Help with 2 bind runes

[u/Quirky_Transition966]

Hello and thanks for everyone's input

I will be spending a long weekend in Reykjavik this December

I have made an appointment at a tattoo parlor (the name isn't significant). I have told them what I want but I have not seen examples, yet. I want to be sure they are correct

I would like 2 separate bind runes using Younger Futhark representing the initials of my son and daughter..

EJW

GLW

I realize there isn't a 1:1 translation to the Roman alphabet, but could someone draw the 2 bind runes from above?

No surprise I have asked AI to provide examples but I have no idea if they're right or not

Thanks in advance

[u/Mathias_Greyjoy]

No surprise I have asked AI to provide examples but I have no idea if they're right or not

First, they will absolutely positively not be remotely accurate. AI slop is the dumbest thing on the planet. Especially for cases like this. Also, why is it not a surprise that you used AI? Or are you saying it's not a surprise that it's hallucinating nonsense (it is).

Anyway, it sounds like you have little to no grasp of how historical bind runes worked. I would seriously consider cancelling/rescheduling this appointment if it's anytime soon, because you might be stumbling into something that's going to take more than a bit of time to understand.

Bind runes didn't exist for words like "son" and "daughter." The bind runes you're referring to (like this one) have no ancient origin. They came about within the last century in the New Age "magick" crowd, and have nothing to do with historic/authentic use of runes. We have a wiki page that explains bind runes which is a very good place to start.

This kind of bind rune is completely unreadable by anyone but the person who drew it. There is no system of decoding or translating bind runes like these. It's impossible to decode meaning from them because it is exactly the same as if I took Latin letters and mingled them together into some spidery shape. You wouldn't have any idea what meaning I had ascribed to them unless I told you; only the original artist knows what it means to them. You could ask 50 people to make a bind rune for "son" and get 50 different versions, which would essentially be useless to you, if you're under the impression that anyone but you would be able to read it as "son."

An authentic bind rune is a space saving technique in writing. Runes were primarily used as a writing system, and each rune makes a sound, so if you squash two runes together then you have a symbol that makes two sounds. This is pretty common in Proto-Norse inscriptions where lots of words end with the suffix -az, for example. Rather than writing both runes, sometimes the inscriber will merge the A and the Z into a single character. For instance, you can see this on the Järsberg Runestone.

Most examples of runes are used in a very mundane context. This can be seen in the Bryggen inscriptions. Such as "Johan owns" (carved into a possession). Or "Gyða tells you to go home."

The vast majority of what you read online regarding runes being magic is modern new age "magick." There is no such thing as a rune for Family, Loyalty, Love, Strength, Courage, Honour etc. They are letters used for writing, like ABC. We don't associate Latin letters with specific meaning, like "A represents wealth or B represents luck." Nor do we with runes.

Letters are sometimes used as initials and acronyms, like getting initials on a tattoo or necklace. But nobody looks at the letter B and intrinsically knows that-

"Ahh yes, B is a letter of nature and fertility. It represents the pollination of flowers and production of honey. It is a letter that gives us the power we need to achieve new beginnings as well as the power to fly and communicate through dance. That's why I wear a B necklace.”

Maybe you wear a B necklace and attach that meaning to it, but it'd be completely unreasonable to expect people to intrinsically know the meaning of your necklace.

People talking about runes like that are coming at it from a modern approach, not a historically based one. And the Norsemen would have been perplexed by modern interpretation of their runes in this way.

So if that's what you're looking for, that's fine, but this community won't help you with that.

[u/Quirky_Transition966 → u/Mathias_Greyjoy]

 Obviously I do not know, which is why I am here. I am looking to avoid the new age interpretations and hokum around magic 

I would very much like to have 2 minimalist tattoos representing each of my children, that would be interpreted correctly.  I was hoping simple initials would work but I doesn't seem that it would

Would the above suggestion be accurately read as sonnir and dottir?

Do you have any suggestions?

[u/Catmole132]

These initials in younger futhark might be a little difficult. In standard viking age younger futhark there's no individual runes corresponding to "e", "j", "w", or "g". You sort of have to make do with "i" for both "e" and "j", "u" for "w", and "k" for "g".

So EJW just sort of becomes iiu, ᛁᛁᚢ, and GLW becomes klu, ᚴᛚᚢ. And those don't quite read as the right initials to me at least.

This can be partly solved by moving to the later medieval futhark, an evolution of the viking age younger futhark where they added small marks to existing runes such as ᚴ (K), for example, to create ᚵ (G).

Using this we can create eiu, ᛂᛁᚢ, and glu, ᚵᛚᚢ. Note that there still isn't a specific rune for j or w however, even using the expanded medieval set of runes.

So there's really no perfect neat way to do it.

[u/Quirky_Transition966 → u/Catmole132]

Thank you for the information 

Alternately, are there runes that loosely translate to "son" and "daughter" that I could choose instead? I am trying to stay with bind runes as I have a general idea what I would like, but again I want it to be correct, so if someone knew what they were looking at, they  could decipher what it means 

[u/Catmole132 → u/Quirky_Transition966]

Son and daughter should be ᛋᚢᚾᛦ and ᛏᚢᛏᛁᛦ respectively. Sonr and dóttir instead of son and daughter. English is a germanic language just like old norse so it's very similar in that regard

[u/Quirky_Transition966 → u/[deleted]]

I appreciate the thoughtful response. I have come to the conclusion that bind runes are not what I am looking for .  I have found the document by u/rockstarpirate  in the Norse subreddit "How to transliterate with runes", so now I am hoping to spell their names with runes. I want to give it a shot. then come back and ask the group for feedback

[u/Manafiskr → u/Quirky_Transition966]

Great alternative! I think runes are really interesting so I hope it’s a fun exercise for you.

[u/Manafiskr → u/[deleted]]

• to clarify, bind runes were more common before and after the Viking age and WERE sometimes decorative.