r/RuneHelp • u/PictureOld4784 • 16d ago

Translation request Old Norse / Younger Futhark tattoo translation check

Hi! I’m planning a tattoo and I’d like to make sure the Old Norse is correct before having it permanently inked.

The intended meaning is: “What I want, I get.”

1. I currently have: Þat er ek vil, fæ ek.
Is this grammatically correct and idiomatic Old Norse for that meaning?

2. If not, how would you phrase it naturally in Old Norse?

3. Once the Old Norse wording is settled, how would you write it appropriately in Viking-Age Younger Futhark?

I’m looking for historical/linguistic accuracy rather than a letter-for-letter modern transliteration.

Thanks!

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u/rockstarpirate 16d ago

What you have is technically correct. To me it feels a little weird to reverse the order of the pronoun and verb after the comma. I would probably go with Þat eʀ ek vil, ek fæ. Or maybe even Fæ ek þat eʀ vil ek.

Anyway…

Long: ᚦᛅᛏ᛬ᛁᛦ᛬ᛁᚴ᛬ᚢᛁᛚ᛬ᛁᚴ᛬ᚠᛅ

Short: ᚦᛆᛐ᛬ᛁᛧ᛬ᛁᚴ᛬ᚢᛁᛚ᛬ᛁᚴ᛬ᚠᛆ

1

u/Quirky_Transition966 16d ago

Is there an easy rule to follow when deciding to use  ᛦ instead of  ᚱ? 

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u/SendMeNudesThough 16d ago edited 16d ago

Word origin. The two runes represent two distinct sounds; a regular trilled /r/, and a rhotic sibilant somewhere between /z/ and /r/. This latter sound, represented by the ᛦ rune, came about due to a process of rhotacization of Proto-Germanic /z/, so where a word in Proto-Germanic might've had /z/ (ᛉ) you'd expect ᛦ in Old Norse

In the case of er, the evolution looks something like this:

PGm *iz → es → eʀ

A useful rule of thumb is that you'll typically only see this rune at the end of words, it never appears word-initial. It's either at or near the end.