https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Dancing_Men_Alphabet
Dancing Men Alphabet - Revision history
2026-06-19T20:47:20Z
Revision history for this page on the wiki
MediaWiki 1.44.2
https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=Dancing_Men_Alphabet&diff=90235&oldid=prev
TCDE-Team at 09:29, 28 August 2019
2019-08-28T09:29:08Z
<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>[[File:dancing-men-alphabet-by-arthur-conan-doyle-18-characters.jpg|thumb|400px|right|]]<br />
<br />
The Dancing Men alphabet is a cypher created by [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] in 1903, and used in his [[Sherlock Holmes]] short story [[The Adventure of the Dancing Men]], published in [[Collier's]] and [[The Strand Magazine]] in december 1903.<br />
<br />
The alphabet is a simple character substitution. Each symbols may have two forms : a dancing man and the same dancing man holding a flag to represent the separation of two words.<br />
<br />
In his [[The_Adventure_of_the_Dancing_Men#Manuscript|manuscript]], Conan Doyle used 18 symbols for the 18 letters needed in his cyphers. 8 letters (F, J, K, Q, U, W, X, Z) were not used and then have no known symbols.<br />
<br />
Note that P and V have almost the same dancing man symbol (in the V the foot is slightly sloping to the left).<br />
<br />
The symbols and cyphers below are taken from [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s original [[The_Adventure_of_the_Dancing_Men#Manuscript|manuscript]] (1903) :<br />
<br />
<br />
__TOC__<br />
<br />
<br />
== Alphabet ==<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable" <br />
|-<br />
! style="width:75px;text-align:center;"|Letter !! style="width:75px;text-align:center;"| Symbol !! style="width:75px;text-align:center;"| With flag<br />
|-<br />
| style="text-align:center;font-size:24px;"| '''A''' || [[File:dancing-men-letter-A.jpg]] || <br />
|-<br />
| style="text-align:center;font-size:24px;"| '''B''' || [[File:dancing-men-letter-B.jpg]] || <br />
|-<br />
| style="text-align:center;font-size:24px;"| '''C''' || [[File:dancing-men-letter-C.jpg]] || <br />
|-<br />
| style="text-align:center;font-size:24px;"| '''D''' || [[File:dancing-men-letter-D.jpg]] || <br />
|-<br />
| style="text-align:center;font-size:24px;"| '''E''' || [[File:dancing-men-letter-E.jpg]] || [[File:dancing-men-letter-E-space.jpg]]<br />
|-<br />
| style="text-align:center;font-size:24px;"| '''G''' || [[File:dancing-men-letter-G.jpg]] || <br />
|-<br />
| style="text-align:center;font-size:24px;"| '''H''' || [[File:dancing-men-letter-H.jpg]] || <br />
|-<br />
| style="text-align:center;font-size:24px;"| '''I''' || [[File:dancing-men-letter-I.jpg]] || <br />
|-<br />
| style="text-align:center;font-size:24px;"| '''L''' || [[File:dancing-men-letter-L.jpg]] || <br />
|-<br />
| style="text-align:center;font-size:24px;"| '''M''' || [[File:dancing-men-letter-M.jpg]] || [[File:dancing-men-letter-M-space.jpg]]<br />
|-<br />
| style="text-align:center;font-size:24px;"| '''N''' || [[File:dancing-men-letter-N.jpg]] || <br />
|-<br />
| style="text-align:center;font-size:24px;"| '''O''' || [[File:dancing-men-letter-O.jpg]] || [[File:dancing-men-letter-O-space.jpg]]<br />
|-<br />
| style="text-align:center;font-size:24px;"| '''P''' || [[File:dancing-men-letter-P.jpg]] || <br />
|-<br />
| style="text-align:center;font-size:24px;"| '''R''' || [[File:dancing-men-letter-R.jpg]] || <br />
|-<br />
| style="text-align:center;font-size:24px;"| '''S''' || [[File:dancing-men-letter-S.jpg]] || <br />
|-<br />
| style="text-align:center;font-size:24px;"| '''T''' || [[File:dancing-men-letter-T.jpg]] || [[File:dancing-men-letter-T-space.jpg]]<br />
|-<br />
| style="text-align:center;font-size:24px;"| '''V''' || [[File:dancing-men-letter-V.jpg]] || <br />
|-<br />
| style="text-align:center;font-size:24px;"| '''Y''' || [[File:dancing-men-letter-Y.jpg]] || [[File:dancing-men-letter-Y-space.jpg]]<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
== Cyphers ==<br />
<br />
[[File:dancing-men-cypher-am-here-abe-slaney.jpg|thumb|left|AM HERE ABE SLANEY]]<br />
[[File:dancing-men-cypher-at-elriges.jpg|thumb|left|AT ELRIGES]]<br />
[[File:dancing-men-cypher-come-elsie.jpg|thumb|left|COME ELSIE]]<br />
[[File:dancing-men-cypher-never.jpg|thumb|left|NEVE(R) <ref>There is an error with the final letter, which is the symbol of the B, the cypher would be NEVEB.</ref>]]<br />
[[File:dancing-men-cypher-elsie-prepare-to-meet-thy-god.jpg|thumb|left|ELSIE PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD]]<br />
[[File:dancing-men-cypher-come-here-at-once.jpg|thumb|left|COME HERE AT ONCE]]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
----<br />
<references /><br />
----<br />
* [[The Adventure of the Dancing Men]]<br />
* [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:Complete Works|Back to Complete Works]]</div>
TCDE-Team