Ancient Runes class - Elder Futhark (open to years 3-7 but see note, pretend to be a 3rd year*)

[Bertrand Scrivener]

Early September, 200X (Since there's currently only one Ancient Runes professor, I'm making this class open to all years 3-7. If your character is older than third-year, you can pretend this is a back-dated scene from when your character was a 3rd-year (or whatever year they were when they first took this elective). [To avoid making this a convoluted time-bending mess, simply avoid referring to other students in different years by name. For example, if you're playing a 4th-year student, and want your character to react to a 3rd-year student, you can refer to them as "the blonde Gryffindor girl" or anything other than their name, treating them as an NPC. Avoid referring to current events, so this thread can be timeless.])

As students were arriving and finding their seats, Professor Scrivener drew twenty-four runes on his blackboard, and beneath them, their common transliterations:

ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚨ ᚱ ᚲ
f u þ a r k(c)

ᚷ ᚹ ᚺ ᚾ ᛁ ᛃ
g w h n i j

ᛇ ᛈ ᛉ ᛋ ᛏ ᛒ
ï(æ) p z s t b

ᛖ ᛗ ᛚ ᛜ ᛞ ᛟ
e m l ŋ d o

He waited a few minutes to give everyone time to settle in before speaking.

"For those who don't know me, I'm Professor Scrivener. I've made it my life's work to preserve ancient knowledge, with a particular emphasis on magical texts. I've also published numerous interviews I've conducted with ghosts and portraits, particularly those found here at Hogwarts, though there are so many, that I may never finish this Sisyphean task. I've spent many years studying ancient runes and various other writing forms, and assisted in the translation and interpretation of many ancient documents and artifacts, including at archeological sites. Your textbook for this class is a treatise on runology that I wrote soon after I finished Hogwarts--versions of it are now in use at other magical schools, and there's even a muggle-safe version in circulation. You'll find my office in Ravenclaw Tower near the other Ravenclaw staff offices. If my door is open, that means I'm available to help you with any relevant questions you may have. If my door is closed, I'm busy and don't want to be disturbed. I'm most likely to be available between my last class of the day and dinner. But enough about me..."

"Today we will begin our exploration of Ancient Runes with Elder Futhark, also known as Older Futhark and Germanic Futhark. This alphabet is named after the initial phonemes, or sounds, of its first six runes. You needn't transcribe this chart into your notes, as you'll find it in chapter two of your textbook, however I would encourage you to practice drawing these runes and familiarize yourself with each one. You'll be expected to draw each one next to its transliteration on your first test."

He pointed to the transliteration beneath the third rune, þ. "For those unfamiliar with Old English, the Anglo Saxons called this character thorn. After the invention of movable type printing presses, however, it was often transcribed as the letter Y, because common type-sets didn't have a dedicated slug for the thorn character, but nowadays we use the digraph TH. This is why in many old books, you'll see the word ye where you would expect to find the. It's the same word, just composited with different letters. The corresponding thorn rune is called Thurs, from the Old Norse, meaning giant."

"Elder Futhark is the oldest of the runic alphabets, used by the Germanic tribes dating back to the first through ninth centuries. You may have noticed that this alphabet is very angular, with each character composed of distinctive straight lines. This is because the users of this alphabet preferred to carve the runes, rather than write them, and it's far easier to carve a straight line than a curved one. Today, rune-carved artifacts can be found all across Scandinavia."

He began walking down an aisle between desks as he talked. "Can any of you think of an example where Elder Futhark is used today? Feel free to speak up, you don't need to raise your hand."