The Creation of Portugal...ArMap you might find this interesting......

[Sgt.Rocknroll]

ArMap, I'd like your take on this.....

http://www.viewzone.com/templar/templar.html

In 1159 the first king of Portugal, Afonso Henriques, placed a mysterious seal on a charter that awarded the Knights Templar one third of his new, hard-won territory -- an extraordinary move for a new monarch. On this strip of land the Templars would erect they most famous and lasting monuments: the Mother of All Churches dedicated to Mary Magdalene, and a rotunda with no door; visitors accessed the interior of the building via a secret chamber used for the investiture of new knights, or to administer the inner brotherhood's most secret rite, the 'raising of the dead'.

SEAL OF CERAS The king of Portugal's seal on the Charter of Ceras awarding the Templars a third of the country. But why does it read PORTUG-R-AL ?

The king's seal contains an anagram and reveals why the Templars were awarded this territory and why they patiently waited forty years to receive it. Secret societies love their symbols because, just like parables, to the casual viewer they convey one message while to the initiate of the Mysteries they conceal another.

At first sight the seal with its scrambled letters form the word PORTUGAL. To the esoteric reader it reveals something altogether deeper, an added R, PORTU-GRAL. But to an initiate it reads, in Portuguese, POR TU O GRAL: "Through You The Grail."

[ArMaP]

It's an interesting story, but with some strange details.

One is the fact that for the seal to read PORTUGRAL it would need to have two "R", and it has only one (unless there's another I'm missing). In the same way, to read "POR TU O GRAL" we need to read two letters twice, the "O" and the "R", and I don't see any reason for that.

Another thing is the fact that, although today we use "por", at the time the word used was "per", so the theory doesn't make the same sense. Also, we don't say "por tu", we say "por ti".

One thing that is not correct in the article is that it says that "Tomar" means "to drink", but that's not true, it means "to take", and although that may be used in the sense of "to drink", it is rarely used in that meaning.

PS: I love to live in a country with so much history.

[Sgt.Rocknroll]

I thought you'd find this interesting. About the usage of words. Do you think that the usage might be different then than it does now?

[ArMaP]

I thought you'd find this interesting. About the usage of words. Do you think that the usage might be different then than it does now?

It's possible, Portuguese didn't really exist at the time, it was more Galician than the Galician-Portuguese we speak today.