The Anglo Saxon translator for both directions — Modern English to Old English and back — with key words checked against a sourced dictionary.
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Inserts at the cursor. þ = thorn (th), ð = eth (th), æ = ash, ƿ = wynn (w), ȝ = insular g; macrons mark long vowels (ā ē ī ō ū ǣ ȳ); ċ ġ are modern editors' dots for palatal sounds.
Start here
Short texts in either direction — key Old English words in the result link to sourced dictionary entries.
Start translating →
Greetings, oaths and blessings with a known source, a literal gloss and a copy button.
Browse phrases →
Meanings, variant spellings and sources for 40 hand-checked high-frequency words.
Open the dictionary →
Real Anglo-Saxon names with meanings, two-element structure and sources — for reading, writing or naming.
Browse names →
What each character is called, what sound it stands for, and a keyboard that works on any device.
See the alphabet →
Start from the attested opening lines below, with a translation you can check word by word.
See the opening lines →
Old English, Middle English and Shakespearean get confused constantly — they are three different things.
Pick the right one →
See it work
A real result from the tool above — with everything around the translation that helps you judge it.
The sea is wide, but my word is my bond.
Sǣ is brād, ac mīn word is mīn wed.
Every draft carries grammar notes, flags the words worth a second look, and links Old English words into sourced entries — and you can turn any result into a shareable manuscript-style image, drawn locally in your browser.
Ready-made
Manuscript lines, adapted examples and learning drafts — Attested Adapted AI draft — so you always know what you're holding.
Wes þū hāl!
Because one word was removed from the attested line, this is labelled adapted, not attested.
Þæt wæs gōd cyning!
Wyrd bið ful ārǣd.
Swā sceal geong guma gōde gewyrcean
The next half-line makes the generosity concrete: 'with splendid gifts from his father's stores' (line 21).
Ic þē lufie.
Attested words, unattested sentence: no love letter in Old English survives for us to quote.
Ic gehāte þē trēowþe.
Vocabulary
hwæt
Word spotlight
interjection; pronoun — lo! behold! — calls the audience to attention; what? (neuter of hwā, ‘who’). Famously the first word of Beowulf.
Full entry →lo! behold! — calls the audience to attention
cyningnoun (masculine)king
wyrdnoun (feminine)fate, destiny
lufunoun (feminine, weak)love
sǣnoun (masculine or feminine)sea
sweordnoun (neuter)sword
heallnoun (feminine)hall
þegnnoun (masculine)thane — a warrior holding land from a lord
sōþnoun (neuter); adjectivetruth, what is true
wyrmnoun (masculine)worm
gōdadjectivegood
friþnoun (masculine)peace
Every entry cites Bosworth–Toller and links its Wiktionary page.
Know the difference
Anglo-Saxon — the language of Beowulf, spoken roughly between the 5th and 11th centuries — is Old English. It is not Chaucer, and it is not Shakespeare. One line of each:
c. 450–1150
Hwæt! Wē Gār-Dena in geārdagum…
Beowulf, line 1
A different language: its own grammar, word forms and letters. This is what this site translates.
c. 1150–1500
Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote…
Chaucer, Canterbury Tales
Chaucer's English — roughly readable to a modern eye with effort. Our Middle English translator →
c. 1500–1700
To be, or not to be: that is the question.
Hamlet, c. 1600
Modern English in theatrical dress — a style, not a separate language. Not what this site does.
From the manuscripts
Famous lines with their edition and line numbers — the real thing, to read and to test the translator against.
Hwæt! Wē Gār-Dena in geārdagum, þēodcyninga þrym gefrūnon, hū ðā æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Listen! We have heard of the glory of the Spear-Danes, of the kings of the people, in days of old — how the princes performed deeds of courage.
The opening of the most famous Old English poem.
Wyrd bið ful ārǣd.
Fate is fully determined — fate goes as it must.
Fæder ūre þū þe eart on heofonum, sī þīn nama gehālgod.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Use cases
Paste the passage you're stuck on, get a draft, then open the linked dictionary entries to see how each key word actually works.
Build dialogue from attested oaths, greetings and hall-language: manuscript lines and adapted lines are labelled separately, so your text always knows what it stands on.
Permanent text deserves sources. Choose a manuscript-attested line with a cited location, or check a draft word by word — every entry shows where it comes from.
Paste the line you can't crack and use the draft plus the linked word entries to unblock yourself. The opening lines are on this page with edition references.
Type þ, ð, æ, ƿ and long-vowel marks directly with the keyboard and copy clean Unicode characters that paste correctly into any document.
Try an example sentence, see what English looked like a thousand years ago, then click through to the words that surprise you.
Questions
Yes. Anglo-Saxon is the older scholarly name for the language spoken in England roughly between the 5th and 11th centuries; most modern scholarship calls it Old English. This site treats the two names as the same language.
Your text goes to an AI model with strict Old English rules, and the draft comes back with grammar notes, flagged words and links into sourced dictionary entries — so you can judge it instead of trusting it. The honest truth: no automated tool nails Old English every time, which is why we build the checking step into every result. Our full method is on the Methodology page.
The site itself is the app — it works in any phone or desktop browser, no install needed. Add it to your home screen and it behaves like one. A native app may follow if people want it.
Yes — with one extra step. Pick an attested phrase with a manuscript source where you can, or check each word of a draft against its dictionary entry. The phrases page marks exactly which lines are manuscript-attested, and the check takes minutes.
The translator handles up to 500 characters at a time — ideal for working through a poem line by line. The famous opening lines are on this page with edition references, and a dedicated reading edition is planned.
Use the keyboard button under the input box — it inserts characters at the cursor on any device. The Alphabet page explains what each character is called and how it was used.
No — and the difference matters. Shakespearean English is Early Modern English, five centuries younger; fancy fonts only restyle modern letters. This site works with the actual language of Beowulf. See the comparison guide.
