The Nordic Runes on Tifa's Gloves?

[The Witch]

Here's a 5000x5000 image for closer reading of the runes on Tifa's gloves:

https://imgur.com/RaH6Md2

I tried to translate some of it using these

Viking Runes Guide | Runic Alphabet Meanings | Norse / Nordic Letters

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Runes - Wikipedia

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The Rune Converter transforms English letters into five systems of runic writing: Elder Futhark, Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, Long Branch and Short Twig Younger Futhark

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But it appears that some of the runes are deliberately flipped/upside down. This was all I could get until my head started to hurt lol

TOP RIGHT LINE
x "giant, thorn, danger"
o "heritage, estate"
p " elder tree, feminine energy, dance, sexuality"
g "generosity, gift, spear"
N "masculine energy"
c "torch, fire, mallady, death"
b "birth tree, liberation"

Somebody on twitter did a lot and it came out as gibberish.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1139465577523744770

Anyway, I thought people would wanna try and give this a go!


EDIT: so it appears that it really is just gibberish.

https://www.reddit.com/r/runes/comments/bz8k3g

That's disappointing but expected.

 

[Six]

I wondered about those and I did think it was gibberish too. I still love the detail they put into it, though. The little charms and the "worn" feel look stunning. Gibberish or not. xD

 

[The Witch]

me, too. i loved that touch so much. and my first thought when i saw them was "WHERE CAN I BUY ALL OF THIS"

the charms are my fav part

 

[Dionysos]

Yeah, I'm no expert on runes but based on what people who know about runes are saying, it seems to be gibberish. Maybe using Tolkien runes or the general runic developments sometimes used by fantasy.

It is a pity that the letters don't mean much (unlike the runes in God of War, which can actually reveal a lot in a neat, subtle way).

I think they are still very interesting. Not so much because of what they say (as what can be translated is gibberish) but more because of why they are there. They signal a connection to Tifa's hometown of Nibelheim (a reference to Niflheim: the world of mist from Norse cosmology). Hence the Nibel mountain range being covered in mist, and Cloud being called 'Cloud' in the first place.

There weren't really any blatant visual references to Nibelheim in Tifa's original design, so this little detail is quite huge. It suggests that she's carrying more of her home with her than she did before. Maybe that's the local writing system in the Nibel region, or historically maybe it used to be the case before the dominance of the modern Shinra culture.

At the very least, Square Enix is providing a nod and a wink about Nibelheim=Niflheim and the general Norse themes present in FFVII (Midgar/Midgard being another of the Nine Worlds: the realm of mortal men).

 

[Mitsuki]

Can I just say, I seriously love her gloves and intricate rune designs they've added... but making the effort to add all that and not connect it back to the game somehow is such a missed opportunity. It would've been fun to solve some of that in a form of side quest for Tifa, for example. Here's hoping they add more onto it.