These are a set of six Runic fonts that each cover the subset of 34 characters in the Unicode Runic block that are used in Frisian and Anglo-Saxon inscriptions from the 5th to 11th centuries :
- BabelStone Runic Beagnoth : A font based on the runic letterforms used on the Thames scramasax
- BabelStone Runic Beorhtric : A font based on the angular letterforms used in runic inscriptions, but with some early letterforms
- BabelStone Runic Beorhtnoth : A font based on the angular letterforms used in runic inscriptions
- BabelStone Runic Beowulf : A general purpose sans serif font
- BabelStone Runic Berhtwald : A general purpose serif font
- BabelStone Runic Byrhtferth : A font based on the rounded letterforms used in runic manuscripts
These fonts use OpenType features to implement kerning, ligatures (bind runes and mirror runes), mirrored glyphs for Right-to-Left contexts, and stylistic alternative glyphs, as described below.
Download
The six fonts are available for download individually or as a single zip file:
- BabelStone Runic Beagnoth Version 1.03 [2010-07-04]
- BabelStone Runic Beorhtric Version 1.04 [2010-07-04]
- BabelStone Runic Beorhtnoth Version 1.04 [2010-07-04]
- BabelStone Runic Beowulf Version 1.03 [2010-07-04]
- BabelStone Runic Berhtwald Version 1.03 [2010-07-04]
- BabelStone Runic Byrhtferth Version 1.03 [2010-07-04]
- All Six Fonts [2010-07-04]
Sample Images
BabelStone Runic Beagnoth at 24 points
BabelStone Runic Beorhtric at 24 points
BabelStone Runic Beorhtnoth at 24 points
BabelStone Runic Beowulf at 24 points
BabelStone Runic Berhtwald at 24 points
BabelStone Runic Byrhtferth at 24 points
Ligatures (Bind Runes)
All fonts include a number of ligatures (bind runes) that can be activated by inserting a Zero Width Joiner character (U+200D or ‍ in HTML) between the characters to be ligatured (e.g. <16BB 200D 16D6 200D 16DA> produces the HEL ligature). All attested Anglo-Saxon bind runes that I know of are included, but if there are any of others that you need, please let me know.
Mirror runes (where the glyph is mirrored around the central stem) are implememented as ligatures of the same rune doubled (e.g. <16A2 200D 16A2> produces the mirrored form of the ur rune).
Example 1 : Dragon's Head Knife Mount with Cryptic Runic Inscription
Screenshot of BabelStone Runic Beowulf at 24 points
Unicode Runic Text
ᛋᛒᛖᚱᚫᛞᚻᛏᛇᛒᚳᚪᛁ ᛖᚱᚻᚪᛞᚫᛒᛋ
Note ligatured runes E/R, H/A and D/Æ
Example 2 : The Wheatley Hill Ring Inscription
Screenshot of BabelStone Runic Berhtwald at 24 points
Unicode Runic Text
[ᚻ]ᚱᛁᚾᚷᛁᚳᚻᚪᛏᛏ[ᚫ]
Note ligatured runes H/A
Example 3 : The Undley Bracteate Inscription
Screenshot of BabelStone Runic Beorhtric at 24 points
Unicode Runic Text
ᚷᚫᚷᚩᚷᚫ ᛗᚫᚷᚫ ᛗᛖᛞᚢ
Note ligatured runes G/Æ and G/O (the text on the bracteate runs right-to-left, but for technical reasons explained later on this page, the Unicode text is rendered left-to-right)
Example 4 : Mirror Rune Stamp on Cremation Urns from the Spong Hill Saxon Cemetery
Screenshot of BabelStone Runic Beorhtric at 24 points
Unicode Runic Text
ᚫᚫᛚᛚᚢᚢ
The word ælu "ale" written in mirror runes (implemented by writing each letter twice, with a Zero Width Joiner character [U+200D] in between)
Kerning
All fonts except for BabelStone Runic Berhtwald provide kerning between runes where appropriate.
Alternate Glyphs
BabelStone Runic Beowulf and BabelStone Runic Beohtric include stylistic alternate glyphs for some characters using the OpenType salt (Stylistic Alternates) feature. Some applications may allow you to select a particular stylistic alternate glyph, but I do not have access to any such application, so I have not been able to test that this feature has been implemented correctly in my fonts.
Mirrored Glyphs for Right-to-Left Text
Runic inscriptions mostly read left-to-right (LTR), but sometimes read right-to-left (RTL) or are sometimes written boustrophedon (left-to-right and right-to-left in alternate lines); when written right-to-left the glyphs are normally mirrored, as for example on the front of the Franks Casket shown below, where the top line is written left-to-right with normal glyphs, and the bottom line is written right-to-left with mirrored glyphs.
You can cause a stretch of Runic text to be displayed in right-to-left order by putting U+202D (LEFT-TO-RIGHT OVERRIDE [RLO]) at the start of the text and putting U+202C (POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING [PDF]) at the end of the text (PDF is not required at the end of a line, as the directionality of the text is reset at a new line, but for the same reason RLO is required at the start of each line of RTL text).
The BabelStone Anglo-Saxon Runic fonts all include mirrored glyphs for use in Right-to-Left contexts. The mirrored glyphs should be applied by activating the rtlm (Right-to-left mirrored forms) OpenType feature (see discussion on "Left-to-right and right-to-left text" at Advanced Typographic Extensions - OpenType Layout) when the text is marked as RTL as descibed in the previous paragraph, but this feature appears not to be supported by Windows Vista or Windows 7.
Example of Right-to-Left Runic Text
From the Front of the Franks Casket
ᚹᚪᚱᚦᚷᚪ᛬ᛋᚱᛁᚳᚷᚱᚩᚱᚾᚦᚫᚱᚻᛖᚩᚾᚷᚱᛖᚢᛏᚷᛁᛋᚹᚩᛗ
<RLO> WARÞ GA:SRIC GRORN ÞÆR HE ON GREUT GISWOM <PDF>
the runes should be laid out right-to-left, but glyph-mirroring will probably not be applied
Character Repertoire
| Code Point | Character Name | Rune Name | BabelStone Runic | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beagnoth | Beorhtric | Beorhtnoth | Beowulf | Berhtwald | Byrhtferth | |||
| 16A0 | RUNIC LETTER FEHU FEOH FE F | feoh | ᚠ | ᚠ | ᚠ | ᚠ | ᚠ | ᚠ |
| 16A2 | RUNIC LETTER URUZ UR U | ūr | ᚢ | ᚢ | ᚢ | ᚢ | ᚢ | ᚢ |
| 16A3 | RUNIC LETTER YR | ȳr | ᚣ | ᚣ | ᚣ | ᚣ | ᚣ | ᚣ |
| 16A6 | RUNIC LETTER THURISAZ THURS THORN | þorn | ᚦ | ᚦ | ᚦ | ᚦ | ᚦ | ᚦ |
| 16A9 | RUNIC LETTER OS O | ōs | ᚩ | ᚩ | ᚩ | ᚩ | ᚩ | ᚩ |
| 16AA | RUNIC LETTER AC A | āc | ᚪ | ᚪ | ᚪ | ᚪ | ᚪ | ᚪ |
| 16AB | RUNIC LETTER AESC | æsċ | ᚫ | ᚫ | ᚫ | ᚫ | ᚫ | ᚫ |
| 16B1 | RUNIC LETTER RAIDO RAD REID R | rād | ᚱ | ᚱ | ᚱ | ᚱ | ᚱ | ᚱ |
| 16B3 | RUNIC LETTER CEN | ċēn | ᚳ | ᚳ | ᚳ | ᚳ | ᚳ | ᚳ |
| 16B7 | RUNIC LETTER GEBO GYFU G | ġyfu | ᚷ | ᚷ | ᚷ | ᚷ | ᚷ | ᚷ |
| 16B8 | RUNIC LETTER GAR | gār | ᚸ | ᚸ | ᚸ | ᚸ | ᚸ | ᚸ |
| 16B9 | RUNIC LETTER WUNJO WYNN W | wyn | ᚹ | ᚹ | ᚹ | ᚹ | ᚹ | ᚹ |
| 16BB | RUNIC LETTER HAEGL H | hæġl | ᚻ | ᚻ | ᚻ | ᚻ | ᚻ | ᚻ |
| 16BE | RUNIC LETTER NAUDIZ NYD NAUD N | nȳd | ᚾ | ᚾ | ᚾ | ᚾ | ᚾ | ᚾ |
| 16C1 | RUNIC LETTER ISAZ IS ISS I | īs | ᛁ | ᛁ | ᛁ | ᛁ | ᛁ | ᛁ |
| 16C4 | RUNIC LETTER GER | ġēr | ᛄ | ᛄ | ᛄ | ᛄ | ᛄ | ᛄ |
| 16C7 | RUNIC LETTER IWAZ EOH | ēōh | ᛇ | ᛇ | ᛇ | ᛇ | ᛇ | ᛇ |
| 16C8 | RUNIC LETTER PERTHO PEORTH P | peorð | ᛈ | ᛈ | ᛈ | ᛈ | ᛈ | ᛈ |
| 16C9 | RUNIC LETTER ALGIZ EOLHX | eolh, eolhseċġ | ᛉ | ᛉ | ᛉ | ᛉ | ᛉ | ᛉ |
| 16CB | RUNIC LETTER SIGEL LONG-BRANCH-SOL S | siġel | ᛋ | ᛋ | ᛋ | ᛋ | ᛋ | ᛋ |
| 16CF | RUNIC LETTER TIWAZ TIR TYR T | tīr | ᛏ | ᛏ | ᛏ | ᛏ | ᛏ | ᛏ |
| 16D2 | RUNIC LETTER BERKANAN BEORC BJARKAN B | beorc | ᛒ | ᛒ | ᛒ | ᛒ | ᛒ | ᛒ |
| 16D6 | RUNIC LETTER EHWAZ EH E | eh, eoh | ᛖ | ᛖ | ᛖ | ᛖ | ᛖ | ᛖ |
| 16D7 | RUNIC LETTER MANNAZ MAN M | man | ᛗ | ᛗ | ᛗ | ᛗ | ᛗ | ᛗ |
| 16DA | RUNIC LETTER LAUKAZ LAGU LOGR L | lagu | ᛚ | ᛚ | ᛚ | ᛚ | ᛚ | ᛚ |
| 16DD | RUNIC LETTER ING | ing | ᛝ | ᛝ | ᛝ | ᛝ | ᛝ | ᛝ |
| 16DE | RUNIC LETTER DAGAZ DAEG D | dæġ | ᛞ | ᛞ | ᛞ | ᛞ | ᛞ | ᛞ |
| 16DF | RUNIC LETTER OTHALAN ETHEL O | ēþel | ᛟ | ᛟ | ᛟ | ᛟ | ᛟ | ᛟ |
| 16E0 | RUNIC LETTER EAR | ear | ᛠ | ᛠ | ᛠ | ᛠ | ᛠ | ᛠ |
| 16E1 | RUNIC LETTER IOR | ior | ᛡ | ᛡ | ᛡ | ᛡ | ᛡ | ᛡ |
| 16E2 | RUNIC LETTER CWEORTH | cweorð | ᛢ | ᛢ | ᛢ | ᛢ | ᛢ | ᛢ |
| 16E3 | RUNIC LETTER CALC | calc | ᛣ | ᛣ | ᛣ | ᛣ | ᛣ | ᛣ |
| 16E4 | RUNIC LETTER CEALC | cealc | ᛤ | ᛤ | ᛤ | ᛤ | ᛤ | ᛤ |
| 16E5 | RUNIC LETTER STAN | stān | ᛥ | ᛥ | ᛥ | ᛥ | ᛥ | ᛥ |
| 16EB | RUNIC SINGLE PUNCTUATION | ᛫ | ᛫ | ᛫ | ᛫ | ᛫ | ᛫ | |
| 16EC | RUNIC MULTIPLE PUNCTUATION | ᛬ | ᛬ | ᛬ | ᛬ | ᛬ | ᛬ | |
| 16ED | RUNIC CROSS PUNCTUATION | ᛭ | ᛭ | ᛭ | ᛭ | ᛭ | ᛭ | |
OpenType Features
| Script | Language | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Runic <runr> | Default <dflt> | Glyph Composition Decomposition <ccmp> |
| Kerning <kern> | ||
| Right-To-Left Alternates <rtlm> | ||
| Stylistic Alternates <salt> |
See Also
- BabelStone Moon Runes (an Anglo-Saxon runic font based on the moon runes on Thror's map in The Hobbit)
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