Witch Runes

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Puella Magi Madoka Magica Production Note New Edition, page 187
Features all English alphabet letters in the Archaic variant, in order. Numerals, punctuation and German letters were not included.
To use Witch Runes on this Wiki, see also Puella Magi Wiki:Witch Runes.

Witch Runes (魔女文字 Majo Moji)[1][footnotes 1], more commonly referred to as just Runes by fans, are a recurring element in the Madoka Magica franchise. Witch Runes are used in many spots associated with magic, such as on Soul Gem rings, during Magical Girl transformations, during use of some types of magic, and in Witch Labyrinths, where they are used for Witch names and general flavor text. They are generally unreadable for Magical Girls.[2][footnotes 2]

Type of Witch Runes

Four different Witch Rune alphabets exist, which were named Modern, Archaic, Musical and Latin by fans. The Witch Runes correspond to letters of the real-life Latin and Cyrillic alphabets (with extra letters with German diacritics also being known), Arabic numerals, and punctuation marks. The alphabet was at first deciphered by fans, and the findings were eventually partially confirmed through the Puella Magi Madoka Magica Production Note.

Archaic

See also Original Witch Runes introduced in Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
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Modern

See also Original Witch Runes introduced in Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
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Musical

See also Deciphering the Musical Notes.
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The Musical variant of the Witch Runes was introduced in the Episode 1 of the original broadcast (2011).

Latin

See also Extensions to the Witch Runes introduced in Magia Record, and List of the Latin variant of the Witch Runes.
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The Latin variant of the Witch Runes was introduced in the Episode 15 of Magia Record anime (2021) in a very limited use, and later used to spell Nightmares' names in the Rebellion-themed event released for the 6th Anniversary of Magia Record game (2023). It was also used in pre-release promotional material for Walpurgisnacht: Rising, such as HOMURA (Homura) for Homura's banner at Magical Girl's Prayer Exhibition, and the Main Trailer.

Table of Witch Runes

If multiple values for "Character" are specified, this means the left character is in the Roman alphabet, while the right one is Cyrillic.

Letters
Letter Modern Archaic Musical Latin Letter Modern Archaic Musical Latin
A / А P / Р
B Q
C / С R
D S
E T
F U
G V
H W
I X
J Y / У
K Z
L Ä
M / М Ö
N Ü
O ß(ẞ)
Я
Unidentified (Possibly an "N" variant).[footnotes 3]
Numbers
Number Archaic Number Archaic
0 5
1 6
2 7
3 8
4 9
Punctuation and mathematical notation
Symbol Archaic Symbol Archaic
^ −
? ? %

Official Translation

  • Gertrud, Charlotte and Oktavia's names were typed in Japanese for some products and merchandises.
  • In the English dub of the Magia Record Anime some Witches' names are translated in English. When a Witch's name was displayed in Witch Runes, her name was also shown in English.
    • This was eventually provided for the English dub of the original series as well, the english letters appeared more rune-styled, sometimes even borrowing runes to replace similar-looking letters, such as the runic H (H) being used as the latin T.
    • Witches that were given official translations are:

Trivia

  • The Witch Runes are an original art by Inu Curry.
  • During the Aniplex USA Madoka Premiere, the production staff was very surprised when overseas fans cracked the Witch Runes. It was stated that even obsessive Japanese fans had not gone that far.
  • Even though punctuation marks rarely appear in Witch Rune texts, it is notable that the marks don't receive new arts and will be similar to their actual symbols. As of now, exclamation marks, caret characters, negative symbols and question marks are the only punctuation marks to have been seen in Witch Runes.
  • Latin O takes the appearance of a Soul Gem.
  • There are many minor alterations used by Witches and Familiars. One such alteration can be seen here.

Witch Runes by appearance

Speculations

The theories below have not been proven yet.

Please keep in mind that they are fanmade theories, and not official material.

  • The usage of Latin seems to be limited to those outside of the Witch system, such as Nightmares, and Homura Akemi in Walpurgisnacht: Rising.

Notes

  1. ↑ "Witch Runes" is an unofficial translation. More accurately, according to Jisho.org, "Witch Letters", "Witch Characters", or according to Wiktionary, "Witch Script", "Witch Writing System" - the Japanese word moji (文字) is very general and does not refer to any particular type of script. The wiki however opts to use "Witch Runes" to preserve continuity between the official Japanese term and early unofficial name picked by the western fanbase before the Japanese name was first shown ("runes", with no adjective or qualifier), as "rune" is commonly used to mean "a letter or mark used as a mystical or magic symbol" (see definition 4).
  2. ↑ While Sayaka does make a comment amounting to "These letters, why can I read them?" in Concept Movie, it is nearly impossible to prove a negative. As this is the only known incident of a Magical Girl reading witch runes that is known of, such conjecture of their capability should be treated as "not a given".
  3. ↑ The origin of this rune is Episode 1. See the talk page for more information.

References

  1. ↑ Puella Magi Madoka Magica Production Note New Edition, page 187
  2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20140803162817/https://feral-phoenix.livejournal.com/685568.html#:~:text=Fans%20in%20the%20real%20world,%20can%20do%20so.

See also

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