What is the Elder Futhark?

The Elder Futhark is the oldest runic alphabet, used by Germanic and early Norse peoples from roughly the 2nd to the 8th century. It has 24 runes, and the name comes from the sound of its first six signs: f, u, th, a, r, k. Each rune stands for a sound and also carries a name, so ᚠ is Fehu (wealth) and ᛏ is Tiwaz (the god Tyr). This tool maps modern letters onto those 24 runes, for example a becomes ᚨ and r becomes ᚱ.

How do the two-letter sounds like th and ng work?

Some English sounds are a single rune, not two. The th in Thor is one rune ᚦ (Thurisaz), ng as in king is one rune ᛜ (Ingwaz), and ei is ᛇ (Eihwaz). The tool matches these pairs before single letters, so thing comes out as ᚦᛁᛜ, three runes, instead of t plus h plus n plus g. When you decode, those runes expand back to th and ng, so ᚦᛟᚱ reads as thor.

Why are there only 24 runes for 26 letters?

The Elder Futhark predates the modern Latin alphabet, so a few letters share a rune. The tool routes c and k to ᚲ (Kaunan), v and w to ᚹ (Wunjo), and there is no separate q, x or hard difference for every Latin letter, so q and x are folded onto the nearest sounds (k and ᛉ Algiz). Numbers have no runic form at all, which is why digits in your text pass straight through unchanged rather than getting a made-up symbol.

Is this historically accurate spelling?

It is a transliteration, not historical orthography. Genuine runic inscriptions spelled words by sound in Proto-Norse or Old Norse, often dropped letters, and used word dividers and bind-runes that no automatic tool can guess. This converter gives you a clean, reversible letter-for-letter mapping that is perfect for a tattoo, a logo, a fantasy map or a game, but a runologist would not call ᚺᛖᛚᛚᛟ an authentic ancient spelling of hello. Treat the output as decorative and readable, not as a manuscript.

Can I use these runes for a tattoo or in a game?

Yes, that is the main use. The output is real Unicode runic characters from the U+16A0 block, so you can copy them into a design file, a tattoo stencil, a Discord message or a game asset and they stay sharp at any size because they are text, not an image. Two tips: pick a font that actually draws the runic block, since some fonts show empty boxes, and remember the spelling is a transliteration, so double-check it carries the meaning you want before it becomes permanent ink.

Design a rune tattoo you can actually read

You want a name or a short word inked in Norse runes. Type it, switch on the Elder Futhark output, and you get a clean transliteration with the two-letter sounds handled, so Bjorn does not turn into a wall of stray signs. Copy the runes into your stencil app, and because they are real Unicode characters they scale to any size without going blurry. The note on screen reminds you this is decorative spelling, so you can double-check the meaning before the needle makes it permanent.

Name places and items in a fantasy game or D&D campaign

A game master or indie dev needs a runic look for a map, a spell book or a loot label. Run the place names through the converter, paste the runes onto the asset, and the world suddenly reads as old and Norse. The share link reopens the exact set of names so a co-DM or an artist gets the same spelling you did, with no screenshots passed back and forth.

Decode runes you saw in a game, a show or a museum

You spotted runic glyphs in a video game, a TV title card or on a replica artifact and want to know what they spell. Switch to the decode direction, paste or type the runes, and the tool reads them back into letters, expanding ᚦ to th and ᛜ to ng so the result is a real word and not a jumble. It is a quick way to settle whether that sword inscription actually says anything.

Make runic titles for a video, post or banner

A content creator covering Norse mythology, Vikings or folk metal can drop genuine runic text into a thumbnail, a lower third or a channel banner. Type the title, copy the runes, and paste them anywhere that takes text. Because the glyphs are selectable Unicode rather than a flattened image, they stay crisp on a 4K screen and a phone alike, and viewers can copy them too.

Rune Translator — English to Elder Futhark Runes

Turn English into Elder Futhark runes and read runes back into letters, right in your browser

Runs locally
Category Text
Best for Removing repetitive cleanup work from everyday writing and operations.

Input

Output

Output appears here.

Elder Futhark chart (24 runes)

Letter	Rune	Name
th	ᚦ	Thurisaz
ng	ᛜ	Ingwaz
ei	ᛇ	Eihwaz
f	ᚠ	Fehu
u	ᚢ	Uruz
a	ᚨ	Ansuz
r	ᚱ	Raido
k	ᚲ	Kaunan
c	ᚲ	Kaunan
g	ᚷ	Gebo
w	ᚹ	Wunjo
v	ᚹ	Wunjo
h	ᚺ	Hagalaz
n	ᚾ	Naudiz
i	ᛁ	Isaz
j	ᛃ	Jera
y	ᛃ	Jera
p	ᛈ	Perthro
z	ᛉ	Algiz
x	ᛉ	Algiz
s	ᛊ	Sowilo
t	ᛏ	Tiwaz
b	ᛒ	Berkanan
e	ᛖ	Ehwaz
m	ᛗ	Mannaz
l	ᛚ	Laguz
o	ᛟ	Othala
d	ᛞ	Dagaz

A transliteration for tattoos, games and decoration, not historical Norse orthography. Runes have no digits, so numbers pass through unchanged.

What this tool does

A free, two-way rune translator that turns English text into Elder Futhark runes and turns runes back into readable letters. It uses the standard 24-rune Elder Futhark transliteration, the oldest runic alphabet the Germanic peoples and the Norse used roughly from the 2nd to the 8th century. Single letters map one rune each, and the real two-letter sounds win first: th becomes the single rune ᚦ, ng becomes ᛜ, and ei becomes ᛇ, so a word like Thor reads as ᚦᛟᚱ rather than four separate signs. Spaces stay where you put them, and because the runes carry no digits, numbers and most punctuation pass through unchanged. One click copies the runes, and a share link rebuilds your exact input and direction. This is a clean letter-for-letter transliteration meant for tattoos, game design and decoration, not a reconstruction of historical Norse spelling, which set down sounds rather than English letters. Everything runs on the page with plain JavaScript and nothing is uploaded.

Tool details

Input: Text; The page exposes text boxes, numeric controls, file pickers, or structured inputs depending on the tool.
Output: Live result + Copy + Preview; The result area focuses on usable output, with copy, download, or preview actions when supported.
Privacy: Browser-side processing; The main tool logic does not call an external API, so inputs normally stay in the current tab.
Save / share: Shareable URL state; Key settings are encoded in the URL so another person can reopen the same setup.
Performance budget: Initial JS <= 9 KB; No WASM budget is declared, keeping the tool quick to open on mobile.
Best fit: Text · Content Creator; Category and role tags drive related tools, internal links, and quick fit checks.

How to use

1. Input

Paste or drop your content into the tool panel.
2. Process

Click the button. All processing is local in your browser.
3. Copy / Download

Copy the result or download to disk in one click.

How Rune Translator fits into your work

Use it to clean, compare, reshape, or extract plain text before it goes into a document, CMS, spreadsheet, or prompt.

Text jobs

Removing repetitive cleanup work from everyday writing and operations.
Making text easier to compare, paste, publish, or feed into another tool.
Working with content locally when the text is private or unfinished.

Text checks

Scan for unintended whitespace, duplicate lines, and lost punctuation.
For long text, test the first few lines before applying the whole change.
Copy the final output only after checking the preview.

Good next steps

These links move the current task into a more complete workflow.

Real-world use cases

Design a rune tattoo you can actually read
You want a name or a short word inked in Norse runes. Type it, switch on the Elder Futhark output, and you get a clean transliteration with the two-letter sounds handled, so Bjorn does not turn into a wall of stray signs. Copy the runes into your stencil app, and because they are real Unicode characters they scale to any size without going blurry. The note on screen reminds you this is decorative spelling, so you can double-check the meaning before the needle makes it permanent.
Name places and items in a fantasy game or D&D campaign
A game master or indie dev needs a runic look for a map, a spell book or a loot label. Run the place names through the converter, paste the runes onto the asset, and the world suddenly reads as old and Norse. The share link reopens the exact set of names so a co-DM or an artist gets the same spelling you did, with no screenshots passed back and forth.
Decode runes you saw in a game, a show or a museum
You spotted runic glyphs in a video game, a TV title card or on a replica artifact and want to know what they spell. Switch to the decode direction, paste or type the runes, and the tool reads them back into letters, expanding ᚦ to th and ᛜ to ng so the result is a real word and not a jumble. It is a quick way to settle whether that sword inscription actually says anything.
Make runic titles for a video, post or banner
A content creator covering Norse mythology, Vikings or folk metal can drop genuine runic text into a thumbnail, a lower third or a channel banner. Type the title, copy the runes, and paste them anywhere that takes text. Because the glyphs are selectable Unicode rather than a flattened image, they stay crisp on a 4K screen and a phone alike, and viewers can copy them too.

Common pitfalls

Expecting one rune per English letter for th and ng. These are single runes in Elder Futhark, so Thor is three runes ᚦᛟᚱ and king ends in one ᛜ, not two signs. The tool handles this for you on encode and expands them back on decode, so do not split the cluster by hand.
Treating the output as authentic ancient spelling. This is a transliteration of modern English letters, not how a runemaster would have carved the word by sound. For a tattoo or an artifact replica, fine; for a scholarly inscription, consult a runologist, because real texts dropped letters and used bind-runes no tool can reproduce.
Pasting runes into a font that cannot draw them. The output is Unicode from the U+16A0 block, and some fonts show empty boxes instead of runes. If you see squares, the characters are correct but the font lacks the runic glyphs, so switch to a font that includes them before judging the result.

Privacy

Every step runs as plain JavaScript inside your browser tab: the letter-to-rune lookup, the greedy matching of th, ng and ei, and the decode pass all happen on the page. Your text and the runes it produces never reach a server, and nothing is logged. The one thing to watch is the share link, which encodes your input and direction in the URL query string, so pasting a share link into chat records that text in the recipient server's access log. For a private name or message, use the copy button and paste the runes instead of sharing the URL.

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Rune Translator — English to Elder Futhark Runes

What this tool does

Tool details

How to use

1. Input

2. Process

3. Copy / Download

How Rune Translator fits into your work

Text jobs

Text checks

Good next steps

Real-world use cases

Design a rune tattoo you can actually read

Name places and items in a fantasy game or D&D campaign

Decode runes you saw in a game, a show or a museum

Make runic titles for a video, post or banner

Common pitfalls

Privacy

FAQ

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