Mordecai's version makes more sense to me. That sounds quite fine. I looked up runes as mentioned in the HP books on the Lexicon - I wanted to see how JKR presented them.

So apparently, Ancient Runes, as a class, covers a rather large variety of writing systems. Hieroglyphs aren't even runes of any sort, and Sanskrit's Devanagari is the only syllabary (it's actually an abugida, but close enough) that falls within the Indo-European family, that I know of. The Hiragana and Katakana of Japanese are far too recent to be considered "ancient", although Runes themselves are hardly what I would clasify as "ancient" either, considering the earliest inscriptions only date back to AD 150, but their real hay-day was the 400s.

Whereas Futhark died off on the continent around AD 700 (almost 300 years before the founders of Hogwarts built the school), England was employing Futhorc up until about the 1100s. Mordecai's two runes in Futhark would be:



The same runes would be in Futhorc. Not much difference at all.

Mordecai, is this what you meant: ?

 

First I need to say - Wow! That's a lot of depth on runes. Considering I know squat about them beyond messing around with the JRR runes 25 years ago. I need to thank Mordecai and Rin for educating me.

Maybe if JKR had people checking her work as well as this it would've been tighter. Personally, I don't mind it when people challenge me to be a better writer. It forces me to try and improve. Sometimes I succeed and other times I don't.

As for the next chapter of this one, that's still about 2 weeks away. I'm doing TML 6 next to get back into the swing of things.

Jim

 

As a 'proper' bindrune it would look like this

 

Out of curiosity, where exeactly are you getting your information about runes in the HP universe? Granted, there are actual runes that are named for animals: Fehu (Cattle), Uruz (Aurochs), Algiz (Elk), and Ehwaz (Horse); and runes that are named for plants: Iwaz (Yew) and Berkanan (Birch); and even ones for gods: Thurisaz (Thor), Tiwaz (Tyr, god of war), and Ingwaz (Yngvi, Earth god); but, there's still not a specific rune for nearly every type of animal, nearly every type of plant, or nearly every god, etc . . .

I looked up runes on the Lexicon, and it had an extremely limited listing. Perhaps you're letting fannon cloud your judgement here?

I'm thinking that Ancient Runes is taught at Hogwarts for the purposes of Divination (ironic that Hermione would be taking the class), given that after the development of Elder Futhark, runes were in fact used for divination (though the accepted theory is that the runes were develped first as a decroative mockup of the Latin alphabet and then adapted to practical use for writing Proto-Germanic). To understand what I mean by decorative mockup, take a look at some Van Gogh paintings and notice his attempts at painting kanji due to his facination with Japan. None of them are real kanji, but likely the same occured with runes.

I'm glad that Jim's willing to go that extra step, rather than fall back on the cop-out "wizards do it differently" or "well, it's magic", which smacks too heavily of the standard shit on ff.net. Jim's work is stellar for a reason, and it's because he's not willing to settle for good enough.

I see. Cool!

 

There is the fact that bindrunes were used for 'magical' purposes and the fact that a lot of RPG stuff has crept into fanon.

Yes, the primary use of what are truly considered Runes is divination, followed closely by 'ordinary' writing. But one thing to keep in mind, as evidenced by an earlier post, is that JKR has lumped many 'ancient' (I'm using that word to mean anything older than the 'modern' Latin alphabet currently in use) forms of writing into Ancient Runes and then failed to provide much in the way of details. Yes, the class can be just divination, but that would seem rather pointless. I prefer to think that things like wand movements, permanently 'enchanting' objects and such involve the use of what JKR lumps together as Runes. The fact that the combined runes that make up a bindrune were used, historically, for 'magical' purposes only confuses the matter.

There is also a tendency to add more mystique and 'magic' to the older systems of writing, simply because they are no longer in use and in a number of cases, not much is known about them. This doesn't even begin to get into the fact that during the Middle Ages (and beyond) many of these ancient forms of writing, along with a number 'made up' ones were actually used by those involved in 'magic', especially alchemy.

Jim has presented a rather workable, given the lack of details in canon, system in his other stories, so I see no problems with staying consistent in this one. In 'Bungle', he presents a very extensive and well thought out use for Runes, the primary foundation for Bill's work as a curse breaker involves more than a passing familiarity of the subject. In that system, unlike JKR's limited information on her 'system', something like a runic Cur's mark (as a combined rune/bindrune) is not only possible, but is probable.

 

mjc, thats exactly what I was thinking of. Thanks for posting it, I'm glad that someone understood my description...

 

All this talk and analysis about runes is all well and good, but all this humble servant of the Lord asks for is for Malfoy to scream like a grieving widow when they brand him like a cow.


Malfoy, this pain is far less than you deserve, you filthy animal.

A little off topic, but what do you out there in TV land think about my signature quote? Call me childish, but I'm rather proud of it.

 

Everybody, don't lose track of who the Bad Guys actually are, OK? Draco is a pain in the ... neck, but really he's little more than a speed bump in the highway of life ("speed bumps" are low ridges of tarmac laid across suburban roads and in parking lots to slow down traffic, btw. I don't know what they are called outside of the States.) He's a minor bully and a spoiled brat who tried to humiliate Potter and bought A Lot more trouble than he expected.
Draco Malfoy is a jerk, but he isn't a major problem. He'll get a spanking, and if he has any moral character at all that will straighten him up. If he takes the lesson to heart, he might even grow into a worthwhile adult. Unlikely, I agree, but behavior modification IS the main purpose of punishment. Draco suffers, and hopefully both he and everyone who sees his hand will learn something.

Lucius, on the other hand, Crouch, Pettigrew...
Branding is FAR too good for them. I don't even want them in Azkaban - dead will do fine by me. I especially don't want Pettigrew Kissed. According to Dante, there is a special place in Hell reserved for those who betray a position of trust. Buried to the neck in ice, as I remember it. I *like* the idea of eternal damnation for some offenses.

Edited to add:
@Dethklok: That sig is disturbing. But cool.

 

He *IS* a speed bump, but you just want to run over him.......repeatedly. And at high speeds. Draco is someone I've considered irredeemable by the time he hits 15, if something had happened before then to change his father-worship, it might have been a different story, but for now, he's just somthing to be swatted without regret.

 

It's been a while, so I may be a bit rusty with this...

But that is the seventh layer of Hell, and those closest to Lucifer are the worst offenders.

 

Sounds right. Or do you mean that isn't where betrayers end up? It's been a while since college lit.


What amused me about Inferno was the HIGH percentage of Popes who we saw there; getting their feet burned.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the seventh layer of hell is Coctys, where the eternal beating of Satan's wings give off chilling waves of air, and all who inhabit it are forever trapped deep within the ice, feeling every second of it.

There reside the betrayers, such as Judas. And other examples I can't think of right now.

 

... so I did have it right?

 

Yeah, that would be the more concise summation of my comment.

 

Hitler, Napoleon, Ron, Seamus, Snape, Regulus, and probably more since a shit load of characters in HP seem to be a fairweather friends, at best.

 

Regulus? Do you go to hell if you betray evil?

Personally, if you do, I may have to become a Christian, as that's full of lulz and win.

 

If you go to hell for betraying evil, then *I* want to stand just inside the Pearly Gates, wearing a sandwich board that says "Unfair Practices - Boycott Evil Lawyers Now!"

Probably with a reference to Wolfram and Hart.

 

I finally took the time to reread the story.

I have a question about something
--
Cur refers to a dog, usually of mixed ancestry. Fighting dogs that regress to growling rather than maintain calm are referred to as 'cur'. The derivation of the word "cur" is uncertain. "Cur" is a Germanic word, possibly from Old Norse meaning to growl. If so, then the word is onomatopoeic, and a cur is a dog that goes "grrr."
--

Is the Cur's Mark just something that means your a dog?
Also the 'mixed ancestry' bit of being branded a Cur could be a double slap in the face to the Malfoy purist beliefs/status.

The duels seemed a little unfair. Having one duel and then another right after.

 

Well, in Britain cur is a fairly old insult. Then again, its an insult to call someone a dog. If someone is a cur they are a betrayer, not to be trusted, hence the name of the Mark.