I appreciate your response, but I disagree about certain details. I have proposed a very specific logical set of rules to transform
[dtor sheol qokor sharal ckhol sholar aiin sheoctham] on page f58r into
"Spur soueth hoter: theiris son riseth o bimoueth". I have provided the correspondence table of characters and letter values, along with all of the very precisely and specifically defined cipher rules. That is not a "conlanging artistic project", that is a cryptographic cryptanalytic linguistic analysis of the actual characters in that line of text on that page of the manuscript.
I did not design that correspondence table and those cipher rules to suit this particular line of text; quite the contrary, I had developed the table and rules over the course of analysing possible function words, word frequency lists for Languages A and B, and then over the course of considering certain significant words and text that others, not me, already considered significant, such as [otol] and the two words on You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. . Then I applied those correspondences and rules to the three words on You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. , then to the center rings of text on You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. , and to the first line of text on f1r . The correspondence table and the cipher rules were thus already rather rigidly set in place before I ever looked at the text on page You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. . Of course small details could and can still be amended, as the table and rules must be provisional at this stage, but I couldn't just go changing everything again to fake a line of good Middle English text on a new page.
And with all of that rather rigidly set in place, I still found that this very real actual sequence of characters and words in the line of text on You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. is read and interpreted as
"Spur soueth hoter: theiris son riseth o bimoueth" according to the specific table and rules already set in place based on the previous text that had been analysed. I hope at least some readers can see the remarkable connections to my hypothesis present in this line of text: Not just
"Spur" but
"hoter", referring to the historical figure known as
"Hotspur". The word
"soueth", meaning
"begets", referring to his surviving son after he was killed at Shrewsbury in 1403. The words
"son riseth", which is both relevant to Hotspur's son, and even also represents an English play on words with "sonne riseth" (that is, "sun rises"), both then and now. And finally, most remarkable of all, the beautiful Middle English word
"bimoueth", even found in the Wycliffe Bible, and quite apropos to the author's context from the author's perspective!
Again, that is not fantasy or science fiction, that is not "worldbuilding" or a "conlanging artistic project". That is a cryptographic cryptanalytic linguistic analysis of the actual characters and words on the actual line of the actual page of the actual manuscript. The counter-argument is that the whole thing is entirely a pure random chance coincidence. Somehow, according to the counter-argument, it is a coincidence that the entire correspondence table and all of the specific precise cipher rules just happened to produce that meaningful line of Middle English text that is quite relevant to the context of the hypothesis that I had already proposed before I ever looked at page You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. . Well, I am happy to listen to the mathematical and statistical details of such a counter-argument, but I have not seen anyone here even attempt to present that argument.
I will be blunt: I believe my interpretation represents the real intended meaning of the characters and words of that line of text on that page of the manuscript. Of course I could be wrong, but I have not seen anyone here even begin to attempt to present a detailed counter-argument that could even begin to convince me that my interpretation could all be just a pure random chance coincidence.
You mention the question of motive, and a situation "where no one can offer any probable reason anyone would want to kill the victim." One strength of my hypothesis is that it offers a very clear motive: The Yorks lost an awful lot when Henry IV overthrew Richard II. First of all, they lost their branch of the family's claim to the English throne, no minor detail for the Yorks and Lancasters in this period. Edward, 2nd Duke of York, seemed to adapt to the new political reality, but not without a significant amount of difficulties. You want more motive? Here it is: Edward actually presided as constable over a judicial dispute involving Henry Bolingbroke in 1398 that resulted in Bolingbroke being exiled:
"However, on 28 September 1397, he received a large grant of Gloucester, Warwick and Arundel's forfeited lands. On 29 September, he was created You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view., a title that had earlier been granted to Gloucester on 3 September 1385. On 16 September 1398 Aumale presided as constable over the aborted judicial combat between Henry Bolingbroke, the future You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view., which ended with Bolingbroke and Norfolk being exiled by King Richard.You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view." (See the third and fourth paragraphs of You are not allowed to view links.
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Edward had many, many motives for hostility toward Bolingbroke, which he had to suppress publicly, but which a secret cipher manuscript would be the perfect outlet for. As for Constance of York, her husband was killed as a result of losing the conflict with Bolingbroke in 1399-1400. What more motive can one possibly have? If there's one thing my hypothesis has in spades, it is motive, motive, and more motive for the creation of this secret script, cipher, and manuscript. I am not presenting this as historical fiction, I am presenting this as the actual motive for the actual creation of the actual manuscript.
But for now, I would just like someone to explain to me exactly what I am missing, and exactly how my correspondence table and cipher rules produced that perfectly fitting line of Middle English text on You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. by pure random chance coincidence.
Geoffrey