Spell the word “Goal” in runes: 3 different ways

In this post we’ll dig into three ways of writing the word “Goal”, using runes. We’ll start with the Elder Futhark rune set.

Keep in mind there is no exact way to spell modern English words like “Goal” with any ancient runes. Centuries ago, the runes were intended to represent early European languages, which have competely different phonetics compared to contemporary English.

Writing “Goal” in the Elder Futhark

The easy way: Replacing each letter to spell “Goal”

The above Elder Futhark spelling of “Goal” is written a letter-by-letter replacement as shown in the table below. It is a non-phonetic approach to rune spelling.

This is the simplest way, and for most of today’s use cases it’s probably going to be the best way. But, is it the most accurate way of spelling “Goal” using Elder Futhark runes?

Not really. Even though it may be the fastest to figure out for native English speakers, it probably would not be the closest from a phonetic or pronunciation perspective.

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A closer phonetic rune spelling of “Goal”?

While there aren’t actually runes to match each of our modern English phonetics, the above approach to spelling “Goal” attempts to match sounds (Pronounced ɡoʊl) rather than a corresponding rune for each letter.

Even though this is likely the the closest sounding spelling, it might actually be the most challenging to figure out for those less familiar with the phonetic sounds of the runes. (Also, keep in mind there will always be differences between rune phonetics and contemporary pronunciations).

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Writing “Goal” in Younger Futhark Runes

In contrast to the twenty-four different runes in the Elder Futhark, the Younger Futhark contains just sixteen different runes. This smaller set of rune symbols means each of the runes of the Younger Futhark must be used somewhat creatively to match up with our today’s English letters.

Younger Futhark way to spell “Goal”

Above is a Younger Futhark spelling of “Goal” which is written using a letter-by-letter substitution as per the table below. It is a non-phonetic way of rune-spelling. For most use cases, like tattoos, games, etc. — where the Younger Futhark is used, this is likely to be the best option.

NOTE: None of the historic runes were written for contemporary English terms like “Goal”. Meaning there’s no 100% right way of writing twenty-first century sounds with runes, which were conceived centuries earlier, and intended to write different languages. Also, we don’t really know how ancient runes were vocalized at the time, especially when you consider the fact that runes were used widely by many different civilizations across early Europe — and over the course of several centuries. The best approach is to approximate some of our phonetic sounds using the ancient phonetics that we think apply most closely.