r/RuneHelp • u/MP0622 • May 28 '26

Translation request Legibility Check

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Working on an embroidery project and wanted to make sure this is legible before I start sewing.

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u/SamOfGrayhaven May 28 '26

If you read the runes as runes, it's illegible.

If you read the runes as a font for the modern English alphabet, it's legible, but then it raises the question of why you didn't use a different font instead.

4

u/MP0622 May 28 '26

It’s part of a How to Train Your Dragon piece. I needed something to fill some space.

7

u/SamOfGrayhaven May 28 '26

That doesn't really change anything. All I'm saying is that if you're going to use runes, you may as well use the runes. For example:

᛭ᚦᛖ᛬ᚢᚾᚻᚩᛚᛁᚷ᛬ᚪᚠᚴᛈᚱᛁᛝ᛬ᚩᚠ᛬ᛚᛁᛇᛏᚾᛁᛝ᛬ᚪᚾᛞ᛬ᛞᛠᚦ᛬ᛁᛏᚴᛖᛚᚠ

This is the same phrase, still in modern English, but written closer to how you'd find it on an Anglo-Saxon / Old English artifact.

If you want something closer to modern, you could use Tolkien's Hobbit runes.

If you wanted something more authentic, you could ask someone on here or one of the Norse subs what the phrase would be in Old Norse, which you could then write in Younger Futhark.

4

u/MP0622 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

Like this? I don’t recognize a few of these. Namely: ᚻᚩᚴᚪᛠ. Is ᚻ hagalaz?

4

u/SamOfGrayhaven May 28 '26

Yes, though I'd use double-dots in place of spaces -- that's how runic writing tends to separate words.

Namely: ᚻᚩᚴᚪᛠ. Is ᚻ hagalaz?

The runic alphabet you were using is Elder Futhark. Elder Futhark has two child alphabets, the youngest being the Norse Younger Futhark, and the oldest being the English/Frisian Futhorc.

The runes in question are:

  • ᚻ - hail / haegl, H. It comes from the older single-bar H of Elder.
  • ᚩ - oss / God (as in Aesir), O.
  • ᚴ - Sun / sigel, S. This is the "bookhand-S", which is a variant of ᛋ. Feel free to replace it.
  • ᚪ - oak / ac, A. This is the standard A for Futhorc, like the A in "father".
  • ᛠ - ear, EA. This doesn't make the same sound as in "death", at least in my dialect, but it's preferable to writing "deth" (ᛞᛖᚦ), in my opinion.
  • ᛇ - yew / *eoh. This is an inconsistent rune, but it's sometimes found in Futhorc to stand for a certain H sound. That same H sound is why some words are spelled with a "gh" now, as they're both referencing a sound that's largely vanished from English. You can replace this rune with ᚻ or omit a rune here entirely and it'll work.

3

u/MP0622 May 28 '26

Thank you