RuneBlade
INPUT:
OUTPUT:
Limitation
This is a "spelling only" application — as it doesn't look up the alphabetic-word pronunciation.
For instance, BEAR = ᛒᛁᛅᚱ.
⬆️ That sounds /beɑr/ or /bjaːr/.
Like "Bjar", Bjarni.
Oi, mate! I'm Bjarni. One day, somebody will make something that use my name as a limitation. Blimey, I talk too much. It's bloody cold. ᛒᛁᛁᚱ! ᛏᚠᛁᚱ!
Blade
🔪 ⬅️ That's a kitchen knife.
History
This is called Younger Futhark. ~800–1100 AD. It consists of 16 runes — fewer than 24 runes Elder Futhark. It was heavily used throughout the Viking Age.
The first six runes are: ᚠ - ᚢ - ᚦ - ᚬ - ᚱ - ᚴ ➡️ F - U - TH - O - R - K (or hard C or Q).
ᚬ (o) is a special character that evolved from Elder's ᚨ (a) and ᛟ (o).
Maybe they pronounced "o" with this lips shape ᚬ. How?
Hᚬw?
🤔
(Styrmir carves ᚬ onto a tree bark.)
(Taps Bjarni's shoulder. (Tap tap. Tap.))
(Styrmir.) Bjarni, look!
(Bjarni goggles. 😲)
⬆️ And that's how the "ᚬ = o" started. 🤷♂️ We need to thank Styrmir and Bjarni for that.
It will be bloody comical if then there's one genuine "Viking" reads that.
Oi!
Apparently, a Cockney Viking.
Oi! Wossat now?
Indeed, sir. Wot vat is, issat.
🤔
It stems from Elder Futhark. The Cockney. Fink about it, Cockney Futhark. It fits. No, that's a jest. I mean Younger Futhark. Younger Futhark stems from Elder Futhark.
There are two major branches of Younger Futhark:
- Long-branch (Danish) runes — full forms used for monumental inscriptions, often found on rune stones.
- Short-twig (Swedish-Norwegian) runes — more compact, simplified forms, commonly used for everyday carving, like messages, tags, and graffiti.
The third variant is staveless runes (or Hälsinge runes — Province of Hälsinge, Sweden). No vertical strokes. It's like writing "A" without the legs and still expecting folks to understand it. It was a local simplification, later development of younger futhark — efficient for quick carving.
This wasn't simplification for convenience, but rather phonological changes. Old Norse changed (new vowels, diphthongs, certain consonants softened or shifted, vocabulary expansion, etc.) so the rune system adapted — but with fewer runes. 🤔 Well... 🤷♂️
Because who's going to argue with a bloke holding a trowel and a PhD? You. Be my guest. I will get my popcorn.
Use RuneBlade as Your Reference
You can simply copy the URL from the address bar above to share your alphabet-to-runes or runes-to-alphabet conversion.
The Culture of Wearing Horned Helmets and Being Savage
Right? You saw that in entertainment. That stems from the Enlightenment melons with their powdered wigs. The Vikings weren't some monolithic horde of bloodthirsty berserkers. AT ALL. Unlike the Mongols. Well, the Mongols were the corporate raiders of the mediaeval world — scalable, efficient, and ruthless — while the Vikings were more like a bunch of mates who started a startup that sometimes involved pillaging. Sometimes. 🤷 They were pragmatists.
Those wig-wearing historians (looking at you, 18th-century romantic nationalists) loved the idea of the "noble savage" or the "fearsome barbarian". It fit their narratives of civilisation vs chaos. The Vikings, with their dramatic raids and exotic culture, were perfect fodder for this binary thinking.
So well, it is good for the theatre, but... blurs the fact, that.
They couldn't change it from "The Viking" to "The Blimey, A Right Norse Fantasy Gaff Up Scandi-Way" ⬅️ That would certainly confuse everyone. Is it a Cockney skit? — an audience would question.
And as you've noticed, the ratio of the Mongols glorified in entertainment vs the Vikings, well... Because those antiquarians, writers, and film producers weren't familiar with the Mongols. But the Vikings? Oh, the blonde over there! That should do it! The Vikings were conveniently European, and that was quite enough qualification. Mongols? Who? Why? Wrong complexion. They achieved what? Irrelevant. I write the story, not retelling a story. I pick the cast, not retell the story of a character. (Confident.)
If the entertainment institution were first founded by the Manchu people, we would have a very different world right about now. But the cosmos said otherwise. No mate, not from the middle, that would be obvious. From the west.
Raiding was seasonal, opportunistic, and often a side gig. Viking society wasn't rigid. A poor farmer could return from a raid with enough loot to buy land, marry well, or even start a political career. It was less "cultural destiny" and more the classic "get-rich-quick scheme". Scandinavia's environment was a harsh taskmaster. The growing season was short, the winters were long, and overpopulation in some areas made life tough.
Raiding was a way to:
- Redistribute wealth: from monasteries to themselves.
- Gain prestige: nothing like a good story to impress the locals.
- Avoid starvation: better to die with a sword in hand than freeze in a hut.
Not all Vikings raided. Many were farmers, traders, or craftsmen. The sagas (written centuries later, mind) focus on the dramatic bits — the raids, the battles, the poetic insults — but most Vikings probably spent more time herding sheep than burning monasteries.
But indeed, Vikings were master sailors. Their longships were the Swiss Army knives of the mediaeval world — fast, versatile, and capable of crossing open ocean AND navigating shallow rivers. No compasses, no fancy charts — just sunstones (maybe), bird migration patterns, and sheer guts. They settled Iceland, Greenland, and even Vinland (America) centuries before Columbus.
⬆️ Though the Swiss, nestled in their landlocked alpine fortress, wouldn't recognise a longship if it sailed through their living room — and wouldn't invent the knife in question for several centuries yet. But you know, since the Swiss Army knife is universally understood as the ultimate all-in-one gizmo. That.
They didn't just raid, they traded. Viking-age Scandinavia was part of a vast network stretching from the Middle East to the Arctic. Silver dirhams from Baghdad have been found in Swedish graves! Imagine bringing that "barbaric attitude" in trading, no customer would be found then.
Oh that horned helmet bollocks, it started from Richard Wagner's 1876 opera, Der Ring des Nibelungen. Then a new legend was formed.
Look at the Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, Icelanders... the Faroese, they aren't wearing horned helmets now... or ever. Ja, jeg skal polere hornene. ⬅️ Well, perhaps one lad uttered it.