Deciphering the Runes Book in Disney’s Frozen
Well, I’m currently up to some weird thing like trying to decipher Old Norse text in the Runes Book in Disney’s Frozen film. I have fairly good progress so far though got stuck on some words. Check it out below, any help/correction is appreciated.
Book Cover
It looks like they are long-branch Younger Futhark runes. Written “ᚱᚢᚾᚬᛦ ᚠᛁᚢᛚᚴᚢᚾᛁᚴᛦᛅ” or “runąR fiulkunikRa” which should represent “Rúnar Fjǫlkunnigra” in Old Norse, translatable as “Runes of Knowledgeable(in magic)”.
(Chrome browser may not render runic font properly. If you don’t see runic characters in the line above, try other browser)
Book Inside
Apparently the lengthy runes in the page above and other pages are just repeated text of
1: ᛋᛏᛅᛁᚾ ᚠᚢᛏᚢ ᚢᛅᛚᛏᛅᛦ ᛏᚢᚴᛚᛅᚼᛁᛘᛁᚾᛋᛁᛋ ᚦᛅᚢ
2: ᛏᚱᚢᛚᛁᚾ ᛅᚠ ᛋᚢᛅᚱᛏᛅᚠᛁᛅᛚᛅᚱᛁᚴᛁ ᛅᛁᚴᚢ
3: ᛚᛅᚴᚾᛁᛋᚼᚬᛏᛦ ᛋᚢ ᚬᛏ ᛁᛋ ᛅᚠ ᚴᛅᛚᛏᚱᛁ ᛋᛅᚱ
4: ᛘᚾ ᚴᚱᚢᚦᛅ ᛁᚠ ᚠᚢᚱᚦ ᛅᛚᛒᚱᛅᚦᛚᛁᚴᛅ ᛏᛁᛚ
5: ᚢᛅᛚᛅᛦᛁᛋ ᚦᛅᛁᛦᛅ ᛏᚱᚢᛚ ᛅᛁᚴᚢ ᚦᛅ ᚾᚬᛏᚢᚱᚢ
6: ᛅᛏ ᚦᛅᚢ ᚠᛅ ᛅᛚᚬᚾ ᚴᛅᛚᛏᚱ ᛅᚠᚦᛁᚱᚦᚬᚾ[ᛚ]
7: ᚢᛦ ᚴᚢᚴᚢᛚᛁᚴᛁ ᚾᛁᛘᚬ ᛅᛁᚾ ᚦᚢᛁ ᛏᛅᚦ ᚴᛅᚱ
8: ᛁ ᚢᛚᚢᚴᛁᚾᛁ ᛅᛋᛏ ᛁᛋ ᛋᚢ ᛅᛁᚾᚬ ᛁᛋ ᚠᛅᛦ
9: ᛅᚠᚦᛁᚱᚦᚬᚾ[ᛚ] ᚼᛁᛅᚱᛏᛅ ᚴᚱᚢᛏ ᛅᛚᛒᚱᛅᚦᛚᛁᚴᛅ
And here is my attemp to translate.
| Rune | Transliterate | Old Norse | English | Part of Speech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Line 1 | ||||
| ᛋᛏᛅᛁᚾ | stain | stein | (to) stone | noun. m. sg. acc. |
| ᚠᚢᛏᚢ | futu | fœðu | brought forth (by) | verb. 3rd. pl. past. |
| ᚢᛅᛚᛏᛅᛦ | ualtaR | valdar | powers ? | noun. n. pl. nom. |
| ᛏᚢᚴᛚᛅᚼᛁᛘᛁᚾᛋᛁᛋ | tuklahiminsis | tungla himinsins | of moon sky | noun. m. sg. gen. |
| ᚦᛅᚢ | þau | þau | they | pron. 3rd. pl. nom.? |
| Line 2 | ||||
| ᛏᚱᚢᛚᛁᚾ | trulin | trollinn | The trolls | noun. m. pl. nom. |
| ᛅᚠ | af | af | from | prep. |
| ᛋᚢᛅᚱᛏᛅ | suarta | svarta | dark | |
| ᚠᛁᛅᛚᛅ | fiala | fjalla | mountain | |
| ᚱᛁᚴᛁ | riki | ríki | realm | noun. m. sg. nom.? |
| ᛅᛁᚴᚢ | aiku | eigu | have | verb. 3rd. pl. pres. |
| Line 3 | ||||
| ᛚᛅᚴᚾᛁᛋᚼᚬᛏᛦ | laknishątR | læknis hendr | healing hands | noun. pl. |
| ᛋᚢ | su | sú | A | det. f. sg. nom. |
| ᚬᛏ | ąt | ǫnd ? | soul | noun. f. sg. nom. |
| ᛁᛋ | is | es (er) | which | |
| ᛅᚠ | af | af | from | prep. |
| ᚴᛅᛚᛏᚱᛁ | kaltri | kaldri | cold | adj. f. sg. dat. |
| ᛋᛅᚱ | sar | sárr | wounded | |
| Line 4 | ||||
| ᛘᚾ | mn | mun | will | verb. 3rd. sg. pres. |
| ᚴᚱᚢᚦᛅ | kruþa | grœða | heal | verb. inf. |
| ᛁᚠ | if | ef | if | conj. |
| ᚠᚢᚱᚦ | furþ | fœrð | brought | verb. 3rd. sg. past. |
| ᛅᛚᛒᚱᛅᚦᛚᛁᚴᛅ | albraþlika | allbraðliga | very quickly | adv. |
| ᛏᛁᛚ | til | til | to | prep. |
| Line 5 | ||||
| ᚢᛅᛚᛅᛦᛁᛋ | ualaRis | vallarins | the field | noun. m. sg. gen. |
| ᚦᛅᛁᛦᛅ | þaiRa | þeira | of them | pron. n. pl. gen. |
| ᛏᚱᚢᛚ | trul | troll | Trolls | noun. pl. nom. |
| ᛅᛁᚴᚢ | aiku | eigu | have | verb. 3rd. pl. pres. |
| ᚦᛅ | þa | þá | those | det. m. pl. acc. |
| ᚾᚬᛏᚢᚱᚢ | nąturu | náttúru | nature | adj. f. sg?. dat. |
| Line 6 | ||||
| ᛅᛏ | at | at | that | |
| ᚦᛅᚢ | þau | þau | they | pron. 3rd. pl. nom. |
| ᚠᛅ | fa | fá | get | verb. 3rd. pl. pres. |
| ᛅᛚᚬᚾ | aląn | allan | all | |
| ᚴᛅᛚᛏᚱ | kaltR | galdr | sorcery | noun. m. pl. |
| ᛅᚠᚦᛁᚱᚦᚬᚾ[ᛚ] | afþirþąn | af þíðnar ?? | un? thaw? | |
| Line 7 | ||||
| ᚢᛦ | uR | úr | out of | prep. |
| ᚴᚢᚴᚢᛚᛁᚴᛁ | kukuliki | gǫngu líki ? | approached body | |
| ᚾᛁᛘᚬ | nimą | nema | to save | verb. inf. |
| ᛅᛁᚾ | ain | einn | one | pron. sg. acc. |
| ᚦᚢᛁ | þui | því | Such | |
| ᛏᛅᚦ | taþ | dáð | action | noun. f. sg. |
| ᚴᛅᚱ | kar | gerr ? | done | |
| Line 8 | ||||
| ᛁ | i | í | in | prep. |
| ᚢᛚᚢᚴᛁᚾᛁ | ulukini | óloginni ? | true ? | |
| ᛅᛋᛏ | ast | ást | love | noun. f. sg. |
| ᛁᛋ | is | es (er) | is | verb. sg. pres. |
| ᛋᚢ | su | sú | an | det. f. sg. nom. |
| ᛅᛁᚾᚬ | ainą | eina | only | |
| ᛁᛋ | is | es (er) | which | |
| ᚠᛅᛦ | faR | fær | can | |
| Line 9 | ||||
| ᛅᚠᚦᛁᚱᚦᚬᚾ[ᛚ] | afþirþąn | af þíðnar ?? | un? thaw? | |
| ᚼᛁᛅᚱᛏᛅ | hiarta | hjarta | heart | noun. n. sg. |
| ᚴᚱᚢᛏ | krut | grýtt ? | stoned | adj. sg. pp. |
| ᛅᛚᛒᚱᛅᚦᛚᛁᚴᛅ | albraþlika | allbraðliga | very quickly | adv. |
I think Line 1 is telling that someone (the guy with Arendelle heraldry in the picture) was accidently caught stone or frozen by nature force (powers of the moon sky).
He probably was a royal ancestor of Arendelle. His head was hit by an ice magic dropped from the moon (Imagine a sunny magic dropped from the sky in Tangled).
Then Line 2, next paragraph, continues on how icy wound get healed by the troll and they might have told about stoned heart could only be thawed by an act of true love.
After troll had removed that icy magic, there’s still some magic flow in his blood (like Rapunzel still has ‘healing magic’ in her). And one day, someone in his lineage (it’s Elsa) just born with ice powers. Voila! That’s my totally guess!
The Map
Clearly the runic script found in here is “ᛏᚱᚢᛚ” or “trul” which is simply for “Troll”. Also notice the map compass rose somewhat resembles the Ægishjálmr, a Viking’s protection symbol.
 Ægishjálmr |
 Map compass rose |
With the Elhaz runes (ᛘ) replaced by (clockwise from the north) ᚴ, ᛁ?, ᛋ?, ᛒ, ᛚ?, ?, ᚼ?, ᚬ?. It is unknown runic order to me. The closest meaning I can find is from Nigel Jackson’s Rune Chart which shows the relation between each futhark and direction though I can’t find it from other resources. Anyway, this seems not the case.
Rune chart by Nigel Jackson
BTW. Might be some errors. I’m no expert. Just researched them from the internet.
27 Mar 2014 Update: Got to know Ægishjálmr and Nigel Jackson’s Rune Chart, so I update the Map section.
7 Apr 2014 Update: After watching Frozen for uhh… 32nd time, maybe. I found more rune on the Troll’s code. Nothing so special except it is a left-to-right rune on the right-to-left paged book (if that is the front cover).
10 Apr 2014 Update: Correct the “Book Inside” section according to most suggestions from Brian M. Scott. It is now 80% readable.
19 Apr 2014 Update: Rewrite the conclusion of the “Book Inside” section.
But people; Please beware of what runes are actually read and what is my just-for-fun theory.
Panya's Blog: Linguistic Aspects 
27 March 2014 at 06:24
What you’ve transcribed as á is actually ą, originally a nasalized a, though it’s used in one place where I wouldn’t have expected it. The first word in line 4 appears to be mn, not ma, in both occurrences.
It appears to me that one really does have to look at each line in its entirety and figure out which words must be struck out: the repetitions aren’t exact, and sometimes the end of the line is important. I think that the following two sentences are present:
þau trulin af suartafialariki aiku laknishątR
Þau trollin af Svartafjallaríki eigu læknishendr.
The trolls of Blackfells Realm have healing hands.
sú ąt er af kaltri sar
Sú ǫnd er af kaldri sár.
That soul is wounded by cold.
Then we seem to have this:
mn kruþa if furþ albraþlika til valaRis þeirra
… grœða ef fœrð allbráðliga til vallarins þeirra.
If mn can be read as munu, this can be understood as ‘[They] will heal if conveyed very quickly to their fields’.
I think that I can also identify the following fragments, though the last two seem to involve unattested words:
trul aiku þau nąturu at þau fa aląn kaltR
troll eigu þau nátturu at þau fá allan galdr
trolls have that nature, that they get all magic
taþ kar i ulukini ast is su
dáð gǫr í óloginni ást er
a deed done in true love is
nimą ain
nema ein(n)
save one
ualtaR tuklahiminsis
valdar tunglahiminsins
wielders of the starry sky
uR kukuliki
ór gǫngulíki
from a walking-body(?)
Here valdar is the plural of valdi or the poetic valdr, both meaning ‘wielder, ruler’, and tungl has its oldest sense, making the compound ‘stars’ sky, starry sky’, presumably referring specifically to the night sky.
If stainfutu can be read as two words, it may be stein fœðu, making stein fœðu valdar tunglahiminsins ‘the wielders of the starry sky give birth to stone’.
The biggest puzzle for me is the word that appears twice as afþirþąnl and once without the final rune. Were it not for that last rune, I’d be tempted to read it as eptir þann, but I can’t quite make that work.
By the way, though I’ve not seen the movie, all of this is more or less compatible with what I’ve read about it.
28 March 2014 at 00:45
Just Wow! My attempt looks like a mess. I’ll take sometime to correct my article. Many thanks for sharing!
28 March 2014 at 01:25
My pleasure! It was actually a lot of fun to play with.
30 March 2014 at 03:57
[…] from Deciphering the Runes Book in Disney’s Frozen, I’ve been trying to decipher the runes on King & Queen of Arendelle’s gravestones […]
1 April 2014 at 18:19
Hello, I am Annahu-Akbar of DCinside, Korea :
who am student of old norse,
the world-first-finder of name of king and queen.
I tried to translate that bookpage, too.
Could I reinforce and add some opinion on thy post?
I want to take feedback with thou.
If thou hast interest in it, please e-mail to me.
qouqous@naver.com
2 April 2014 at 09:30
Yes, sure! Any discussion is very welcome.
3 April 2014 at 19:54
My honourable friend.
May I post thy translation on Korean website DCinside?
I’m sure about it : that I must link thy blog.
5 April 2014 at 15:38
You may. 🙂
5 April 2014 at 18:16
I have a question.
Line 7: “ᚢᛦ ?ᚴᛅᚱ ᚴᚢᚴᚢᛚᛁᚴᛁ”
is this just
“ᚢᛦ ᚴᚢᚴᚢᛚᛁᚴᛁ”?
5 April 2014 at 20:40
Right. There are two occurrences of this word. One is “ᚢᛦ ᚴᚢᚴᚢᛚᛁᚴᛁ” another is “?ᚴᛅᚱ ᚴᚢᚴᚢᛚᛁᚴᛁ”. At first I don’t know which to choose so I just put them there two. Hopefully there’ll be someone can figure it out.
13 April 2014 at 11:18
all braett li’ka
all melt live-skin
how about thy thinking?
16 April 2014 at 00:52
Thanks for this. I was tempted to just try and look up some alphabetic translations, and just got really confused. A start is a start though. But, thanks.
1 June 2014 at 11:07
I think Line 1 is not the first line but the last line, Line 2 is the first line of the paragraph. So maybe you should start reading from Line 2 and stop at Line 1 under the red line you drawed.
(Sorry, My English is too bad.)
1 June 2014 at 21:47
I was thinking the same thing. But still could not understand what the whole sentence means. So I left it there first line and make it tend to support my theory (watch out). 😛
16 June 2014 at 11:03
[…] also the inscription of the memorial stones of the King and the Queen, I found two good ones here: The runes in the book // The runes on the stones. Also the bishop talks in Old Nordic during the coronation, which fits […]
24 July 2014 at 03:31
[…] a message on Facebook or Twitter if you think you’ve figured it out. (Update: One reader has deciphered the runes […]
10 October 2014 at 17:32
[…] a blogger has already translated the book and the stones from Younger Futhark to Old Norse and into English. It’s due to her work and […]
19 October 2015 at 21:28
Hi
I see your post because i search some caring sentence in runic. And i think “of moon sky” is maybe full moon.
Best regards
13 January 2016 at 12:30
[…] Deciphering the Runes Book in Disney’s Frozen […]
7 February 2016 at 16:36
I would like to ask another question to frozen’s bishop’s proclamation in the coronation scene.
Someone have tried to transcript the words in the scene like this:
Sem hon heldr inum helgum eignum ok krýnd í þessum helga stað, ek té fram fyrir yðr…
But I am learning old Norse, that I think this transcription is weird, because heldr was in strong MASCULINE nominative singular, which does not make sense as Elsa was a woman.
So can you guys help me to transcript it again or explain to me why this was transcript like this?
(The video clip of the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IEEvZ48nGk)
Also, I think that the word “inum” was misheard. It should be “inna”, which means within.
Furthermore, Sem means nay in English, as I know, means “Not only this but that” whatsoever.
So should the translation of “Sem hon hald inna minum helgum eignum” (my transcription) be
Not only she holds within her holy assets, but …
Can anyone give me an answer for this, any advice will help thanks everyone! 🙂
7 February 2016 at 21:19
From my understanding. “Halda” is verb for ‘hold’ and 3rd. pres. sg. became “heldr”. And yes the bishop pronounced something differ from the script. It may because the voice actor hasn’t been trained to pronounce Old Norse so well. You may be assured by the blog of the professor who did actually write this script for Disney here https://tattuinardoelasaga.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/the-runes-and-old-norse-in-disneys-frozen/.
2 June 2016 at 00:14
Reblogged this on Demonessy's notes and commented:
да-да, я нашла даже такое…
21 May 2017 at 17:03
Congratulations, Panya! I’m a lover of norse culture, myths, history, etc, from Spain. I don’t have deep knowledge about old norse, but I’ve learned something about runes (Elder and Younger Futhark, and derivations like Dalecarlian, Hälsinge, etc). Frozen is mi little daughter’s favourite Disney film, and I noticed the runic text in the book. What I didn’t know is the fact it wasn’t attrezzo text, but lines with real old norse words and sentences, with sense linked to the plot of film. Amazing!! One point I don’t understand (not about your explanation) is why they have chosen the symbol of Aegishalmur in the map (a symbol linked to war and fight), instead of Vegvisir (a symbol more linked to good luck in travel and ways). I repeat, Panya. Amazing!!!
PD: My apologizes for my awful english. XD
21 May 2017 at 17:07
By the way. I’m member in a facebook community about symbolism, myths and magical lore all over the world. Can I put a link of this research in our group? Thank’s again.
28 June 2017 at 08:09
That movie is just a random mix of Norwegian culture. The books are written in Proto-Norse used from year 200 – 500 but they’re using bunads from after year 1900. The architecture there isn’t even Norwegian.
The names arn’t that Norwegian either. Hans is German, Anna is Latin, Elsa is a short version if Elizabeth. Olaf comes from Old Norse Ólafr but the name Olaf is most popular in German and I think it derives from there. Olav is the most correct Norwegian version and it has the same pronounciation as Ólafr because the f was pronounced as v in Old Norse. The Norwegian king in 1015 as an example, was named Ólafr Haraldsson but in modern Norwegian, it’s Olav Haraldsson. Kristoff isn’t Norwegian in any way. It’s so far from Norwegian as it could have been.
There’s so many much better Norwegian name they could have given them. I like Gerda and Agnarr though. They’re real norwegian names.
29 June 2017 at 02:09
ON Ólafr is a distinctively North Germanic name, from Proto-Norse *Anu-laiβaR. The prototheme is from *anuR ‘ancestor’, and the deuterotheme is etymologically identical to *laiβaR ‘heir, descendant’. I’m not aware of any West Gmc. cognate.
23 September 2017 at 01:14
[…] Deciphering the Runes Book in Disney’s Frozen […]
13 February 2018 at 18:50
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Hungarian_alphabet
10 April 2018 at 20:01
[…] few recent examples include Athelstan’s Insular gospel-book in the Vikings television show, a book written in runes in Disney’s Frozen, and ancient manuscripts in The Last Jedi. In these and other media, it’s always exciting […]
22 June 2018 at 21:06
This is actually very interesting, thank you. I just recently became interested in Norse culture and runes, so it was quite a victory to me when I deciphered a single line on the page and found it was the same that you had found, too.
28 November 2018 at 12:02
Hi! I have a Youtube channel where I make videos about Disney theories. I’d love to make a video about this, is it ok if I use the information you have here? I will of course leave a link to this page so that people can come and read it all for themselves!
28 November 2018 at 13:02
Sure. Would be my pleasure.
17 January 2020 at 17:38
Can i ask you for your channel
7 December 2019 at 04:08
As for your APR 2014 is this JUST a theory and it’s possible that the runes are saying VERY differently?
24 April 2020 at 04:39
[…] ceremonies in Old Norse, the king and queen consult arcane books written in the Younger Futhark in times of trouble, and the only nonwhites to be seen are friendly trolls–who, amazingly, bow to the royal […]
3 August 2020 at 10:00
[…] of, if you are interested in the runes used in Frozen (2013), check out Panya’s Blog. You can also see this video where the writer of these runes, Dr. Jackson Crawford, talks about […]
9 November 2020 at 10:59
[…] the king and queen’s names (Iduna and Agnarr) and say “she/he died at sea.” The book talks about how an Arendelle ancestor was hit by ice magic (possibly from the moon?) and was healed […]
9 November 2020 at 11:46
[…] the king and queen’s names (Iduna and Agnarr) and say “she/he died at sea.” The book talks about how an Arendelle ancestor was hit by ice magic (possibly from the moon?) and was healed […]
23 April 2021 at 07:11
[…] you know that Agnarr seems to be able to read runes? Check out Panya’s blog, which I’ve linked to before, for a deciphering of the runes in F…. (Incidentally, that was the inspiration for my series on Queen Iðunn’s Letter: start with […]
23 February 2022 at 18:11
[…] Descifrado del libro de runas: https://lingaspect.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/deciphering-the-runes-book-in-frozen/ […]
7 September 2022 at 22:29
[…] Well, I’m currently up to some weird thing like trying to decipher Old Norse text in the Runes Book in Disney’s Frozen film. I have fairly good progress so far though got stuck on some words. Check it out below, any help/correction is appreciated. Book Cover It looks like they are long-branch Younger Futhark… — 在以下网站上阅读： lingaspect.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/deciphering-the-runes-book-in-frozen/ […]
7 September 2022 at 22:37
终于在这里找到了答案，感谢你的付出