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

Type a word and read it in runes, in any of the three historical rows; paste runes and read them back. The output is real Unicode text from the Runic block, so it pastes into a bio, a message or a document, and the charts below give every rune its name, sound and meaning.

Rune translator

Latin letters to runes in the Elder Futhark, Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, and runes back to letters.

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Up to 500 characters. Paste runes and they are read back to Latin letters. Nothing is sent anywhere.

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ᚦᛟᚱ

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Elder Futhark translator: the 24 runes and what each one means

A rune translator does not translate. It transliterates: each sound in your word is written with the rune that stood for that sound, so “hello” becomes ᚺᛖᛚᛟ, the runes for h, e, l and o, not an Old Norse word. An English name in runes is a spelling of its sounds, not a phrase a Viking would have read. The Elder Futhark is the oldest row, used from about 150 AD to 800 AD across Germanic Europe, and the one most people mean by “runes”. It has 24 runes in a fixed order, the first six of which, f-u-th-a-r-k, give the alphabet its name.

The chart lists each rune with its conventional name, the sound it wrote and the meaning of the name. Those names are reconstructions: no Elder Futhark inscription records them, and they are worked out from the Old English and Norwegian rune poems and from the Gothic letter names. Where the meaning is genuinely unknown, as for Perthro, the chart says so instead of picking one. Three runes write pairs of letters: Thurisaz for th, Ingwaz for ng and Eihwaz for ei. A few English letters have no rune of their own and take the nearest sound: c and q use Kenaz, v uses Wunjo, x is written k-s, y uses Jera. Digits and punctuation pass through unchanged because the rows had no numerals.

Elder Futhark: 24 runes, c. 150–800 AD, the oldest row
Rune	Name	Sound	Meaning	Code point
ᚠ	Fehu	f	cattle, wealth	U+16A0
ᚢ	Uruz	u	aurochs, strength	U+16A2
ᚦ	Thurisaz	th	giant, thorn	U+16A6
ᚨ	Ansuz	a	a god; mouth, speech	U+16A8
ᚱ	Raidho	r	ride, journey	U+16B1
ᚲ	Kenaz	k	torch	U+16B2
ᚷ	Gebo	g	gift	U+16B7
ᚹ	Wunjo	w	joy	U+16B9
ᚺ	Hagalaz	h	hail	U+16BA
ᚾ	Nauthiz	n	need, necessity	U+16BE
ᛁ	Isa	i	ice	U+16C1
ᛃ	Jera	j	year, harvest	U+16C3
ᛇ	Eihwaz	ei	yew tree	U+16C7
ᛈ	Perthro	p	uncertain; perhaps a dice cup	U+16C8
ᛉ	Algiz	z	elk; protection	U+16C9
ᛊ	Sowilo	s	sun	U+16CA
ᛏ	Tiwaz	t	the god Tyr	U+16CF
ᛒ	Berkano	b	birch	U+16D2
ᛖ	Ehwaz	e	horse	U+16D6
ᛗ	Mannaz	m	man, human	U+16D7
ᛚ	Laguz	l	water, lake	U+16DA
ᛜ	Ingwaz	ng	the god Ing	U+16DC
ᛞ	Dagaz	d	day	U+16DE
ᛟ	Othala	o	inherited land, heritage	U+16DF

Viking rune translator and Anglo-Saxon runes: the Younger Futhark and the Futhorc

The runes on Viking Age stones are not the Elder Futhark. Around 800 AD Scandinavia cut the row down to 16 runes, the Younger Futhark, and made each one do more work: one rune for k and g, one for t and d, one for b and p, one for i and e, and ᚢ for u, o, v, w and y. That is why a name in the Younger row looks shorter and reads back differently: “world” goes in and “uorlt” comes out, which is what a Viking would have carved. This is the row for a Nordic or Viking rune translator in the strict sense, the row of the Jelling stones. The chart shows the long-branch (Danish) forms; short-twig forms exist and are not offered here.

England went the other way. The Anglo-Saxon Futhorc added runes for the vowels Old English needed, ᚪ for a, ᚫ for æ, ᚩ for o, ᚣ for y, and later ᛠ for ea and ᛡ for io, reaching 29 runes in the common inventory (some manuscripts list up to 33). It is the row of the Franks Casket and the Ruthwell Cross, and the one to choose for an Old English name. The translator keeps each row’s conventions: doubled letters are written once, as inscriptions did, unless you untick that, and words can be separated by the runic dots ᛫ ᛬ ᛭ that inscriptions used instead of spaces.

Younger Futhark: 16 runes, c. 800–1100 AD, the Viking Age row (long-branch)
Rune	Name	Sound	Meaning	Code point
ᚠ	Fé	f	wealth	U+16A0
ᚢ	Úr	u	iron, or drizzle	U+16A2
ᚦ	Þurs	th	giant	U+16A6
ᚬ	Óss	o	a god, or river mouth	U+16AC
ᚱ	Reið	r	ride	U+16B1
ᚴ	Kaun	k	ulcer, sore	U+16B4
ᚼ	Hagall	h	hail	U+16BC
ᚾ	Nauðr	n	need	U+16BE
ᛁ	Ís	i	ice	U+16C1
ᛅ	Ár	a	plenty, good year	U+16C5
ᛋ	Sól	s	sun	U+16CB
ᛏ	Týr	t	the god Tyr	U+16CF
ᛒ	Bjarkan	b	birch	U+16D2
ᛘ	Maðr	m	man	U+16D8
ᛚ	Lögr	l	water	U+16DA
ᛦ	Ýr	R	yew	U+16E6

Anglo-Saxon Futhorc: 29 runes, c. 400–1000 AD, the Old English row
Rune	Name	Sound	Meaning	Code point
ᚠ	Feoh	f	wealth	U+16A0
ᚢ	Ūr	u	aurochs	U+16A2
ᚦ	Þorn	th	thorn	U+16A6
ᚩ	Ōs	o	a god; mouth	U+16A9
ᚱ	Rād	r	ride	U+16B1
ᚳ	Cēn	c	torch	U+16B3
ᚷ	Gyfu	g	gift	U+16B7
ᚹ	Wynn	w	joy	U+16B9
ᚻ	Hægl	h	hail	U+16BB
ᚾ	Nȳd	n	need	U+16BE
ᛁ	Īs	i	ice	U+16C1
ᛄ	Gēr	j	year, harvest	U+16C4
ᛇ	Ēoh	eo	yew	U+16C7
ᛈ	Peorð	p	uncertain	U+16C8
ᛉ	Eolh	x	elk-sedge	U+16C9
ᛋ	Sigel	s	sun	U+16CB
ᛏ	Tīw	t	the god Tiw	U+16CF
ᛒ	Beorc	b	birch	U+16D2
ᛖ	Eh	e	horse	U+16D6
ᛗ	Mann	m	man	U+16D7
ᛚ	Lagu	l	water	U+16DA
ᛝ	Ing	ng	the hero Ing	U+16DD
ᛟ	Ēðel	oe	estate, homeland	U+16DF
ᛞ	Dæg	d	day	U+16DE
ᚪ	Āc	a	oak	U+16AA
ᚫ	Æsc	ae	ash tree	U+16AB
ᚣ	Ȳr	y	bow	U+16A3
ᛡ	Īor	io	eel, or beaver	U+16E1
ᛠ	Ēar	ea	grave, earth	U+16E0

Runic translator to English: reading runes back, and pasting them anywhere

Paste runes into the box and the tool reads them back to Latin letters using the sounds in the chart, choosing the direction itself when most of the input is runic. Reading back is approximate in the same way writing is: a Younger Futhark ᚢ could have been u, o, v, w or y, and the tool gives its first value. Every rune here is a character from the Unicode Runic block, U+16A0 to U+16FF, so the output is plain text: it pastes into Instagram and Discord bios, messages and documents, renders on every current phone without a rune font, and is refused only by @username fields. Runes in a photo cannot be read from an image here.

Every character on this page is from the Runic block, U+16A0–U+16FF, cited against the official Unicode chart.

Elder Futhark translator questions

Is a rune translator accurate?

As a transliteration, yes: each sound gets the rune that wrote it in the chosen row, following the conventions rune scholars use. As a translation, no tool is, because the rows wrote Proto-Norse, Old Norse and Old English, not modern English. Your name in runes is a spelling of its sounds, which is exactly what the historical inscriptions of names are.

Which runes are Viking runes?

The Younger Futhark, the 16-rune row used in Scandinavia from about 800 to 1100 AD. The Elder Futhark is older and pre-Viking; the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc is English. Pick Younger Futhark in the tool for what a Viking Age carver would have used, and expect it to write fewer distinctions: k and g share a rune, so do t and d.

Why does my name read back differently?

Because the rows had fewer sounds than English. In the Younger Futhark one rune covers u, o, v, w and y, so “world” reads back as “uorlt”. Doubled letters are also written once by default, so “hello” reads back as “helo”; untick “Write double letters once” to keep both. The Elder Futhark and Futhorc distinguish more sounds and round-trip more closely.

Can I copy and paste runes into Instagram, Discord or a document?

Yes. The output is Unicode text from the Runic block, which every current phone, browser and word processor can display. It works in bios, display names, messages and captions; it does not work in an @username, which takes only ASCII letters and digits.

What do the runes mean?

Each rune name is a word: Fehu is cattle or wealth, Isa is ice, Sowilo is the sun. The charts give the conventional meaning for every rune in all three rows, taken from the rune poems, and mark the one whose meaning is genuinely unknown (Perthro) rather than inventing one. A rune written to spell a sound does not carry its name’s meaning; a divination use is a separate, later tradition.

Are these the runes from Lord of the Rings, Skyrim or Sleep Token?

No. Tolkien’s Cirth, Skyrim’s dragon script and band logos are invented alphabets that borrow rune shapes. This translator uses the three historical rows as Unicode encodes them, which is what a Viking rune translator or Anglo-Saxon rune translator should give you; a fictional script needs its own key.