Chitei Ryokou - Vol. 1 Ch. 1 - Saknussemm's Cryptogram

[MangaDex]

 

[Popz]

I can already tell that this is gonna be a fun one. Thanks for translating this!

 

[nutjob]

@hawkriza
Typo on page 15: "He's abandonning us?!" >> "He's abandoning us?!"

 

[TendouMan]

I love how intense the Professor is.

 

[HawkRiza]

@nutjob Fixed, thank you!

 

[Arc]

He says it's an original written in runic script, but the picture show something looking like Latin?
It even shows the actual runes on the note and they're nothing like what's in the book, even though he straight out SAYS "they're just like the manuscript's."

Is it an oversight by the author?

Still, it looks like good stuff. I never read the novel but I might have watched some movie adaption way back.

 

[HawkRiza]

@Arc Both the book and the scrap of paper are written in Old Icelandic but the runic scripts used are different. The book contains the letters ð, þ, ö and æ that don't exist in the Latin alphabet. Writers of the 12th century often used a mix of runes (to transcribe Old Norse sounds that don't exist in Latin) and latin alphabet in their books. If you look up manuscripts of the "Codex Regius", the "Kringla leaf" (the last surviving page of the Heimskringla) or the "Prose Edda", they all look like the book on page 23. There was no standardized alphabet at that time so there's a bunch of variations in how runes are used.

Now, the scrap of paper found in the book and its transcription into Latin alphabet are actually copied from the illustrations of Jules Verne's book. That one's a bit different because the runes spell out a Latin message and they're runes from much later in time that someone knowledgeable like Axel's uncle should recognize immediately. I think that's an issue that's due to the manga because the book it's based on only had an illustration for the scrap of paper, not the book that contained it.

TL;DR: Not an oversight! Just different sets of runes used.

Hope that helps! It's a really interesting but complicated topic...

 

[Arc]

@HawkRiza Oh, that makes sense. Thanks for the explanation, I really appreciate it.

 

[Tikibo]

Dear @HawkRiza, this is not a scanlation nor translation. This is a work of art. It actually motivates me to finish reading the book I dropped years ago. Thank you so much.

 

[HawkRiza]

@Tikibo <3 I'm happy to hear that! It's a pleasure to be able to share one of my favourite books with other people!

 

[thebenefactor]

Thank you for picking this up!!

 

[jwanito]

that whole cryptogram must have been a pain to translate, or maybe only the resolved message was translated and then formed the cryptogram with that