Canute the Great DNA

A 13th century sword found in England, can you solve the riddle?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3187667/Can-solve-ri...

I think it read: And that ! it does not own honor.

That's a statement and very wittily, after that you have split the scull of your enemy...

Ulf did you use the Old Greek Roman Alphabet to decipher it? :)

Hi Piet!
The Geni line does not always show the direct line between the different people. We have more than one line that connects us.

Wauw that is a fascinationg sword there Ulf.

Hi Anette! Thank you for adding me to the Geni Group for English speakers with Danish ancestry. It's an honour for me to be part of this Group, although English is only my second language. This is like a reunion for a 'part Dane' with Danish people, after my one ancestor, Peder Havgard, left Copenhagen about 370 years ago. By the way, the caption under my Geni photo says my name is Piet Retief. Piet Retief was a Voortrekker leader, and his profile is also on Geni. I was named after him - he is a distant relative. But my surname is Venter - Piet Retief are my 'first names'.

Pit the ideer of the profect, is to give the people that do not speak danish, but english as first,second or for that matter 3 language a change to connect with people that also have danish roots and danes in general also.

I try to keep it updated and close to the project in danish with the same perpuse, just for people with danish as their native language!.

I too have some relations that left Denmark, however not as far ago than yours. Its a fascination story your forfathers could tell!

Wanda wrote "Ulf did you use the Old Greek Roman Alphabet to decipher it? :)" No, it isn't sure that I have right, it's just a guess.

The combination of XOX is a likely runic type of spell for good luck, meaning that it replaces the actual letters in the sentence. Then both in the beginning and the end of the line , is a double sword in cross, that suggest either knighthood, or a relation to crusaders, or in fact both.

Likely, it could also depict the letter K, as an initial to the owner.
It could also have been written by someone with less experience in writing, making simple mistakes. ex. The(that) honor to (that) this sword
-ad illi gladii id honore- or I have totally wrong and it's not Latin at all,
the writing becomes something else, ending with Noriek?

But I see why they have problems with it and why it's like a riddle.
There was some noble men who had double swords in their shields at this time, both in England and West Germany, but I would have to see a lot more writings on swords in order to compare the styles.

About the sword. It seems to be from the period of 1200-1300, it is of highest purity, light and most likely also very expensive. Nothing for a commoner, this I can see.

The only 'XO' familiar to me comes from Hennessy :)

Whiskey?

I don't drink so I really don't know. But Hennessy sound familiar to a name on some kind of bottle.

While we are still partly, or maybe only I am, looking at the 13th century, did this guy really wore a sombrero?

http://media.geni.com/p10/2163/7567/5344483805b89f35/220px-Erich_I_...

Ulf you say its from the middleages. In Odense a piece of boone/luxkycharme was found from around 1200-1300.date (date not sure yet) there was runic letters on up till then, so it can be Runic.

X is a Rune letter if you take the one line from the right corner to the left is a little shorte. That is a protection Rune. Not sure if O clasifies for anything, but at least X can be. Often at that time, in Denmark at least, it was not unusal to mix the latin and Rune alphabet.
Old habbits die hard I guess!

It was ment to say.. There was Runic letters on. Up until the it was not unusual!

They ended using runes in Sweden in Älvdalen in the first half of 1900,
that means that there still was living people around 1950 that had been taught at least runic alphabet as children. ; )

And they did use them as magical tools to turn away bad luck.

You tell me, when did superstition end? ; )

Well I dont think it has ended!. Dont spill salt. Dont dont brake a mirror. Spit over your shoulder if a black cat crossed the road! That is all remnants of the different spells used to fend of evil back in the day.

On Funen my Island there was a case that involved Witchcraft I think around 1910 or something like that. Dont remember the date exactly!.
The local thought this wman was a witch and some of them desided to take matters in to their own hands. They burned her house down with her in it!
Ofcause it then was a murder case, but their defence was that she had used sorcery and given them some bad luck.
The legal system was past the superstition, so they was convicted of murder!

However I do believe that was the last case in Denmarl where the alleged witch lost her life!

:-)

In South Africa there still people , usually old women, burnt because people believe they have bewitched them. It seems that this customs will take another age or what to die out.

If you are cross eyed better look at somebody with closed eyes.

That is scary and very sad that it still goes on. The one way to get something like that stopt is usually education and then some more education. It changes people maybe not at once, but over generations.

However when that is said in Denmark , Sorry here I am going into nerd mode, the woman back in the day when there was most witchtrials, they actually sometimes believed the could hurt people this way or they used other peoples fear to get something.
Some of these woman, and I am underlining some here, was full aware of what they were doing and used it.
A law was passed in this period of time 1550-1650. Dont remember the date. Here it was stressed that all children had to be baptized naked. Reason there had been cases were people tried to get vaxdolls baptized, to use it in some ritual. This was often in an attept to hurt people, so it was not just the accusers, but also the accused who believed these things!

I believe that there may have been true witches of old times but I think they probably possessed supernatural powers that some PSI hunters look for now days. Others probably used herbs for hypnosis to control or manipulate people. Once they had them under their spell they could make them believe anything including that they had bad luck or they used people to do things for them. Whenever a person controls or manipulates others by use of supernatural power or by use of hypnotic potions they are in essence a bad person or bad witch. People with PSI ability or supernatural abilities have been around for a very long time. Other's recognized this of course and hence the Witch Hunts. Still others had delusions of paranoia which which may have been common due to nutritional imbalances of people living during those times.

Magic was very real for people back then and ofcause some used their natural born abilities as sujestion and so on.
But to people back then it was very real.
I just read an article about timbered and houseconstruction. It seems that in Denmark they worked anciant runes into the walls and designs of their houses to protect the home. So some items or acts could protect you from this as well as some could harm you.
No point in making protection against magic if it wasnt real to them!
This also continued after protestantisme arrived.

To people back in the day magic god and bad was as real as water coming from the faucet for us today.
We would see it as delusional, but to them it was very real.

I found the oddest thing on Find a grave while working on a tree. This Man Gove may possibly have been the first and last person in America to be sentenced to hanging, burning, drawn and quartered and dismemberment. The could not do it of course because he was in American so they intended to ship him off to England where he was pardoned after a lot of petitions but indeed it appears he was sentenced. Is he the last person to receive this type of sentence in modern America? http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7376023

Talk about cruel and unusual punisment!. Auch!

The witches back in Denmark The execution was not intented to make them suffer. On the contrary.
They ofcause was burned. Fire purifies and was intented to save their soul.
In Denmark however the fire was started first and going high. Then the witch tight to a ladder, was cast into the fire. The death was eminent.
In southern Europe they used another method. Here the witch was tight to a pole on top of the bonfire. The fire was not started before, hence no eminent death

Can read more about Edward Gove (my 9th great aunt's brother's wife's father) on his profile. Should have guessed Ben M. Angel - we share a taste for interesting (OK gruesome) stories.

Gove was pardoned. "Like returning from the dead, Gove came back to his home and renewed his life in Hampton ...."

Its an amazing tale to be tell. He was lucky!

Anette, notice, that the women, witches or not, where never hanged! The reason for that: Wearing no panties under the skirts back then - or even up to the mid 19th century at least most places - that would mean indecent exposure of their private parts to the public.

Hanged maybe not, but witches man or wmona was usually burned. That comes from the old Catholic period of the Medieval. It was the church that used this as a purifying instrument. So burning ment removing the eval. Purifiyng the alleged witches souls. That would could cut down their time in purgatory.

That was something that stayd when the protestant was to juhge the witches!
I have to admit dont know what method of execution I would prefer.

Quite often the witches, men or women, were actually killed first and then on the pyre tomato sure all the evil went away.
That was the more human way so to say.

But notice, women were never hung by their neck for good reason as I explained. Witches or only murders for other reasons. Beatrice Cenci is a good example, best enjoyed in Stendhal's version (I Cenci) or in front of her great portrait in Rome. She killed her father - but for good reason. With the help of her stepmother and younger brother.

Not in Denmark they were not killed first. They even had to pay for their one bonfire out of the left porperty, but ofcause the same went for the funual or the executioner if you had your head hacket of.
However en Denmark there was a court of appeal were all trial of with sorcery had to be tried. They were worried that innocent åeople was accused and convicted. They could recieve money to help them for instance send a letter to this appeal court. When doing reseacrh on this topic I did find papper work for this.

But I guess they saved a bondle on criminals by making them pay them selfs.

This is actually a story of disempowerment and engendering fear for purposes of controlling the masses and making money (does anything ever change?). The real 'Witches' were wise women and men who were herbalists and knew how to heal people. The 'medical' profession was rising and these men wanted the herbalists' clientele in order to make more money. These 'doctors' did bizarre things like bleeding people with leeches among other highly questionable practices.

Another reason people were accused of witchcraft is that if the person was convicted the accuser would get that person's land. It was a sick and ugly business.