ANCR-701 Lessons

It’s odd that the Room of Runes should look the same today as it did six years ago. On the final day of class, after learning so much about the magic that thrums within its walls, one would assume that some miraculous transformation would have occurred, unveiling mysterious objects previously hidden in plain sight, perhaps to a chorus of harps and heavenly chords. But nothing of the sort happens as students enter the classroom today. The room looks, for all intents and purposes, just as it always has. Floating specks of dust catch the glinting light of the witchlight lamps above the tables. The smell of old books and the musty dirt pervade the air and the scribbling of the enchanted quill on the intricate oak desk creates a very familiar scene. 

Many students, feeling nostalgic, take one last look around the room, seeming to take it in for the last time. Many more, however, look like they are equally likely to vomit, fall asleep, or cry at any given moment. It’s uncertain whether this is due to their general feelings about the course, or the more pervading stress surrounding the impending N.E.W.T.s. Fortunately, Professor Wessex enters the room before any of the latter group empties their stomachs, and it’s unlikely that anyone would retch up their dinner in the austere professor’s presence if they can help it. The professor begins the lesson with little ado, quickly putting thoughts of years-long journeys and nerves from her students’ heads.

Introduction
Let us waste no time with foolish reminiscing. As you well know N.E.W.T.s, and the end of your time here, are rapidly approaching. I have one more lesson to impart, or rather, I have time to impart one more lesson, though there is much more I could teach you had we the years and necessary level of interest. Our last topic of your career as a student of Ancient Runes is about the interconnectivity between scripts and their accompanying languages and cultures. 

This, like many others this year, is a topic that has come up in various moments over the course of our time together. However, it merits its own full-blown discussion, particularly now that you have more perspective and information to contextualize the conversation. While it is exceedingly difficult to separate the three coming concepts, as they are indeed so interconnected, I will address the effects of language on the written word, before moving onto the effects of culture on the same. 

The Effects of Language on Ancient Runes
First, we will take a look at the impact of language on scripts. Simply put, these two concepts are undeniably a pair. They are both forms of communication: one spoken, one written. There is no arguing their relation to each other, but the intricacies of the relationship do need to be explained. 

Phonetics are the logical place to start, as they make up the foundation of languages and scripts. Although phonetics are not usually magically important, they can, and frequently do, influence the magical meanings of runes. You have seen examples of this throughout your studies here. Over thousands of years, hieroglyphics developed from a syllabic script, where a glyph represented a chunk of multiple sounds, to logographic, where a word that began with those same sounds was associated with the glyph. Finally, those logographic meanings — words — became ideographic meanings. Thus, a symbol that originally meant “sw”, became “sword,” and finally transformed into “weapon” or “war,” and various other related concepts. Thus, the sounds directly impacted the eventual magical meanings of the symbol.

Another way in which the two are related is that language can have a stark impact on our interpretation of manuscripts, or even of magical inscriptions. Old Norse can be taken as an example. In this language, the phonemes, /v/ and /f/, were indistinguishable, as these sounds are produced by the same arrangement of the mouth, teeth, and tongue, with the only difference being that one is voiced and one is voiceless — or that one requires moving the vocal cords, while the other only requires the passage of air. Given this information, “vat” and “fat” would have been the same. More importantly, though, “vault” could be “fault,” and only be distinguished by the context of its use. While the sounds are different, the distinction was not seen as important, and therefore, the letter for both sounds was the same. 

More, to transcribe a word from runic symbols to its phonetic values, you usually have to know the language the runes are written in. As I pointed out in Year Five, even if you studied ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics for decades, you would be no closer to understanding the complicated phonetic level of the spells in the Pyramid Texts unless you had also studied Coptic, Middle, or Old Egyptian. Inscriptions from foreign lands do not spell out English words like “magic” and “tomb.” Instead, the symbols would more likely transcribe to “fróðleikr” or “qabr.” The use of English words transcribed into many different scripts’ runes serves as excellent practice with the script, but not the language. We have not the time, as I have stated, to learn the accompanying languages of each of the scripts we learn, and indeed that is not the focus of this course. This important piece is something you will need to accomplish on your own, or perhaps via a course at one of the Euro-Glyph Schools across the continent.¹ 

The Effects of Culture on Ancient Runes
We now move onto culture, which is our next topic, as well as one that is more nebulous. Culture, in and of itself, can be difficult to nail down. There is much leeway in the definition, which states that culture is a set of attitudes, traditions, and values shared by specific groups. In our case, the groups we are concerned with usually share a particular ethnicity or live in the same geographic region. A group’s culture is made up of numerous small things that, to the in-group, are so ingrained as to be unnoticeable. 

For example, in British wizarding culture, it would be bad manners to the highest degree to simply take someone else’s wand and cast a spell with it. Each wizard’s wand is an incredibly personal object and, generally speaking, to take someone’s wand without extreme extenuating circumstances is to violate them in one of the most intimate ways possible. This is not the case in the culture of the witches and wizards of the Yoruba tribe. It is common for their magical staves to be passed down in the family, and often shared among family members because of the belief that having multiple skilled — and connected — wizards using the same object makes that object inherently more powerful. 

But there is more to culture than our preferred foci and how to use it. A culture might highly prize education, rely heavily on agriculture, or have deeply held religious beliefs, in which case, their magic — runic and otherwise — will likely reflect that. As we noted, Egyptian hieroglyphic spells have a primary, non-magical level that is highly ritualistic and religious. Additionally, many runic Egyptian spells center around agriculture or burying their dead, two things that were very important in ancient Egyptian society. Therefore, magiarchaeologists, historians, and other professions must uncover these beliefs, attitudes, and traditions in order to better understand the magic of the culture being studied. This can be challenging as, in many cases, these things are so deeply ingrained that it does not occur to the in-group to describe (or even mention) these things in texts or on artefacts. They are simply known by all. They are a “given” that need not be explained. 

The Curious Case of the Khoikhoi
I have gone over smaller, abstract examples to reinforce how both culture and language play a part in studying script-based magic. But this section will take the concept further to touch on a larger, overarching case to demonstrate the enormous cumulative effect language and culture can have on a script. In this case — and others —these concepts can be important to the point of uncovering ground-breaking discoveries in an academic field.

As a prime example of the importance of these two concepts, we will look at the Khoikhoi. For centuries, the various artefacts and historical accounts left behind puzzled researchers. The first hurdle in studying the Khoikhoi’s runic magic was that their society had a very heavy focus on oral traditions, rather than on writing, both mundane and magical. This, naturally, made the body of runic artefacts quite small, as well as the written records that described the people and their practices. However, even without these obstacles to understanding, it was clear that researchers were missing key pieces of the puzzle. 

Their runic magic, manuscripts, and religious documents talked endlessly of battle, struggle, and eternal war, but there were very few weapons to be found — magically enchanted or otherwise. Even more strange, all weaponry with runic inscriptions of battle-based enchantments would not work, despite the fact that all other artefacts (with different runic purposes) had been successfully activated. On a different tack, highly valuable jewels appeared just as commonly in poor burials as royal ones. Indeed, gems of lesser value, like pearls and quartz, appeared more often in royal tombs, whereas items for less renowned and poorer citizens were decorated colorfully and lavishly with sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and more. There were more oddities than can be listed and briefly explained here, but suffice it to say that each discovery seemed to fly against all logic and leave researchers with more questions than they had when they started. 

It wasn’t until 1672, when Ginés Cardoso began an initiative to catalogue the various languages and dialects in the Khoisan region, where the Khoikhoi had settled thousands of years ago, that the mystery began to unravel. His methods centered around interviewing elders of various villages and documenting not only as many words as possible, but also examining the use of the words in common myths, tales, and religious legends. He noticed that there was significant overlap between many words, including “rain,” “moon,” and “kill.” This, in and of itself, was not enough to tip him off, but when he heard the stories of the eternal war between Tsui’goab and Goanab, things began to click into place. 

To briefly summarize, Tsui’goab and Goanab were two sky deities. The former was the god of health, while the latter was the god of disease and death. Furthermore, Tsui’goab was equated with the moon as well as storms, which also came to be associated with health, as did the patron god. This was the piece that had been missing, though Cardoso did not realize it at the time. He dug further and uncovered many old tales and wise sayings relating to health: how to avoid catching the lung-sickness, or the eye-darkness, or various other ailments, as well as mentions of how to remain pure. The Khoikhoi had been meticulous about avoiding disease.

Therefore, the artefacts based around “battle” were allegorically referring to the mythical struggle between Tsui’goab and Goanab, or the battle to remain pure and in good health. These artefacts had been correctly activated after all — no one on the team studying the artefact had come down with so much as a cold during their excavation or inspections — their effects had been ignored because they had been unexpected. As for the tomb goods, just like with the rest of their lives, purity decided value and importance. Additionally, because white quartz and pearl more strongly resemble the moon, they were linked with Tsui’goab, health, and purity. Because of this, they were much more highly prized than the raucous, bright colors of other jewels. 

As you can see, the culture and language of the Khoikhoi were intrinsically linked with their runic artefacts, magic, and history. To overlook a society’s cultural influences and language is to ignore two of your most valuable resources, whatever rune-related field you go into after Hogwarts. 

A Look to The Future
Speaking of which, normally, for the last lesson of each year I invite a professional to speak to you in order to inspire you towards your future pursuits. Not today. It may have escaped your notice, but the future is here. There is no point in attempting to push you towards your goals. You have heard from magilinguists, runologists, magiarchaeologists, magihistorians, museum curators, magianthropologists, and curse-breakers over the years. You have seen what they do in their daily work. You may have even worked alongside people of those professions, if you were wise and took advantage of your opportunities. Now is your time to choose, in case you have been putting off the decision until the last minute.  It is time for you to make something of yourselves. What exactly that will be is up to you.

The world of practical work and apprenticeships awaits. You will remember that I mentioned the importance of internships last year, and they are no less important this year. Pending the results of your N.E.W.T.s, you may well be able to apply for a position or apprenticeship under your supervisor from your previous internship, or perhaps you will be able to use them as a reference for another position, be it with Gringotts or a private museum. At the very least, you will have started gathering useful contacts that can help you in your private research. 

With the lesson drawing to a close, I will allow just a moment for nostalgia. There are certainly some perks of studentship here, such as the expertise and ear of many well-known professionals in a variety of fields, as well as one of the foremost magical libraries in Europe. But, this is not time for silliness and foolish weeping. If you achieve anything with your lives, I assure you, you will not miss Hogwarts. If you have done your Hogwarts experience and education properly, this is but the first of many stepping stones to greater adventures. You and your peers will go on to accomplish much. Savor this moment.

Our Journey Done
That’s quite enough sentimentality. I will not drag on the lesson needlessly; you have N.E.W.T.s to study for and I have better things to be doing. In the coming week before N.E.W.T.s, I am available should you have questions or wish to practise certain skills. However, do not come knocking at my office for me to teach you basic definitions of terms or simple meanings of glyphs. Review your notes, your various textbooks, and each of the major lessons and concepts that were contained in the past years of study. This should not be beyond even the least adept of you. Your final Hogwarts challenge awaits. Let us hope you have not gotten this far for nothing.

Footnote:

1. In actuality, Euro-Glyph Schools, while they started in Europe as the name suggests, are now spread all over the world. These academies offer courses on both languages and scripts (both ancient and modern) and is a premier institution for any magilinguist or runologist. They are the top choice for any professional who needs a course in a specific linguistic area at any point in their lives.

Vocabulary
Phoneme: a unit of sound that makes it possible to distinguish one word from another, such as /t/ and /d/ in want and wand. 

Original lesson by Professor Venita Wessex
Image credits here, here, and here