Writing system
The Old Norse Alphabet
Surviving Old Norse is written in two systems. Runic inscriptions use Elder Futhark and the later 16-rune Younger Futhark, while the medieval manuscripts that preserve most literature use the Latin alphabet with added letters such as þ, ð, æ, and ǫ. This chart shows the normalized Latin letters used by modern editions and by the Old Norse keyboard.
Thorn
th · voiceless th as in thin
Eth
d · voiced th as in father
Ash
æ · vowel between a and e
O with ogonek
ǫ · rounded a, later written ö
O with stroke
ø · rounded front vowel
OE ligature
œ · long rounded front vowel
E with tail
ę · nasal e in early manuscripts
A acute
á · long a
E acute
é · long e
I acute
í · long i
O acute
ó · long o
U acute
ú · long u
Y acute
ý · long y
Counting
Old Norse Numbers
Compare normalized Roman numerals with representative Old West Norse cardinal forms. Number words vary by gender, case, dialect, manuscript, and modern edition.
How it works
How Old Norse Grammar Works
Old Norse marked a word's role with inflectional endings, so nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and articles changed form far more than their Modern English counterparts. The definite article was normally attached to the end of the noun instead of standing as a separate word.
Four main cases
Nouns, adjectives, and pronouns change their endings for nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative, so the same word can look different according to its role.
Grammatical gender
Every noun belongs to a masculine, feminine, or neuter class, and articles, adjectives, and pronouns agree with it in gender, number, and case.
Strong and weak verbs
Strong verbs mark the past tense by changing their stem vowel, while weak verbs add a dental ending such as -aði or -di.
Explore a short phrase
Select a word from a traditional Old Norse greeting to see its form and role.
ver · be
Second-person singular imperative of vera, meaning to be.
“ Ver þú heill ” — Be well.
Development
From the Viking Age to the Modern Scandinavian Languages
Follow Old Norse from its runic period through the medieval manuscript tradition and the changes that split it into today's North Germanic languages.
c. 793–1100 CE
Viking Age
Old Norse spread with Scandinavian settlement across the North Atlantic and beyond. Most surviving evidence from this period is short and runic, and regional differences were already present.
c. 1100–1350 CE
Manuscript era
After the conversion to Christianity, scribes wrote Latin letters on parchment. The Eddas, sagas, and legal texts of Iceland and Norway preserve most of the Old Norse literature we can read today.
from c. 1350 CE
Transition to the modern languages
Sound changes and growing regional divergence separated Old West Norse and Old East Norse into the modern Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, and Faroese languages.
Comparison
Old Norse and Modern English
Old Norse and Old English were both Germanic languages, and a number of everyday English words still show a recognizable shared ancestry.
References
Dates and forms are concise learning references. Spellings vary across manuscripts, dialects, and modern editions.