Hogwarts Legacy has sold 40 million copies since its release on 10 February 2023, and on 25 December 2026 HBO's Harry Potter series puts Hogwarts back on screen. Somewhere in the castle a player stops at a stone door carved with beasts and triangles, remembers that Hermione took a subject called Ancient Runes, and asks whether any of this is real.
No. The runes in Hogwarts Legacy are invented: the doors are a number code drawn as beasts, and the Keepers' marks spell nothing. Not one of them is an Elder Futhark letter.
But the question has a second half, and it is the reason this game gets its own answer. The books that Hogwarts Legacy is built on name exactly two runes, in one line of Order of the Phoenix, and both are real. The game's runes are arithmetic. The runes in Hermione's exam are the genuine Elder Futhark.
What a rune is in Hogwarts Legacy
In Hogwarts Legacy a rune is a puzzle piece, never a letter. You meet runes in two places: the stone puzzle doors inside the castle, where carved beasts stand for numbers, and the Keepers' trials of the main story, where invented marks sit on floors, walls and a scrap of parchment. You never read a word with any of them.
The main story runs on ancient magic, a power your fifth-year student can see and four long-dead Hogwarts teachers, the Keepers, once guarded. Their trials use runes as switches. In San Bakar's trial the game tells you there is "a rune on the floor" and asks you to push a Graphorn statue onto it. In Sebastian Sallow's questline you pull a parchment from a triptych, the Rune Diagram, covered in "runes and symbols" like the ones from the trials, then find matching marks on cave and mine walls.
Each mark works like a key fitting a lock. It matches, or it does not. Nothing on it carries a sound.
Are the Hogwarts Legacy puzzle doors runes?
No. They are Arithmancy, and the game says so. The key that solves them is the Arithmancy Study Guide Page, described in the game as a page "that contains a list of numbers assigned to various magical beasts". Each door shows two triangles, and the three values on each triangle's corners must add up to the number in its centre.
The beasts follow a key that the Harry Potter Wiki traces to J.K. Rowling's own website and files under runes, which is how a set of digits came to be called runes at all. The logic is pure counting:
| Digit | Beast | What you count |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Demiguise | Nothing: it turns invisible |
| 1 | Unicorn | One horn |
| 2 | Graphorn | Two horns |
| 3 | Runespoor | Three heads |
| 5 | Quintaped | Five legs |
| 8 | Acromantula | Eight eyes |
| 9 | Hydra | Nine heads |
That is a clever piece of design, and it is the opposite of an alphabet. A beast tells you how many, never what sound. Put two of them side by side and you get a sum, not a syllable. Den of Geek's walkthrough lists 11 of these doors, from the Central Hall to the Faculty Tower, and every one of them is solved with addition.
The other games in this series hide letters behind their symbols: Fable and Minecraft hide English, and Tunic hides English sounds. Hogwarts Legacy is the only one that hides numbers.
What is Ancient Runes at Hogwarts?
Ancient Runes is an elective in the Harry Potter books, open from the third year, in which students translate old runic texts into English. The set books include Ancient Runes Made Easy, Spellman's Syllabary and Advanced Rune Translation. Hermione Granger takes it, uses Spellman's Syllabary for her homework and earns an Outstanding at O.W.L.
It is a reading subject. The O.W.L. paper, as Hermione describes it, asks candidates to translate a runic text into English, which is precisely what a real runologist does with an inscription. The books are also clear about where runes survive in Rowling's world: on old magical objects such as the Hogwarts Pensieve, and in the original text of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which Hermione translates "from the original runes".
Hogwarts Legacy keeps the subject only as a mention. Natsai Onai says her mother made her choose Ancient Runes as an elective. There is no Ancient Runes lesson for your student, no rune textbook to open and no translation to do. The castle's number doors belong to a different subject altogether.
Which runes would a real Ancient Runes student study?
The Elder Futhark, and the books prove it. In chapter 31 of Order of the Phoenix, Hermione leaves her Ancient Runes O.W.L. upset that she mistranslated ehwaz: she wrote "defence" when it means "partnership", because she mixed it up with eihwaz. Those are the only two runes the books ever name, and both are real.
Here is what each one is on a real futhark chart:
- Ehwaz (ᛖ) is the 19th letter. Its sound is E and its name means horse.
- Eihwaz (ᛇ) is the 13th letter. Its name means yew, the evergreen tree whose wood made longbows.
So Rowling did not invent these. She picked two real runes with almost the same name, the exact pair a nervous student would confuse, and that is a better joke for anyone who has learned the futhark.
There is a second layer. "Partnership" and "defence" are not the literal names. They are the meanings modern rune readers give these runes: ehwaz as horse and rider moving as one, eihwaz as the tough yew that endures. Rowling's examiners, in other words, mark by the divinatory meanings, the same ones a rune reading uses today. The 2004 Prisoner of Azkaban film went further and printed real futhark letters, among them Gebo and Algiz, on Sirius Black's Azkaban placard.
A student who wanted to pass Hermione's paper would start where she did: 24 letters, one sound each, and the meaning behind each name.
Hogwarts Legacy runes vs. the Elder Futhark
| Feature | Hogwarts Legacy (2023) | Elder Futhark |
|---|---|---|
| What one sign is | A digit drawn as a beast, or a puzzle mark | A letter with a sound, a name and a meaning |
| How many | 10 digits, plus the Keepers' marks | 24 |
| How a sign means | By counting horns, heads, legs or eyes | By sound |
| What you do with it | Add it up, or match it | Read it, write with it, draw it for guidance |
| Can it be read? | No, only counted or matched | Yes, once you learn the letters |
| In use | Since 10 February 2023 | Roughly 150 to 800 CE |
The real runes, briefly
The Elder Futhark is the oldest runic alphabet: 24 letters in three rows of eight, carved in wood, bone, metal and stone by Germanic peoples from roughly 150 to 800 CE. Its name comes from its first six letters, F, U, Th, A, R, K. Every letter is a sound, a name and a meaning bundled together: Fehu is cattle and wealth, Ehwaz the horse, Eihwaz the yew.
The Viking Age cut it down to the 16-letter Younger Futhark, and in England it grew into the Anglo-Saxon futhorc. Those three alphabets are what a real Ancient Runes syllabus would cover.
The magic grew on top of the writing. In Norse tradition, Odin wins the runes by hanging nine nights on Yggdrasil, pierced by his own spear. After that the runes served as charms, were bound into bindrunes and sigils and were read for guidance, a practice that continues today.
Why Hogwarts Legacy left the real runes out
Hogwarts Legacy is set in the Scottish Highlands in the 1890s, a century before Harry, and its story belongs to ancient magic and goblin rebellion, not to Norse myth. Avalanche Software built its puzzles around Arithmancy, a subject that suits doors and dials, and left Ancient Runes, a subject about reading, as a line of dialogue.
That was a reasonable call for a puzzle game. A translation exercise is hard to turn into a door. But it means the game borrowed the word "rune" for its least runic system, while the books had already pointed straight at the real alphabet.
Want runes you can actually read?
Hogwarts Legacy gives you ten beasts that count. The Elder Futhark gives you 24 letters that speak, and two of them are already on Hermione's exam paper.
The easiest way in is to draw one. You can cast a free rune reading in your browser right now, using the genuine Elder Futhark and their traditional meanings, with a quick single draw for a fast question or a fuller spread for something weightier. If you would rather study like a Hogwarts student, pull a rune of the day each morning and learn the futhark one letter at a time, or read how online rune readings work first. The rest of the series is on the runes in games hub, including Valheim, the one game that writes with the real futhark, and Diablo II, which borrows real rune names the way Rowling did.
Hermione mixed up the horse and the yew and still got an Outstanding. You can learn the difference in an afternoon. , free on iOS, Android, and the web, in English and Russian.
Frequently asked questions
Are the runes in Hogwarts Legacy real runes?
No. The runes you meet in Hogwarts Legacy are invented. The puzzle doors use beasts as the digits 0 to 9, and the Keepers' rune diagram is a set of made-up marks. None of them is an Elder Futhark letter. The twist is in the books: the only two runes they name, ehwaz and eihwaz, are genuine Elder Futhark runes.
What are the rune doors in Hogwarts Legacy?
They are the Arithmancy puzzle doors: stone doors inside Hogwarts Castle carved with two triangles and a set of beast symbols. Each triangle has a number in the middle and three values on its corners, and you change the blank symbols until the sums work. Den of Geek's walkthrough lists 11 of them, from the Central Hall to the Faculty Tower.
How do you solve the Arithmancy door puzzles in Hogwarts Legacy?
Add up. Each beast stands for a digit, and the three corner values of each triangle must add up to the number in its centre. Subtract the known corners from the centre, find the beast worth the remainder, and set the blank to it. Do that for both triangles and the door opens. The key to the beasts is the Arithmancy Study Guide Page.
What do the beast symbols on the Hogwarts Legacy doors mean?
Each one is a digit, chosen for a body part you can count. In the Harry Potter Wiki's list, the one-horned Unicorn is 1, the two-horned Graphorn 2, the three-headed Runespoor 3, the five-legged Quintaped 5, the eight-eyed Acromantula 8 and the nine-headed Hydra 9. The invisible Demiguise is 0. They encode numbers, never sounds or letters.
Can you take Ancient Runes in Hogwarts Legacy?
No. Ancient Runes is not one of the classes you attend in Hogwarts Legacy. The subject exists in the game's world: Natsai Onai says her mother made her choose it as an elective. But there is no Ancient Runes lesson, no rune textbook to read and no translation task. The number puzzles belong to Arithmancy, a different subject.
What is the Study of Ancient Runes at Hogwarts?
An elective subject in the Harry Potter books, open from the third year. Students translate old runic texts, and the O.W.L. exam asks them to turn runes into English. The set books include Ancient Runes Made Easy, Spellman's Syllabary and Advanced Rune Translation. Hermione Granger takes it and earns an Outstanding. No class is ever shown on the page.
What runes are named in the Harry Potter books?
Two: ehwaz and eihwaz. Both appear in Order of the Phoenix, chapter 31, when Hermione comes out of her Ancient Runes O.W.L. and says she mistranslated ehwaz. She wrote defence when it means partnership, because she mixed it up with eihwaz. Both names are real Proto-Germanic rune names from the Elder Futhark.
What do ehwaz and eihwaz really mean?
Ehwaz means horse. It is the 19th letter of the Elder Futhark, written ᛖ and sounded E. Eihwaz means yew, the evergreen tree. It is the 13th letter, written ᛇ. The meanings Hermione gives, partnership and defence, are not the literal names. They match the readings modern rune readers attach to these two runes.
Did Hermione get the runes right?
On the exam key, no; by real runology, half right. Ehwaz is the horse rune, and partnership is the modern reading built on horse and rider working as one. Eihwaz is the yew rune, and defence fits a tree whose wood made bows. So Rowling's examiners mark by modern divinatory meanings, not literal names. Hermione still got an Outstanding.
What is the Rune Diagram in Hogwarts Legacy?
A quest item from Sebastian Sallow's story. In In the Shadow of the Estate you find a scrap of parchment hidden in a triptych in the Undercroft, covered in runes and symbols like the ones in the Keepers' trials. Later quests find matching runes on cave and mine walls. The marks are invented for the game and spell nothing.
Are the Ancient Runes in Harry Potter the Elder Futhark?
As far as the books show, yes. The two runes they name are Elder Futhark runes, and the 2004 Prisoner of Azkaban film puts real futhark letters such as Gebo and Algiz on Sirius Black's prison placard. The books never give a full alphabet, but every rune they actually name belongs to the futhark.
Which runes would a real Ancient Runes student learn?
The Elder Futhark first: 24 letters in three rows of eight, used from roughly 150 to 800 CE, with ehwaz at number 19 and eihwaz at 13. A real runologist would then add the Younger Futhark of the Viking Age and the Anglo-Saxon futhorc. The work Hogwarts describes, translation into English, is exactly what runologists do.
Is Hogwarts Legacy based on Norse mythology?
No. Hogwarts Legacy is set in the Scottish Highlands in the 1890s, in J.K. Rowling's wizarding world. Its ancient magic is an invented force guarded by four invented Keepers, and its enemies are goblins and dark wizards, not Norse gods. Runes enter the series through a Hogwarts school subject, not through Odin, Yggdrasil or the Eddas.
Where can I try a real rune reading online?
You can cast a free rune reading in your browser with the Way of the Runes rune-reading tool. It uses the genuine 24 Elder Futhark runes, ehwaz and eihwaz included, with their traditional meanings, quick single draws for a fast question and fuller spreads for something weightier. It works on any device, in English and Russian.
Which rune are you?
Seven questions, about a minute, and you get one of the 24 Elder Futhark runes. The scoring is shown as you answer. Free, no signup.