Your interpretation is not very different to the journalists: > The subsequent letters were a bit more enigmatic: could it mean "bears cwærtern" – the Old Engl

Your interpretation is not very different to the journalists: > The subsequent letters were a bit more enigmatic: could it mean "bears cwærtern" – the Old English word for "prison"? The Latin passage it accompanies describes the imprisonment of the Apostles, so Eadburg might have been drawing a parallel with her own situation. I agree with the journalist though-- it seems more plausible to me that Eadburg was the doodler. It was very common when I was at school to scratch something like "SW was here" into a table. Eadburg was here in nun prison.