Runes Beyond Writing (Accounts from the Lore)

High Gothi Brandon Sample

Across many media and social outlets, we see people claiming that our ancestors used the runes strictly as a writing tool. Throughout the Sagas and Eddas though, we see that this is a false narrative and wasn’t believed by those who wrote down our stories. Within our sources we have a plethora of examples of magical runic use, below we will list quite a few of them and a brief description of what they mention:

• Poetic Edda (Havamal): Describes Odin sacrificing himself on Yggdrasil to obtain the runes, follows on by stating there are runes for healing, protection in battle, calming storms, turning an enemy’s blade, breaking fetters, and gaining wisdom.

• Prose Edda (Skaldskaparmal and Gylfaginning): Snorri describes runes used by both gods and jotnar, he also re-narrates Odin’s discovery of the runes.

• Icelandic Sagas (Egil’s Saga): In this saga Egil destroys harmful runes caused by someone incompetent and warns against unskilled rune carving because it can make illness worse. He also carves healing runes on a drinking horn and whale bone.

• Icelandic Sagas (Grettis Saga): Thuridr carves runes on a piece of wood and performs a harmful spell that leads to Grettir’s death.

• Icelandic Sagas (Njals Saga): There is one reference to healing runes, and another incident of incorrectly carving runes, and it causes harm.

• Fornaldarsaga (Bosa Saga ok Herrauds): In this saga runes are used for enchantment, magical inscriptions, and inscribing ritual items with runes.

• Icelandic Sagas (Hervarar Saga): This saga directly speaks on runes being inscribed on weapons for battle, a cursed sword “Tyrfing”, and mentions magical runic texts connected to burial mounds.

• Volsunga Saga: In this saga Sigurd receives a lengthy lecture on runic wisdom from a valkyrie Brynhild.

• Tacitus Germania: In this text Tacitus describes the German people cutting slips of wood from fruit bearing trees, marking them with symbols, casting them on white cloth, and interpreting these for divination on important decisions. It is understood that these “Symbols” are pre-runic or elder rune lot casting.

Now this is also worth noting: While the massive online collection of misinformation says runes were never used for magic, it also likes to overplay and stretch how the runes were used and how they should be used. Runes were never associated with astrology, no one had a specific “birth rune”, and the meanings they held were written down within the rune poems. Most modern meanings of the runes are STRETCHES from the original meanings. When we look at divination specifically, it is more important to understand the original meanings written within the poems, than it is to know the 100s of modern reaches that most try to learn. The original meanings are the ones that hold the power. With that, it is important to know that the passage from “Germania” is not the ONLY historical source we have that hints at runes being used to cast lots for divination:

• Heimskringla (Ynglingasaga): Describes “lot-taking” for making decisions in a ritual context.

• Icelandic Sagas (Eyrbyggja Saga): Describes using “lot tokens” during sacred rituals.

• Poetic Edda (Voluspa): Odin and the other gods find runes and take counsel with them.

• Poetic Edda (Sigrdrifumal): Goes on to list “branch-runes” and “thought-runes” that reveal knowledge.

• Icelandic Sagas (Egil’s Saga): Runes are used to diagnose an illness.

THE RUNE POEMS:

Old English Rune Poem

The Old English Rune Poem, written in Anglo-Saxon England between the 8th and 10th centuries, is a poetic explanation of the Anglo-Frisian runic characters. Each stanza describes a rune by presenting its name, symbolic meaning, and its association with daily life, nature, and cultural values. This poem is essential for divination because it provides authentic, historically grounded interpretations of rune meanings. It reflects how medieval Germanic peoples understood the symbols.

Norwegian Rune Poem

The Norwegian Rune Poem, compiled during the 13th–14th centuries, offers brief and often cryptic descriptions of the Younger Futhark runes used in medieval Norway. Although shorter than its English counterpart, it preserves cultural associations tied to natural forces, seasonal cycles, morality, and mythological hints. For divination, this poem is valuable because it represents genuine Scandinavian symbolic thinking, showing how runes related to everyday medieval worldview.

Icelandic Rune Poem

The Icelandic Rune Poem, recorded between the 14th and 15th centuries, provides more detailed descriptions of the Younger Futhark runes than the Norwegian poem. Its verses include mythological references, ethical lessons, and clear associations with Norse gods such as Týr. This poem is crucial for divination because it preserves a stronger connection to Old Norse cosmology. It offers symbolic meanings rooted in the cultural and mythic environment of medieval Iceland.

Early Modern Swedish Rune Verses

The Early Modern Swedish Rune Verses, written in the 17th and 18th centuries, are later than the medieval poems but still reflect a living tradition of runic symbolism in rural Sweden. These verses explain the meanings of the Dalecarlian and Swedish runic alphabets, preserving folk wisdom, proverbs, and symbolic interpretations. They are important for divination because they demonstrate how rune symbolism survived into early modern times, offering insight into authentic folk meaning.

Why the Rune Poems Matter for Divination

The rune poems are indispensable for historically grounded rune divination because they are primary sources created by people who actually used runes. They reflect cultural context, natural symbolism, mythic associations, and practical wisdom rather than modern occult reinterpretations. Unlike 20th-century esoteric books, these poems provide authentic meanings rooted in the worldview of the societies that wrote them. The poems show that runes were symbols tied to life, nature, hardship, fortune, and fate—making them far more reliable guides for divination than modern systems influenced by Tarot, astrology, or New Age concepts.

CONCLUSION:

While everyone has the freedom to practice according to their own understanding, it is the responsibility of a leader within this faith to keep historical context at the center of our teachings. The runes embody a kind of “complex simplicity.” At first glance, the meanings preserved by our ancestors may appear too straightforward to support divination, magical workings, or acts of cursing and blessing. Yet the depth lies in how those seemingly simple concepts connect to the larger structures of life, fate, and cosmology, the very forces that make such practices possible.

It is also important to remember, especially when someone dismisses the sagas or the Eddas as mere fiction, that we possess archaeological evidence of runic use: amulets, coins, weapons, and personal items inscribed with runes. Some inscriptions are simple names or short phrases, but terms such as ALU and ATHU are widely recognized as specifically magical formulas. These artifacts demonstrate that runes were not only a writing system but also a tool for symbolic and ritual power in the lived traditions of our ancestors.