Sword baffled British Library so now they're sharing

[zwiebel]

A sword, made in Germany around 1250 - 1330 but found in Lincolnshire, England in the 1800s, has baffled experts at the British Library in London, UK.

So they've put it on display and asked for the public's help.

All the public has to do is work out what the letters and symbols inscribed on it might mean. Here they are.

+NDXOXCHWDRGHDXORVI+

https://www.rt.com/uk/312203-lost-sword-mystery-inscription/

You can see some people's suggestions at the Library's twitter feed:

https://mobile.twitter.com/britishlibrary/status/631119425622642689

 

[zwiebel]

Just to confuse things a bit more:

If the engraving was done in England, at that time the sword-carrying classes wrote in Latin, French and Middle English, I believe.

If it was engraved in Germany, Middle High German was used during this period.

I'm taking a wild guess and plumping for that looking more like English engraving than German. Old German has more squiggles to my untrained eye.

 

[zwiebel]

Mmm. On their blog, they say this embroidery of French knights are carrying very similar swords.

http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk...015/08/help-us-decipher-this-inscription.html

 

[zwiebel]

And part of S. Lincolnshire in England was known as Holland at the time!

It's all as clear as mud to me, I'm afraid.

http://www.roffe.co.uk/earthworksframe.htm

 

[zwiebel]

Ooh, Michigan's got an online Middle English dictionary. Anyone want to look up all the words beginning with X to see if that might exclude/include it being the language of the inscription?

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/med/

(I figured trying to work out what the Xs mean first might be the easiest route)

 

[CoverMeCagney]

A couple of suggestions from the DM comments section:

1. N D X O X C H W D R G H D X O R V I N o m e n D e i C h r i s t o s O m n i a C h r s t i a C a e l i s H i c W a r a n t u s D e u s R e g i a G r a t i a H i c D i x u s C h r i s t o s O m n i a R e g i a V o b i s c u m I s t i Not very good, but meaning approximately: Name of Eternal Christ our Lord. To the promised glory of God our heavenly Christian Kingdom. Let these words of Christ our King be with all.
3. Thor, Son of Odin, hail. ( Old germanic ) The Protector of mankind ( In latin ) hail. Ride with your chariot into the sun/sigil. ( Old germanic ) NDXOXC - H - M DUC - H - DXORVI Or you could say, Jesus son of God, protector of mankind, ride into the sun. Depending on which religion you are into =)
5. According to a Dominican Brother I know: 'It says, "Our Lord (ND) of all things (O, omnium) [is] a sword (misspelling of German Schwert) to the world (orvi for orbi)". The X's are spaces, and the inscription refers to Hebrews 4:13, "The Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...-code-carved-medieval-double-edged-sword.html

 

[bluesneakers]

Excalibur!!

 

[zwiebel]

Well. I managed to figure out the crosses at the beginning and end might have some religious significance, but I didn't get any further.