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A medieval sword inscribed with a mysterious content is stumping researchers and causing a fuss among armchair historians .
The 13th - century weapon system was regain in the River Witham in Lincolnshire , in the United Kingdom , in 1825 . It now belong to the British Museum , but is currently on loanword to the British Library , where it ’s being displayed as part of an display on the1215 Magna Carta .
This 13th-century sword with a gold inscription was likely made in Germany, but was found at the bottom of the River Witham in 1825.
The blade looks passably ordinary at first glimpse . Weighing in at 2 lb . , 10 ounces ( 1.2 kg ) and measure 38 inches ( 964 millimeters ) long , the weapon is blade , with a double edge and a hilt mold like a cross . But on one side of the sword is a mysterious lettering , made by gold conducting wire that has been inlay into the steel , which scan , " + NDXOXCHWDRGHDXORVI+ . " [ The 7 Most Mysterious Archaeological Finds on Earth ]
What does this strange grouping of letters mean ? No one knows for indisputable , according to the British Library , which late posted info about the weapon on its website , along with a request for readers to help collapse the seemingly incomprehensible codification .
Is the message some genial ofmagical incantation , meant to gift the arm ’s owner with mystic abilities during battle ? Perhaps the inscription is a spiritual grace , or peradventure it ’s just the complicated touch of whoever contrive the weapon . Those who register the British Library ’s blog post put these and many other possibility forward regarding the steel ’s enigmatic message .
A close up of the sword’s mysterious inscription.
Dozens of commenters chimed in to help puzzle out the closed book . And luckily , one of those commenters had a lot of perceptivity into the story of cipher swords in Europe . Marc van Hasselt , a alum student of medieval bailiwick at Utrecht University in the Netherlands , has studied similarly inscribed swords and say that these weapons were " all the rage " in 13th - century Europe . The British Library recently update its blog post with more entropy from van Hasselt .
Wordy arms
Many inscribed swords have been establish in countries including Poland , France , Sweden , the Netherlands and the United Kingdom , fix the River Witham steel " part of a large international family unit , " according to van Hasselt .
In 2006 , researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden ( as well as several other institutions ) started the Fyris Swords Project , a research project dedicated to figuring out the historic context in which these inscribed medieval swords were used .
The River Witham sword was form in Germany , which was then the blade - making midpoint of Europe , harmonise to the British Museum . And pre - Christian Germanic tribesman inscribed runes onto their swords , axes and armour to " endow the items with magical powers , " the Fyris Swords Project researchers wrote in a paper publishedin the diary Waffen- und Kostümkunde(Weaponry and Costumes ) in 2009 .
It ’s possible that this ancient custom was carried over to Christian time and that the inscription on the blades were therefore meant to " invoke God ’s holy name and his grace to gain support and protection in battle , " according to the researchers .
Such swords were likely owned by wealthy warriors , according to the British Museum , which speculates that the River Witham sword belonged to a horse or some other rich individual who turn on into engagement duringthe crusadesof the previous medieval period . The British Museum also suggests that such brand may have been a part of the ceremony in which a manbecame a knightand vowed to fend for the church .
Cracking the code
Even though historians are fairly sealed why engrave swords were democratic in the medieval full stop and who owned them , they still are n’t sure just what these swords in reality say . Interpreting the inscriptions on the blades is like " prove to crack a mystical code , " according to the Fyris Swords Project researchers .
While historian are n’t entirely certain what spoken communication the letter on the sword represent , they are clean sure that the letters are a short - figure rendering of Latin , consort to van Hasselt , who sound out that Latin was the " outside words of pick " in 13th - century Europe . The first two letters on the River Witham blade are ND , which van Hasselt said might be a kind of invocation that stand for " Nostrum Dominus ( our Lord ) or Nomine Domini ( name of the Lord ) . "
The XOXcombination that follows could pertain to the Holy Trinity of the Christian faith . And the two plus sign - shaped symbols before and after the lettering are likely Christian crosses , according to the Fyris Swords Project investigator .
This sorting of supposition about what the sword’sinscriptions might representhas been going on for more than a century ( researchers have been publishing their interpretation of the inscriptions in the journal Waffen- und Kostümkunde since 1904 ) . The form of the varsity letter succession on the sword makes it decipherable that the inscriptions are not worldwide statement ( i.e. , a standard boon compose out in short phase ) . Quite the opposite is true , according to the researchers .
" [ The ] inscriptions ( even though sometimes render a constancy of letters ) are extremely varying and appear to be very personal . One might say the private enigma of every sword carrier . It must have been a special dictum [ order ] so obvious and so self - evident to him that it was not necessary to spell out its significant import , " the researchers aver .
Commenters on the British Library website have suggested a telephone number of possible interpretations of the River Witham sword ’s dedication ( which you’re able to interpret under the library ’s blog post ) . But just as with the other inscribed swords found throughout Europe , it ’s unbelievable that anyone will be able-bodied to say with complete foregone conclusion just what message this knightly sword carry .
