Are you ready for a lesson in ancient letters? Today, we're diving deep into the world of "thorn," a letter used in the Old English alphabet and still seen in some Scandinavian languages today. But first, let's start with a little biblical reference. In 2 Corinthians 12:9, Paul writes, "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'" This verse has been interpreted in many ways throughout history, but one interesting tidbit relates to our topic of thorn. Some scholars believe that Paul had a physical ailment that he referred to as his "thorn in the flesh." Could this have been related to an old injury caused by writing with quill and ink? We may never know for sure. Moving on to thorn itself. It's represented by the symbol Þ (uppercase) or þ (lowercase), and it's pronounced like the "th" sound in "think." Thorn was commonly used in Old English to represent this sound, which wasn't present in Latin-based languages. However, when printing presses were introduced to England in the 15th century, they didn't have a thorn character. Printers started using similar-looking letters instead, like y and w turned sideways (look closely at the word "ye" if you ever see it printed - it should actually be read as "the"). Eventually, thorn fell out of use altogether. But wait - there's more! In ASCII code (a system used by computers to represent characters), thorn is represented by the number 232. And if you thought all of this was already pretty nerdy, get ready for another level: there are seven biblical passages that contain exactly 17 words each when translated into Old English (which uses thorn). These passages are Isaiah 53:5-6; 1 Corinthians 10:13; Revelation 22:21; 1 Corinthians 4:7-8; Galatians 6:7-8; and two verses from our previous reference, 2 Corinthians 12:10 and 12:9. So there you have it - a crash course in thorn. It may not come up in your daily life (unless you're reading something in Old English or Icelandic), but now you can impress your friends with your knowledge of this quirky letter. Remember, as Paul said, even weaknesses can be a sign of strength - so embrace your own "thorns" and keep learning!