ᚱunic unicode

Convert latin letters to ᚱunic

Find the Unicode names of ᚱunic characters

Runic keyboard layout

The web browsers are beginning to get decent support for UNICODE. (The runic in this page's title bar doesn't work in the browsers I have tested, that may be a problem in Windows 2000, rather than the browsers.) If a unicode font containing the characters you need are installed, the browser will find it.

You can test if your browser displays runes at Alan Wood's test page, where you can also find suitable fonts.

I have made HTML copy of the official documentation for runic UNICODE. The HTML version requires a unicode runic font and a suitable browser/OS combination, while the PDF only requires Acrobat Reader.

Why unicode?

In the olden days, runic fonts were nothing but ISO-8859-1 fonts where the glyphs were drawn as runes, rather than latin letters. That made it easy to write runes, even if you couldn't read them; use a latin font while writing, and change to runic when you publish.

The drawback is that publisher and reader will have to agree on which 'latin-runic' font to use. And this approach implies that there is a 1–to–1 mapping between latin and runic, but there isn't. (Ðere is no such þing as a mapping bitvin Iselandik and English latin, eiðer)



Hobbin, the Faroese translation of the Hobbit—translated by Axel Tórgarð—has some runic text: First, the cover:

ᚼᚫᛒᛒᛁᚿ​᛫​ᛂᛚᛚᛆ​᛫​ᚢᛏ​᛫​ᚫᚵ​᛫​ᚼᛂᛁᛘ​᛫​ᛆᚠᛏᚢᚱ​᛭​ᚼᛂᛏᛏᛆ​᛫​ᛂᚱ​᛫​ᛂᛁᚿ​᛫​ᚠᚱᛆᛋᚯᚵᚿ​᛫​ᚢᛘ​᛫​ᛂᛁᚿᛆ​᛫​ᚠᛂᚱᚦ​᛫​ᛋᚢᛘ​᛫​ᛒᛁᛚᛒᚫ​᛫​ᛔᛁᚯᚴᛁᚿ ​᛫​ ​᛫​ᛔᛁᚯᚴᛆᛒᚫᛚᛁ​᛫​ᚡᛆᚱ​᛫​​᛫​ᛂᛁᛏᛏ​᛫​ᚼᛂᛁᛚᛏ​᛫​ᛆᚱ​᛭​ ᛋᚴᚱᛁᚡᛆᚦ​᛫​ᛆᚡ​᛫​ᛂᚠᛏᛁᚱ​᛫​ᛂᚿᛑᚢᚱᛘᛁᚿᚿᛁᚿᚵᚢᛘ​᛫​ᚼᛆᚿᛋᛆᚱᛆ​᛫​ᛆᚡ​᛫​ᛁ​᛫​ᚱ​᛫​ᚱ​᛫​ᛏᚫᛚᚴᛁᛂᚿ​᛭​ᛏᚤᛑᛑ​᛫​ᛏᛁᛚ​᛫​ᚠᚯᚱᚫᚤᛋᚴᛏ​᛫​ᛆᚡ​᛫​ᛆᚴᛋᛂᛚ​᛫​ᛏᚫᚱᚵᛆᚱᚦ​᛫​ᚫᚵ​᛫​ᚵᛁᚡᛁᚿ​᛫​ᚢᛏ​᛫​ᛆᚡ​᛫​ᚠᚫᚱᛚᛆᚵᚿᚢᛘ​᛫​ᛋᛏᛁᚦᛁᛆᚿᚢᛘ​᛫​ᛁ᛫ᚼᚫᚤᚡᛁᚴ​᛭​ᚱᚢᚿᛁᚱᚿᛆᚱ​᛫​ᚼᛆᚡᛆ​᛫​ᚡᛆᛚᛑᛂᛘᛆᚱ​᛫​ᛑᛆᛚᛋᚵᛆᛆᚱᛑ​᛫​ᚫᚵ​᛫​ᛁᚫᚼᛆᚿ​᛫​ᚼᛂᚿᛑᚱᛁᚴ​᛫​ᛔᚫᚢᛚᛋᛂᚿ​᛫​ᛂᚵᚿᛆᚦ​᛫​ᛏᛁᛚ

On the door:


The moon runes:


Tolkien's original Angerthas runes in Lord of the Rings, .Ðe LaRD OV Ðe RINGS TRANSLAT'D FROM Ðe RED BŌK seems to be beyond the scope of UNICODE.

From Hugin & Minnið by Jonhard Mikkelsen and Anker Eli Petersen, a suggested Faroese alphabet:


Unicode is missing the triple punctiation, I used ᛭ instead. Hard to tell if that is another character, or merely an alternative glyph. Also missing, is the dotted "ᛏ" for "D", I used "ᛑ". "ᛒ" should have an angular glyph, but the Code2000 font I test, displays a glyph that's close to a latin B. The "ᛘ" glyph should also be more angular than Code2000 renders it.

The Titus font works in IE and Mozilla, but not in Opera—probably because the font doesn't delcare itself as a unicode font for the Runic range.

…and latin norse text

While we're at it, let's test if we can display 01EB ǫ LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH OGONEK, the most troublesome latin character of those used in old Norse texts. Let's also test Hugin & Minnið's spelling of futhąrk.