Fy Swrya — Thmyl Tyk Twk Yml
t(20)+5=25=y h(8)+5=13=m m(13)+5=18=r y(25)+5=30 mod26=4=e l(12)+5=17=r → ymrer
Maybe a reverse shift? thmyl – maybe “th” is common start, “yl” could be “al” or “el”? tyk – looks like “try” with t→t, y→r, k→y? No, that’s not a fixed shift.
t (20) → g (7) (20+13=33 mod26=7=g) h (8) → u (21) m (13) → z (26) y (25) → l (12) l (12) → y (25) → guzly (not English) thmyl tyk twk yml fy swrya
thmyl → ymr dq? Let’s do carefully: t(20)+5=25=y h(8)+5=13=m m(13)+5=18=r y(25)+5=30 mod26=4=e l(12)+5=17=r → ymrer ? Not obviously English.
So not ROT13. (a→f, b→g, …):
t→r, y→t, k→j → rtj. Not English.
String: — no. 14. Try ROT5 on whole thing (only letters, wrap): thmyl → ymr eq? Let’s compute properly: No, that’s not a fixed shift
Reverse the order of words: swrya fy yml twk tyk thmyl — still not clear. Unlikely. Maybe it’s a simple shift but with a twist: A=1, B=2, etc., but maybe it’s keyboard shift (Qwerty → adjacent keys). 8. Try QWERTY left shift (each letter replaced by key to its left on QWERTY) QWERTY row1: q w e r t y u i o p row2: a s d f g h j k l row3: z x c v b n m
“tyk” = 20→y, 25→e, 11→p → yep (English) “twk” = 20→y, 23→28 mod26=2=c, 11→p → ycp “yml” = 25→e, 13→r, 12→q → erq “fy” = 6→k, 25→e → ke (maybe “he” if k=h? But k=11, h=8 difference 3) “swrya” = 19→x, 23→c, 18→w, 25→e, 1→f → xcwef Not obviously English
This looks like a cipher or code. Let’s break it down step by step. The phrase is: thmyl tyk twk yml fy swrya It’s all lowercase, no punctuation, spaces preserved. Possible ciphers: Caesar shift, Atbash, Vigenère, or a simple substitution. 2. Try Atbash (A ↔ Z, B ↔ Y, etc.) Atbash: a ↔ z , b ↔ y , c ↔ x , …, m ↔ n .
String: — not English.
It is Wolcum Yoll – never Yule. Still is Yoll in the Nordic areas. Britten says “Wolcum Yole” even in the title of the work! God knows I’ve sung it a’thusand teems or lesse!
Wanfna.
Hi! Thanks for reading my blog post. I think Britten might have thought so, and certainly that’s how a lot of choirs sing it. I am sceptical that it’s how it was pronounced when the lyric was written I.e 14th century Middle English – it would be great to have it confirmed by a linguistic historian of some sort but my guess is that it would be something between the O of oats and the OO of balloon, and that bears up against modern pronunciation too as “Yule” (Jül) is a long vowel. I’m happy to be wrong though – just not sure that “I’m right because I’ve always sung it that way” is necessarily the right answer