How to Say It

The wolf who breaks free

Serpent who releases tail

Elves

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

The primeval cow

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Giant survivor of the blood-flood

Rainbow bridge — reconstructed Old Norse

Thor's hall — lightning-flash

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Baldr's hall — wide-shining

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Female protective spirits

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Frigg's hall — the fen-halls

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Baldr's son — settler of disputes

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Queen of Asgard

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Hound at Hel's gate

Enclosure, yard, stronghold

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Bridge to the realm of the dead

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Words of the masked one

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Watchman of the gods

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Mead-goat on Valhalla's roof

Common in Eddic poetry

Heaven-cliffs — Heimdall's watch

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Frost-mane — horse of night

Corpse-eater — wind-making eagle

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Roaring spring at the tree's root

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Giant whose cauldron the gods borrow

Common in Eddic poetry

Sayings of the high one

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Home of the giants

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

God born of divine spit — mead's source

Land spirits

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Thor's son — might

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Middle enclosure — the world of humans

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Father of sun and moon

Common in Eddic poetry

Thor's son — wrath

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

The three fate-weavers

Serpent at Yggdrasil's root

Ship-harbor — Njörðr's hall

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Squirrel on the world-tree

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Shining-mane — horse of day

Common in Eddic poetry

Norn of what shall be

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Odin's eight-legged horse

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Giant's stallion — builder of the wall

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

The boar cooked each day in Valhalla

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

God of law and sacrifice

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Norn of the past

Common in Eddic poetry

Chooser of the slain

Common in Eddic poetry

Gods of fertility and exchange

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Norn of the present

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Field of the last battle

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

The seeress's prophecy

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Enclosure of the Æsir

A god — singular of Æsir

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

River between gods and giants

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Giant king of illusion

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Thor's realm of might

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Common in Eddic poetry

Wealth, cattle

Aurochs, strength

Giant, thorn — 2 US letters, 1 rune — like "the"

God, breath, speech

Riding, journey

Torch, craft

Gift, exchange

Joy, fellowship

Hail, disruption

Need, necessity

Ice, stillness

Year, harvest — 1 rune, 2 US uses — J as in jar, Y as in year

Yew, axis — Yew sound — no exact US letter alone

Fate, hidden lot

Protection, ward — Modern convention; also R in some systems — not settled

Sun, victory

Tyr, justice

Birch, new growth

Horse, partnership

Humanity

Water, flow

Ing, stored potential — 2 US letters, 1 rune — like "sing"

Day, dawn

Ancestral land

The three fate-weavers

Well of Urd at the tree's root

Mother of his monster children

His brother — whom he killed

Chieftain's toast cup

God of poetry

Poetry — the finest of its kind

Odin's golden ring

Apples — youth of the gods

Her father — earth counterpart

Frisian cognate — debated link

Her field — half the battle-dead

The giantess he loved

The horn that wakes the gods

His hall of gold and silver

The Hooded One — Odin in disguise

His golden-bristled boar

Odin's spear — never misses

Ram — one of his names

Odin's messenger to Hel

Protector aspect — one of her names

Thought — one of Odin's ravens

One of her many names

Whom he kills for Baldr's death

His wife — keeper of the apples

Iron gloves

Wide land — his shoes

Who delivered her to the giant

The airy one — another name

Belt of strength

The mistletoe dart

Memory — one of Odin's ravens

His wife — dies of grief

Cognate earth/water goddess (Tacitus)

His father

His mother — a giantess

Heimdall as Rig — class origin poem

Goddess of history — drinks with Odin

Magic she taught to the Æsir

Her ship-hall

Giantess of mountains and hunting

Ship that folds into a pocket

His rune — justice, guiding star

Alternate form of his name

God of archery and skiing

Father of the Slain — kenning

Hall of the Slain (Valhalla)

Dís of the Vanir

Wide — root of his name

Ancestor-king name

His tooth-gift realm

Wolf-rune — associated with her

Yew Dales — his hall

Giant who stole her (in one account)

Thor's daughter — strength

Sometimes named as Ullr's stepfather in tradition

Warriors chosen for Odin's hall

The doom the Einherjar prepare for

Hall of the Slain

Trading site — Sweden

First to sight Vínland

Valkyrie — saga example

Old Norse for Denmark

Dragon — warship with carved head

Eiríkr the Red

Old custom — what was suppressed

Realm of towns — Russia

Famous ship burial ship

Chieftain-priest who adapted or resisted

Grey goose — Iceland law code

Greenland

Deluding of Gylfi — cosmology

Harald Fairhair — first king

Alternate Völuspá manuscript

Local chieftain — Norway

Old Norse for Novgorod

Island duel — formal combat

Chieftain

Mistress of the house

Arab traveler — Rus' witness

Earl — high noble

Danish royal runestones

Cargo ship — Atlantic trade

Christianization — the process

Vínland site — Newfoundland

Longship — warship

Leif the Lucky

Great city — Constantinople

Modern term — the region

Old Norse for Norway

Northmen — Norðmenn

Outlawry — beyond law's protection

Famous ship burial, Norway

Runestone

Eastern Norse state — Kievan Rus'

Sail — wool, often striped

Seiðr-woman

Shield-maiden — debated term

Warship class — twenty oars

Prose Edda author

Stem — carved prow

Old Norse for Sweden

Norse guard in Byzantium

Era of Norse expansion

One who goes on expedition

Wine-land — North America

Man-price compensation

Iceland

Saint Olaf — forced conversion

Where conversion was often decided

Bear-shirt — frenzy warrior

Combined runes in one carving

Primary Poetic Edda manuscript

English — Norse-ruled England

Great-grandmother — name of the corpus

Old Norse — the language itself

Old story meter

Name carved in Hagia Sophia

Major saga manuscript collection

From húsbóndi — house-master

Poetic compound — say each word

From lagu — something laid down

Song meter of wisdom poems

What skalds drank — divine inspiration

North Germanic language of the Eddas

Runestone — memorial in stone

Famous longest inscription — Sweden

Runes — carved secrets

Court poet — different tradition

From Old Norse ský — cloud

Seeress who speaks the poems

Kenning for the sea

From vindauga — wind-eye

Goddess

Theodoric — on the Rök stone

Freyja's necklace — in the bargain

Son of Búri — father of Óðinn

First of the gods

Whose bridal veil Thor wears

The void before creation

Fetter used on Fenrir — same craft

Giantess who guarded the mead

The poem of this fishing trip

Loki's flyting — the poem

Island where Fenrir is bound

Serpent's formal name

Well of wisdom at the root

Son whose entrails bind Loki

Valkyrie's rune teaching

His wife who holds the bowl

Giant who hid the mead

Who avenges Baldr — binds the wolf

Who kills Fenrir at Ragnarök

The primordial giant

Who stole the mead as an eagle

The mead cauldron

The poem of the theft

Dwarf smith — forged Mjölnir

Dwarf — master smith

Dark elves — debated category

Brother-smith in the forge contest

Given Álfheim as tooth-gift

Place of joy — Odin's council

Realm overlaps with Niflheim in some sources

Realm of the dead

Odin's high seat — sees all worlds

Earth — also a goddess

Giant — often not simple enemy

Light elves

Humans — those who dwell here

Primordial fire — obscure etymology

Realm of primordial fire

Realm of mist and cold

Mist-Hel — deeper death

Chief Vanir god on the Æsir side

Corpse-shore — oath-breakers' hall

Surtr's sword — sun of battle

Fire-giant who ends the world

Home of dark elves / dwarves

Black elves — Snorri's term

Home of the Vanir

The world-tree at the center

Elves — light and dark in later tradition

Outer stronghold — giant citadel

Thunder-home — Skaði's hall

Giant king — stole Mjölnir

Sacrifice and ritual offering

Honor, noble conduct

Spring sacrifice to the dísir

English — bloodline gatekeeping (modern)

Peace within the kindred

Patron — fully trusted one

Follower-spirit — personal attendant

Personal luck — cultivated on the path

Heathen — one of the heath

Drinking vessel passed in rounds

Heap of stones — outdoor altar

Yule — midwinter feast

Power, vital force

Memorial toast — memory cup

Thor's hammer — symbol worn today

Sacred vow — bound in sumbel

Rebuilding from sources

Victory sacrifice — spring

Altar stone or raised place

Ceremonial drinking round

English — open practice (modern)

Faith in the Vanir — some traditions

Feast — communal meal after offering

Winter Nights — start of winter

Wizard, practitioner of seiðr

Sacred enclosure

Fate that unfolds — not fixed doom

Faith in the Æsir — modern term

Primal law laid at birth

Midwinter feast — modern Iceland

Frost-giants' name for Ymir

Victory-Counsel — Odin in disguise

Hoard-Mímir — wood of refuge

Sturdy of Life — second survivor

Life — survivor after Fimbulwinter

The giant — wisest of jötnar

Words of Vafþrúðnir — wisdom contest

Poison rivers of the primordial gap

US letters: F

1 rune → 4 US vowels/consonants — context decides

2 US letters, 1 rune — like "thick"

1 rune → 3 US vowel sounds

US letters: R

1 rune → 2 US consonants

US letters: H

1 rune → N or D depending on position

1 rune → 3 US letters

Long A — distinct from Óss in practice

US letters: S

1 rune → T or D depending on position

1 rune → B or P

US letters: M

US letters: L

1 rune → final R, Y, or Z — most overloaded rune