What better way to celebrate Halloween and Edgar Allan Poe with a treasure hunt celebrating his spectacularly spooky tales? We created this treasure hunt as an activity for our Edgar Allan Poe Halloween Party but you could certainly use it to cap off an Edgar Allan Poe unit study or as a fun game for any Halloween party! Read on to check out the details!
THE THEME
The theme for our treasure hunt was of course Edgar Allan Poe! Rather than search for objects or areas within a house, the objective for each clue was to determine what piece of work (poem, short story, quote, etc) was referenced.
To give the treasure hunt more of a story line, we opened with a note saying we had to find Lenore.
THE SETUP
For the setup, all you need are the clues & print outs of either the title of the piece OR a print out of the actual work. If your group is super familiar with Poe’s more famous work, they might not need the actual poems/stories. Otherwise, if they’re not, they may need the poem/story to look at.
Since we created this for our Edgar Allan Poe party, we thought having a few poems (in the entirety) would be a nice decorative touch, so we had printouts of poems in full. For short stories (though they’re short, they have multiple pages), we only printed out the first page. You can find some pdf versions of Poe’s work here on americanenglish.state.gov. Click into the story and the pdf version is downloadable from the top right. 🙂 Quick note: the poems are stories are in public domain but rules may differ depending on what you reside.
You’ll also need some black construction paper (or you can simply tape/affix the next clue to the back of the printout. We stuck the next clue in between the construction paper and the printout – just in case someone decided to pick up the poem/story and read before the actual treasure hunt 😉
Our treasure hunt ended up with a box of treats BUT you can definitely end up with Edgar Allan Poe bookmarks or other giveaways!
THE CLUES
Most of the clues have no read order to them except for the intro card, last clue, and last puzzle. The intro card sets up the treasure hunt. The last clue references a “key”, and the last puzzle a more complex cipher that they’ll solve before they get to their prize!
Feel free to use the clues for your own personal use or link back to this page!
INTRO CARD:
The intro card can be placed anywhere in the party area OR held onto until the time for the treasure hunt. It’s essentially just an intro – once everyone has a chance to read the card, they get their first clue.
Our sweet friend Lenore has disappeared.
Let’s hope all is not as we feared.
Throughout the poems and stories of famed Edgar Allan Poe
Your knowledge of his anthology you must show.
Each clue will take you to a piece of his work.
Look around to find where each next clue may lurk.
The last will give you a special key.
With which you can find Lenore & smile with glee!
CLUE 1:
Again these clues aren’t really in any order so you can mix and match if you choose! This clue references A Dream within a Dream. Hide the next clue behind the printout of a Dream within a Dream, a famous quote from the poem, or just the title!
Did we find her or was it just a dream?
This poem says things aren’t what they seem.
And also all hope has flown away.
But still, we’ll find Lenore, sometime today.
CLUE 2:
This clue references the Fall of the House of Usher. In the Fall of the House of Usher, there is a twin brother and sister and eventually the fall of a house… Hide the next clue behind the printout of The Fall of the House of Usher, a famous quote from the story, or just the title!
Could Lenore have visited sister and brother?
Those lonely two at least had each other.
If Lenore stayed within that House she might be mad
Let’s hope she’s not or we’ll all be sad.
CLUE 3:
This clue references the The Murders in the Rue Morgue. This story is widely regarded as one of the first detective / murder mystery stories with Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot sharing many traits as the the detective C. Augustin Dupin. Hide the next clue behind the printout of The Murders in the Rue Morgue, a famous quote from the story, or just the title!
Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, what are they doing?
Did they follow in the steps of C. Augustin Dupin?
Find the first and foremost detective tale,
Can it help us find Lenore’s last trail?
CLUE 4:
This clue references The Cask of Amontillado. The story is set in Italy during a carnival where Fortunato meets a grim end. Hide the next clue behind the printout of The Cask of Amontillado, a famous quote from the story, or just the title!
Perhaps Lenore has visited beautiful Spain?
Let’s hope she hasn’t followed in Fortunato’s pain.
A carnival, a trowel, a cask of wine
Let’s check & hope that Lenore is just fine.
CLUE 5:
This is possibly the easiest clue – as it references one of Poe’s most famous works – The Raven. Hide the next clue behind the printout of The Raven, a famous quote from the poem, or just the title!
Could her presence be felt here?
But she can’t be found no matter where we peer.
She must have searched for another haven
For all we see here is a raven.
CLUE 6:
Ok, this one actually might be the easiest clue – the last two words are the title of the actual poem, Annabel Lee 🙂 Hide the next clue behind the printout of Annabel Lee, a famous quote from the poem, or just the title!
Perhaps Lenore can be found with a friend,
This friend who met an untimely end.
Let’s take a look and see
Could she be with dear Annabel Lee?
CLUE 7:
Did Poe invent the word tintinnabulation or just popularize it? Either way, if you’ve heard of the poem, The Bells, you’ve likely heard of that interesting word. This poem references Poe’s poem, The Bells. Hide the next clue behind the printout of The Bells, a famous quote from the poem, or just the title!
Listen closely, do you hear them?
What is this tintinnabulation?
Over and over they chime.
Perhaps Lenore can be found within their rhyme?
CLUE 8:
And Last but not least, the final clue references The City in the Sea. Rather than hiding the next clue, hide the final puzzle – the cipher 🙂
Perhaps she fled to a higher tower,
Or sought the Devil with so much power
This city stands high over the sea
If we find this poem, we’ll find the key
FINAL PUZZLE
The last and final puzzle uses a keyword cipher. Essentially, the sender and the recipient should both know the ‘keyword’ which can be used to create the mapping of letters. Once the letters are mapped, then the message can be decoded.
In this image, Lenore has a speech bubble saying: “INHM LR HM TFR DNNJSFRKB”, which when decoded says: “Join me in the bookshelf”.
THE PRIZE
Hide your final treat/prize in the bookshelf along with the final image.
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you so much for checking out our treasure hunt article. Hopefully it gave you some great ideas for your next celebration!
If you did enjoy this, please let us know below or follow us on Pinterest. Also, If you haven’t already and are still looking for more fun activities, feel free to check out some of our other Party Guides, Treasure Hunts, Ideas for Booklovers, or Edgar Allan Poe Ideas!
Happy Treasure Hunting 🙂
