Runes and Magick

Runes are an ancient Germanic alphabet, used for writing, divination and magick. They were used throughout northern Europe, Scandinavia, the British Isles, and Iceland from about 100 B.C.E. to 1600 C.E. Runic inscriptions of great age have even been found in North America, supporting stories that the Vikings arrived in the Americas long before Columbus.


Runes were used to write many languages including, Gothic, German, Frisian, English, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Russian, Hebrew and other Semitic languages (due to trade relations with the Khazars, a Semitic tribe of traders of the Silk Road).

Just a tiny bit about runes and the art of fortune telling. As with just about everything from the past many experts tend to disagree. The more I read and research this the more controversy I find. 

And yet in writing Highland Magic I have a great deal of fun casting the runes. Keely was known as the witch woman for her healing skills but she also cast runes. This seemed to get her into trouble every now and then. While it didn’t bother Ian MacPherson that she cast them (he didn’t tend to be superstitious) it scared the …. out of him when he thought it might put Keely in danger.