Old Norse Translator — Speak the Language of the Vikings
Convert English into Old Norse and watch it transform into Elder Futhark runes. Below is a complete guide to the Viking language before you reach the translator itself.
What Is Old Norse?
Old Norse was the North Germanic language spoken across Scandinavia and the wider Viking world from roughly the 8th to the 15th centuries. It is the parent of modern Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Faroese, and it travelled wherever Norse seafarers settled — Iceland from 874, the Danelaw in England, Normandy in France, Greenland and briefly Vinland in North America around the year 1000.
The History of Old Norse
The language grew out of Proto-Norse around 700 AD as Scandinavia entered the Viking Age. Over the following centuries it split into an Eastern dialect (Sweden, Denmark) and a Western dialect (Norway and the Atlantic colonies). Iceland proved the great preserver: geographic isolation meant the language changed remarkably little, and modern Icelanders can still read the medieval Eddas and sagas. Old Norse also reshaped English profoundly — during two centuries of Norse settlement in the Danelaw, English absorbed more than a thousand everyday words such as sky, knife, egg, husband, window, law, die and take, and even borrowed the pronouns they, them and their.
The Writing System — Runes
Before the Latin alphabet arrived with Christianity, Norse speakers wrote with runes. The older Elder Futhark (2nd–8th century) had 24 characters; the Younger Futhark of the Viking Age reduced this to just 16 even as literacy spread. Runes were carved rather than penned, which is why their forms are so angular. From the 12th century the sagas were recorded in the Latin alphabet. This translator offers an Elder Futhark transliteration so you can see your words in the older script.
Old Norse in Modern Culture
Few ancient languages enjoy as vivid an afterlife. Thor, Odin, Loki and Freyja are Old Norse words, and concepts like Ragnarök and Valhalla appear constantly in film, games and fiction — from Marvel's Thor to Assassin's Creed Valhalla and the Vikings series. That blend of familiarity and grandeur is exactly what makes the language so rewarding to explore.
Common English to Old Norse Words
| English | Old Norse | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| king | konungr | Felt in Scandinavian "konung". |
| sword | sverð | ð is the "th" in "this". |
| ship | skip | Gave English "skipper". |
| wolf | úlfr | Common name element. |
| fire | eldr | — |
| sea | haf | Open ocean. |
| battle | orrusta | — |
| rune | rún | Also "secret, whisper". |
| fate | örlög | Literally "primal law". |
| blood | blóð | — |
| dragon | dreki | Source of "drake". |
| god | goð | — |
| Thor | Þórr | The god's name is the word. |
| ice | íss | Also a rune name. |
| death | dauði | — |
| love | ást | Verb to love = elska. |
| warrior | víkingr | "One who goes on expedition". |
| shield | skjöldr | — |
| saga | saga | From segja, "to say". |
| land | land | Identical to English. |
| raven | hrafn | Odin's birds. |
| gold | gull | — |
Attested scholarly forms. Regional and period variations exist.
English to Old Norse Translator
How to Use This Translator
- Type or paste English text into the box above. Short, concrete sentences work best.
- Read the Old Norse output, and switch tabs to see alternate scripts or directions.
- Copy your result with the Copy button to use it anywhere.
What it does well: it accurately renders individual words and common set phrases, and preserves your capitalisation and punctuation. Its limits: it does not conjugate verbs or decline nouns into Old Norse's four cases, so treat it as a rich vocabulary bridge rather than a sentence-perfect translator.
Frequently Asked Questions About Old Norse
It is a dictionary-based educational tool. It maps English words and common phrases to attested Old Norse forms, but does not reproduce Old Norse grammar, cases or word order. Treat the output as a faithful word-and-phrase approximation.
Icelandic is the closest living descendant of Old Norse. Because of Iceland's isolation the language changed little, so modern Icelanders can still read the medieval sagas with some effort.
Elder Futhark is the oldest runic alphabet, used from roughly the 2nd to the 8th century. It has 24 characters, each with a name and sound value. The angular shapes exist because runes were carved into wood, stone and metal.
Mostly no. The vast majority of surviving runic inscriptions record ownership, memorials, trade and names. The popular image of runes as primarily magical is a modern romanticisation.
Both are Germanic and were mutually influential in the Danelaw. Old Norse is North Germanic (ancestor of the Scandinavian languages); Old English is West Germanic (ancestor of English). Norse contact gave English sky, knife, egg and the pronoun they.
The tool first converts your English into Old Norse, then transliterates that result into Elder Futhark character by character. Because Elder Futhark predates the Viking Age slightly, this is a stylistic transliteration.
A surprising number: sky, knife, egg, skull, anger, husband, ugly, window, guest, law, die, take, call, and the pronoun they. Linguists estimate over a thousand words entered English from Old Norse.
Words with a dotted underline are not yet in our Old Norse dictionary, so they are kept in English in place. The tool also looks them up in a free English dictionary and shows the definition below.
Use it for inspiration, but verify any permanent design with a specialist. Automated transliteration can miss historically correct rune choices, a common source of avoidable mistakes.
Short runic inscriptions survive from the early Iron Age onward. The great literary works — the Poetic Edda, the Prose Edda and the Icelandic sagas — were written down mostly in the 12th and 13th centuries in the Latin alphabet.
Further Reading & Resources
- 📖
Viking Language 1: Learn Old Norse, Runes, and Icelandic Sagas —The leading modern course, building reading skill through real saga passages.
- 📖
An Introduction to Old Norse —The classic academic grammar and reader, a standard for decades.
- 📖
The Prose Edda —The primary source for Norse mythology, written in the 13th century.
- 🔗
Zoëga's Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic —A respected free dictionary used to verify vocabulary on this page.