLER
FREE SAMPLEAsaph P. Dromgoole, Editor
OCCUPY AOI !!
But first … !!! ©

2. 2
A BREAK-IN -- AT THE GLOBE !
It was earlier this week – it was Tuesday night, or
Wednesday morning very early: security-cam footage is
being examined; we found the evidence Wednesday
when we unlocked -- someone had managed to slip
security at the Globe and found unauthorized entry into
the Puzzler offices. I was stunned. We all were.
Even worse, Players: someone located my corridor,
and -- somehow cracking P.’s inter-office security code,
according to which, my office has been security-
enhanced with the identification of JANITOR –
removed from my filing cabinet all files necessary to
answer last week’s Puzzler. Indeed: files taken include
the LOVER OF DARKNESS file, critical to completing
the answer to last week’s Who Was the Real Raoul
Roussel of Rouen? and all files critical to our
preparation of the CHILD OF DARKNESS Puzzler, that
was scheduled to run today as our promotional FREE
SAMPLE issue, to boost our subscription base. This
now, is unfortunately, cancelled, or at least switched
out: with the last-minute substitute FREE SAMPLE
Puzzler you now hold: What is AOI, Afterall?
Also taken, a related file of Raoul Roussel’s actual
tongue twisting night-watch passwords, and some new
inventions along this line, as mentioned last week:
Orders of 26 November 1425 record that captains
were accused of giving strange watch-words [ like
hinky dinky parley vous1
] which the villagers could
not remember or pronounce, and then, when the
watcher failed to respond promptly, accusing him of
sleeping on the job and fining him.2
Also taken: the Rules respecting the HEART OF
DARKNESS Puzzler (November 20, 2011), for eligibility
to the collect the $100 cash prize, that were posted on
Bleaudry’s door! Another horrible blow – a potential
death blow -- to our promotional campaign. And what
of the anticipated FREE SAMPLE issue!! A tragic
coincidence!!! I thought to myself: we were just
running those Puzzlers, and still using those same files!
I was paralyzed. Momentarily flummoxed: my mind
raced for an explanation. To quote a renowned author’s
passage on encountering mind-blowing coincidence:
1
See, J. Winterich, Mademoisselle from Armenteires,
p. 51 ff. (1953).
2
Richard A. Newhall, J. de Rinel et al., “Bedford’s
Ordinance on the Watch of September 1428,” English
Historical Review, Vol. 50, No. 197 (Jan., 1935), pp. 36-
60, at pp. 38-9.
I say, the singularity of this coincidence absolutely
stupefied me for a time. This is the usual effect of
such coincidences. The mind struggles to establish a
connection – a sequence of cause and effect – and,
being unable to do so, suffers a species of temporary
paralysis. But, when I recovered from this stupor,
there dawned upon me gradually a conviction which
startled me far more than the coincidence ….
E.A.Poe, The Gold Bug
AN UNBROKEN CHAIN OF EVENTS
But Wait: was it a coincidence? Indeed, as I stared
down into the open cabinet drawer, the critical files
gone, leaving gaping holes behind the DAR tab, the
conviction developed: I had something like a cinematic
moment: with chills, sounds of cellos, and a flashback to
a certain canyon, a certain high-speed chase … It all
came rushing back in on me: the image in our rear-view
mirror: a certain rapidly-approaching red Toyota,
visible, then vanishing as we took the hairpin turns.
Visible again; and closing on us? All the while, there
had been the ever-present, the nerve-wracking, terrifying
reminder …
OBJECTS IN THE MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR
See, Where is Pym’s Precipice? (September 11, 2011)
And our eventual escape … to the Precipice. But, then,
snapping back to the reality of the gaping file drawer
before me: the thought, or realization: the conviction:
… gradually a conviction which startled me far more
than the coincidence … It was the F.Y.P.Y.M. !
N.Y.P.D. are investigating the burglary.
Thus, this crisis has obliged us, almost at the last minute,
to abort the planned FREE SAMPLE blockbuster
Puzzler CHILD OF DARKNESS and scramble for back-
up material. And so, as of Friday night, we came up
with this replacement subject matter for our promotional
FREE SAMPLE issue: What is AOI, Afterall?
HOWEVER … turning to the internet, we found that
some of the material on the AOI and its imagery, is
subject to restrictive copyright control. See below.
Players: THESE VOWELS ARE COPYRIGHTED!!
Solving this week’s Puzzler may put you all at risk of
civil or criminal copyright violation. Read on:

3. 3
OCCUPY AOI !!
What follows is the actual copyright notice from
http://image.ox.ac.uk/show?collection=bodleian&manus
cript=msdigby23b covering imagery of the Bodleian
Library’s MS Digby 23 – the MS in which is found the
original – some would say, the earliest -- text of the
Chanson de Roland – a poem written by an anonymous
individual of the 13th
or 14th
Cs – in which is found the
AOI. The copyright notice does not itself appear to be
copyrighted, so it is reproduced here:
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
The copyright, rights in the nature of copyright and all
other intellectual property rights worldwide in the
images of this 13th
C. anonymous manuscript are
reserved to The Boedleiaen Library, University of
Oxford.
VIEWING OF IMAGES
The images of this 13th
C. anonymous MS. may be
viewed without payment or further permission, on the
understanding that they have been made available by the
copyright holder for purposes of private study only.
No debate or discussion is allowed. Just look.
COPYING OF IMAGES FOR PERSONAL USE
ONLY
An image may be downloaded to the user's workstation
and stored and one hard copy only may be made,
without payment or further permission, provided this is
done solely for purposes of private study.
Every copy, in electronic or other form, MUST include
the copyright notice and shelfmark-reference as found at
the edges of each image. The image may not be
duplicated in any medium for another person or
institution. The user is welcome to show the single
personal copy to a colleague or colleagues for private
discussion, though in electronic form it may be
displayed only on the screen of the user's single
workstation. The user is also permitted to display the
single personal copy for purposes of an academic lecture
or seminar, provided that no further duplication occurs
or is allowed to occur. If the image is required for
separate viewing elsewhere, the colleague(s) or
student(s) should be referred back to this server, from
which it can be viewed and downloaded afresh by each
individual user: this will avoid illicit copying from one
workstation to another.
The URL for an image, but not the image itself, may be
incorporated in a user's personal hypertext document.
http://image.ox.ac.uk/show?collection=bodleian&m
anuscript=msdigby23b The purpose of any restriction
on the use of these images is to ensure that image files
are always downloaded direct from the Oxford
University server and not from an unauthorized
duplicate server elsewhere.
Users should be aware that an image received from this
server has necessarily been compressed before
transmission and will therefore have lost some detail.
This loss may not be significant for most research and
publication purposes, but may assume significance in
particularly demanding applications, for example in the
production of a full-sized colour facsimile. In such cases
it may be possible for the copyright holder to supply the
uncompressed file from which the public version was
made. The uncompressed file is too large for convenient
and reliable transmission over the network, but could be
supplied to the user on, for example, a CD-ROM; a
charge would have to be made for this service.
____________________________________________
The Puzzler editors are anxious to comply, but Players
know: we are hemmed in on all sides: litigation
schedules, very tight production schedules, and now,
criminal activity in the burglary of our offices: a
circumstances beyond our control. Plus, the rent is due.
UNDERSTAND: We have sought! to coordinate our
publication of this promotional FREE SAMPLE issue,
formerly, What is AOI, Afterall? with the Bodleain
library copyright, by contacting the G. K.W.M. for the
requisite permission. Our letter seeking this
permission appears on the next page……

4. 4
From P.Y.M. to K.W.M
To the left, is the actual P.Y.M. letter to the K.W.M. –
formerly the G.K.W.M. -- at the Bodleian Library,
dated December 3, 2011, requesting permission to use
images of AOI from Digby MS 23, which images
appear in this issue of the Puzzler. Enlarge your copy of
the Puzzler, to read the text of our groveling letter
(which P. wrote, and I signed, under militant objection).
As we say in our letter, certain characteristics of the
Puzzler, in particular its rigorous publication schedule –
it being a weekly issue—have prevented our waiting the
full two weeks time, for the K.W.M. to get back to us,
in a regular letter on paper (remember that?) to be sent
by air-mail –that is, if the British postal service is not
out on strike! With 2 million workers on strike in the
U.K. just days ago, http://www.n30strike.org/ who
knows when or whether the G.K.Y.M. will ever be able
to R.S.V.P.Y.M!!
So, Players, we have been pushed into a predicament.
You Players can stay licit -- by requesting permission
to view these images of the AOI, directly from the
G.K.W.M. at western.manuscripts@bodley.ox.ac.uk--
or by viewing them online at the Bodellyianne image
pages linked below. AS FOR OURSELVES … Well,
overnight, I was able to persuade P., who came around
to my position: Yes, the time has come ….
WE @ P.Y.M. PUZZLER REALIZE, WE CAN NO LONGER DEAL
WITH …. “THE SYSTEM” : IT HAS BECOME NECESSARY TO …

5. 5
OCCUPY AOI !!!
The AOI is a sequence of vowels: first A, then O, then I. Simple enough. But, is it, in fact, also …. something else?
Indeed, the AOI is one of those riddles “ … wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma,” – or at least it is, after the
academic community has extensively so wrapped it up, under “analyses”, over the last century.
Eaux Que, so … what is the AOI, afterall? The word or phrase or letter-sequence AOI appear in the medieval Old
French (or Anglo-Norman) epic geste Chanson de Roland, which is found in Digby MS 23, in the collection of the
Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford, in Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom -- Formation of Atlantic Islands
(UK-FAI). This is all discussed at length, in the copyright materials presented above. Mature Players who are concerned
about looking at these copyrighted letters -- AOI – should contact the Bodleian’s K.W.M. at the e-mail address provided
above, or view them directly at the Bodleian page, also linked above. The rest of you are OCCUPY Players, and on
notice: if you continue to look at these sample images of the three vowels AOI -- you may be viewing illicit material:
Digby 23, folio 1r
Digby 23, folio 1v
Digby 23, folio 2r
Digby 23, folio 2r
Digby 23, folio 2v
Digby 23, folio 2v
Digby 23, folio 3r
Digby 23, folio 3v
Digby 23, folio 4r
Digby 23, folio 4r
Digby 23, folio 4v
Digby 23, folio 5r
Digby 23, folio 5v
Digby 23, folio 6r
Digby 23, folio 6r
Digby 23, folio 6v
Digby 23, folio 6v
Digby 23,folio 7v
Digby 23, folio 8r
Digby 23, folio 8r
Digby 23, folio 8v
Digby 23, folio 8v
Digby 23, folio 9v
Digby 23, folio 10r
Digby 23, folio 71v
Players who reach this point, HAVE VOLUNTARILY PARTICIATED IN POSSIBLE ILLICIT VIEWING of 25
OCCUPY images from Digby MS 23, which viewing may be in violation of copyright, depending on how the K.W.M.
rules on the matter of their reproduction here. These OCCUPY images, while they are identified to the correct MS
folios from which they were taken, are in fact images which have not yet been approved for your viewing by the K.W.M.
Among them there are 23 OCCUPY images of the AOI itself, which you can trace back to the first 10 folios – and folio
71 -- from which they were excerpted. See, http://image.ox.ac.uk/show?collection=bodleian&manuscript=msdigby23b
Unfortunately you cannot know the outcome of the Puzzler’s request for authorization at this time, which is the critical
time for reaching a solution to this week’s Puzzler! Catch 22! Thus, Players, you cannot actuate a solution without
incurring, with the rest of the P.Y.M., YOUR EDITORS, and others, the potential scandal and liability associated
with an adverse decision by the K.W.M. You may be operating outside the law ! In fact ….

6. 6
YOU ARE ALREADY IMPLICATED IN A POSSIBLE VIOLATION
Welcome to OCCUPY AOI!!
It’s already too late for you! So let’s get going: And Here’s a Hint! In addition to the 23 images of the AOI, we have
provided as well, courtesy of the Bodleian, 2 other images of Digby MS 23, where the AOI should be, but is not! See
columns 1 and 5 – which are images of blank vellum, also copyrighted by the Bodleian.
Digby MS, folio 72r
Some background: Digby MS 23 actually contains two texts: not only the Song of Roland, but, also -- bound together in
the single MS volume -- a copy of Chalcidius’s translation of Plato’s Timaeus.3
http://timaeus.baylor.edu/
Images of the Digby Timaeus are also
available online, at -- restrictions may apply. Despite some scholastic speculation to the
contrary, the two texts were actually bound together at the time of their transcription, as, on the last page of the Roland
poem, the word “Chalcidius” appears in a thirteenth century hand, indicating which volume was to be bound up with the
Roland4
http://image.ox.ac.uk/show?collection=bodleian&manuscript=msdigby23b
It may be however, that “This image is currently unavailable” from the Bodleian Digby 23 web pages. Q.v.
-- click on “View All” – and q,v, folio 74 and
75. Also included in the MS, verses by Juvenal, written in the hand of the scribe who added the word “Chalcidius” to
the last page of the Roland.5
http://image.ox.ac.uk/show?collection=bodleian&manuscript=msdigby23bHere? – click on
“View All”, then folio 76r.
AOI appears at or near the end of most – though not all --stanzas of the Chanson de Roland. And it appears near the
middle or near the head of a few others.
To get an idea of the frequency of the AOI, -- and using the Roman numerals of many print editions -- it appears at the
end of Stanza I., III., V., VI., VII., IX., X., XI., XII., XIII., XIV., XV., XVI., XIX., but at the beginning of stanza XXI.
as well as at the end thereof, the beginning of Stanza XXIII., the beginning and end of stanza XXIV., the end of
stanzas XXVII., XXVIII., XXIX., XXX., XXXII., XXXIII., XXXV., XXXVIII., XXXIX., XLI., XLII., XLIII., XLIV.,
XLV., XLVI., XLVII., [SEE A PATTERN DEVELOPING HERE?? ] XLIX., L., LI., LII., LIII., LIV., LV., LVII., but
at the beginning and end of stanza LIX, the end of stanzas LX., the beginning and end of LXIV., etc. For another
approach, we have rearranged these numbers in ten columns. You might try sounding them out in sequence:
I. III. V. VI. VII. IX. X. X. XI. XII.
XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XIX. XXI. XXIII. XXIV. XXVII. XXVIII.
XXIX. XXX. XXXII. XXXIII. XXXV. XXXVIII. XXXIX. XLI. XLII. XLIII.
XLIV. XLV. XLVI. XLVII. etc. etc.
See, E. Bulatkin, Structural Arithmetic Metaphor in the Oxford “Roland,” Ohio State University Press (`1972).
If you haven’t yet got a clue, you novice Players – and some regular Players -- may find it beneficial to consult Mr.
Bleaudry’s helpful handbook, Pronunciation Guide to Roman Numerals, (1997) Send $5.00 and a S.A.S.E. to Mr. P.
Bleaudry, P.Y.M.; c/o The P.Y.M. Puzzler; Globe Press, 666 Wall Street, New York, N.Y., 10012, or to get a discount,
send $3.00 and a S. A.S.E. to A.P. Dromgoole, at the same address.
3
See, e.g., Andrew Taylor, “The Myth of the Minstrel Manuscript,” Speculum, Vol. 66 No. 1 (Jan. 1991) pp. 43-73.
4
Taylor, Id.
5
See, Charles Samaran, Le chanson de Roland ….. , p. 40 (Paris, 1933), cited in Tayor, at p. 46

7. 7
Other theories abound. T. Atkkinson Jenkins, writing in “Word Studies in French and English,” in Language, Vol. 9 No.
4 , Monograph no. 14: (Dec. 1933) pp. 5-7+ 9-94, beginning at p. 11, summarized some of these theories:
Charles Kingsley (Hereward, chapter 35) spoke of “that wild Aoi, the war-cry with which the [the poet]
usually ends his staves.” G. Paris, more moderately believed aoi to be “une exclamation qui est unveritable
refrain.’ Loquiens spoke of ‘a sort of refrain’, while H.C. Wright thought ‘there might be a trace of lyric
poetry in the refrain ‘aoi’.”
Jenkins himself, however, wrote that the word was an instance of the imperative 2 sg. of the verb aoire, from
ADUAGERE, meaning “to increase, to augment”. Meanwhile, in “The Etymology of AOI and AE,” Modern Language
Notes, Vol. 85, No. 4 French Issue. (May, 1970), pp. 593-598, Herman J. Green writes, at p. 593:
Much has been written about the mysterious AOI found at the end of large proportion of laisses in the Oxford
MS of the Chanson de Roland. Some scholars have considered it to be a mnemonic use of the vowels
EUOUAE in the seculorum amen of the church’s liturgy. This idea, first proposed by Fr. Michel, was taken
upon and developed with some variations by F. Wolf and F. Gennrich. Storost believed that EUOUAE must
have been crossed with AEUIA from alleluia before becoming AOI.
Grace Frank, in “Aoi in the Chanson de Roland,” PMLA, Vol. 487, No. 3 (Sep., 1933), pp. 629-635, gives a statistical
analysis of the occurrence of the AOI relative to the narrative structure and development of the story of Roland, and
concludes, at p. 631:
This analysis revealed that , in general AOI was present at the end of a laisse whenever some sort of interruption
occurred, that is, specifically, when the following laisse introduced a change of scene, action or speaker, when
in the following laisse a speaker turned from one auditor to another … It was found, on the other hand that AOI
was absent when no interruption took place.
See also “El Aoi del manuscrito rolandiano de Oxford,” Revista de Filologia Espanola XLVI (1963), p. 176. And in
“O.F. (Norman) Aoi and Avoi, and English Ahoy,” Publications of the Modern Language Association, Vol 51, No. 2
(June, 1936), pp. 328-336, Harry a Deferrari presented a thesis that is summed up in the title of his paper.
The question therefore, posed by this week’s last-minute FREE SAMPLE Puzzler, which must be answered even before
the K.W.M. might get back to us with an authorization, is NOT, therefore, the meek, “What is AOI, Afterall? that we
originally enquired about, when we wrote the K.W.M., that we had planned to replace Child of Darkness, Puzzler;
but .. Players, a different sort of question: a question of action! Will you join us in…
OCCUPY AOI!!
Digby 23, folio 4v
AND NEXT WEEK: If we can find the file, the Puzzler returns to MERRY OLD ENGLANDE to ask the question:
HOW DID ADAM SNAKESNOUT GET HIS NAME?