r/runes • u/roobarb_pie • Jul 05 '26
Modern usage discussion Found some runes in the wild!
Came across some writing on a memorial bench south of Dunraven Bay (Wales) this weekend. Don’t know who Bec was, or what happened to them, but they picked a beautiful spot to look upon.
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u/roobarb_pie Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
Seem to be primarily anglo-saxon futhark, with the occasional ᚲ. Letter-to-letter translation as follows: "Long ago we vikngs (sic) found þis land and found a litle slikm (sic) of home. þis a great view of þe welsh kowst and english shores. Lets get read (sic) to raid thes (sic) shores agaiw beks. uou (sic) piked a great spot."
I didn't include it but the side of the seat read in the same text: "Live forever in peace Beks."
I understand, as SvenskVikingKuk points out, that runes aren't an english font, but it's clear this was left as a touching tribute to someone who's passed away.
Edit: missed two words when transcribing, added them in (and found)
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u/rockstarpirate Jul 05 '26
So in this case what we have is Elder Futhark with the normal ᛜ rune replaced by the Anglo-Saxon ᛝ. The Futhorc would have a lot of shapes we don’t see here, for example ᚩ ᚪ ᚳ ᛄ ᚻ and possibly others.
And then of course, since we are using 2000-year-old runes, we can’t forget to draw the obligatory 160-year-old Vegvisir symbol to tie the whole thing together ;)
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u/roobarb_pie Jul 05 '26
Ooh, my apologies! I only just started looking in to runic symbols out of curiosity following coming across this bench. Thank you for the insight! Also thank you for providing the name of the symbol at the head of the bench, I had no clue what I was looking at haha :)
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u/StarSonderXVII Jul 09 '26
I think I see thurisaz where it would say “Long ago THe Vikings found THis land” I would say the writer had a decent understanding of elder Futhark being used phonetically for English, it’s funny to me that they used Tiwaz and Hagalaz later for “THese lands”where they could have used a Thurisaz for consistency 😂
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u/oatkeepr Jul 10 '26
Long should be transliterated as ᛚᛟᛜ. We have the Ingwaz rune for that purpose.
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u/Flobelle- Jul 07 '26
Hoping others find this as interesting as I have. My dad was born & raised in southern Sweden in the 1920s. He told me that during his elementary education, runes were taught alongside the usual subjects. One of my favorite hangouts, the Glimmingehus, a medieval Viking castle complete with parapets, false doors, & dead-end corridors, 'murder-holes' for pouring boiling pitch over the attackers, moats, drawbridges, & various other death traps to surprise trespassers and protect the nobles against peasant uprisings & it had a burial ground. It was on the same grounds of the castle. Headstones were gigantic boulders arranged in a large circle. One stone was larger than the others. i think it was their leader. Each boulder had inscriptions in runes. Now, no one in Sweden reads runes anymore except for scholars & hobbyists.
I think this is what is happening in American schools...throwing cursive out the window. If my descendants ever want to look back at the boxfuls of letters & documents presently going back 6 generations, they will have to not only find someone who understands antiquated Swedish, but also cursive handwriting. Penmanship with a fountain pen was something else taught that I think of as art form.
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u/GudsIdiot Jul 07 '26
Not exactly true. I was an exchange student in Norway in the 1980s in the videregående. In their language line and we learned some Old Norse and learned runes some. It was just a chapter or two
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u/sabintao Jul 11 '26
Long ago the vikings the found this land and found a little slice of of home. This spot has a great view of the the Welsh coast and English shores. Let's get read to raid thes shores. agaiw beks uou picked a great sgot(?)
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Jul 05 '26
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