About
About us.
Old Norse Translator is a free, no-signup online toolkit for anyone curious about the language of the Vikings, the sagas, and the runes — from students and researchers to writers, gamers, and hobbyists.
What we offer.
- English ↔ Old Norse translation — instant, word-by-word, with a labelled source for every result.
- Rune translator & rune converter — Elder Futhark and Younger Futhark, text to runes and runes to text.
- Dictionary — a large Old Norse ↔ English word list built from public historical dictionaries.
- Common phrases — 40+ everyday phrases with normalized Old Norse, runes, IPA, and audio.
- Audio pronunciation — hear Old Norse words read aloud in your browser.
- Learn tools — quizzes and flashcards to practice vocabulary.
- Companion translators — Aramaic, Elvish, Simlish, and Shakespearean translators, plus an Old Norse-style keyboard and alphabet guides.
How it works.
Every translation first checks an offline dictionary compiled from historical and open sources — chiefly the Cleasby–Vigfusson Old Norse–English Dictionary and Wiktionary data released under CC BY-SA. Each result is shown with its source, so you always know whether a word is directly attested or a scholarly reconstruction. When a word is missing from the dictionary, we fall back to open reference APIs, and for longer sentences we use a machine-translation reconstruction that is clearly labelled as such.
Our principles.
- Free forever — no paywalls, no premium tier, no hidden limits.
- No signup — no accounts, no email collection, no onboarding funnel.
- Honest labelling — attested forms and reconstructions are never mixed up.
- Privacy by default — we collect as little as possible. See our Privacy Policy.
A note on accuracy.
Old Norse was a living language spoken across Scandinavia and its settlements for centuries, with real regional and period variation. No automated tool can capture that fully. Our output is a starting point for study and creative work — for published, academic, or runic-inscription use, please verify results against a scholarly dictionary and, where it matters, a specialist.
Get in touch.
Found a mistake, have a feature idea, or want to suggest a word for the dictionary? We read every message. Visit the Contact Uspage or email us directly atcontact@oldnorsetranslator.com.