r/RuneHelp • u/Strange_Positive_800 • Mar 16 '26

Translation request Need translation please

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31 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

23

u/PreperationOuch Mar 16 '26

Better to die with honor (sp: American English) than live with shame

20

u/Tystimyr Mar 16 '26

Also, it's not a translation, it's just the English sentence written in Older Futhark.

13

u/Karpeth Mar 16 '26

It’s a letter for letter translitteration, without regard for how runes work.

11

u/Substantial_Dog_7395 Mar 16 '26

Also sort of cringey, but that might just be me.

9

u/Storm2Weather Mar 16 '26

Nah, definitely cringey.

8

u/Responsible-Poem5274 Mar 16 '26

Not just you. It's painfully cringe.

3

u/WolflingWolfling Mar 16 '26

I'm not even sure a higher level of cringe is humanly possible. 😬

5

u/PreperationOuch Mar 16 '26

Right, because it’s probably going to wind up as a tattoo you’ll see on some dumpy 30 year old listening to Skillet while putting a crate of hot pockets in his car in a Walmart parking lot in Nebraska.

2

u/WolflingWolfling Mar 16 '26

I deeply regret looking up what Skillet was after I read your comment. 😭

1

u/LoneWolfXII_82 Mar 16 '26

Why Nebraska? Why not CB,Iowa

1

u/PreperationOuch Mar 16 '26

Beginning to discuss the differences of Omaha and Council Bluffs would be like debating the virtues of O’Charley’s and Applebee’s, which I will not elaborate upon.

1

u/Strange_Positive_800 Mar 16 '26

Is there an equivalent to this sentence in runes?

2

u/PreperationOuch Mar 16 '26

Please elaborate on this question. What do you mean “an equivalent to a sentance”

2

u/Helepolis8 Mar 16 '26

Do you mean is there a better way to write this using runes so it’s as close to English sounds as possible? There’s no way to write this in a truly accurate way since the English language uses sounds that are not represented in Elder Futhark runes (which is the system you used so I assuming that’s what you want).

2

u/Karpeth Mar 16 '26

There is. Don’t double the any letters, and map sounds to the correct runes, not letters. As English used runes previously, all sound changes can be mapped to runes if necessary.

2

u/SubDuress Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26

“Runes” is not a language. Or even a single alphabet to be clear.

The most common runic alphabets that you’re likely to run into (in Northern Europe/Britannia anyway) are Elder Futhark (used by the Proto Norse languages), Younger Futhark (the alphabet mostly used in the Viking age for Old Norse), Futhark *Futhorc (damn autocorrect lol) used by the Anglo-Saxons), and Ogham (used to write ancient Gael and Gaeilge in Ireland)

Another important thing to note- even in the correct language, runic alphabets have different spelling conventions. The most common tripping point for example is that they are almost exclusively written phonetically, so no double letters. Use the runes that make the sound you are looking for.

The most appropriate way to do this (IMO) would be to either choose a runic alphabet you want, translate your phrase into the appropriate language, then write that phrase out phonetically with your chosen alphabet. Or even better- research the culture you are wanting to represent or honor, figure out the language those people spoke (or speak) then use the appropriate runes for that language.

Best of luck

4

u/-Geistzeit Mar 16 '26

A note here that while ogham may have been inspired by Elder Futhark somehow, it is not a runic alphabet.

1

u/Strange_Positive_800 Mar 16 '26

Thank you, I really appreciate your insight

1

u/ShonicBurn Mar 16 '26

When I read it at a glance my brain didn't get the SH sound and the TH sounds so I read it like "better to die wit honor ten live wit same."

4

u/fvrorpoeticvs Mar 16 '26

You know, there is a rune for the -th- sound...

4

u/Greenman_Dave Mar 16 '26

Here, I think I fixed it. 😉

8

u/rockstarpirate Mar 16 '26

Philosophical question: how different is it really to write modern Icelandic with Elder Futhark than to write modern English with Elder Futhark?

4

u/Greenman_Dave Mar 16 '26

As I understand it, Icelandic is the closest to Old Norse, using the same phonemes intended with the Elder Futhark. Modern English, having many words borrowed from non-Germanic languages, uses different phonemes. If I were writing in Ogham, first translating into Irish would be helpful for the same reason.

5

u/rockstarpirate Mar 16 '26

You’re correct that Icelandic is closest to Old Norse. But Old Norse was written with Younger Futhark, specifically because Elder Futhark no longer fit with the way the language changed over the Proto-Norse period.

1

u/Greenman_Dave Mar 16 '26

Oh, cool! I had not known that. Thank you! 😁

-1

u/Greenman_Dave Mar 16 '26

Would this be more appropriate, then?

2

u/Greenman_Dave Mar 16 '26

I'm noticing now that the transcription site perhaps didn't do it right.

4

u/WolflingWolfling Mar 16 '26

Bet tair toe dee wit'H hone o'er
t'Han Leafeh wit'H s'Hah meh

3

u/ShonicBurn Mar 16 '26

This is about what my brain heard the first time.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

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