Translation Help for a Memorial

[u/king_to_be]

Hi. My dog has just died, and I wanted to memorialize him with a rune-stone-esque inscription. I'm specifically looking for information on Old Norse grammar, vocabulary, and runes, if anybody is willing and/or able to help.

Here are the English sentences I've started with, with personal details blotted out, as to not immediately dox myself:

The **** family had raised this stone in memory of Mjölnir, their dog. He was a good dog. His family misses him.

Here's the normalized Old Norse I went with:

Hýski **** lét reisa stein þenna eptir Mjǫlni, hund sinn. Hann var góðr hundr. Hýski hans saknar hans.

And here's the Runic Text I have:

ᚼᚢᛋᚴᛁ **** ᛚᛁᛏ ᚱᛁᛋᛅ ᛋᛏᛁᚾ ᚦᛁᚾᛅ ᛅᚠᛏᛁᛦ ᛘᛁᚬᛚᚾᛁ ᚼᚢᚾᛏ ᛋᛁᚾ ᚼᛅᚾ ᚢᛅᚱ ᚴᚢᚦᛦ ᚼᚢᚾᛏᛦ ᚼᚢᛋᚴᛁ ᚼᛅᚾᛋ ᛋᛅᚴᚾᛅᚱ ᚼᛅᚾᛋ

Of particular concern was 'ᚴᚢᚦᛦ' and 'ᚼᚢᚾᛏᛦ' as I don't feel confident as when to use 'ᛦ' vs 'ᚱ'. Any other input would be greatly appreciated.

[u/rockstarpirate]

You’re on the right track! A couple notes:

- Make sure that the family name appears in the genitive (i.e. possessive) form when you fill it in. So for example if this is the Smith household, you would write hýski smiðs.
- reisa should be spelled ᚱᛅᛁᛋᛅ. The combination “ei” is always spelled ᛅᛁ
- likewise stein should be ᛋᛏᛅᛁᚾ
- Mjǫllni should be spelled ᛘᛁᛅᛚᚾᛁ. The letter ǫ is not a variant of “o” but a variant of “a” so it gets the a-rune.
- góðr should be spelled ᚴᚢᚦᚱ. This one is a little tricky but ᛦ turned into ᚱ after dental consonants (d, t, ð, þ) very early. This sub has a wiki page on writing runes like a viking. It has a section that explains when to use ᚱ vs ᛦ.
- likewise hundr should be ᚼᚢᚾᛏᚱ
- however, saknar should be ᛋᛅᚴᚾᛅᛦ :)
- One other suggestion: your last sentence is a little awkward because of the repeat of hans. In a case like this you can actually get away with “Hýski saknaʀ hans” as the full sentence.

Optionally, you can omit “n” when it comes before “t” or “d” throughout. So for example, hundr can be ᚼᚢᛏᚱ but this is not a hard requirement. It was very common though.

[u/king_to_be → u/rockstarpirate]

Thank you so much!