Runic Converter

Information

Instructions

Enter a word in modern Icelandic to get the estimated viking age runic form and historical inscriptions that contain the word if attested.

You can also enter a sentence of up to ten words but in that case the historical inscriptions won't be included.

FAQ

How is this runic converter different from others available online?

This is the only one that can follow the standards of viking age runic inscriptions to any degree of accuracy. Other converters/translators do little or nothing more than substituting each letter for one rune but the results of such a primitive method will not resemble accurate runic inscriptions.

Why does the Runic Converter ask for modern Icelandic instead of Old Norse?

The primary reason is that to function the converter needs to look up various databases (see below). The most important and most exhaustive datasets are the Morphological Description of Modern Icelandic and Wiktionary and the former is only available in modern Icelandic and the latter has much fewer words in Old Norse. That being said you can try to use Old Norse spelling but the results will typically be worse.

What kind of runes does the converter return?

The runic converter only returns younger fuþark which is the form used in the viking age. The historical inscriptions that appear use a standardized form appropriate for the period of the respective inscriptions but may not be the exact same as in the historical inscription.

The historical inscriptions I got are completely different from the runic conversion!

There can be several reasons for that. The converter tries to follow the standards used for early viking age Old East Norse. The historical inscriptions could be from a different area or period. In adddition runic spelling was inconsistent even at the best of times so there is no single correct way to write a given word in runes. With that in mind the fact remains that the converter is not perfect and the result may simply be erronous.

The Runic Converter is made possible thanks to the following datasets:

Database of Icelandic Morphology

Received from the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies. Author and editor Kristín Bjarnadóttir.
Accessed at: https://bin.arnastofnun.is.
Copyright Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies. Used according to the terms of the CC-BY-SA license.

An Icelandic-English Dictionary by Richard Cleasby and Guðbrandur Vigfússon

Originally scanned and digitized by The Germanic Lexicon Project.
Digitized and improved version received from: https://old-norse.net/. Special thanks goes to Dr. Scott Burt for his generous help with working with the data.
Copyright expired. Digitizations by GLC and old-norse.net used with permission.

Wiktionary, the Free Dictionary

Accessible at https://www.wiktionary.org. Dump format received from: https://kaikki.org/dictionary/.
Copyright Wiktionary authors. Used according to terms of the CC-BY-SA license.

The Scandinavian Runic-text Database

Accessed at http://www.nordiska.uu.se/forskn/samnord.htm. Copyright Uppsala Runic Forum. Used according to the terms on the aforementioned page.

Runic Converter

Welcome to the Runic Converter. Please insert a word or a short sentence in modern Icelandic to translate to viking age runes.

áéíóúýæöðþ

Get the Runic Converter app on Google Play for Android or the App Store for iOS

Fully free, includes convenient interface for the converter, a simple browser for historical runic inscriptions and runic keyboards for your phone

Google Play and the App Store are trademarks of Google LLC and Apple Inc.