Dorabella Cipher Puzzle

Can you decipher the Dorabella cipher?

L. Small
3 min readJan 8, 2023
Dorabella Cipher | Photo credit: hldennis.com

A composer who was also a code and cipher enthusiast created a cipher for a girl. Even after many years had passed, the girl was unable to decipher the cipher, which had 87 characters spread across 3 lines.

Until now, many people are still trying to solve the puzzle of the Dorabella cipher. The Dorabella Cipher is a 3-line cipher with almost identical characters, such as the number 3 or the letters e and u.

This cipher was written by a composer and also a code and cipher enthusiast named Edward Elgar, and it was intended for a girl named Dora Penny on July 14, 1897. Edward Elgar was also well-known for composing the musical piece “Enigma.”

Edward Elgar | Photo credit: wikipedia.org

Dora Penny (1874–1964) was the daughter of Alfred Penny, a Wolverhampton minister. Dora’s mother passed away shortly after giving birth to her. In 1895, Alfred Penny remarried. The stepmother of Dora Penny was close friends with Caroline Alice Elgar, the wife of Edward Elgar.

Edward and Alice Elgar invited the Penny family to their Wolverhampton rectory home in July 1897.

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L. Small
L. Small

Written by L. Small

"One arrow alone can be easily broken but many arrows are indestructible" ~Genghis Khan~