Bind rune generator
Stack runes on a shared stave, the way a carver did to save space. Type a name or a word, choose which runes to keep, and take the result away as an SVG.
What this is, and what it is not
Most bind runes use two or three runes. A whole name usually gives an unreadable tangle, so the runes below can be switched off individually.
How this draws a bind rune
Runic letters are built around a vertical stave, and a bind rune is two or more letters sharing one. So the drawing here is literal: each rune is moved until its stave lies on the same line as the others', and where they coincide they merge into one. The stave is not always in the same place. ᚠ and ᚱ carry it on the left, ᛏ and ᚾ in the middle, so binding ᛏ to ᚠ slides the arrow across onto fehu's stave.
A few letters have no stave of their own. ᚲ is a bare chevron, ᚷ is an X, and ᛃ, ᛜ, ᛟ and the Elder Futhark ᛊ are closed or zigzag shapes, so they are centred across the stave rather than joining it. That is not a limitation of the tool: carvers had the same problem, and the surviving bind runes overwhelmingly use letters that do have a stave.
The downloaded SVG contains real text rather than outlines, so it stays editable, and it carries the runic font inside the file, so it looks the same in any browser. Some design programs ignore a font embedded that way and fall back to what is installed; to edit the file in one of those, you will need a runic font installed.
Questions people ask about bind runes
- Are bind runes historically real?
- Joining two or more runes on a shared vertical stave is attested, on runestones and on smaller objects. What is modern is the practice of composing a personal monogram from the initials of a name and treating the result as a charm. The historical examples are mostly practical: saving space, or saving cutting.
- Does a bind rune combine the meanings of its runes?
- There is no historical basis for that. It is a 20th-century idea that follows from the modern divinatory rune meanings rather than from anything a carver left behind. A bind rune in the record is a way of writing letters compactly, not a way of adding their significance together.
- Which runic system should I use?
- It depends on the period you are aiming at. The Elder Futhark is the oldest and the one most charts show, but it was obsolete by the Viking Age; for anything Norse, the Younger Futhark is the accurate choice. The tool offers five systems and each says what it was used for and when.
- Can I use this for a tattoo?
- You can, and people do. Check the transliteration first on a page that explains every letter choice, because a bind rune makes an error much harder to spot than a written-out word does. Read the notes on rune tattoos before committing to anything permanent.