Canute the Great DNA

I agree on that Justin, I looked yesterday on different hymns in the catholic church, doxa- to gods honour "Gloria in excelsis Deo" - GHD and Kyrie eleison, - nosiele eiryk lord have mercy but backwards, etc.

Then I started to wonder if "CHWDRGHD" just simple could be something like Chouderik, extremely ill spelled...

CHWDRGHD to me reads like SWORD... Close enough, SVÄRD, SCHWERT...

I saw that someone seemed to have solved the mystery earlier in the commentary thread of this norwegian newspaper here:

http://www.dagbladet.no/2015/08/09/nyheter/utenriks/historie/sverd/...

This commentary field is unfortunately closed between 10:00 and 20:00 (closed at the time of writing), but I remember it probably shows the name of the weapons manufacturer - something in the same vein and similar to Ingelrii:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingelrii

Good for you @Sten Waldö :)

Don't believe it may be that far fetched, Anna Kristin. But I admit to my hunch being based on my feeling for and background in North European languages as well as a good associative sense combined with an equally good memory for all that junk I have read in my life!

@Sten Waldö I also have the feeling that what is written on the sword is probably meant to encourage or protect the owner or beholder of the sword.

Much like when our ancestors cut out runes like they did when they were marking items that belonged to them.

Quality swords like this as far as I recall, back then wore not produced in the North but rather came from Toledo and similar places in Southern Europe. Thus they carried a high intrinsic value. As you point out, that would indeed be a very good reason to have it clearly marked as belonging to the person lucky and rich enough to get and afford it.

I can't remember the details now but wasn't there a medieval sword maker in northern Europe who was all over the news about a year ago? Perhaps the exception that proves the rule.

Someone should start a project for owners of famous swords:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_historical_swords

This is the swordmaker I was thinking about -- Ulfberht

Secrets of the Viking Sword (2012)
https://youtu.be/XWL67D0Zjzs

In "Egils Saga" there is a good example of how The Runes where important in people's lives in the Middle Ages. The story is of a girl who was unconscious and no one could explain what the reason was. Egill found a board in her bed which had carved Runes on it after a boy who was fond of the girl and was going to impress the girl with magic. The boy didn't have a clue how Runes where correctly used and cut out very skewed Runes that led to the girl fell into a coma.

Here is a link to a translation of the poem Egill wrote after he had corrected the boy´s mess: http://lyricstranslate.com/en/egil-saga-egil-sega.html

Justin is right here. The Ulfberth sword was consideret the best sword and also very exsspensive, so it was mostly royalty and nobels that could afford it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulfberht_swords

So, could it possibly be an Ulfberth sword - without his signature of some kind - we are talking about? I still believe that text on it contains the word "sword" in some version of a Nordic language.

Anyway, based on Wiki it looks like the Ulfberht sowrds were rather produced in middle Europe and not in the North.

Sten, what I was thinking is that Ulfberht swords are the exception to the general rule that all the best swords came from Cordoba.

Maybe just add a "i" in between, then you almost got middle high German.
CHWDRGHD
CiHiWiDiRiGiHiD
sini widir ginid

Anything is possible, but I think it's always better to bet conservatively. For a 13th century sword found in England the most likely language is Latin, and if the sword follows the common pattern the inscription should be a pious sentiment and perhaps include the owner's or maker's name.

Yes, I earlier said that I agree with that, but the riddle haven't been helped by standard interpretation and methods, so I guess that something is a little bit off in just this case.

We won't know until we know ;)

But I'm thinking along the lines of an acronym. Very common, but also hard to find if you don't already know it. Medieval people loved mottoes and anagrams.

I had a boss who used to write /AMDG after his signature. It stands for Ad maiorem dei gloriam (For the greater glory of God). Obviously he went to a Jesuit school.

I have friends who have rings that say LEO (Labora Est Ora, Work is Prayer), AUECUID (Anima una et cor unum in Deum, One heart and soul in God), and LJCSOGHMUU (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon us),

My dad had a Masonic ring with a Latin acronym, but I can't remember what it was. I almost think it might have been SDG (Soli Deo Gloria, Glory to God alone). When I was a kid I thought it was someone's initials.

I've seen many similar pieces. Too many to remember them all. I remember one that had a Latin acronym for "Let there be light", and another for "In the beginning what was Word", and another with a French acronym for Make haste to help me, Oh Lord.

I would not have guessed any of these by myself. Someone had to tell me. I think it might be the same with this sword. Someone who knows the acronym already will see it and recognize it. Until then we'll all keep guessing.

Its problely something like that. But its fun to guess.

I just had a Ulfberth in my hand yesterday. We have one here at the museum, and they had it out to clean it. You can very clearly see the inprint onf Ulfberth.
So trademarks isnt a new thing.

Also we must take into consideration that in The Middle Ages spelling rules didn’t exist. People wrote pretty much like the words in each language sounded.

That too. There would even be different ways of spelling from neighbor

Remember, though, that Latin spelling was reasonably firm, because of the scriptures and the mass. It was the local languages that were open to variation because there was a shorter tradition of writing them at all. That doesn't mean, of course, that someone might not have been bad at spelling even Latin but it would have been perhaps less likely with such an expensive item, and particularly if the underlying idea was that the inscription was a kind of charm.

I took some time today to read some of the theories posted online. Probably should have done that earlier.

One point I haven't considered is that the W is a clue that this part of the inscription might be Germanic, because Latin doesn't use a W. Alternatively, some people are suggesting that the W might be something else, perhaps some kind of separator. I'm not sure why they would use a 3rd separator (in addition to + and X), but maybe the idea is that it is a connector.

I might have to force myself to stop thinking about this puzzle in every stray minute. I've gotten stuck on one reading. That's never good when you're trying to think of more possibilities ;)

Right now, I keep seeing this:
CH W D RGHD

CH as the standard abbreviation for Christ, so part of the bracketing inscription (ND O CH ... ORVI, In the name of Christ, Lord of the Whole World)

Then W. Don't know.

Then D RGHD (or maybe D RCHD)
Dominus Richardus (Lord Richard)

About the Latin spelling. That would be correct, but there is numoures example where people have mixed Latin and their native tung, simply because their Latin was poor.
So sometimes you just cant be sure.

In the 15th century there were 2 families of famous sword makers in Munich. That said, their big and impressive swords were more for ceremony than fighting... :)

CH W D RGHD : I still feel this being nothing but the word "sword"...

Where’s the results?