Vikings of Bjornstad - Viking Runes

By the Viking Age in Scandinavia the "Younger" Futhark, the alphabet of the Old Norse language, included only 16 runes. The 24 runes of the Anglo-Saxon, or Elder, Futhark had been simplified, adapted or discarded. There were two primary variants of the Younger Futhark, one of which was the Swedo-Norwegian, or "short-twig" Futhark and the more common Danish "long-branch" Futhark shown below. And, of course, this Futhark was neither standardized nor used consistently. Rune variations are shown in the rune table below where applicable. To convert English text to Younger Futhark runes or convert Younger Futhark runes to English text, scroll down.

Phonetic Value	Alternate	Name	Translation
f	v	fé	cattle, money, gold
u	o/ö/v/y	úr(r)	drizzling rain / slag / aurochs
th	dh	ðurs	thurs (“giant”), similar in sound to the English "th" as in "the"
o	ä/ą	áss	The god Odin
r	-	reið	a ride, riding / vehicle / thunderclap
k	g/ng	kaun	a sore
h	g	hagall	hail
n	-	nauð(r)	need, bondage, fetters
i	e/ä/y/j	íss	ice
a	ä/e/æ	ár	(good) year, harvest
s	-	sól	sun
t	d/nd	Týr	The god Týr
b	p/mb	bjarkan	birch(-goddess)
m	-	maðr	man, human
l	-	lögr	sea, waterfall (liquid)
-R	e	ýr	yew, bow of yew wood. The "sje" sound, similar to the English "she".

*** FUTHARK ***

Danish Long-Branch Younger Futhark Rune Conversion

FUTHARK converts English letters to runes or runes to English letters. It transliterates the English language text you enter to the Viking Age's Younger Futhark, specifically the Danish "long-branch" rune set. Obviously this is a compromise since there were many variations used before and during the Viking Age. Necessarily, it also associates each rune with a single English letter, even though some runes were used to represent multiple letters. See the notes below to see the exact letter-to-rune and rune-to-letter mapping. FUTHARK converts any combination of upper and lower case English letters, since 'case' didn't apply to runes. It will convert 'th' to its appropriate single rune. It converts all non-letter characters (including numerals!) to blanks. It allows corrections, cursor repositioning and copy/pasting into the entry textbox. Click the 'Convert' button to build the rune sequence. It can convert and display over 1,000 runes. FUTHARK does not translate or use Old Norse at all. Our runic reference is Runes: Reading the Past, R. I. Page, University of California Press/British Museum, 1989, ISBN 0-520-06114-4

Convert English text to Danish Long-Branch Younger Futhark runes

Enter text in the box below then click on the 'Convert' button to see the closest Younger Futhark rune equivalent

Rune name and meaning

Note that since there are only 16 Younger Futhark runes, many English letters do not map to their own rune. FUTHARK follows these standard conversion rules:

Letter(s) to convert	Resulting Rune	Rune converts to
a		a
b, p		b
c, g, k, q, x		k
d, t		t
e, i, j, y		i
f		f
h		h
l		l
m		m
n		n
o, ó, ǫ		o
r		r
s, z		s
th, Ð, ð, Þ, þ		th
u, v, w		u
Terminal -r		R

Danish (Long Branch) Futhark

Swedish-Norwegian (Short-Twig) Futhark

Viking Runes
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The Swedish-Norwegian Short-Twig Runes

The Short Twig runes, sometimes called Swedish-Norwegian runes, are a simpler and faster way of inscribing the Younger Futhark runes. They were occasionally used on runestones throughout what is now Sweden and Norway, and were commonly carved on runestones in the Malaren Valley and on the island of Öland, Sweden.

Phonetic Value	Alternate	Name	Translation
f	-	fé	cattle, money, gold
u	-	úr(r)	drizzling rain / slag / aurochs
Þ	-	ðurs	thurs (“giant”), similar in sound to the English "th" as in "the"
ą	o	áss	The god Odin
r	-	reið	a ride, riding / vehicle / thunderclap
k	-	kaun	a sore
h	-	hagall	hail
n	-	nauð(r)	need, bondage, fetters
i	-	íss	ice
a	-	ár	(good) year, harvest
s	-	sól	sun
t	-	Týr	The god Týr
b	-	bjarkan	birch(-goddess)
m	-	maðr	man, human
l	-	lögr	sea, waterfall (liquid)
-R	-	ýr	yew, bow of yew wood. The "sje" sound, similar to the English "she".

*** FUTHARK: SHORT-TWIG ***

Swedish-Norwegian Short-Twig Younger Futhark Rune Conversion

FUTHARK: SHORT-TWIG converts English letters to the Swedish-Norwegian Younger Futhark runes or those runes to English letters. It transliterates the English language text you enter to the Viking Age's Younger Futhark called the Swedish-Norwegian "short-twig" rune set. Since there were many variations of this rune set used before and during the Viking Age, the version we use is a compromise. Necessarily, it also associates each rune with a single English letter, even though some runes were used to represent multiple letters. See the notes at bottom of page to see the exact letter-to-rune and rune-to-letter mapping. FUTHARK: SHORT-TWIG converts any combination of upper and lower case English letters, since 'case' didn't apply to runes. It will convert 'th' to its appropriate single rune. It converts all non-letter characters (including numerals!) to blanks. It allows corrections, cursor repositioning and copy/pasting into the entry textbox. Click the 'Convert' button to build the rune sequence. It can convert and display over 1,000 runes. FUTHARK: SHORT-TWIG does not translate or use Old Norse at all. Our runic reference is Runes: Reading the Past, R. I. Page, University of California Press/British Museum, 1989, ISBN 0-520-06114-4

Convert English text to Swedish-Norwegian Short-Twig Younger Futhark runes

Enter text in the box below then click on the 'Convert' button to see the closest Younger Futhark rune equivalent

Runes (as text)

Runes (as images)

Convert Swedish-Norwegian Short-Twig Younger Futhark runes to English text

Click on a rune below to see the closest English letter equivalent

Rune name and meaning

Conversion Chart

Note that since there are only 16 Younger Futhark runes, many English letters do not map to their own rune. FUTHARK: SHORT-TWIG follows these standard conversion rules:

Letter(s) to convert	Resulting Rune	Rune converts to
a		a
b, p		b
c, g, k, q, x		k
d, t		t
e, i, j, y		i
f		f
h		h
l		l
m		m
n		n
o, ó, ǫ		o
r		r
s, z		s
th, Ð, ð, Þ, þ		th
u, v, w		u
Terminal -r		R

Finally, just because they show up frequently on "Viking" merchandise and tattoos, here's a link to the Elder/Anglo-Saxon Runes NOT used in Scandinavia during the Viking Age.

Primary source:

Runes: Reading the Past, R.I.Page, University of California Press/British Museum, 1989, ISBN 0-520-06114-4

Others:

grimfrost.com
digitalnorseman.com
Runelore, Edred Thorsson, Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1987, ISBN 0-87728-667-1
Rudiments of Runelore, Stephen Pollington, Anglo-Saxon Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898281-16-5
And thanks to D.G. Jaglielski for the Unicode suggestion