What This Calendar Is

The Galdorcraft Norse Runestav Calendar is a perpetual lunisolar calendar. It places the familiar Gregorian date beside a repeating 19-year lunar-solar cycle so that one date can be read simultaneously as a solar date, a lunar month and phase, a runic year, a weekday rune, and a position within the seasonal and Primstav year.

The full 19-year pattern represents 6,916 calendar positions in the reconstructed system. Once you know which year-ring applies, you can use the same calendar to reckon dates in the past or future by repeating the 19-year cycle.

The core idea is simple: find the Gregorian date, determine the year in the 19-year cycle, move outward to that year-ring, and then read the lunar and runic information that meets the date.

A note about reconstruction

This is a working historical reconstruction, not a claim that one surviving medieval object contained every feature in exactly this arrangement. Runestav and Primstav traditions combined solar dates, repeating runic cycles, feast markers, and practical seasonal information. The Galdorcraft calendar adapts those principles into a circular perpetual design and uses astronomical new moons to anchor the lunar months.

 Quick-Start Guide

Use this section when you just want to read a date without studying the whole system.

The five-step read

1. Find the Gregorian month and day on the Gregorian date ring.
2. Calculate the Metonic year: divide the Gregorian year by 19, take the remainder, then add 1.
3. From the Gregorian date, count outward to the corresponding year-ring.
4. Read the Norse lunar month and approximate lunar phase at that position.
5. Read the weekday rune and nearby seasonal, feast, or Primstav markers.

Fast example: 2026

2026 ÷ 19 leaves a remainder of 12. Add 1. Therefore 2026 is Year 13.

Year 13 is Bjarkan/Berkana. On the calendar, find the Gregorian date you want and count outward to the 13th year-ring. That intersection is the working position from which you read the month, moon, and runic information.

The only math you normally need

Metonic year = (Gregorian year remainder after division by 19) + 1

If the division has no remainder, the result is Year 1. Example: 2014 is exactly divisible by 19, so it is Year 1.

Important boundary rule

The simple year calculation identifies the year-ring associated with a Gregorian year. The lunar year itself begins on its assigned astronomical new moon. When working very close to a year boundary, use the calendar’s new-moon boundary rather than assuming January 1 always begins a new lunar year.

1. Determine the active year

The calendar contains nineteen annual tracks because it follows the nineteen-year Metonic cycle.

For the current Galdorcraft cycle, 2014 is Year 1. Count forward one year at a time until you reach the Gregorian year you are reading. For 2026, the active year is Year 13, associated with Berkana ᛒ.

You only need to establish the active year once. Use that same annual track for every date in that lunisolar year.  Below is a metonic year quick reference for our current 19 year cycle.  To calculate a different year, see year calculation in the manual.

2. Find the Gregorian date

Locate the narrow numbered Gregorian date line immediately outside the ring of Norse month names.

1. Find the modern month and day you want to read.
2. Use that position as the starting point.
3. Follow the same radial line, or spoke, straight outward through the calendar.

Do not move diagonally around the wheel. The Gregorian date establishes the spoke used for the rest of the reading.

3. Count outward to the active year track

Beginning immediately outside the Gregorian date line, count the annual tracks outward.

For 2026, count outward to the thirteenth track. The square where the date’s spoke crosses Year 13 is the date’s position within the lunisolar calendar.

Keep following that same spoke outward through the remaining rows.

4. Identify the lunar month

The active annual track shows where each lunar month begins and ends. The Norse month names appear on the inner month-name ring, but the exact month boundaries shift from year to year because each lunar month begins with the new moon.  

4. Stay on the active annual track.
5. Find the most recent month-beginning mark before the date.
6. Match that section to the corresponding Norse month name.
7. Continue until the next month-beginning mark.

Do not assume that a lunar month begins on the first day of a Gregorian month.

5. Read the moon’s position

Each lunar month begins at the new moon. Once you have found the beginning of the active lunar month, count forward to the date.

• Beginning of the month: new or young moon
• First quarter of the month: waxing moon
• Middle of the month: full moon
• Third quarter of the month: waning moon
• End of the month: darkening moon approaching the next new moon

For a quick Daily Reckoning, it is usually enough to describe the moon as new, waxing, full, waning, or darkening.

6. Read the Golden Numbers row

Continue outward from the annual tracks to the first of the three outer runestav rows. This is the Golden Numbers row.

The Golden Numbers preserve the calendar’s nineteen-year lunar structure. Note the mark aligned with the date’s spoke.

7. Read the Week row

The next row outward is the Week row. It uses the first seven runes of the Younger Futhark in a repeating sequence.

• Fehu ᚠ
• Ur ᚢ
• Thorn ᚦ
• Áss ᚬ
• Reið ᚱ
• Kaun ᚴ
• Hagall ᚼ

Follow the date’s spoke into the Week row. The rune at that position is the weekday rune. It is not a randomly selected rune of the day.

8. Read feast days and seasonal markers

The outermost row contains feast-day symbols, saints’ days, agricultural signs, and seasonal markers.

• Religious feast days and saints’ days
• Solstices and seasonal thresholds
• Planting, haymaking, harvest, slaughter, and winter preparation
• Weather lore and agricultural customs

Look first at the symbol directly aligned with the date. Then check several days to either side, since a nearby marker may shape the larger seasonal context.

9. Read the larger season

Before interpreting the day, place it within the broader solar and agricultural year.

• Is the light increasing or decreasing?
• Is the year moving toward or away from a solstice?
• What work belongs to this part of the season?
• Is this a period of planting, growth, haymaking, harvest, slaughter, storage, travel, or winter enclosure?
• Is the date near a major feast or seasonal threshold?

The lunar month describes the moon-governed portion of the year. The outer seasonal markers describe the solar and agricultural portion. Read them together.

The full calendar instructions come with calendar purchase. Along with a guide to Daily Reckoning and Birth Reckoning interpretations.

24″×24″ perpetual Norse Runestav calendar
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