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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.'"

3 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.