X-Nico

2 unusual facts about Cryptogram


Cryptogram

A manuscript found at Bamberg states that Irish visitors to the court of Merfyn Frych ap Gwriad (died 844), king of Gwynedd in Wales were given a cryptogram which could only be solved by transposing the letters from Latin into Greek.

Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World

In a departure from the high fantasy flavour typical for RPGs, the last dungeon requires the PCs to board a spaceship and solve an encrypted message with a time limit in order to escape the planet.


Letter frequency

One of the earliest description in classical literature of applying the knowledge of English letter frequency to solving a cryptogram is found in E.A. Poe's famous story The Gold-Bug, where the method is successfully applied to decipher a message instructing on the whereabouts of a treasure hidden by Captain Kidd.

Margo Lion

Later off-Broadway productions included the 1987 version of Martha Clarke's The Garden of Earthly Delights, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune and The Cryptogram.

Merfyn Frych

It was discovered at Bamberg, Germany and it contains characters that must be translated from Greek numerals to Latin text using a key in order to read the message (a form of cryptogram), hence the document's name.


see also