Runes thoughout Middle-Earth

[Magnarr]

Necro thread revival.

[lf2536]

Necro thread revival.

sounds like the name of a band

[Harla]

Hey all,

Here's a question that I've been trying to get a hard-line answer for, and as much as I know the question has been asked in a couple of other threads, nothing confirmed as of yet, so I thought I'd try here as well.

This is in regards to the runes visible on Laugfut's collar, seen here:



As you can see, it's gotten mirrored at the halfway mark, so we can't read it propperly, but it's Cirth, at least, and the visible first half looks to be something like 'Ige Meloo Palan—' The last symbol before the mirroring could be an 'n', in full but cut off, or else it might also be the rune for 'kh', then mirrored back to back with itself; can't tell.

the other possibility, one supposes is that that half-collar set is the full inscription, simply repeated from side to centre on either side, meeting inthe middle, but it does look more like a case of texture mirroring.

I considered that it didn't seem very like the rest of the game to have a random jumble of runes for appearance's sake, and somewhere around here Berephon mentioned that there aren't supposed to be any random runes floating about without meaning.

Without having any knowledge of the actual translation process, I can't offer much more, I'm afraid. This was brought up inthe hidden nuggets thread as well, at one point, but no solid answer was found or confirmed, then, and the thread moved on.

Perhaps someone here can drag some meaning or sense out of this, or what it might have been, or if we're really lucky, someone official might know what it was mean to have been originally? Sorry if I'm covering old turf here, but I can't seem to lay my hands on a solid answer for myslef, without a propper understanding of the runes and the language, which I don't have, heheh...

-Harla

[Reniannen]

FYI, there are a few translations in the Lorebook: Category:Translation and Laugfût's collar is in there with NPC dialog explaining that the collar says it belongs to a wolf called Laugfût, which it clearly doesn't.

The transcription kinda depends on what mode you are using: the 'K' rune could be 'g' or 'r' and the double one could be 'oo' or 'ô'. And if there is a mode for Black Speech it may change a little bit more. Makes little sense to me either way though

[Harla]

That is so strange.... For the past two weeks, whenever I've loaded that page (http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Inscribed_Collar), it's loaded blank, with no information in it at all... hence my confusion. I'm not sure why it wasn't loading for me before, or why it is suddenly now.

Sadly, the article doesn't provide anything further than what we've got worked out already, and I'm still holding out for something firmer than "It appears to say something like this, and one part of that means something like this"..

I don't particularly buy "anyone's guess" angle, since, given that it's a game we're dealing with here, and efforts have been taken to only put in things that make sense, that means that someone put it there, and thus [i]someone[i] must know what the inscription was intended to mean in its entirety...

Although, it seems by this point that, whoever that someone is, we're not likely to hear from them here, alas...

Thankyou for somehow mystically getting my lorebook working again though... your lay-on-hands of linkage is appreciated, heheh....

-Harla

[Rhino-Man]

Of course I don't have a screenshot but maybe someone know of this already)...

In 1.14.15 - Doom of the North where you are following Amarthiel to the Ring-Forges of Tham Mirdain - there is a large painting in I think the 2nd or 3rd courtyard that give a large amount of gloom when you stand near it. Does anyone know what that is? Or what the painting represents that it causes so much gloom?

P.S. I'm locked out of the instance because I completed it, otherwise I'd go back in for a SS.

[Reniannen]

Of course I don't have a screenshot but maybe someone know of this already)...

In 1.14.15 - Doom of the North where you are following Amarthiel to the Ring-Forges of Tham Mirdain - there is a large painting in I think the 2nd or 3rd courtyard that give a large amount of gloom when you stand near it. Does anyone know what that is? Or what the painting represents that it causes so much gloom?

P.S. I'm locked out of the instance because I completed it, otherwise I'd go back in for a SS.

It says Jewel-parent, Elf-friend, Ring-lord. Not entirely sure about the first word though. You should know who the guy is even without these hints

And since this got bumped I have something to share, it's pretty old so maybe someone found out earlier (I posted it some time ago on EU forums anyways):

This is the level 65 Third Age Greatsword, if my rendering is correct it says "the iron drinks blood" in a bit non-standard word order.

[Rhino-Man]

It says Jewel-parent, Elf-friend, Ring-lord. Not entirely sure about the first word though. You should know who the guy is even without these hints

And since this got bumped I have something to share, it's pretty old so maybe someone found out earlier (I posted it some time ago on EU forums anyways):

This is the level 65 Third Age Greatsword, if my rendering is correct it says "the iron drinks blood" in a bit non-standard word order.

Are you talking about the "Lord of Gifts"? Annatar?

((The intricate details of ME history/etc. are all still new to me, as I've only read the Hobbit and trilogy and seen the movies))

[Reniannen]

Are you talking about the "Lord of Gifts"? Annatar?

((The intricate details of ME history/etc. are all still new to me, as I've only read the Hobbit and trilogy and seen the movies))

Yup, and I seem to have mislead you - you may not know who he is, not yet in this book.

[Aegya]

I don't think this one's been looked at before




gabilkanon
dethles durin bēhind dhis dor
wunderz wrot for mitē wor

Great Forge
Deathless Durin behind this door
wonders wrought for mighty war

Full size here:
http://img37.imageshack.us/f/screenshot00035l.jpg/

[Glummy]

in the Shire there is a quest "Gerebert misses a meal" .. lv8 quest given by Esilia Took shes around 33.0s 71.1w in tookland the quest sends you to Gereberts house (around 33.5s 72.4w) anyway you have to find his journal in his house which is open on his nightstand and full of writing seems more like scribbling to me than runes but maybe someone can make something of it ... i'll see if i can get a shot of it

[DeathFly]

Actually, all 4 runes are part of Tolkien's Cirth. These runes belong to the alphabet known as Angerthas Daeron and are the runes used to represent Sindarin. The runes in the picture translate as "kaew":



The runic 'k' is actually meant to represent a Sindarin 'c', however the elvish 'c' is almost always pronounced as a 'k'. With this in mind, the letters "kaew" would actually appear in Sindarin as "caew". So, what does this mean?

Well, "caew" can be used to refer to a resting-place, which seems particularly apt given that the stone circle is where you go to rest after retreating from battle.

Although it is likely just a coincidence, I have also noticed that if you take the phonetic representation of this word ("kaew") and read it backwards, you get "weak", which is exactly what you are after retreating.

The word "Kaew" is phonetically similar to estonian "kaev" which means "water well" in english.

[Smithie]

This thread is awesome, and proves why dwarves are awesome too. I must of ran past that globe not even knowing it was a globe. Probably just thought it was a sculptor.

Made reading the forums at 02:39 am so worth it!

[Beleg]

http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Fifth_Anniversary_Cloak

This cloak was a quest reward for the 5th Anniversary festival. It appears to say "LEBEN".

In 'Tolkien - Artist and Illustrator' [5] a Noldorin sentence is found on Thrór's Map which agrees well with numerals as found in the Etymologies. The sentence reads lheben teil brann i annon ar neledh neledhi gar godrebh, apparently the (free) translation of 'five feet high the door and three may walk abreast'.

So, these symbols are probably meant to be the elvish word for "five".

Source for numeric info: http://www.phy.duke.edu/~trenk/elvish/numerals.html

BTW, I'm very interested in any other in-game images with runes or tengwar. And I'd love some help translating them. See http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Category:Translations for the ones I've added so far (many from this thread of course).

[Silchas]

http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Fifth_Anniversary_Cloak

This cloak was a quest reward for the 5th Anniversary festival. It appears to say "LEBEN".

In 'Tolkien - Artist and Illustrator' [5] a Noldorin sentence is found on Thrór's Map which agrees well with numerals as found in the Etymologies. The sentence reads lheben teil brann i annon ar neledh neledhi gar godrebh, apparently the (free) translation of 'five feet high the door and three may walk abreast'.

So, these symbols are probably meant to be the elvish word for "five".

Source for numeric info: http://www.phy.duke.edu/~trenk/elvish/numerals.html

BTW, I'm very interested in any other in-game images with runes or tengwar. And I'd love some help translating them. See http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Category:Translations for the ones I've added so far (many from this thread of course).

Lebennin - the Land of Five Waters (Streams/Rivers) in Gondor, so yes it would be Five

[Cala_Romello]

Arise and return to battle!

Bumpity-bump.

[Magnarr]

Nice thread-necro Eoleof! +rep. This has been an interesting one to bring out folks' knowledge.

[Daeross]

---Anyways, the other day as I was exploring the crafting instances, I noticed some new runes. This sign appears several times in Mekeb-Farak and Mekeb-Faham:

---

I'd like to contest the translation of nâla, if only because, like you said, 'lodebold' doesn't make much sense in a scholar instance, and because there's Nâla-dûm in Water-works.

What if nâla means something akin to 'water'?

A note on Katûb-zahar, too:
In-game, it's called "Word-hoard of Durin".

[lockecd]

I just found this thread, + rep

[Daeross]

"--- on the front of their iron helms was set an S-rune, wrought of some white metal.---"
-The Two Towers

[bambubambubambu]

"--- on the front of their iron helms was set an S-rune, wrought of some white metal.---"
-The Two Towers

Now that is one handsome dude! Nice screenshot!

[Magnarr]

This one is in regards to the symbols on the front of the recent Harvest-brew Goat. Seems like the designer used a little artistic freedom since it's not in any one real language that I could decipher, and a few symbols aren't Tolkien at all.

None of it made sense in any one written language and the the 5th rune in was driving me crazy. It doesn't exist. But it does kind of. See below my translation from what I could figure.

W -- Elder Futhark (a P in Anglo and Cirth)
E -- Elder and Ango-Saxon Futhark (an "oo" in old Cirth)
S -- Elder and Ango-Saxon Futhark (a Y in Cirth)
T -- Elder and Ango-Saxon Futhark (an R in Cirth)
F -- *doesn't exist. But an upside down and backwards symbol in Sarati. Perfectly in fact. Created by the elf Rúmil of Tirion.
H -- Elder Futhark only
A -- Ango-Saxon Futhark only (notice the shape of the lower horizontal hash has no bend)
L -- Elder and Ango-Saxon Futhark (a T in Cirth)

In the above I referenced Elder Futhark in place of the actually more appropriate Norwegian-Germanic Futhark, which is technically the more correct. Elder Futhark dealt only in meanings of runes with no sounds, and it wasn't until 400ad that the Norwegian-Germanic runic set actually put sounds to them. Elder reads easier though and those symbols did eventually become the same phonetic letters later.

Would have still looked cool if the artist just stuck to one language. Other thoughts?


*Note: This was a similar comment I made on a thread now buried in the General forum section. Some people were thinking that the possible Westfhal was referring to a German town of Westphal, where Turbine apparently visited recently.
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.p...55#post6433055

[Daeross]

Magnarr: Could I talk you into adding this Harvest-Brew Steed rune-tidbit to the Translations?

And yes, the Harvest-Brew Horse and Pony have the same gear (alas, no pint on a pole), with the same runes.

Now that is one handsome dude! Nice screenshot!

Blessed be the in-game epic movies...

[Daeross]

The Ranger's Cloak




Sidhebdir: Peacekeeper; sidh + heb + dir, peace + keep/retain + 'doer'
Written in Sindarin tehta mode; alas, the in-game skin is on the wrong way.

[Magnarr]

Could I talk you into adding this Harvest-Brew Steed rune-tidbit to the Translations?

I'll see if I can figure that out sometime.

Nice transcribing on the above!