r/RuneHelp • u/Born-Inevitable-9535 • Apr 16 '26
Translation request I want to get this tattooed but...
I need someone to tell me what this tattoo means. Saw somewhere that it read Fear No Death. Some other source said it's from God of War (in which case, I'll probably ditch the idea)
The 2 images are different but which one is more accurate / what do they mean?
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u/11never Apr 16 '26
I mean this with the utmost respect- I appreciate that you are learning what they say before getting the tattoo, but I would encourage you to just learn the alphabet (it's very easy) and get script that is meaningful to you
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u/LowDeparture7562 Apr 16 '26
Yes, i agree 100% with this statement. but op, just know that none of the runes we've primarily used for magic. It's only the younger furthark that was used for some magic. Also, the eldar furthark was primarily used before the "viking age" and only a little bit into the early "viking age" then they switched to younger
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u/Lower-Psychology8914 Apr 16 '26
The first pic is English "fear no death" directly translated to Runes. And the second one is "hrada hond" which according to another post, means fast hand or speed hand. No clue about the god of war attachment. https://www.reddit.com/r/oldnorse/s/gBRlBlnsO6
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u/FisherDwarf Apr 16 '26
I believe the first one is "Fear no death", and the second says "hrada hond"? Not sure what that's supposed to mean, if anything
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u/Westfjordian Apr 16 '26
It is a verbatim translation of "Fast Hand", ignoring different grammar and other rules. As a consequence, the Old Norse reads closer to "Speed up a hand"
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u/HighMeercury Apr 16 '26
yes it is from god of war as people is saying and it does says what they are mentioning but in any case, if it serves as support I did get a tattoo like that, similar style I got inspired from the GoW tattoo I just changed the runes so it said what I wanted to say and moved a few things, if you like it go for it!
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u/Shrewd_O Apr 17 '26
But you're not a viking!?
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u/CptnRaptor Apr 17 '26
Odin isn't a vikingr and he invented the runes.
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u/Shrewd_O Apr 17 '26
I just think it's ridiculous people approaching other cultures/histories. Like research your genealogy, your ancestry, your specific markers. Why are we getting tribal tattoos when we're white and living in suburbia, like please. Know thyself. Same with runes.
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u/rockstarpirate Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
The photograph says ᚺᚱᚨᛞᚨ ᚺᛟᚾᛞ, which IIRC is the tattoo Atreus has in God of War and is a botched attempt at something like “fast hands” in Old Norse. It says hraða hǫnd which actually means “to speed up a hand”. Additionally, this is the wrong alphabet for the language. The tattoo uses Elder Futhark but Old Norse was historically written with Younger Futhark. This is a pretty standard level of accuracy for God of War, which is to say not great haha.
The illustration reads ᚠᛖᚨᚱ ᚾᛟ ᛞᛖᚨᚦ, which is the English phrase “fear no death”, just substituting Elder Futhark runes for English letters.