Study of Ancient Runes

Study of Ancient Runes
Class information
Professor	Bathsheda Babbling
Classroom	Classroom 6A Room of Runes (possibly)
Required textbooks	Ancient Runes Made Easy by Laurenzoo Rune Dictionary Magical Hieroglyphs and Logograms Spellman's Syllabary by Spellman (possibly) Advanced Rune Translation by Yuri Blishen
Required equipment	Books Parchment Quill

"I mistranslated ehwaz... It means partnership, not defence; I mixed it up with eihwaz."

— Hermione Granger after her Ancient Runes O.W.L.

The Study of Ancient Runes (commonly shortened to Ancient Runes) was an elective course at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and presumably Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, that could be taken by students third year and above.

It was taught by Professor Bathsheda Babbling during the 1990s at least and it was the study of runic scriptures, or Runology. Ancient Runes was a mostly theoretical subject that studied the ancient runic scripts of magic.

Class information

Ancient runes were a form of writing which witches and wizards used hundreds of years ago.

Classwork and homework involved plenty of practice translating runes, and the O.W.L. involved translating something written in runes into English. Hermione Granger used Spellman's Syllabary to translate her homework.

Class materials

The Words learned in this class

Only two words and their English translations were known. Hermione mixed these two words up on her Study of Ancient Runes O.W.L. exam: Ehwaz meant "Partnership" and Eihwaz meant "Defence".

Numbers

Animal	Notes
Demiguise	The creature's invisibility abilities represented "0".
Unicorn	The creature's single horn represented "1".
Graphorn	The creature's dual horns represented "2".
Runespoor	The triple-headed creature represented "3".
Fwooper	The creature comprised of four different colours in feathers represented "4".
Quintaped	The five legs of the creature represented "5".
Salamander	The maximum hours of the creature's ability to survive out of fire and the amount of legs most said creatures had represented "6".
Unknown	Due to the magically powerful number still being shrouded in mysteries, the unknown symbol represented "7".
Acromantula	The eight-eyed creature represented "8".
Hydra	The nine-headed creature represented "9".

Required textbooks

Advanced Rune Translation by Yuri Blishen

Ancient Runes Made Easy by Laurenzoo

Magical Hieroglyphs and Logograms

Rune Dictionary

Spellman's Syllabary by Spellman (possibly)

Grades

Passing grades Outstanding [O] Exceeds Expectations [E] Acceptable [A]

Fail grades Poor [P] Dreadful [D] Troll [T]

Known O.W.L.s

Bill Weasley

Hermione Granger

Percy Weasley

• Bathsheda Babbling

Behind the scenes

• Throughout all of the Harry Potter books and film adaptations, not a single Ancient Runes class was seen taking place.
• In reality, the words mentioned by Hermione in the Order of the Phoenix are Proto-Germanic runes. Ehwaz literally means "horse", while eihwaz literally means "yew-tree."
• A variety of Elder Futhark runes are depicted on Lucius's Azkaban placard in the film. The easily identified ones are: Othila, which means "estate, heritage, possession" and corresponds to the Latin letter "o"; Ansuz (albeit rotated slightly), meaning "Odhinn (leader of the Æesir)"  and corresponds to the Latin letter "a"; Uruz, meaning "wild ox" or "drizzle" and corresponds to the Latin letter "u"; and Mannaz, meaning "man" and corresponds to the Latin letter "m". This (along with the presence of the aforementioned two other Elder Futhark runes in the novel) suggests that the Elder Futhark runic alphabet at least (if not others too) is very much in use in the wizarding world and most likely learnt in Study of Ancient Runes, albeit with some additions from wizardkind, such as the numbers.
• In LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 and LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7, one of the items is a rune dictionary, for which certain characters: Hermione Granger, Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Irma Pince and Gellert Grindelwald, are capable of using to translate and unlock rune bookshelves.
• Luna and Xenophilius Lovegood may have both taken this subject as the latter published some runic texts in an issue of his magazine (the Quibbler) whilst the former explained the information contained in those runic texts.
• In film adaptation Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Hermione compares Ancient Runes to Divination, thinking the first a fascinating subject and the second very woolly, however in the novel she did the same but with Arithmancy and Divination.

See also

• Runes

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game) (Mentioned only) (Console versions)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (First mentioned)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game) (Mentioned only) (Console versions)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film) (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game) (Console versions)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game) (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Mentioned only)
• J. K. Rowling's official site (Mentioned only)
• Pottermore (Mentioned only)
• Wizarding World (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter: Wizards Unite (Mentioned only)