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Gitto, in 12a the “swarm dropping” is a seasonal celestial occurrence. 4d is an abbreviation “atop” a celebrated hill minus the extra letter.

Really enjoyed this - I know the work almost by heart.
I can see two options for the 3 letter element of the instruction. One in a straight line and one in three nonaligned but contiguous cells.
As another element of the instruction is non linear I assume both would be acceptable.
Indeed there is no indication in the preamble that the letters have to be contiguous.
Great fun though despite this minor quibble.

The non-linear piece is thematic though.

Not sure I would mark it correct if the 3 letter element wasn’t in a straight line

I still can't parse 4d completely. I believe I have the correct entry, the definition being incarnation, and I gather the last three letters are from the Irish hill with the last letter removed, but i still don't see how to get the first three letters.

Hi MPRS,

4d - Single letter "before" + 2 letter acronym for "lived years" (both abbr. are Latin) + the "Irish hill) minus extra letter.

Sorry MPRS, I got that the wrong way round ....

2 letter "lived years" comes before single letter "before".

Thanks, brendan. I suspected Latin might be involved

I had a slow start but I've managed to complete the whole puzzle without asking for help this time, which is encouraging for me! Sadly there are still around 10 clues whose wordplay I wasn't able to parse completely enough to be certain of the missing letters, but I was able to reverse engineer them through context by inferring the instructions.

Fun subject matter, certainly didn't see it coming.

As well as potential ambiguity of 3-letter element, having the 4-letter and 6-letter elements as clue answers seemed a bit of a cop-out - or have I missed something?

A further thought about the three letter element. I would be disappointed if I had identified the non linear option before noticing the other option, counted my 37 cells and believed I had completed the puzzle only to be later judged wrong.
Also there are at least 4 examples of the missing definite article in contiguous cells in the grid - one of them on a straight line. Perhaps a missed opportunity.