Assassin's Creed fans are now used to to decrypt secret messages. Already in the first part it was possible to discover hidden messages with the eagle's eye. Now a fan has found and unraveled a first mysterious message about Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
Twitter user Cristophorus noticed a mysterious rune circle in the background on the Valhalla website. Since the runes are not just an artistic addition, but a real font, he set about to translate the old script. As a result, he found the extract from a text that was written at least 800 years ago.
What exactly did the user do?
Cristphorus describes very precisely on Twitter how he translated the rune circle. So he first had to pull the complete picture from the website in order to be able to see all the runes at all. Then he went to translation.
However, he relied on the 24 runes of the older Futhark and only later realized that the runes on the Valhalla website are the 16 runes of the younger Futhark.
I managed to extract the whole image and started translating. I tried with Elder Futhark and another set of runes but it was futile. I noticed that there was a letter with the shape of an asterisk. It's called Haglaz and it's present as such in the YOUNGER Futhark. pic.twitter.com/LXpeYgeBNp
– Cristophorus (@LaRedDeErudito) May 2, 2020
For this he got help from the Reddit community and was able to learn that the Viking script was based on the actual language sounds and that they never used the same runes twice in a row. So Cristophorus was finally able to translate the text and found it following lines in Old Norse language:
"Deyr fé, deyja frændr, deyr sjálfr it sama. Ek veit einn at aldrei deyr, dómr um duran hvern."
Where does this text come from?
The runes include the extraction of one very, very old poem. Strictly speaking, this is the 76th stanza of the so-called Hávamál. In German this roughly means "Des Hohen Lied" and describes a collection of poems or songs that refer to the godfather Odin.
According to the German translation by the writer Karl Joseph Simrock, the excerpt on the website means:
"The cattle die, the friends die,
Finally you die yourself;
But I know one thing that always remains:
The verdict on the dead. "
How old the poem is exactly is no longer so easy to determine today. It is handed down in an old Norse document from the 13th century. However, it can be assumed that it was known and widespread long before. Probably even before the 10th centurywhere the story of Assassin's Creed Valhalla takes place.
more on the subject
Assassin's Creed Valhalla: The first trailer reveals these exciting details
What does that mean for the game?
It is certainly not a coincidence that it was calculated a poem related to Odin on the Valhalla website. The Viking war and death god seems to play a somewhat larger role in history. You can already see ravens in the artwork, which are usually associated with Odin.
The rough statement of the text also means that only the reputation you earn will survive your own death. According to the developer, hero Eivor should also strive for fame as a typical Viking and both try to prove himself in battle and also help his hometown to prosperity.
The poem is already a nice little detail and an interesting find. If you want to know what is already known about Valhalla, take a look at our facts collection.
