Odd Sword

[Victrix]

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

Salaams Victrix, Whilst to some it may seem obvious that a cross implies a religious context however on many ancient weapons fished from lakes and rivers across Europe the cross is the only obvious recognisable coded inscription amongst often a line of unrecognisable capitals described as feudal religious shorthand !!...(of no known origin). For a balanced view of this please see http://blog.world-mysteries.com/stra...usaders-sword/ and note how the author has done just as you suggest and has focussed on the cross format... This is usually the Jerusalam Cross with tee shaped ends. Where a pommel exists there may be an etched similar cross done after the shock of battle by the owner..And so the cross is something we can be safely confident about...the rest is as yet undiscovered however...Note that letters do not have to be from the same alphabet !! and they may be numbers.

On further reflection I note that the cross on the project sword is not actually the Jerusalem Cross but a variant ... The Forked Cross. It may illustrate a similar provenance and is anyway another of the heraldic crosses..

Salaam Ibrahiim,

I love the links to documents you have posted on this thread concerning interpreting inscriptions on medieaval swords. It has been very interesting reading! Also I like the Arn movie which is mentioned in the last document. History is truly fascinating... The sword which you are investigating is clearly very different from the medieaval knight swords. If you are decoding something you obviously have to know what symbols you are dealing with, and this particular time period is tricky because of the popularity of occult superstitions (akin to Sufist mysticism?). That's why I wonder if it's worth the effort? Following your comments I did a quick search on the cross symbol and found this (see photo below) in Symbols: Encyclopedia of Western Signs and Ideograms by Carl G. Liungman. The symbols could even be linked to alchemy (!). Also, the Augsburg symbol you refer to is different to the symbol on the sword which has an asymmetric horizontal bar at the top (only on the left side).