Bumps in the Knight

  

Let’s start with those curious bumps on the helmeted leprechaun’s cheek and nose. They are certainly prominent and oddly oriented. If Byron is using these bumps to communicate something, how might he do that? What means of communication uses bumps? I struggled for a long time trying to figure out what these bumps could possibly mean in Braille, but I couldn’t figure it out—not until I thought about it in terms of specifying units. A single bump in Braille, like the one on the leprechaun’s nose, can refer to the letter A, the number 1, a comma, or a single quote, depending on context and the physical level in which it appears. The grouping of four dots, like the ones on his cheek, could also represent a number of things, including 18 or “AH”. I was stumped until I noticed a sequence of four bumps just like the ones on the cheek that could translate to exactly the same character as the single bump on the nose—a single quote (‘). See below for the two ways a single quote can be represented in Braille.

These patterns are an exact match to the ones we find on our leprechaun. A number followed by a single quote commonly indicates that the value is in feet, as in the sentence, Joe is 6’ tall. This confirms that our distance is in feet!

Now we would like to confirm that thirteen is the distance in feet from the post to the casque and that east is our base direction. Maybe the oddly shaped number 89 beneath the bowman will tell us something. Interestingly, if we look at it backwards (inverted horizontally) the 89 could be interpreted as a lowercase “e” followed by the number “13” with the two digits smooshed together to a point where they touch. The “e” suggests the measurement is to the east and the number “13” matches the distance we were hoping to find. The number thirteen is near the feet of the horse suggesting the distance is in feet. Admittedly, there are many other ways the mysterious 89 could be interpreted, but this interpretation is consistent with what we know so far. But we still, unfortunately, have the problem of confirming what the ten in “Ten by thirteen” refers to.