Runes in "The Hobbit"

From: Jonathan Coxhead (jonathan@doves.demon.co.uk)
Date: Mon Mar 16 2009 - 02:25:45 CST

  • Next message: Julian Bradfield: "Re: Runes in "The Hobbit""

      I've been trying to reproduce the various runic fragments in The
    Hobbit using Unicode, and I have a question. As near as I can see, the
    title of the foreword ("The Hobbit, or, There and Back Again") should be
    encoded as

    ᚦᛖ᛫ᚻᚩᛒᛒᛁᛏ᛬ᚩᚱ᛬ᚦᛖᚱᛖ᛫ᚪᚾᛞ᛫ᛒᚪᚳᚳ᛫ᚪᚷᚪᛁᚾ

    Everything matches up nicely according to the Wikipedia article on the
    Futhorc, except that I can only find 1 rune (ᚳ) to stand for both C and
    K. In the edition I have, it looks like Tolkien used 2 different runes:
    the rune for K having an extra corner, like a knee, in the diagonal stroke.

    Are these 2 different runes encoded separately in Unicode? Or is Tolkien
    exercising artistic licence? Or is there a case for encoding a new rune
    for K?

    Thanks

    ---Jonathan

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