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God of War’s steelbook runes translated

In case you were wondering what that really said

God of War - artwork of Kratos and Atreus fighting a troll SIE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment

If you bought a special edition of God of War with a Steelbook case — there were two, I think — you might notice the reverse cover has a runic inscription. Well, that has a translation, and the internet being the internet, someone found it out.

Redditor Wolfstrong recognized that the runes came from Elder Futhark, the oldest of the runic alphabets. It was in use from the second to the eighth centuries. According to this page, that alphabet was forgotten from the Middle Ages until about 150 years ago, when someone deciphered it.

The translation seems to be a one-to-one matching of phonetics, as opposed to words in a dead language rendered in a dead alphabet. Still, it’s neat to know that Santa Monica Studio went the extra step for their fans.

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