Thursday 5 September 2013

Rudesword? A Warhammer Anecdote


One of the best things about attending an event like the Oldhammer Weekend are the stories. By this I mean the tales of fellow gamers, of their struggles and triumphs, of their mishaps and mistakes. This is also true of the authors of the game and its background. I was lucky enough to be introduced to John Stallard and Rick Priestley by Diane Ansell, and among the many far flung conversations was this little gem.

Rick told us about a picture by Adrian Smith that had caused a problem or two during the publication of The Lost and the Damned. Flicking through a copy (and there were heaped about the Foundry) he pointed out the image, but didn't enlighten us to the meaning of the inscription.

Well, let's have a look at it.


Now, the inscription on the beastman's blade will mean little if you don't have access to the Dark Tongue. So here is a little iPad snap of said page page below.


With this in hand I set about trying to translate the inscription on the blade itself. My efforts are presented below. Now, I am unsure of the first word. It may well be MARS, but the final rune is flipped on its head. The rest were straight forwards until I reached the eleventh word, which either by accident or design is much harder to decipher. With a little squinting its possible. My attempt is below. I wonder if you all agree?


This discovery makes me wonder what else there is to discover between the covers of old school publications. I was startled by the depth behind each and everyone of Tony Hough's artworks and it makes me wonder what else is our out there!

Orlygg










13 comments:

  1. That is absolutely fascinating. Gutted I couldn't make it last weekend but alas 'life' just happened.

    I think the first word is Mary as in the nursery rhyme Mary had a Little Lamb. But in this case we substitute lamb for goat (and promptly kill it). Pleasant stuff! My wood elves would not approve of such vulgarities..

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    1. Fresh eyes and all! Yes you are right. It appears to be Mary. It's all rather odd really, isn't it? I bet GW are glad that the Daily Mail wasn't spewing out dreadful articles back the, or this would have been front page! (;

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  2. Still could be now you've "outed" it!

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  3. Well, pretty tame compared to some of those hidden images in Disney ;)

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  4. Nice find and great idea to sort out the runes in pics generally... wonder if there are other fun messages lurking in the tomes.

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  5. This is fantastic James. Now to pour over the other images...

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  6. Hahahah that's great, i so want that image on a T-shirt now. James start making 'um and a bunch of other RoC80's Tees

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  7. Funny, time to start looking at the artwork with a more critical eye.

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    1. Just realised you guys had figured the Mary bit out by yourselves. Stupid me ;)

      Still, this is a great find! You, sir, are a true scholar!

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  9. Ha! Great stuff. Hidden chaos nursery rhymes.

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  10. You'll find a lot of these gags in GW pubs between 1986 and 1990. Tony Ackland was the master. Whenever you see a magical tome in one of his pictures, you should read the cover.
    I wrote an article called Secrets of the Warhammer Artists (Warpstone 6, reprinted in Corrupting Influence) listing averything I could find in WFRP products, but I'm sure I didn't catch everything.

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