Old Norse translator
Translate English to Old Norse, the language of the Vikings, or Old Norse back to English, word by word. Free and private.
Loading the Old Norse word list…Word-by-word lookup: no grammar or word order is applied, so treat the result as a vocabulary guide. Word list from Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, with a hand-written core vocabulary added.
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Everything you need to translate Old Norse
Both directions
Turn English into Old Norse or read Old Norse back into English, one tool, either way.
Live translation
The result updates as you type. No button to press.
3,700 Old Norse words
A real dictionary of Old Norse headwords with common inflected forms.
Honest about gaps
Words with no entry stay in [brackets] and are counted, so nothing is invented.
Norse letters
Accepts þ, ð, æ and ǫ, with or without accents.
100% private
Runs in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded or stored.
Translate in three steps
- 1
Pick a direction
Choose English → Old Norse to translate a phrase, or Old Norse → English to read a line from a saga or the Eddas.
- 2
Type or paste your text
Paste a sentence, a name or a line of verse. Letters such as þ, ð, æ and ǫ are fine, with or without accents.
- 3
Check the brackets and copy
The result updates as you type. Words with no entry stay in [brackets] instead of being guessed. Copy it or download a .txt.
Built for students, writers and Viking fans
Old Norse is the language of the Vikings and the Icelandic sagas, spoken across Scandinavia and the North Atlantic until about 1300. It is the same search as a Viking translator.
Students and teachers
Look up vocabulary for the sagas, the Eddas or a Scandinavian studies course.
Writers and game designers
Find Norse names, mottos and place names for fiction, tabletop games and worldbuilding.
Tattoos and engravings
Get a starting point for a word or short phrase, then check it with a specialist before it is permanent.
Viking fans
Paste a line of Old Norse verse and see roughly what each word means.
Frequently asked questions
What is Old Norse?
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Old Norse is the North Germanic language the Vikings spoke, from about 700 to 1300. Icelandic and the Scandinavian languages descend from it. Most surviving texts are Icelandic sagas and the Poetic and Prose Eddas.
How accurate is this Old Norse translator?
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It is a word-by-word lookup. Each English word is matched to an Old Norse word from a dictionary of about 3,700 headwords, plus a hand-written list of everyday words such as ek (I), ok (and) and konungr (king). It does not apply cases, verb endings or the suffixed article, so the output is a vocabulary guide, not grammatical Old Norse.
What does it do with a word it does not know?
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It leaves the word in [square brackets] and counts it. It never invents a word. Modern words such as computer or pizza have no Old Norse form.
Is this the same as a Viking translator?
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Yes. The Vikings spoke Old Norse, so a Viking translator is an Old Norse translator. The runic alphabets they wrote with are a separate script and are not covered here.
Why is there no word for the?
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Old Norse put the article on the end of the noun (konungr, konungrinn), so there is no separate word. The tool drops the English the and leaves the ending to you.
Why do some words have accents and unusual letters?
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Old Norse used letters such as þ (th), ð (the soft th), æ and ǫ, and editors add accents to mark long vowels. The tool matches words with or without the accents, so you can type plain letters.
Where does the word list come from?
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The Old Norse entries are taken from Wiktionary (licensed CC BY-SA 4.0), reduced to a compact list, with a hand-written core vocabulary added on top. Credit and licence are shown under the tool.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
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No. The word list loads into your browser and the translation runs there. Nothing you type is sent to a server.
Translate Old Norse now
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