Morten St George Theory

[Morten St. George]

Okay, I found a "k" in the larger chunk of script. It might be "k" but if so, it is unusually wide compared to the others.

It might also be lr or tr, I notice he writes the rotunda-r (the humped r) in that way.

But you cannot assume it is k just to make it 9 letters, since some of the others are not 9 letters. That's not good science. It's important to figure out what it is, not to assume what you think it should be.

A "k" precedes the letters "sp" not only in the SSM but in all the Sworn Book manuscripts as well. It may be an awkward looking "k", but there can be little doubt that the letter "k" was intended.

I don't know the answer to the 1*8 mystery. A third speculation (in addition to the two already mentioned) is that they wanted the first series to include a blank space (to serve as a word separator). I am only now beginning research in this area. Hopefully, I will be able to find a definitive explanation in the Latin text.

Also, I forgot to mention earlier that the eight loops of the central "flower" resemble arches, which often served as gates or gateways during medieval times. Other SSM drawings reinforce that concept. I'm pretty sure we are dealing with eight gates each containing or leading to nine characters. But going from there to a complete decoding may still be a long way off. I'm surely missing something and again, hopefully, the Latin text will provide some help.