This decipherment is an overdue response to the calling for help from British Library.

The calling was done by taking advantage of their exhibition titled “Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy”. The sword was displayed there. British Library says it was “loan to the British Library from our friends at the British Museum”.

 As we mentioned at the beginning, the announced reading of the inscription (with pictures of the original) was

 

(i) +NDXOXCHWDRGHDXORVI+ .

 

But the British Museum says (at 9th November 2015) in their collection online

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx  ,

the inscription content is

 

(ii-a) +NDXOXCHWDRCHWDRCHDXORUN.

 

Of course this would be a mistype. To be exact, it is

 

(ii-b) +NDXOXCHWDRCHDXORUN

 

On the other hand we can also find it in Lincolnshire Museums Information Sheet Archaeology Series No.14 ANTIQUITIES FROM THE RIVRT WITHAM PART 3 MEDIAEVAL dated June 1979. The sheet says the inscription is

 

(iii) +NDXOXCHWDNCHDXORVI+ .

 

(ii-b) has one cross, and (iii) has two. Perhaps they have been obtained independently. Of course the arrangement must be (i).

 

 When our deciphering began with BEG LLL, many of the readers would notice that “Law, Liberty, Legacy” is also LLL. Surprisingly it can be deciphered as follows.