Christmas Carols in Code

[Thalia]

This is just something that popped into my head while I was staring at the wall the other day. I guess they're not all technically "Christmas" songs but they tend to get called that anyway so. . .

A few things:

1. The answers are all found the same way.

2. 1,3,and 5, have the spaces marked. 2, 4, and 6 do not.

3. "Key" may not be the right term. You do not absolutely need the key to figure out the titles but it might make things a little easier.

1. oharna caob obarhmgbe hsinbmg kfsink Key: 58, 11, 474, 110, 59

2. plipalbhmgmgmnbchfcaocscmg Key: 57585594

3. vb vfko mnpsc h albararmn lioarfkcaalhk Key: 3, 15, 22, 1, 362, 5867

4. carpkcamncaobksipvalhsi Key: 7253878

5. beblina caob ohmgmgk Key: 90, 11, 117

6. popmgmnsifnoca Key: 15710

Good luck!

[Guest]

I have no idea how the key works, but...

1) Hark the Herald Angel Sings

2) O Come All Ye Faithful

3) We Wish You a Merry Christmas

4) Frosty the Snowman

5) Deck the Halls

6) O Holy Night

[Thalia]

I have no idea how the key works, but...

1) Hark the Herald Angel Sings

2) O Come All Ye Faithful

3) We Wish You a Merry Christmas

4) Frosty the Snowman

5) Deck the Halls

6) O Holy Night

Hi Emily. Welcome to the Den! That didn't take long. As I said, the "key" wasn't completely necessary. I assume you know how I made this and didn't just crack this with the brute force method.

The number(s) need to be converted to binary.

Can you give the explanation? Can you see what the significance of the numbers are now?

[Guest]

Oh, this was definitely brute force. It all began with the solitary "h" in #3 :-)

I'll have to brush up on my binary before any significance reveals itself ;-)

Eventually, I worked out H= a

B= e

AR= r

V= w

MG= L

K= s

O= h

F= i

AL = m

MN= y

CA= t

Li= C

BE=d

NA= k

SI= n

N=g

SC = u

C= f

P=o

Thanks for the welcome!

Edited December 22, 2011 by Emily McPeek

[Thalia]

Lol. Take a look at your list again.

Anything stick out about the 2 letter ones? As for the binary, just run the numbers through a converter and put them beneath the letters.

[Guest]

Now all I see is that the number of binary digits corresponds to the number of letters in each word of code...

Haha, I'm really bad at this. Maybe I'll just stick to Sunday paper cryptoquips...

[Guest]

The number of 1's corresponds to the number of letters in the actual word- a two letter code has the first letter go with a 1 and the second letter go with a zero- presumably to indicate that they should be treated as a pair.

Slowly but surely :-)

[Thalia]

That was the purpose but there's something else you're missing. It will make sense when you figure out where the code comes from. I was literally staring at the wall when I thought of this but there was something on it. Not much of a hint but maybe a lightbulb will go off. You might also consider resorting your list. . .

Edited December 22, 2011 by Thalia

[Guest]

The chemistry geek in my loves you now.

[Thalia]

If you put the binary under the titles as given, the 1s correspond to the letters that should be capitalized. Makes it a little easier to separate the B's from the Be's and others like that. As I said though, not entirely necessary.

[Thalia]

Hmm. Could have sworn that I added the poll.

[Morningstar]

I'm confused.

[Thalia]

The code is based off of the periodic table. The numbers should be converted to binary and placed underneath the given letters. So this one:

plipalbhmgmgmnbchfcaocscmg Key: 57585594 would line up like this:

plipalbhmgmgmnbchfcaocscmg

11011011101010111110111010

If there is a 1 underneath the letter, it gets capitalized:

PLiPAlBHMgMgMnBCHFCaOCScMg

11011011101010111110111010

P (phosphorus) is #15 on the periodic table and the 15th letter of the alphabet is O. Li (lithium) is #3 on the table and the 3rd letter is C. etc.

If I remember correctly, this one should be O Come All Ye Faithful. Does that make sense? Let me know if it doesn't.

Edited December 30, 2011 by Thalia

[Morningstar]

Yeah, it does. How did I not see that!