Fantasy Runic script translation

ManicMan

ManicMan

Lord
I'm sure there are a number of people which will be able to know what I'm working on from this really, but I'm trying to work out a translation (if one is possible) from an 80s miniature banner which was written in some form of runic script. I've tried a number of real world scripts, as well as the Tolkien ones I know of (which are kinda the most likely source) but the best translations I've come up with aren't complete and are sketchy at base.

It's completely possible that it's all made up to LOOK like runic script but I really kinda get the feeling it is meant to be Tolkien, who took alot of runic scripts and turned them into a substitution cipher for his Languages.

Anyway, kinda don't want to give away (as it were) too much but that's what I know, and here is my kinda okay digital writing of the runic script:
Runic.png
So... Answers on a post card?
 
Do you have any context you could give for the original banner, as that may help with the cryptography? Where was it originally used, what type of model was it on, and what (if anything) was the model doing (e.g. if it was in a diorama etc)?
 
Yep, Can give some.
A regimental banner of a unit of bulky hobgoblins (being used as 'Black Uruks', so Tolkien style Black Orcs). The models may not have been specially put together for it's used source but where figures the owner had as a painted regiment. The figure itself was a CM9D Hobgoblin Standard Bearer from Chronicle Miniatures, customised with a much bigger pole.

THE is much more logical then anything I was getting... ^_^
 
^_^ it might be though Realm of Chaos came out later I believe. Though nothing says It wasn't created before and the made the language from that
 
My thinking was the first symbol was very similar to 'thorn' for T or Th (and worked it's way erroneously into 'Ye' as in 'Ye olde inn'). That would mean in English one of the next two symbols must be a vowel. E is the most common letter and in terms of three letter words starting with T, would be a logical choice to start from. Although that would mean we have a double consonant at the end of the second word, which I'm struggling with. But if it's Orcish, then the spelling might be orcified. Or it might be double L. Or it could be Welsh. This sort of rambling is normally best done after a few beers.
 
I could kinda ID the first word in Futhark which... would make sense but at the same time, I couldn't even find some of the runes from the second one in that, so It fell apart there.
 
yep. well.. one problem is how they are written.. the one I got there as an upside down V.. unicode writes it as a more curved version, and alot of lists have it far more rounded, yet when you look at real usage in stone carving, some graffiti etc, it's far more the sharp lines. So if the square is a square or just one which is a bit more complex but over time often gets transcript badly (like how you mentioned the thorn being mistaken for a Y cause it's later medieval version was basically like a Y and when they made typesets, they decided the two different ones was redundant, also let to getting rid of the letter ash æ which I use alot so always annoying to have to import the alt code for it ¬_¬ (0230 by the way).

There is the rune.. erm.. can't remember it's name, which is mostly shown as a square with two pinched sides, which might have been warped over time.
 
ManicMan said:
just double checked.. can't work it out from the Phonetic runes or Dark Tongue runes
Click to expand...
Could be someone playing around with a mixture of runes? Looks Anglo saxon & irish celt viking runic, with earlier Italian alpine form? It could read as... FUC YOUCLL. Which phonetically is, hah, I guess something a not so pleasant Hobgoblin may say (better in a slurred northern accent). :)
 
that was kinda close to what I got but didn't get all the bits of it.. also when you look at runes, they mostly don't transliterate 100% even if you are using a transliteration runic alphabet. the second, third and four runes in second word were really getting me and while I kinda worked out the 'c', it didn't make sense with what else I had.

Anglo-saxon did morph a few times to the medieval runes and stuff, then you have Tolkien who tried to merge a few together with his own to make a full transliteration language etc. But what I know of his works, the languages evolve alot even though the same books so it's hard to know what's what.
 
ManicMan said:
that was kinda close to what I got but didn't get all the bits of it.. also when you look at runes, they mostly don't transliterate 100% even if you are using a transliteration runic alphabet. the second, third and four runes in second word were really getting me and while I kinda worked out the 'c', it didn't make sense with what else I had.

Anglo-saxon did morph a few times to the medieval runes and stuff, then you have Tolkien who tried to merge a few together with his own to make a full transliteration language etc. But what I know of his works, the languages evolve alot even though the same books so it's hard to know what's what.
Click to expand...
Yep and I guess runes are meant to be a mysterious (puzzling) proto- germanic/celtic divination thing!
 
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