A word on the Norse Language and Symbolism present in Valheim

[Gynandromorph]

Hail and well met! I wouldn't go as far to consider myself an expert on Norse culture, but after discovering my Scandinavian heritage a couple years ago, I would say I know a thing or two about a thing or two. As such, I wanted to address a few concerns I have with some of the symbolism and how the runic language is used in Valheim in hopes that the developers will see it and mayhaps make corrections to as to properly represent ancient Norse culture.

Firstly, whenever the player reads a runestone, it displays the text in a variation of the Elder Futhark runic alphabet and then fades into English so it is actually readable by the player. However, the runic text displayed is simply an appropriation of the Elder Runes in substitution of the English letters. This isn't exactly the most proper use of the language because ancient Vikings had their own unique language that was comprised of different runic alphabets throughout history. The way the alphabet is used in-game is essentially like a "secret language" that can be translated with a "decoder ring" of sorts. For a more proper representation of the Ancient Norse language, it would be more appropriate to translate the text into proto-Germanic and use the runic font to spell out the ancient text and then fade it into English.

Now about symbolism. In the character screen, the Skills tab is labeled with an upside down (or inverted) Valknut. History shows that the Valknut's true meaning has been interpreted in many different ways, but many associate the three interlocking triangles with a devotion to Odin and many also believe that the Valkyries would search for the Valknut on fallen viking warriors so they would know who to guide into Valhalla. While there have been instances of inverted Valknuts on ancient artifacts throughout history, there was never believed to be any significance to the symbol or any alternative meaning derived from being depicted in an upside down fashion, however many runes in Ancient Norse alphabets have different meanings when they are inverted, often being associated with bad luck or curses. Likewise, the Mjolnir in the map screen is also inverted and throughout history this symbol hasn't had any significance in appearing as such.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that these symbols are much more commonly depicted right side up, that is to say the Valknut has it's triangles pointing upward and Mjolnir has it's hammerhead hanging downward. It's clear the developers deliberately depicted the symbols in these fashions and so I am curious as to why they did so.

Anyways, that's my two cents. I'm loving the game otherwise so far, combat and building are very fun and I look forward to seeing future updates for this game. Thanks for reading!

[Zero]

Interesting research

[CrazyOdd]

The devs are Swedish, so I assume they did there research about which runic language to use.

[SvartSol]

The Valknut or, "Knot of the Slain", is kind-of up in the air as far as actual meaning. It could have been a mark denoting the Einherjar (Odin's chosen army who were carried to Valhalla after death), the cyclical path of life and death or even the nine worlds. In the context of Valheim, I'm betting on the Einherjar explanation.

Mjolnir's origin is given to us in Snorri's Skáldskaparmál - created by the dwarven Sons of Ivandi and given as a gift to Thor. It's size was a flaw, but it was still worthy of a god. It's generally considered to be a symbol for power, strength, luck (or the favor of Thor) and protection - even the power of nature. This one is a toss-up. Seems logical that they could've included it to imply that we're expected to be strong, brave, etc. If the inversion was meant as a nod, it could mean "You are weak af and best get good quick, cause bonemass will f-k you up".

Vegvisir - the little red-inscribed stones - literally means "Way-finder". It comes to us via the Icelandic Huld magical text: "Carry this sign with you and you will not get lost in storms or bad weather, even though in unfamiliar surrounds" Make sense here that it'd show us what we need to know to do what we're in Valheim to do.

Huginn was one of Odin's ravens. His name means "thought". His twin, Muninn's name means "memory". This pair was said to roam the world and bring Odin news - mostly of heroic warriors and brave men worthy of his attention. Keeping these ravens is one reason why Odin himself is also called hrafnaguð (raven-god). You get data from Huginn often - but if you've ever seen the shadowy, hooded figure watching you, you'll notice he has a raven on his shoulder. Muninn perhaps?

As far as the language goes: Does anyone have a screenshot of the runes before they switch to English? Proto-Germanic is an unattested language - and would've been older than what we think of as "Old Norse". The main spoken language during the viking age (700-1000ish ad) had dialect differences in various parts of the viking world. Ragnar Lothbrok, for instance, most likely would've spoken Old Danish. Academic "Old Norse" is usually Old Icelandic, as that's the dialect of most of the historical writings we have. They're all somewhat similar - Old Swedish, Old Danish, etc. Verb differences, tense differences, but not impossible to make yourself understood to someone who spoke a different dialect. The runes they used would've been the younger futhark by that time period. It's highly possible that half of players' characters would speak different dialects and that'd all be in keeping with lore - but we'd all be able to suss out the runes.

[Gynandromorph]

My main concern with the symbolism was the inversion of the Valknut and Mjolnir, mainly given my understanding that these symbols mean nothing (or have no different meaning) when inverted so it doesn't make sense to have them inverted in the first place.

And here's an example of the runic language being used in the game corresponding to the English alphabet - https://imgur.com/yOPPvBT

Seen here, the runes either directly correspond to the equivalent letter or phonetic sound used in English (since the Futhark doesn't have all of the same letters that English does). Here's an example of how it's currently used, the rune Eiwas (ᛇ) corresponds to the sound 'ae' or 'ey,' so the developers used it to spell the word 'they' as ᛏᚺᛇ when the actual word for 'they' in this language should be written as 'theira' or 'ᚦᛖᛁᚱᚨ.'

While Proto Germanic or Old Norse are languages that are difficult to get accurate translations of, there are tools and historical experts available that the developers should definitely consider using to more accurately portray the language that Vikings spoke.

[SvartSol]

Originally posted by DarkThroat:

My main concern the symbolism was the inversion of the Valknut and Mjolnir, mainly given my understanding that these symbols mean nothing (or have no different meaning) when inverted so it doesn't make sense to have them inverted in the first place.

And here's an example of the runic language being used in the game corresponding to the English alphabet - https://imgur.com/yOPPvBT

Seen here, the runes either directly correspond to the equivalent letter or phonetic sound used in English (since the Futhark doesn't have all of the same letters that English does). Here's an example of how it's currently used, the rune Eiwas (ᛇ) corresponds to the sound 'ae' or 'ey,' so the developers used it to spell the word "they" as ᛏᚺᛇ when the actual word for 'they' in this language should be written as 'theira' or 'ᚦᚺᛇᚱᚨ.'

While Proto Germanic or Old Norse are languages that are difficult to get accurate translations of, there are tools and historical experts available that the developers should definitely consider using to more accurately portray the language that Vikings spoke.

Yeah, these runes are definitely English, no question. Some runes signified more than one sound and some spellings are different due to umlaut. Might have been more fun to have the runes be in an ON dialect and then spin to a modern localization, but I get why they didn't do it that way.

I expect that the inversions weren't intended to signify anything and that the devs felt they looked better in those orientations. As I understand it, Proto-Germanic has no extant historical sources. Things can be inferred via reconstruction, but those reconstructions can only be agreed upon, vs proven. Even so, vikings would not have spoken it. Proto-Indo-European -> Proto-Germanic -> West-Germanic -> Old East/West Norse - with Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Faroese and Norwegian as children. If you happen to have any scholarly sources that'd offer new info, please post links. I dig new data.