Question about rune workings

[Storm]

I just finished a book by Nigel Pennick on the runes and he says to read runes you need a giant cloth...a shoat?....made by cutting a cloth as tall as you are standing with your arms raised and as wide as your outstretched hands. Do any of you who cast runes have one of these. Do you think this is one of those breakable rules? I don't think there is a room in my house that I could lay out a cloth of that size without doing serious rearranging of the furniture. I personally would have set myself up in the same manner that I would have for tarot readings.

[Flar's Freyja]

:lol: I've heard he's an excellent author although I haven't read him.....nope, I don't have one like that either. I have a black cloth that is big enough to cover my altar. A friend of mine recently made a round cloth that she inserted ribbon into around the edges. It becomes both a cloth and a bag because when you pull the ribbon like a drawstring, it closes up and becomes your rune bag, when you undo it, it opens out and becomes your cloth. She's going to teach me how to make one if ever we get time to get together.

I think his idea might be based making it more personal, such as the cord of measure that is given in the initiations of some traditions.

[Storm]

He is very good. Very in depth. Coved a lot of different rune systems. It is just that he said to read the runes these are the conditions to do them and this is the cloth you must use. I take it as one of thoses things that some people can't do without. You know, it has always been done thats why it must be done.

BTW, I don't have the room in my house, I can't imagine the general northern European population having the room either.

[Rick]

Know you how to write runes, know you how to read them,
know you how to stain runes, how to understand them,
know you how to ask, know you how to offer,
know you how to supplicate, know you how to sacrifice?

Havamal 144:1-4

From a Rune Lore point-of-view, this stanza of the Havamal (from The Poetic Edda) are the only requirements... there's something in Germania by Tacitus about 'slips of wood' being 'cast like lots' on a white cloth (while Tacitus' works are considered to be relatively historically accurate by most, it's probably good to keep in mind that he was a Roman writing about people he considered barbaric & inferior, & his prejudice occaisionally shows through.

While a large body of source materials (such as the Eddas & the Codex Regius) have survived, these materials often haven't survived intact, & there are 'gaps' in the Lore here & there... I agree that Pennick is an excellent source of reference & extremely knowledgeable in Rune Lore & Traditions. However, I believe that sometimes he tries to 'fill the gaps', often with conclusions drawn from other magical traditions... anyway, that's my opinion...

*edited to ad PS* The only 'shoat' I ever heard of is a young pig...