How to Read Gothic Handwriting — Part 1: Background (Old Norwegian Records)

If you do Norwegian genealogy, sooner or later you’ll run into Gothic handwriting (often called “Gothic script” or “blackletter-style handwriting”) in scanned sources—especially Norwegian church books (kirkebøker). In this series, I’m sharing a beginner-friendly, practical approach to learning how to read it, one step at a time.

Gothic script grew out of earlier Latin handwriting traditions, and by the later Middle Ages, it became widely used across Europe. Over time, it developed regional styles and “faster hands,” which is why real-life records rarely look like a tidy textbook alphabet. (HMML School of Manuscript Studies, n.d.)

Why Gothic handwriting looks “broken” and angular

One reason Gothic handwriting can look so difficult is the writing tool itself. Early Gothic letterforms were often written with broad-nib pens. When the pen is pulled in certain directions, the stroke becomes thick; when it moves sideways, the line becomes thin. That contrast makes the script look tall, narrow, and sharply angled, with many vertical strokes packed closely together.

In a whole paragraph—especially in church records—the writing can blur into a dense “texture” of strokes. That’s normal. The trick is learning the repeating shapes and how they connect in words.

When Gothic handwriting was used in Norway

In Norway, Gothic handwriting was the common script for many handwritten sources well into the 1800s. It remained important through the period when many church books were created and later scanned for online access. (Digitalarkivet n.d.).

A major challenge for genealogists is the transition period when writers gradually shifted toward Latin handwriting. Mixed styles can make records from the late 1800s (and sometimes into the early 1900s) especially tricky—because you may be reading a blend of letterforms on the same page.

A realistic expectation (and why practice works)

Below you’ll see a “perfect” Gothic alphabets. It’s helpful for learning, but real records are messier: different writers have different habits, and small marks (dots, dashes, umlauts) can be faint or missing. That’s why reading Gothic handwriting is less about memorizing one alphabet and more about pattern recognition + repetition.

If you want a solid, traditional reference to study alongside these posts, Knut Geelmuyden’s short guide is excellent and widely used by Norwegian researchers.

Where to go next in this series

• Continue to Part 2, where we look at the Gothic alphabet as it appears in real records.

• You may also like my article on the Norwegian church books, since that’s where many of us first meet this handwriting.

Sources and practice help

• Geelmuyden, Knut. Gotisk skrift – En kort veiledning i lesing av gamle kilder (PDF). geelmuyden-info.no+1

• Digitalarkivet: “Hvordan lese gammel håndskrift?” (help + guidance and where to ask for help). Digitalarkivet

• Arkivverket: “Hjelp til å lese gotisk håndskrift” (includes their learning app

• HMML School of Manuscript Studies. (n.d.). Latin scripts – Gothic Textualis. Retrieved December 17, 2025, from https://hmmlschool.org/latin-gothic/