Old English Translator — Anglo-Saxon Language Converter
Render modern English into Old English, the language of Beowulf and Alfred the Great, complete with the lost letters thorn (þ) and eth (ð). Read the full Anglo-Saxon guide below before you translate.
What Is Old English?
Old English, also called Anglo-Saxon, was the earliest form of the English language, spoken in England from roughly 450 to 1150 AD. It is not the English of Shakespeare — that is Early Modern English, a thousand years later and easily readable today. Old English looks and sounds like a foreign Germanic language, far closer to German or Old Norse than to anything modern. Yet around 60% of the hundred most common words we use every day descend directly from it.
The History of Old English
The language arrived with the Angles, Saxons and Jutes who settled Britain after Rome withdrew. It had four grammatical cases and three genders, much like modern German. King Alfred the Great (reigned 871–899) promoted the West Saxon dialect, which became the literary standard and the form most surviving texts use. The Norman Conquest of 1066 began the end of Old English: French became the language of government and the aristocracy, and over the next three centuries the language simplified dramatically into Middle English. The epic poem Beowulf, the oldest surviving major work of English literature, preserves the heroic world of this era.
The Writing System — Thorn, Eth and Wynn
The Anglo-Saxons first wrote in a runic alphabet called the Futhorc, then adopted the Latin alphabet with a few extra letters for sounds Latin lacked: þ (thorn) and ð (eth) both spelled the "th" sound, while ƿ (wynn) spelled "w". The letter æ (ash) represented the vowel in "cat". This translator uses thorn and eth so your output looks authentically Anglo-Saxon.
Old English in Modern Culture
J.R.R. Tolkien, a professor of Old English, modelled the language of Rohan in The Lord of the Rings on Anglo-Saxon, and many character and place names come straight from it. The everyday word "weird" descends from wyrd, meaning fate. Whenever you say "house", "water", "fire" or "love", you are speaking words that have survived, barely changed, for well over a thousand years.
Common English to Old English Words
| English | Old English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| king | cyning | Gave modern "king". |
| god | god | Unchanged. |
| man | mann | — |
| woman | wīf | Meant "woman"; narrowed to "wife". |
| house | hūs | — |
| water | wæter | — |
| fire | fȳr | — |
| sword | sweord | — |
| lord | hlāford | Literally "loaf-guardian". |
| earth | eorþe | þ = "th". |
| night | niht | — |
| day | dæg | — |
| love | lufu | — |
| death | dēaþ | þ = "th". |
| battle | beadu | Replaced by Norman "battle". |
| wolf | wulf | — |
| raven | hræfn | — |
| dragon | draca | Gave "drake". |
| fate | wyrd | Became modern "weird". |
| blood | blōd | — |
| friend | frēond | — |
| stone | stān | Gave "stone". |
Attested scholarly forms. Regional and period variations exist.
English to Old English Translator
How to Use This Translator
- Type or paste English text into the box above. Short, concrete sentences work best.
- Read the Old English output.
- Copy your result with the Copy button to use it anywhere.
What it does well: it renders core Anglo-Saxon vocabulary with authentic spelling and the historic letters þ and ð, and keeps your capitalisation. Its limits: it cannot reproduce Old English's case endings or word order, so it is a vocabulary and flavour tool rather than a grammatically perfect translator.
Frequently Asked Questions About Old English
No — this is a common misconception. Shakespeare wrote Early Modern English around 1600, which is readable today. Old English was spoken 450–1150 AD and is essentially a different Germanic language.
Because it kept the full Germanic grammar of cases, genders and inflections that English later shed, and because much of our modern vocabulary entered later from French and Latin after 1066.
After 1066, French became the language of the ruling class and government. Over three centuries English simplified its grammar and absorbed thousands of French words, evolving into Middle English.
Beowulf is an epic poem of over 3,000 lines, the oldest surviving major work of English literature. It preserves the heroic, pre-Christian world of the Anglo-Saxons and is the single most important Old English text.
Most of our everyday core words: man, woman, house, water, fire, love, eat, drink, sleep, and the basic numbers and pronouns all descend directly from Old English.
Yes. Both are West Germanic languages descended from a common ancestor, which is why Old English grammar — with its cases and genders — resembles German far more than modern English does.
They are letters Old English used that Latin lacked: þ (thorn) and ð (eth) both wrote the "th" sound, and ƿ (wynn) wrote "w". Thorn survived into Middle English before "th" replaced it.
Words shown with a dotted underline are not yet in our dictionary, so they are kept in modern English and looked up for a definition. We add common requests each month.
It translates word by word and handles common phrases, but it does not add Old English case endings or reorder words. For scholarly translation, consult a grammar such as Mitchell and Robinson.
Old English is the ancestor of English itself, while Old Norse is the related Viking language of Scandinavia. The two influenced each other heavily but are distinct languages with different vocabulary.
Further Reading & Resources
- 📖
A Guide to Old English —The standard academic textbook and reader for learning the language.
- 📖
Beowulf: A New Translation —A vivid, accessible modern translation of the great Anglo-Saxon epic.
- 📖
The Year 1000 —A readable social history of everyday life in late Anglo-Saxon England.
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Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary —The definitive free online Old English dictionary used to verify these words.