Below, for the sake of convenience, the Medieval runes are arranged in ABC order: Basically, it is the same Younger Futhark with only a few changes, since propagation of the roman alphabet led to the addition of new runes that corresponded to letters, which had no counterparts in the 16-rune system (note that the nasalized /ã/ sound changed into /o/ and the corresponding rune now designated /o/, accordingly). Later inscriptions were carved using so called Medieval runes. Normal and short-twig runes were often mixed in inscriptions, which led to appearance of other regional variants. If you are looking for a translation into Old Norse (the language of the Vikings), this would authentically be written with Younger Futhark. The trend towards minimalism triumphed in another variant of the Younger Futhark, so called staveless or Hålsinge runes, which were used only in a restricted area (see the third row above). Many people are surprised to learn that Elder Futhark was not the alphabet of the Viking Age, but is actually the alphabet of Germanic languages that came earlier in history.

Because of the obvious differences between the two, their more common respective names are long-branch and short-twig runes. These runes are sometimes called Norwegian-Swedish or Rök runes (see the second row above). Frisian and England is important to note. However, very soon another variant of the Younger Futhark developed. While we cannot prove if the Saxons in Saxony had modified the Elder Futhark when Old Saxon (the language) was in its most common point (the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries), the difference in what is found vs. The earliest Younger Futhark inscriptions were found in Denmark, that’s why they are sometimes called Danish runes (these are ‘normal’ Younger Futhark runes, see the first row above). The most of the runes could now designate a variety of sounds. If the Agnlo-Saxon Futhorc multiplied the original Common Germanic runes to adapt them for the Old English, the Scandinavian solution was to reduce their number. For instance, the number of vowels grew from 5 to 9. The spoken language of that period underwent serious changes.

It is this set of runes that may be properly called Viking runes, since they were used by the Scandinavians during the Viking Age: This variant of runic alphabet is known as the Younger Futhark. By the 10th century the new form of writing was accepted in the whole of Scandinavia. At the end of the 8th century an unknown rune-master reformed the Elder Futhark having reduced it to 16 runes.

English to elder futhark runes