Elder Futhark

How to use the rune translator

Elder Futhark is the oldest runic alphabet — 24 characters carved into wood, bone, and stone across northern Europe from about 150 to 800 AD, centuries before the Vikings. This translator renders your text in those runes and reads runes back.

1. Type your text. English works; the tool maps each letter to its rune.
2. Choose a direction. Latin → Runes for writing; Runes → Latin for reading inscriptions back.
3. Set your options. Keep "Render TH as ᚦ" on for the authentic single rune, or off to spell T+H. The word divider renders spaces as runic dots ᛫ or colons, like surviving carvings.
4. Hover or tap any rune to see its name. Copy the result with the Copy button.

The documented mergers

Elder Futhark predates several modern letters, and there is no single standard for them — so this tool states its choices: C and K both become ᚲ (kaunaz), Q becomes ᚲ, V becomes ᚹ (wunjo — classical Latin V was pronounced /w/), X becomes ᚲᛊ (spelled as the KS sound), Y becomes ᛁ (isaz, the /i/ sound), and Z becomes ᛉ (algiz). One asymmetry to know: X encodes as ᚲᛊ but decodes as KS.

A note on authenticity

This is a modern transliteration aid, not a historical reconstruction. Real Elder Futhark wrote Proto-Norse — not English — and carvers spelled by sound with regional quirks. For games, stories, and learning the rune names it's perfect; for a tattoo you plan to keep forever, have a runologist check the spelling.

What is Elder Futhark?

Elder Futhark is the oldest runic alphabet, used by Germanic peoples from roughly 150 to 800 AD. Its 24 runes are named for the sounds of the first six — fehu, uruz, thurisaz, ansuz, raidho, kaunaz — which spell FUTHARK. It predates the better-known Viking-era Younger Futhark by centuries.

How are modern letters like C, Q, V, X, and Z handled?

Elder Futhark predates those letters, so the translator makes documented choices: C and K both become ᚲ (kaunaz), Q becomes ᚲ, V becomes ᚹ (wunjo, the /w/ sound closest to classical Latin V), X becomes ᚲᛊ (spelled as the KS sound), Y becomes ᛁ (isaz), and Z becomes ᛉ (algiz). TH becomes the single rune ᚦ (thurisaz) unless you turn the digraph off.

Is the translation historically accurate?

It is a modern transliteration aid, not a historical reconstruction. Real Elder Futhark wrote Proto-Norse, not English, and rune carvers spelled by sound with regional variation. For tattoos, games, and learning the rune names it works beautifully; for academic work, consult a runologist.

What is the runic dot between words?

Historical rune carvings often separated words with dots or colons instead of spaces. The word-divider option lets you render spaces as ᛫ (a single-dot runic punctuation mark) or as a colon, the way many surviving inscriptions look.

Can I translate runes back to Latin?

Yes — switch to 'Runes to Latin'. Each rune maps to its letter (ᚦ becomes TH). Note one asymmetry: X is encoded as ᚲᛊ but decodes as KS, since no single rune stands for X.

Is my text sent anywhere?

No. All translation happens in your browser with JavaScript. Nothing is uploaded, stored, or tracked.