hvitra—whiten
Ílf adurna fïthren, sving raehta.—If water touches, turn right.
Ílf kona thornessa thar fïthrenar, thae stenr jierda.—If this woman touches there, then break stone.
islingr—light-bringer/illuminator
ithring—freedom
jierda—break; hit
kverst—cut
Kvetha Fricai.—Greetings, Friend.
ládrin—open
Lethrblaka—Leather-Flapper
letta—stop
líjothsa—light
lyftha—lift
maela—quiet
naina—make bright
reisa—raise/lift
Reisa adurna fra undir, un ílf fïthren skul skulblaka flutningr skul eom edtha.—Raise water from below, and if touch dragon scale, carry scale to me.
skölir—shield
slytha—sleep
sving—turn
Thrífa sem knífr un huildr sem konr.—Seize that knife and hold that man.
thrysta—thrust
Thrysta vindr.—Thrust/compress the air.
vindr—wind; air
Vindr thrysta un líjothsa athaerum.—Compress air and gather light.
Waíse heill.—Be healed.
Wiol ono.—For you.
zar’roc—misery
mehtra—mother
sehtra—son
Arngor—White Mountain
barzûl—curse someone with ill fate
Beor—giant cave bear (borrowed from the ancient language)
Fanghur—dragon-like creatures native to the Beor Mountains. Smaller and less intelligent than dragons; related to the Nïdhwal
Farthen Dûr—Our Father
goroth—place
Môgren—black-needled pinetrees native to the Beor Mountains, noted for their hard, dense wood
Tronjheim—Helm of Giants
chukka—marmot-like creature native to the northern reaches of the Spine
ghra—exclamation used to express doubt or a sense of mild disapproval
gzja—exclamation used to express contempt
qazhqargla—rite that joins two Urgals as blood brothers; may also refer to blood brothers as such
shagvrek—ancient race of hornless
shûkva—heal
ûhldmaq—Urgals who, according to legend, were transformed into giant cave bears
Uluthrek—Mooneater
Urgralgra—Urgals’ name for themselves (literally, “those with horns”)
zhar—randomness
HUMAN RUNES
Here set out you may see the system of runes as employed by the humans of Alagaësia during the time of this tale. There are exceptions to its use—notably among the wandering tribes of the southern reaches and the great grasslands to the east—but these are the runes one may expect to most commonly encounter throughout the lands of humankind.
The originating genius behind this system is unknown, and will likely remain forever lost to the depths of time. It is possible that no one individual is responsible and that this mode of writing emerged via an amalgam of accident and exigency—rather than being assembled by conscious design—as wrack and wreck may gather against a crag of stony strand.
The runes are referred to by many names, but their primary one is the Ullmark. Prior to humanity’s arrival upon the shores of Alagaësia, their race was far more savage and uneducated than in latter ages, and they employed an entirely different system for recording information, one that bears more resemblance to the knotted banners of the Urgals than to any mode of writing that is native to Alagaësia. Of this earlier system, few examples remain—scraps and fragments littered about the ruins of barrows and long-abandoned hill forts—for under the leadership of King Palancar and his many and divers successors, humans quickly adopted and adapted the dwarven runes, known as the Hruthmundvik.
Humans, being as they are, made no attempt at faithfulness to the Hruthmundvik and freely altered and rearranged the runes to suit the needs of their own tongue, even going so far as to invent wholly new ones. Still, some similarities remain. The runes for g, k, m, n, and y are the same in both the Ullmark and the Hruthmundvik, although the Ullmark contains several unique runes, as well as runes for sounds not found in Dwarvish, such as those for p and x. Also—and here the guiding hand of one or more scribes seems apparent—runes of similar shapes were assigned to sounds that, likewise, share a close resemblance. Thus, the mirroring or echoing between a and o; u and y; c, k, and q; s and z; b and d; f and v; and m and n. From this and other pieces of intelligence, certain clues as to the pronunciation of the humans’ language in the time of King Palancar may be gleaned.
For the sake of general understanding, all of the words (and some of the names) on the maps in this volume have been translated into English and either written as such or transliterated into the Ullmark to help convey the proper look and feel of Murtagh’s world.
As for the actual language that the humans of Alagaësia use, that is a matter for examination elsewhere and elsewhen.
Afterword & Acknowledgments
Kvetha Fricai. Greetings, Friend.
You made it. Congratulations. Take a breath, put your feet up by the fire, let your emotions settle out. I hope this tale of Murtagh’s journey affected you as much as it affected me.
Perhaps you have some questions. Allow me to attempt some answers….
The initial inspiration for Murtagh came from, of all places, a tweet. A number of years ago, when I was in the midst of rewriting To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, a fan asked me what Murtagh was up to at that moment. It was way past my bedtime, and I was feeling a bit punchy, and as a result, I replied as follows:
At one point (after Inheritance), Murtagh enchanted a fork to be as deadly as any sword. He called it Mr. Stabby. Thorn was not amused.
Absurd though it was, the idea stuck with me, and in 2018, when I decided to finish a collection of short stories set in Alagaësia, I thought back to that tweet. With some adaptation, it formed the basis for the first story in what became The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm, the first volume in Tales from Alagaësia. (Will there be a second volume? Indubitably.)
That story, as many readers will recall, was written from the point of view of Essie, not Murtagh, but even so, I could feel the outline of a larger tale coalescing around that core, one that might serve as a proper, full-sized return to Alagaësia.
And so it proved. After To Sleep in a Sea of Stars was finally released, and after I spent a few months revising and editing Fractal Noise (a prequel to To Sleep that I originally wrote in 2013), I felt ready to return to Alagaësia.