Rune Translator: English to Elder Futhark and Anglo-Saxon Runes

What runes are

Runes are the letters of a family of related alphabets used by Germanic-speaking peoples. They are a script, like the Latin alphabet, not a language. The same rune shapes were used to write several different languages and dialects across many centuries.

The earliest secure runic inscriptions date from about AD 150 to 160. A row of runes is called a futhark, after its first six letters (f, u, th, a, r, k). The Anglo-Saxon row is called a futhorc because its fourth and sixth runes changed sound, giving f, u, th, o, r, c.

Transliteration, not translation

This page changes spelling only. Your modern English letters, or the sounds of your words, are written with rune shapes. “Hail” becomes the runes for h, a, i, l. It does not become a word from Old Norse or Old English, and it does not use their grammar.

If you want Old English words, the Old English translator on the home page gives a word-by-word gloss, and it is clear about its limits. If you want a sentence in Old Norse or Proto-Germanic, you need a person or a dictionary that knows the language. Runes also had no fixed rule for spelling modern English, so every rune translator, this one included, makes choices. They are listed below.

The three rows and when they were used

Pick the row that matches the time and place you have in mind.

• Elder Futhark: 24 runes, used from about the 2nd to the 8th centuries. The oldest known inscriptions date to about 150 to 160 (the Vimose comb). It is the default here because it is the oldest and the most widely recognised row.
• Anglo-Saxon futhorc: used in England from about the 5th century. It added runes such as ac, aesc, yr and ear for English vowel sounds, and the chart lists 34 letters in all. Latin script overtook runes by about the 8th century, and runes were very rare by the Norman Conquest of 1066.
• Younger Futhark (long-branch): 16 runes, in use from about the 9th century through the Viking Age, to about the 12th. It has far fewer runes, so one rune stands for several letters. d and t share a rune, as do g and k, p and b, and e and i, which makes some words ambiguous.

How this page spells

The table under the result lists every rule for the row you chose. The short version:

• Letters with no rune of their own (c, q, v, x, y, z and sometimes others) are written with the nearest rune. The table says which.
• With “spell by sound” on, th and ng each become one rune, qu becomes k + w (c + w in futhorc), ck becomes one k, and ea and ae become one rune in futhorc. Doubled letters are written once. Turn it off to write letter by letter.
• Words are separated by a space or by a runic dot, ᛫ (U+16EB) or ᛬ (U+16EC). Inscriptions often used dots, but not always.
• Digits, punctuation and any character without a rune are kept as typed. Capitals and accents are ignored.
• The names and meanings in the chart are those given in the sources below. This page makes no claims about magic, luck or what a rune “does”.