The Runic alphabet is not the same as an American English alphabet...

And this is because the Runic alphabet originated from Europe & Scandinavia. Most of the sounds are entirely different – thus when transcribing an English word into Runes, we do so by phonetic (sound) value, not by visual letter.

For instance, the way an American would transcribe an English word will probably be different than someone from the UK or Australia or other English speaking countries, even certain American accents if you want to take it that far. This has to do with the way words are pronounced.

There are many different and accurate ways to transcribe English words into Runes – in other words, there is more than one way to skin a cat (don’t worry, I love cats and would never do that).

In a nutshell, as long as you understand how to pronounce each Rune (letter) – forming the letters into words should be easy for you.

One thing to keep in mind: this generator doesn’t translate phonetically. 👆

That means if you type in an English word—like phone—you won’t get the correct runes unless you've already broken the word down into its actual sounds.

For example, the correct phonetic runes for phone would be Fehu, Othala, Nauthiz (F–O–N), but the generator would give you Perthro, Hagalaz, Othala, Nauthiz, Eihwaz—because it's translating visually, not phonetically.

This issue mostly affects modern English, especially American English, which doesn’t share the same sound values as the Germanic languages the Elder Futhark comes from.

If you're working with Old Norse, German, Swedish, or Icelandic, you'll likely get a much closer match, since the sound-letter connection is more consistent.

I strongly recommend clicking the Rune meanings button above for audio pronunciation

(Or click each Rune name below to be taken to each individual Rune)

Very important stuff...

To be as phonetically accurate as possible, SILENT letters, which are common in the English language – are NOT used when transcribing into Runes. This is because each Runic letter is accounted for phonetically (sound). Double letters are also unnecessary.

Things to watch out for...

Online Rune converters are almost always inaccurate because they are using American English letters and associating them with the (Germanic) Runic letters simply by the WAY THEY LOOK – not by the way they SOUND. Please beware with Rune converters online, especially if you are planning on getting something tattooed on you.

I know that this is a basic introduction to writing and reading in Runes and I hope that it will serve you well. If I have enough people request it, I *may* consider creating an online course to go really in-depth into each Rune/Letter. Because it would be so in-depth with charts, videos and audio, possibly some PDF downloads, it would have to be a paid course – so please keep that in mind. If a full course is something you would be interested in, please contact me and let me know! 

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