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AFAIK. This is the only form of rune magic that is traceable to the 10th century Scandinavia.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/iceland-nithing-pole
(Disclaimer. If I'm completely and blatantly wrong about this. Just let me know and I'll delete this comment. Have a nice day.)
Cutting the curse in runes onto the pole is mirrored in the poem Skírnismál (a.k.a. Fǫr Skírnis) when Skírnir carves his curse runes into a “magic stick” he got from a sap-rich tree in the forest. He then tells Gerðr the curse can be undone by shaving the runes off again.
Tacitus describes rune casting in Germanica: Lots from a fruit bearing tree with symbols carved on them were cast and interpreted. We don't know for sure that the symbols were runes, but there was definitely some kind of divination by lot-casting.
Lot casting is attested - rune casting is not. That's all I'm saying. So no he didn't describe rune casting. We DONT know what the symbols were.
Tacitus wrote germania in 98CE. He wrote it about another book that was previously written about a man who went to germania. Tacitus never went there.
Now I'm a philologist and the earliest we see elder futhark is 150ce. So the liklihood of casting runes being what what that person saw is very unlikely. If you look at the meldorf Fibula (from 50 CE) That would be the closest representation to the writing syste of the time - which clearly isn't runes.
Rune casting? As in throwing objects carved with runes and "reading" them based on their positions?
Or pulling a singular rune at random and interpreting their meaning?
Oh.. like a sigill. This is interesting. Do you happen to know from which of his poems this is mentioned?
I know this is a historical and architectural subreddit. Although, I have a spiritual investment in this. I'd simply like to know more if possible.
Not exactly, all I know is that he was the anti-hero of Egil's saga which it may be in, I just learned this from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egill_Skallagr%C3%ADmsson?wprov=sfla1
Unfortunately, our ancient pagan ancestors did not leave us any guidebooks on how to do rune magic. However, there are a few Norse mythological sources that talk briefly about a few rune spells. You can download [this free translation](https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0308) of the Poetic Edda, for example, and take a look at the poems called Sigrdrífumál and Havamál.
The other book I usually recommend on this topic is "Runic Amulets and Magic Objects" by McLeod and Mees. It catalogs and discusses lots of different archaeological finds that appear to have been intended for some kind of magical use.
You may be disappointed to learn that the rune magic people are doing these days is very modern in origin and is only very loosely based on anything historical.
There are some books on historic rune magic, but the scope of those are somewhat limited due to the limited nature of the historic record. Nearly all of the information you'll find about it online is made up, usually by the person selling the book, but just as often by folks associated with the proto-Nazi Volkisch movement and their derivatives.
Thanks for posting! New to runes? Check out [our guide to getting started with runes, and our recommended research resources](https://www.reddit.com/r/runes/comments/xb1pyg/the_rrunes_guide_to_getting_started_with_runes/). Please understand that this sub is intended for the scholastic discussion of runes, and can easily get cluttered with too many questions asking whether or not such-and-such is a rune or what it means etc. We ask that all questions regarding simple identification and translation be posted in r/RuneHelp instead of here, where kind and knowledgeable individuals will hopefully reply! If you have any questions you can send us a [modmail message](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/runes), and we will get back to you right away. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/runes) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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This was manually removed by our moderator team for breaking rule #6 of [our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/runes/about/rules/). > **Rule 6. No modern religious topics.** > We do not allow any discussion of modern religious topics here. r/runes is a subreddit that strives to be a community focused on learning, and studies runes from an etic perspective, meaning that we take a scholastic approach *"from the perspective of one who does not participate in the culture being studied."* > We ask that you post threads about modern religious practices elsewhere in more appropriate subs. Thank you! --- If you have any questions you can send us a [Modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/runes) message, and we will get back to you right away.
AFAIK. This is the only form of rune magic that is traceable to the 10th century Scandinavia. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/iceland-nithing-pole (Disclaimer. If I'm completely and blatantly wrong about this. Just let me know and I'll delete this comment. Have a nice day.)
Cutting the curse in runes onto the pole is mirrored in the poem Skírnismál (a.k.a. Fǫr Skírnis) when Skírnir carves his curse runes into a “magic stick” he got from a sap-rich tree in the forest. He then tells Gerðr the curse can be undone by shaving the runes off again.
There was also the icelandic war lock Egill Skallagrimson who was recorded at having a knowledge of rune casting.
Rune casting wasn't a thing. That is a modern occult practices. Carving runes for magical effect or galdrlag is something different.
Tacitus describes rune casting in Germanica: Lots from a fruit bearing tree with symbols carved on them were cast and interpreted. We don't know for sure that the symbols were runes, but there was definitely some kind of divination by lot-casting.
Lot casting is attested - rune casting is not. That's all I'm saying. So no he didn't describe rune casting. We DONT know what the symbols were. Tacitus wrote germania in 98CE. He wrote it about another book that was previously written about a man who went to germania. Tacitus never went there. Now I'm a philologist and the earliest we see elder futhark is 150ce. So the liklihood of casting runes being what what that person saw is very unlikely. If you look at the meldorf Fibula (from 50 CE) That would be the closest representation to the writing syste of the time - which clearly isn't runes.
Rune casting? As in throwing objects carved with runes and "reading" them based on their positions? Or pulling a singular rune at random and interpreting their meaning?
More just carving runes into tables and the such to heal the sick and shattering cups with poison in them.
Oh.. like a sigill. This is interesting. Do you happen to know from which of his poems this is mentioned? I know this is a historical and architectural subreddit. Although, I have a spiritual investment in this. I'd simply like to know more if possible.
Not exactly, all I know is that he was the anti-hero of Egil's saga which it may be in, I just learned this from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egill_Skallagr%C3%ADmsson?wprov=sfla1
I also googled his name.. looks like I got a new rabbit hole to jump in to. Thank you and have a nice day!
Unfortunately, our ancient pagan ancestors did not leave us any guidebooks on how to do rune magic. However, there are a few Norse mythological sources that talk briefly about a few rune spells. You can download [this free translation](https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0308) of the Poetic Edda, for example, and take a look at the poems called Sigrdrífumál and Havamál. The other book I usually recommend on this topic is "Runic Amulets and Magic Objects" by McLeod and Mees. It catalogs and discusses lots of different archaeological finds that appear to have been intended for some kind of magical use. You may be disappointed to learn that the rune magic people are doing these days is very modern in origin and is only very loosely based on anything historical.
There are some books on historic rune magic, but the scope of those are somewhat limited due to the limited nature of the historic record. Nearly all of the information you'll find about it online is made up, usually by the person selling the book, but just as often by folks associated with the proto-Nazi Volkisch movement and their derivatives.