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*Runes*
(c) 2006 Galinn Grund Viking Center |
Galinn Grund Online
RUNES are the oldest written language of Scandinavia and the continental Germanic lands. In addition to their practical communicative function, we know from the Icelandic sagas, skaldic and eddic poetry, and some of the surviving runic inscriptions that runes also served a variety of magical purposes. Ironically, these did not include divination or fortune-telling -- which is by far the most common (if not exclusive) use of runes in contemporary New Age, esoteric, and neo-pagan books and web sites.
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