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Vikings' Secret Code Cracked

Posted by timothy on from the join-for-coffee-in-denmark-love-ingrid dept.

sciencehabit writes "What may look like mere scratches is much more. A 900-year-old Viking code known as jötunvillur has been cracked. The code-cracker, runologist Jonas Nordby from the University of Oslo, deciphered the system after realizing he needed to replace the original runic character with the last sound used to pronounce it. For instance, the runic character 'k' is pronounced 'kaun,' so k becomes n. Nordby believes secret messages were created by the Vikings for entertainment. One piece of wood reads: 'Kiss me.'"

5 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. Real story... by Raistlin77 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The real story is at http://www.thisiscolossal.com/...

  2. Link to summary that links to article that .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ok, dove through the reference-pit and found this as the apparent root story.

    Please, either mod this up or edit the Slashsummary to actually link to a useful article in the chain.

  3. Re:Link to summary that links to article that .... by maubp · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, this longer piece http://www.forskning.no/artikler/2014/januar/379474 in Norwegian seems to be the source (by Ida Kvittingen). Oddly the photo credit links there.

  4. Re:Interesting by CreatureComfort · · Score: 3, Informative

    As least it wasn't:

    Dumb abusive cart barista abuses nouveau caloric gimmick chocolates.

    --
    "Unheard of means only it's undreamed of yet,
    Impossible means not yet done." ~~ Julia Ecklar
  5. Re:substitution cipher? by Culture20 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Because:
    Åruz -> algiz
    thurisaz -> algiz
    ansuz -> algiz
    hagalaz -> algiz
    naudiz -> algiz
    iwaz -> algiz
    algiz -> algiz
    tiwaz -> algiz
    ehwaz -> algiz
    mannaz -> algiz
    laguz -> algiz
    ingwaz -> algiz
    dagaz -> algiz
    So their coded documents would have looked like
    zzjgu zzzzknzz uzbzz uzzzzzzb zznzzrzzz jzzzzzrzzuzzzrfz zuiz zdzzzzf gzz zzzzzz zzzzzzzzzz zzz

    "He must have fell asleep while carving it."
    "Well, if he fell asleep, he wouldn't have bothered carving ZZZ, he would have just said it."
    "Perhaps he was dictating."