I often receive requests to write in runes an Old Norse word or phrase. People naturally tend to expect that nothing could be easier, since runes were initially created for the Old Norse language. There should be rules as for how to write with runes in that language. There should be some kind of table. However, tables that give Younger Futhark runes along with letters, usually do the opposite: they explain how to transform runes into letters. Those tables are of no use if you are interested in the reverse process.
Moreover, a mere table would not be enough to write in Old Norse with runes, it takes a whole tutorial to learn how to do that the way it might have been done on a Viking Age runestone ca. AD 1000.
1. Have Your Text in Old Norse
The first step is to make sure your text is in Old Norse. Note that modern Icelandic is very close to Old Norse. Icelanders usually have no difficulty in understanding texts that were written a thousand years ago, because their language changed very little since the time. Also note that a lot of Old Norse texts are available online in modern Icelandic orthography. Thus we have to make sure which of the three possible options we actually have:
- Modern Icelandic text
- Old Norse text in modern Icelandic orthography
- Old Norse text in Old Norse orthography
It is important to know if we want to do the inscription the way it might have been done in the Viking Age. A simple rule of thumb is as follows:
- If you see words ég (‘I’) and og (‘and’), it’s modern Icelandic.
- If you see ek and ok instead, but also words að (‘to’) and það (‘that’), and the letter ö in any word, it’s Old Norse in modern Icelandic orthography.
- If you see ek, ok, at, and þat, and also letters ø or ǫ, it’s Old Norse in Old Norse orthography.
2. Choose Your Version of the Futhark Runic Alphabet
People sometimes want to write in Old Norse with the Elder Futhark runes, simply because they are visually more appealing. Why not. However, the standard runic alphabet for the Viking Age runic inscriptions was the Younger Futhark. It had three variants:
- Long Branch: Danish runes (also often considered as the standard Younger Futhark set).
- Short Twig: Norwegian-Swedish or Rök runes (more minimalistic variant).
- Staveless or Hålsinge runes (triumph of minimalism).
Long Branch runes originated in Denmark but eventually were used more or less throughout Scandinavia (and wherever Vikings pillaged, traded and drank). Staveless runes were used only locally. (By the way, if you wish to emphasize your Norwegian or Swedish descent, I don’t think your choice is limited by the Short Twig option alone.)
3. Discriminate Between the Runes Where Necessary
3.1. Use of either reið or ýr rune for r.
In Proto-Norse and Old Norse (up to a certain time) there were two phonemes for r: /r/ (reið rune) and /R/ (ýr rune). The first one had always been /r/, since the Indo-European times. The second one, /R/, had been /s/ in Indo-European, and then /z/ in Proto-Germanic. Viking Age runic inscriptions differentiate between the two. Old Norse literature written down in the 13th century (and Old Norse orthography, which is based on it) does not. Bad news: we are to know the etymology of the word in order to write it in Viking Age runes correctly. Good news: there is a rule of thumb that covers most cases. It is enough to make an authentic runic inscription, since Viking Age runecarvers were not ideal at differentiating between the two: they often put ýr where reið was needed and vice versa.
Rule of thumb: Nearly any r that is in a case and number ending (for nouns) or in a person and number ending (for regular verbs) is /R/, not /r/.
Examples:
kallar ‘he calls’ (present indicative 3rd person singular) -r < -R < -z
armr ‘hand’ (nominative singular): -r < -aR < -az
skildir ‘shields’ (nominative plural): -ir < -juR < -juz < -iwiz
heiðar ‘of the wasteland’ (genitive singular): -ar < -ioR < -ioz
Note, however, that r at the end of the words faðir ‘father’, bróðir ‘brother’, móðir ‘mother’, dóttir ‘daughter’ and systir ‘sister’ belongs to the stem and not the ending, so all these words have reið rune at the end.
The word Thor also has reið, since r + R gave r: Þórr (þur) < Þonar < ÞunraR < Þunraz
3.2. Use of either ár or ą́ss rune for a.
The rune ą́ss < ansuz was used for a nasalized /ã/, that is for groups an + consonant in standard Old Norse orthography. Example: England was spelt ikląt in runic inscriptions:
The rune ár was used for a and á in all other positions (but sometimes for /ã/, too).
3.3. Use of either nauð rune or nothing for n; maðr rune or nothing for m
All the other nasalized vowels did not have special runes for them, so whenever you have a group of vowel + n + g, d, render it as vowel + g, d (without nauð rune). Use nauð for n in all other cases. Example: konung was spelt kunukR in runic inscriptions:
The same applies to groups vowel + m + b: render it as vowel + b (without maðr rune). Use maðr for m in all other cases.
3.4. Use of either fé or úr rune for v.
Before vowels v was spelt with úr rune. Example: viking (in the sense of raid, not person) was spelt uikik in runic inscriptions:
The rune fé was used for v in all other positions.
3.5. Use of either úr or ár + úr for o.
O and ó are usually spelt as úr in runic inscriptions and only occasionally as ár+úr. Note, however, that ok ‘and’ was nearly always spelt auk:
4. Refer to This General Table
Rune variants that go first appear more frequently in the Viking Age runic inscriptions. If there is a reference to a paragraph above, the use of variants depends on a rule.
| a, á | or (3.2) |
p, b, mb |  |
| b, mb, p | |
r | or (3.1) |
| d, nd, t | |
s | |
| e, é | or , rarely
|
t, d, nd | |
| f, v |  |
u, ú | |
| g, ng, k | |
v | or (3.4) |
| h | |
x |
|
| i , í | |
y, ý | or |
| j | |
z | |
| k, g, ng | |
ø, ǿ (œ) | or |
| l | |
ǫ, ǫ́ | or , rarely
|
| m | |
æ | , rarely |
| n | |
ei |
|
| o, ó | or
(3.5) |
þ, ð | |
5. Do Not Use Double Runes
Viking Age runic inscriptions normally do not have two identical runes in a row. This is valid even for two runes that belong to two different words, one at the end of a previous one, the other at the beginning of a following one (if no separators are used). Cf. raþu for rað þu below.
6. Use Dots or x Signs as Spaces
Viking Age runic inscriptions either do not have separators between words at all, or use dots, combinations of dots or x signs as separators.
7. (Optional) Begin Your Inscription With a Traditional Formula
Some runestone inscriptions begin with words Rað þu (Interpret!) or Rað þu runar (Interpret the runes!):
Runic inscription U 29 (Hillersjö stone) has the word raþu in the eye of a dragon (see the image above left).
This tutorial is © copyright. No part of it may be copied or reproduced.
Hello,
Im in doubt about a phrase that I’m translating to long branch young futhark from the old Norse hávamál you have provided and the problems are about the spaces between the words and maybe the sound of the “a” “d” “I” I think that the fact about the old Norse text is as archaic as you said I may have missed something. Stanza 48, verses 1 and 2.
“Mildir, frocnir menn bazt lifa
Sialdan sút ala”
And the problem is also the “c” can I put “kaun” on its place?
I couldn’t find a way to send exactly what I’ve done here but I think most of it might be right, yes I saw the rule about the double runes so I didn’t put it too, and that comma right there is a problem too, the separation I did was with dots between the words, not as low as a comma kinda on the middle of the word, but should I put something special? An x or something else?
Yes, c corresponds to k in normalized orthography. Viking Age runic inscriptions did not have either punctuation marks or uniform system of separators between words.
thanks, another thing is for “r” do I use reið or ýr? I’ve read that ýr have diferent phonetics due to some roman legacy. but if you look at your own rune translator it kinda looks like my result here.
https://www.vikingrune.com/rune-converter/
to get the exact same result as I did you need to put “mildir frocnir men bazt lifa” in long branch. its the same as I got here. but when I did it for myself the second verse “sialdan sút ala” the “sút” doesnt have the úr rune like on my writing. sadly I cant copy the results here nor upload a photo of my writing.
Of course it doesn’t have the úr rune. The notice right above the input form states: “Note that the present converter works with modern English only. Letters with Old Norse (or any other) diacritics will not be converted into runes.” With Old Norse you have to do it manually.
Mildir and frœknir both have ýr rune.
sooo, “sút” is going to be only represented by sól and týr?
In rune converter, yes.
Thanks, so thats the only thing I did wrong haha. I had úr rune on my own writing. I was confused because I know that the converter does not work for something other than English but u didn’t corrected it I was actually trying to copy and paste it here so you could see more or less what I did by myself but that “úr” confused me a lot . I’m sorry for bothering you. Anyway for all your help. I’ll be telling people who are interested about your site. I have great respect for your work, I can imagine that wasn’t easy to study so much, its such a fascinating culture and language.
You are welcome, Victor.
The idea was also to see how would u do it, I cant compete with your knowledge, I was afraid to forget something, getting it to young futhark anyway and stick to it not knowing what I did wrong haha.
I am glad you were able to write it in runes using my tutorial.
Your’e a wealth of knowledge! I’ve enjoyed poking around this website for quite a while now.
I’m trying to translate “daring greatly” into runes from modern Icelandic translation “áræði stórlega” (I can’t seem to copy/paste the results into the comment). How would you translate this into elder futhark and short twig?
Thank you in advance!
Hello Inga. Here it is in short twig Younger Futhark runes:
Elder Futhark was not used with Old Norse (Icelandic is pretty close to it), so it probably wouldn’t be a great choice for your phrase. By the way, I am a follower of Brené Brown’s conception of wholehearted living. Daring Greatly is one of the best books on personal growth I’ve ever read.
Ah yes, I read that about Elder Futhark after I posted. Great, that is what I came up with for short twig. I’m surprised you recognized the motto! Brené’s books have fundamentally changed my life. Thanks for all the work you do to make an awesome site.
I’m wanting to get a tattoo on elder flutark and I reall just want to make sure everything is correct, because it would be very bad if it was not correct. The saying is “I live as a warrior and a warrior I will stay” if you could help me with this I would very much appreciate it. All of you’re stuff have be really amazing and interesting to work with and I can’t wait to keep getting deeper into this language and culture.
Hello Dillon. There is no way to write in English (or Old Norse) in Elder Futhark correctly. Elder Futhark was not created to write in these languages. You may want to follow my instructions in the guide How to Spell Words in Runes for A Tattoo. It works with any texts in modern English, not only names.
So really the best thing to do is just spell it out what it would in English, match it with the letters and that is what it will be?
Dillon, it is up to you to decide if it’s the best option. If you ask about my personal opinion or how I would do it for myself, then yes, in case you want to write it in Elder Futhark, I’d rather keep the phrase in English and substitute letters for runes. The correspondences between letters and Elder Futhark runes that I developed are not universally accepted or acknowledged as ‘right’ or ‘correct’ ones. They’re just based on my experience with runic texts.
English with Elder Futhark has an advantage of being understood within a group of likeminded people. If you translate your phrase into Old Norse and write it with the Younger Futhark runes, it will be very authentic, real Viking Age, but who will understand it?
I am currently trying to translate my family’s Motto on our Coat of Arms to Runic. In Latin it is Discrimine salus, meaning Safety in Danger in English. when translated from English to Icelandic it is öryggi í hættu. But translated from Latin to Icelandic it is heilsu kreppu.
i didnt see a rune for ö and I’m curious which translation would be best when converting to Runic. I’d love any help you can give me. Thank you
Hello Connor. Öryggi is modern Icelandic orthography. Old Norse is øryggi. Thus Øryggi í hættu would have been spelled in runes as follows:
Since double runes usually were not allowed, with no separators between words it would have looked like that:
Hi! I love this site, very well made and interesting. There’s a phrase that always stuck with me in the Seafarer about the Whale’s Way, and after some research I found it was an Old Norse term, hwæl-weġ. I was curious what it would look like in runes, but there seems to be no symbol for w. hopefully someone could help me out. Thanks
Hello Jacob. The word hwæl-weġ is Old English, not Old Norse. Here it is in Anglo-Saxon runes:
Greetings,
I can’t properly convey how interesting and educational your site is.
I have been working on writing something in runes, and came across a word I just can’t decide how best to write. The word is ‘steypiz’, and more specifically the issue is with the ‘ey’. I have some ideas on how it should be tackled, but I could really use a more educated opinion. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Regards.
Hello Norman. Do you mean steypir, a nickname from Fornmanna Sögur, 8 (probably meaning ‘caster’)?
I am getting steypiz (sometimes seen as steypisk – but from what I can tell only in Modern Icelandic orthography, and I am trying to stick to Old Norse orthography) from Vǫluspá, stanza 45 (depending on the source):
áðr verǫld steypiz
It is Present tense 3rd person singular reflexive form of the verb steypa ‘throw down’, ‘cast off’. The form steypiz (from steypisk) may be translated as ‘is being thrown down’ or ‘throws itself down’. Are you sure that’s what you need? Anyway, here it is in runes:
The translations of that line I have seen include various versions of “‘ere the world goes headlong”, so I think that matches. Thank you for your time and knowledge. It is very much appreciated.
Victory or Valhalla in the old dialect?
Sigr eða Valhǫll, I think.
hi :) could you show that in the elder furthark? or in anglo saxon? would greatly appreciate it thank you.
No, I couldn’t, because neither Elder Futhark nor Anglo-Saxon runes were used for Old Norse. Here it is in the Younger Futhark runes:
Sitter i en ring med eldad BONG…
Sjunger en för ODEN skriven sång…
Ocean Chief?
Hi
I thoroughly enjoy coming to peruse your website. I was happy to see that you stayed posting again!
I have to admit, even with your precise instruction, I still can’t begin to understand one of the rune dialects. Your so perfectly planned diagrams are completely beyond my understanding.
I’m in awe of you.
Regards,
Diane
Hello Diane. Thanks for the feedback. I will be glad to help if you have any questions.
So, how would you write Odin, Thor, Frigga, Tyr, Sif in runes?
Thanks!
probably: -uþin- -þur- -frik- (i think they used Frigg instead of Frigga) -tir- -sif-
Hello Scott. Words uþin for Óðinn and þur for Þórr are attested in Viking Age runic inscriptions. As for Frigg (frik) and Sif (sif) I would agree with Sigurd. Týr I would spell tur, but tir is also possible. In runes: