Writing Old Norse in Runes
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- Опубліковано 10 лип 2024
- Writing in runes isn't a simple one-to-one conversion of one letter to one rune. This video shows how Old Norse was written using the runes of the Younger Futhark, and then looks at examples of real inscriptions from the Viking Age. Contents of video and translations of runestones:
0:00 Overview
1:57 Vowels
5:59 Ár (ᛅ) and Áss (ᚬ)
10:24 Consonants
11:15 Reið (ᚱ) and Ýr (ᛦ)
17:34 Sö 101. "Rolef raised this stone for his father, Skarf. He had gone with Ingvar."
26:05 Sö 131. "Spjóti, Halfdan: They raised this stone in memory of Skarđi, their brother. He went east from here with Ingvar. Evind's son lies in Serkland (the Middle East)."
30:05 DR 295. "Áskell placed this stone in memory of Tóki Gormsson, a loyal lord to him, who did not flee at Uppsala. Drengjar (warriors)-the ones who went closest to Tóki Gormsson-placed a stone on a hill in memory of their brother, supported by runes."
37:35 Sö 148. "Thjóđolf, Búi: they raised this stone for Farolf, their father. He was killed east in Garđar (Russia)."
40:29 Vg 59. "Refning and Gjalli and Brynolf and Gefolf placed this stone in memory of Fót, their father, an extremely good thegn (warrior). So has Ása, who [did] as some women will not do in memory of a husband. Hjalm and Hjalli carved the runes."
46:05 U 135. "Ingifast and Eystein and Svein had these stones raised for their father Eystein and they made this bridge and this burial mound."
Jackson Crawford, Ph.D.: Sharing real expertise in Norse language and myth with people hungry to learn, free of both ivory tower elitism and the agendas of self-appointed gurus. Visit jacksonwcrawford.com/ (includes bio and linked list of all videos).
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I spent roughly 8 hours going over all of this. Made 3 1/2 pages of notes.
Keep it coming man! Just ordered both your books they get there Saturday! I'm stoked.
You should write a book on learning old Norse and translating runes.
This video really helps me out! I've spent the last two years learning more and more about this subject but yet I've only scratched the surface. I don't normally comment but I thought I'd show my appreciation. Thanks!
Dude if you understood can you translate one small sentence for me? T.Y. I got somth but I`m not sure and it`s a tattoo so no margin for error xD
@@Konvicted17 Maybe ask on reddit. r/Norse and r/oldnorse are both good bets. Try and get a couple answers from different people, and reference the answers against his video to be sure.
Same here, much appreciated!
I had no idea how much more complicated learning this is. As a Norse Pagan I really wanted to learn to write and speak Old Norse. I'm overwhelmed, but you do a great job at explaining this. Thank you.
The timing of this video couldn't have been better. I've been thinking about incorporating runic transliterations of several quotes from the Havamal into some artwork that I'm working on.
Thank you for the time you spent making this video as always it has helped me greatly
Thank you! I appreciate the time and energy you have invested in this video. Excellent!
Thank you very much Dr Crawford for sharing with us all that you know, it is much appreciated
Thanks a lot, precisely the stuff I was looking for to understand in which exactly cases seemingly similar vowels are written in different ways while also same rune may correspond to different vowels. Now it's really way easier to understand.
I want to get some of this as a tattoo damn it. Gotta keep researching, thanks for being a good teacher and giving lessons for free
Top stuff. Thanks for making this.
That thumbnail is awesome. Great video dude! Keep it up
You're videos are as good as any university lecture I've sat through. Thank you
Thank you for this! Taking notes while watching :-)
Like saying "I live on" & "it's a live dog" *""LIVE"""* Being the word that relates to two different things with the same vows two different terms two different words, used differently but written the same" i understand this now much better" thank you Sir Sincerely, ~Päúl
Thx 🙏🏻, Jackson Crawford Phd. Your guidance through the quagmires of linguistics has been extraordinary helpful. I’ve purchased a few books you’ve suggested and continue to watch your presentations on UA-cam! ♾ d
Thank you so much for not being one of those scholars preaching from their ivory tower. I've learned so much from you and you've been so very helpful. May the gods bless and keep you, Mr. Crawford.
Great video and thanks for the amazing view. It sounded little like a shooting range in the background.
I am trying to learn German. This has given me insight and appreciation for the pronunciation for German consonants as in the letter g in tag and the letter d in hund. I love it. Thank you.
Thank you, outstanding video
Very informative indeed....
Just came over from Arith Härger, watched, liked and subscribed!
Greetings from a Swede in Glasgow, Scotland!
Skål! 🍻
Wow. I always come away with something very strange and intriguing from your videos. I'll think twice next time I want to call someone an ass, I had no idea that was the singular for god in old norse (aesir). Good stuff.
Very useful, thank you!
Love your series, I see that you love what you do enough to share the love! THANKS!
Haha, heard that first pop and automatically looked at the window. I live in a bad rural area, where people hunt, and sometimes hunt the most dangerous animal, lolol. Instantly recognizable & i wuz ON MY TOES. XD
New subscriber thank you❤
Thx 🙏🏻, Jackson Crawford Phd. Enjoy your presentations immensely. ♾ d Have purchased several books you have translated, edited or written, and a few others.
Great video
Thanks to years of following you, I read Sö 101 from soup to nuts no problem. Today I encountered an inscription I'd never seen with a medial Yr. Using your transliteration, the word was "siRun".
Q: Why did Dr. Crawford’s Posse attack the Hostess truck?
A: Because they learned of a Danish invasion.
Loved the video, having historic examples really brings it home.
as someone who has carved runestones several times, i can say, its deceptively easy to forget a letter, and just skip one without noticing it. glad to know that that is authentic!
I've made my first last month. All was good but I was making errors in A and N, I'm suspecting I am a bit "dysrunic".😀 Caught all of them but one while I was carving, the last one I found while coloring. I was greatly annoyed. Had to make the bad N into H and color just the desired A.
The meditative survey and windrush Psi:lence at media end made my blind eyes well. xI
thanks
Awesome. 🎩🔮
Thank you sir I think I have a translation for Jörmungandr now lol. Would love to see your view on it!
Now i understand why some translations are debatable. My local dialect Still pronounce sten(Stone in Swedish) as stein
Torbjörn Lindberg funny that, some English dialects have a vowel sound in-between those, where "Stone" sounds like "stown" and "Stein" mixed together.
Är du skaauuuning?
ᛋᛁᚴᚢᚱᛏ skelleftebonska:)
haha, just ni säger också Stein. Själv uttalar jag det med rejäl betoning på eeeee, Steeeeeen. Gissa vart jag kommer ifrån ;) ?
I love your videos man! Im a practicing norse pagan for the past 2 years and i watch all your videos and they are very informational for me to learn more about the culture.
I want a tattoo with younger futhark... Can't just translate English into runes, doesn't work that way haha... this video is damn helpful and a very solid starting point
Dog in general you kinda can but if it gets into specifics then yeah it gets harder. Thats where u have to decide to use runes that actually look like the word or use runes that are close enough to sounding like the word
Pretty cool ! People shooting in the background sound ! Not fisterbing anything !
Hi Jackson, thank you for your very thorough videos. I have a question about the use of úr. If in a word you have the u sound followed by v sound, would it be correct to write the two úr together?
And about the omission of nauðr before the homorganic consonants, would it also be omitted before hagall?
So, for the word élvindr in the Uppsala Edda, would this be written ᛁᛚᚠᛁᚾᛏᛦ ?
I think it would be ᛁᛚᚢᛁᚾᛏᚱ, because the V sound in the word doesn't seem to be an allophone of F, and because ᛏᛦ was usually written ᛏᚱ (apparently ᛏᛦ was hard to pronounce, so people would pronounce it and write it as ᛏᚱ).
Dr. Crawford, I was wondering, What are the 'rules' taken into account when transliterating an Old Norse word written in Younger Futhark to it's equivalent in the Latin Alphabet? For instance, How can we say that Jól (Yule)'s "ó" it's the correct transliteration of the rune *Othala*, instead of a common "o"?
Love your videos by the way, very informative.
not to take away from your video but is that Ft.Carson in the background?
Interesting that double konsonantst at the end of words are not used in runes, it is the same in modern danish. For example cat is kat, but the double konsonant apperes in the plural, where cats is katte.
What about runes that repeat next to each other? Like 'hoggr?' Would you write both Kaun runes? Or just one?
Quick question I’m German and want to know if there’s a way to write the sounds „Z“ „j“ „sch“ and „w“ in young Futhark? thanks
hundr -> hutR? Is it because of a combination of "nd"? I think there's "mb" too, right? Not sure.
Thank you for taking the time to do these videos, sir. I really enjoy them. Are there any books that you would recommend as a starting point on runes?
*"How to right the letter H or P or L or R or S or T or G or D Or A Or F Or B or W in Young Futhark Old Viking Norse"* ?
So which R rune should i use in the word Mother and son? which i think is Modir and Sonr
I was wondering if you could do a video on the Anglo-Saxon runes, or "Futhorc". There are some different letter shapes, like the "j" rune (or "y" sound as in "young"). There are also some extra runes, as well as the order of the runes at the end not having a specific alphabetical order. There are 4 "Northumbrian" runes, which are attested in later manuscripts, one of which (Cweorth) is only found in manuscripts and not in any inscriptions. I don't know if you know anything about the Old English language, but there are two "G" runes for the two "G" sounds in Old English, one sounding like the "Dutch-G/Y-sound as in young before I/E" and the other sounding always like a Hard-G as in "Get". There is also two "C" runes, one sounding like the CH sound, as in "Drench", and another a K-sound as in "Drink". There are some runes for extra vowels that are either not found in Norse or are not "phonemes", and there are runes for the Old English diphthongs "ea" and "io", but seemingly not for the diphthong "eo". I have read online that the "extra" runes are said to belong to a forth aett, known as "Hel's Aett", although I cannot find any scholarly works to back this up.
Speaking of the aetts, did the system of aetts survive into Younger Futhark and Anglo-Saxon runes? They seem to be less important in later alphabets, although I can't be sure. Did the practice of referring to runes by their aett and position in the aett continue into later times? This was often done in runic ciphers, did these continue to be used? Also, I have seen the second aett referred to as both "Hagal's Aett", referring to the first rune in the aett, and because many of the runes in the aett have a connection to nature, or as "Heimdall's Aett", which fits with the other aetts being named after gods/mythology. Could you confirm if both names of this aett are attested in Norse times?
What with does tow lines above and below the letter?
I know those are rather easy inscriptions, but I still find it pretty cool that I actually could read most of them just by using english or german cognates
Very good and dense video and info, i love the topic!
But i have a question
i want to translate this stanza from Grógaldr:
Þann gel ek þér annan
Ef þú árna skalt
Viljalauss á vegum
Urðar lokur
Haldi þér öllum megum
Er þú á sinnum sér
Do i have to do it using the younger futhark?
in the elder futhark i didnt see the runes accounting for these letters: ö ú á é ð
Thaanks!
that short dad beard XD nice video thx
Trying to learn the long branch younger futhark myself. I’m finding the videos super helpful and appreciate them. Does anyone recommend a web translator or app that I can use to check my work as I practice? I found a few online but am not confident they are 100% legit.
How would you write "healer" in younger futhark?
Could it also be that those two r's were not alike? That perhaps the r was a rolled frontal r. And the R was pronounced near the throat. Something like that. Or is that an unlikely progression? How did a z become an r in the first place? They seem quite different both in sound as in mouth placement.
Hello Jackson
I have a quick question i named my son Thorim and its the first one in austria with that name :D I wanted to ask you if u can say me how we can write his name is younger futhark.. Someone told me thurs,as/oss, reid , iss , madr is that right?
I'm no expert, however I believe it's actually ᚦᚢᚱᛁᛘ. I could be wrong, however, I believe you would replace As/Oss with úr.
which rune is the ce s sound?
How would one write Huginn and Muninn in younger futhark?
"If the /e/ is from an /e/ in Proto-Germanic, it will be spelled with the i-rune.
But, if the /e/ is from i-umlaut - if it’s from an /a/ that has been ‘fronted’ to /e/, through a following /i/ or /j/ (that has probably disappeared) - it’s going to be one of these two runes."
Shame you lost this sentence from the previous video. I replayed it a 100 times to finally get it!
My brain through this was an exercise
When reading about the Rök stone one will learn that the “R” rune stood for a hybrid “voiced r”, somewhere between a z and an r - a sound that some dialects/sociolects in for example Stockholm have today. Have you done a video touching on that? Otherwise, there’s an idea for upcoming topics. 😊👍🏼
are there modern dialects that keep the distinction? or are you just talking about a different R realisation?
Sorry for the late comment, but I have a question. What tool did they use to write? (Not carve in wood or stone) Did they use something as paper?
For people of the viking age itself, we don’t know as far as I’m aware, but many of the medieval works that survived from later on, after the region’s conversion to Christianity, are written on vellum, a type of parchment made from calfskin. If the people of the viking age wrote at all, and not just carved and painted, it’s possible they used the same.
i am 15 and trying to learn old norse and teach myself, very hard, but i am experienced in learning languages and am determined. question i have, does one need suffixes on a noun depending on gender or grammar case?
Yes, nouns have inflection in old norse
I would reccomend you to start with Icelandic. They use the latic script but their language is very similar to old norse. After learning Icelandic you would need to learn the rune script , and you will understand alot if the rune stones then :) Current Icelandic is more similar to old English, old german and old Swedish than the current versions of those languges is. I think that the issue bt only learning old norse is that you will not find enough materials in order to learn it + that you will be able to speak to Icelanders in their native thoug.
Felix I thank you for your advice, as I am just starting how to write in old Norse, I may soon try and start learning how to speak it
Even though I kind of agree with Felix I think learning Iceland first might be a mistake. It is too close so there is huge risk that you would directly go to the Icelandic, even if that is wrong or not the whole picture, instead of learning old Norse specifics. It is a lityle as when English speakers learn a Scandinavian language but still uses the sounds from the English alphabet becuase the "default" to it. It is close but never gets perfect, or even good.
I find that people that use modern Icelandic for their base of understanding misses at times a wider understaning of words. I am a native speaker of a east Scandinavian language and was raised in an area with strong and elderly dialect quite influensed by old west norse. Many times when I see a old norse word I can recognise it. And the slight shift in meaning in the modern languages together with the elderly dialect and then on top of that add the modern icelandic definition/understanding of the word and one can triangulate the wider meaning of the word.
Not saying learning Icelandic would not help, but I would not start there but rather take that further down the line.
But hey that is just me 😊
Lol 1 dislike. Seriously ! That cat said nope, I disagree ! Lol. No way. Great work bro.
what rune would be used to make the v sound twords the end of a word such as "byggva"?
On a limb I suppose it would be transliterated as /pukua/, so úr would be used, if I'm not mistaken. Maybe even fé. Not entirely sure.
How would I write discipline?
Where did the nazalised vowels go?
How do you say Loki's daughter's name the correct way?
I understand why b and p are the same letter, since I have been told that /p/ was a rare sound in old norse, but k/g is strange to me, unless one is more rarely used than I realized.
I assume that space was a factor, much like Latin inscriptions slowly became more abbreviated as time passed. But Latin never really deleted letters, in fact it was quite the opposite.
I think these videos are really interesting and I have most definitely not watched like 50 of them *shifty eyes* (I have a huge deadline on Monday...)
One little note tho, Södermanland is pronounced "Sörmland". (I grew up in that area of Sweden)
I know this video is quite old, but I'm just a few hours into learning and I already have a question that google isn't clarifying. Sondermanland Sweden's So 9 runestone ends with "Guð hialpi sālu Ulfs," translated on wiki as "may God help Ulf's soul." But if there's a different, separate word for "the gods" meaning the family/pantheon of deities worshipped in polytheistic norse culture, then to what singular god is this inscriber referring? Odin? It seems like a strangely monotheistic choice of words to very intentionally and painstakingly etch into a stone in memory of a loved one. You probably have a video answering questions about this that I just haven't stumbled upon yet, but wanted to ask just in case.
Is there any tradition of monotheism- even counterculturally- during this time? Why the use of the specific/singular "Guð" instead of "Æsir"?
Thank you in advance!
Hej! Is Bjarkan also sometimes used to write "M"? I noticed in the Assassin's Creed Valhalla main menu that the "um" in "dómr um dauthan hvern" is written "úr-bjarkan" instead of "úr-mathr". It doesn't seem far-fetched to me because M is articulated in the same place that B and P are, but I was just wondering if that's common or if there's something etymological about the word "um" that causes it to be written with Bjorkan instead of Mathr.
hey i wanted to let you know that he literally did the runes for valhalla /srs
Yes, I know. That's why I'm asking him.@@SoulcatcherLucario
Guys. I’m new to the channel and runes in general. What brought me here is a search for a Norse word, rune or symbol for the effect of echo. Our version of the word comes from the Greek mythology, but given that Norse lived in and around the fjords they must have had a similar concept and knowledge of this effect.
Would appreciate any help
Don't know if you're still looking three years later, but the Icelandic (and so I'm guessing also at least some Old Norse) word is 'bergmál', literally 'mountain speech'. From the video, I believe it would be 'ᛒᛁᚱᚴᛘᛅᛚ' in runes. Take it with a grain of salt, though since I'm definitely not an expert
So, the "v" sound existed but never at the beginning of a word, right? The closes equivalent would be Fé's sound?
Also, how could I write a combination which uses the same runes like "ei"?
Thanks in advance.
V at the beginning of a word existed in Old Norse, like in the word vindr ‘wind’ but that was spelled with úr because it was still a semivowel /w/ in the Viking age. (Compare the English word wind.)
For /ei/, you'd use ár + ís. The /e/ there comes from an original Proto-Germanic /a/.
Hey Jackson, i recently discovered your profile, and I am curious, do you consider yourself a Norse Pagan? Or are you just interested in their culture?
He answers this and other common questions in a few FAQ videos: ua-cam.com/video/tOgU4vgnmxE/v-deo.html
You could technically extend the reið vs ýr gamble beyond Germanic. For example 'meiri' would be written with ýr, since the Spanish cognate is 'más'.
[my third paternal surname is Farfetch'd]
Gorgeous farvel cowboy ending.
Yeah but, are there gun fires in the background?...
Thank you for sharing. I see so many tattoos (even in sweden) where they write modern words and sentences but transcribed in runes. I always think it looks ridicoulous
How would Lone Wolf be written?
Wow there is an alarming amount of people talking about this subject in the realm of magics. I just want to learn abit of the language thank you.
Thanks, I learnt a lot, but I'm not sure I'm up for the next level of complexity, the Anglo Saxon futhark with around 30 runic letters.
Can ÝR be considered as "rr" or "RR" at the end of the words?? like "Þórr??
Double consonants are not written out, it's more of an implied extension (a drawn-out "r" ending rather than a short "r") based on context.
It's hard for me to hear the pronunciation difference between ár, áss and úr rune, as I'm trying to transliterating them to the 'modern' swedish vocals A E I O U Y Å Ä and Ö. Can anyone help me 'classify' them?
Does the Anglo Saxon Runes have sounds?
Yes...?
Trying to find how to prnounce E but it’s really hard. Not one E was in any of these runes!
How do they know that translates to that
Where does the "Northumbrian" runic alphabet fit in?
They belong to the Anglo-Frisian fuþorc, an extension of the English/Anglo-Saxon runic alphabet, a sister alphabet of the Younger Fuþąrk both of which ultimately derived from the Elder Fuþark.
So how would I write “ Hail Odin” ? I think I have it right but im still unsure
it should be ᚼᛅᛁᛚ᛫ᚢᚦᛁᚾ according to the video
Is there an indication the two r-sounds were pronounced in a different manner?
Not much of an answer, but I do know that in Welsh (and potentially in other Celtic languages) there's a voiced trilled "r" (represented by the "r"), and a voiceless trilled "r" (represented by "rh"). Entirely possible this happened in other languages too.
Both of those exist in Old Norse represented with 'hr' in the Roman alphabet. As he mentions in the video that disappeared from all dialects except Old Icelandic pretty early on though.
It is likely that R from proto-Germanic *z was pronounced differently from r from proto-Germanic r at least during the viking age because it's unlikely they would have been as consistently distinguished in writing for as long if they hadn't sounded differently. As far as I'm aware there is no consensus on what the difference was exactly though.
Interesting to see how some consonants that are distinct in English and Old Norse are nonetheless written by the same rune. Perhaps it is the actual pronunciation? Modern German has distinct b & p, g & k, d & t, but in Austrian German these pairs blend in proncunciation into a mixed consonant that is neither hard nor soft. If you are Austrian, you easily know what is meant because you grow up with it, but a German native speaker does have problems understanding.
COULD SOMEONE PLEASE HELP? :) Getting a tattoo of my kids names in old viking runes and am having trouble with the letter 'Y'. My sons names Riley and daughters Matilda. Some websites have different answers! Cheers! :)
I'm a little late, but I believe Y would be ᚢ in the younger futhark.
I'm curious to know what you think of the old Norse version used in Viking? Thx
I think that he once said that even if paid he wouldn't watch that show.
But he has pointed out that even the producers of the show don't know the difference between þ and p, thus there's a character called Porun (which should be Þórunn)
He talks about this here:
FAQ 2: Viking TV/Movies/Music/Comics ua-cam.com/video/XNpjOTu9I5E/v-deo.html
But... but if you have "fathers" in plural would you then have both "reid" and "yr" in the end then? Or would that be just a "yr"? 🤔
Did he forget the X? What rune do you use to write øx (axe)?
X could be written like "ks", so in Younger Futhark word øx could be written like ᚢᚴᛋ or ᚢᚴᛌ, because rune ᚢ can be transliterated as u, v, o, ø and y. In medieval futhork there was rune for x, ᛪ, but it was rarely used. In some cases, there was also a dotted variant of h-rune ᚼ that was used for x. But those were thing in the Medieval Skandinavia.
I wish I could take your class
So Ragnar is R+GÑ( I ) / ( j ) R ?
so did the Viking use younger futhark ? thankyou
dan wood Yes. He said this in the beginning of the video.
This is pretty Interesting. One thing I have noticed is the lack of an "r" at the end of a word and instead an "s" in Gothic while in other Germanic tongues it is an "r". Proto-Germanic probably had this in common with it's descendant of Gothic, while others had the "r'' at the end as an innovation.Tyr(Old Norse god)=Teiws(gothic)Deer(English)=Dius(gothic)Wir(German ''we'')=Weis(gothic)Vera(Old Norse ''to be'')=Wisan(gothic)
He mentions it in the video. The original Proto-Germanic was almost certainly 'z' which became 's' in East and West Germanic and 'r' in North Germanic.
Yea its a cool innovation.The other sound change common in north and high german is the ''W'' to ''V'' sound change. Most others like english didn't go through it though.