I'm new to the game and just started playing because I was asked to join a friend. I got interested in the lore and started looking it up. So while I was watching a YouTube vid explaining the lore and back story I started thinking about this, maybe a bit too deep and maybe started to see something that wasn't there. Feel free to correct me. So here's my thought. Maxwell read the book upside down and mistranslated, probably, everything.

Now here me out, I have a daughter and when she was learning her alphabet she would often (like many kids) get the odd letter wrong, often thinking W was M and vis versa. From what her Pre-K teacher said this is a common mistake for kids for the first little bit, clears up after a lessons or two... So what if Maxwell, learning a new language, without a teacher around to correct mistakes, started reading it (the codex umbra) wrong and that's why he got shadow monsters? (but now he has shadow helpers when he reads from it ?!?!?) Ever see a new manga fan pick up their first manga book? They try to read it left to right, but a traditional Japaneses manga starts right to left. Attack on titan anyone? It kinda feels like your starting at the back of the book and reading to the front... Maxwell assumed the book read the same way all his other books did, seemingly without thought about how different cultures do things differently... like western cultural tends to reads left to right (front to back) and eastern tends to reads right to left (back to front).

Codex Umbra = Book Shadow But, what if you read it the other way around umbra codex = shadow book. That M on the front (presumable where Maxwell got his name idea from) also means "adventure" in viking ruin symbols. Together it reads as book shadow (adventures), or (adventure) shadow book... Maybe the book is trying to tell Maxwell that he should be reading it the other way since everyone else's name starts with a W to his M. (yes I know he started with a W name and SWITCHED it up to an M name...)

Any other thoughts on this?

Did I miss something, somewhere?

Was this idea already discussed and dismissed or rebuked in anyway?