Making your own runes

[Emy]

For all of you thinking of making your own runes, I found a website that tells you some about it...

http://www.ravenfamily.org/andyg/runes.htm

Well, not the best site perhaps, but not all that bad either... :)


Blessings

[widukind]

And I thought you were talking about creating a new rune, your own rune. So you were not... okay. :)

Well, nevermind that, it's a good site to give you basic information about carving your own runes. Thanks!

Brightest Blessings!

Widukind

[Emy]

Originally posted by widukind
And I thought you were talking about creating a new rune, your own rune. So you were not... okay. :)


Ohhh, no I wasn't, although that would be rather interesting to do... *starts thinking* :)

Well, perhaps one should try that! It would make a rather interesting experiment, don't you think?

Blessings

[Dagda Moon~Lily]

Silver Venus recently made her own runes....maybe she could tell us about it again?? ;)

[Ankou]

I've actually made all but one set of runes that I use. The one set that I didn't make on my own is the very first set that I ever had... which after about 10 or so casts I could tell they weren't working for me, so I decided to make my own.

Making your own runes in a lot easier than most people think actually. Possibly the easiest way to make a set would be to first collect the number of rocks that you need (which will depend on the rune set you wish to use: 24 (or 25) for the Elder Futhark, 16 for the Younger Futhork (Futhark), 18 for an Armanen set, 29 for an Anglo-Saxon set, 25 for a Gothic set, 33 for a Northumbrian set ).

Then get some red paint (or any color you wish to use) and paint the symbols on the rocks. Get some glaze coating or other sealant and cover the rock and painted symboly to prevent the paint from chipping off due to castings and/or from the hitting agains each other in the bag/pouch you may carry them in.

Another easy way to make a set is to buy a thick dowel rod and cut off circular disks and carve, paint, burn, or pencil in the symbols. This is nice because you can staing the wood to get a nice feel, or leave it natural. You could also use a thick branch which has fallen from a tree and cut the disks from that!

[Rick]

Extensive discussion of making Runes is in the thread "Anyone ever attempted to make Runes?". As mentioned there, precut pieces of wood are available at most hobby stores & the mega-mart-type hardware stores.

Again, there is a misconception about using stones or rocks to make Runes. The term "Runestones" refers to large, sometimes even monolithic sized stones carved with Runes & found across Europe, Eastern Asia, Northern Africa, & North America. Both Lore & tradition describe Runes as made out of carved "slips of wood". It has to do with making Runes from a living thing; & carving Runes into wood is a re-enacting of the Northern creation story. There is no historical evidence of "casting" Runes being made out of stones.

That said, our Ancestors were resourseful & adaptable. If plasticene-clay had been available to them, who is to say that would not now be a traditional material. If you're being respectful of what Runes are, where they came from, & what they represent, I can't see what it matters the material they are carved into.

Odin hung for nine days on the Tree to gain the knowledge of the Runes. The question isn't "What do I make Runes out of?", it's "What am I willing to sacrifice to gain the knowledge of the Runes?".

[Ankou]

I feel like I am stepping on some toes here... sorry if I am.

I'm not sure there really is a misconception of using rocks or stones to make your runes. I know for myself it's just that I prefer stone and rock to the wood. I've carved about - oh gee - something like 30 or more sets in wood for people and most of them have come back saying that they'd rather have the stones. I think it's a lot to do about the feel that you get from the runes that you are using.

If wood is the traditional material for runes then we should be using the wood "off a branch of a nut-bearing tree" then cut them into the strips to put the symbols on. At least that's what the Roman author Tacitus had stated in his "Germania 10" in the 1st century.

But I think if you're making your own runes that you should make it on any material that you'd like to. The power and results that you get from the cast will have a lot to do with your feel for the runes (and a lot of other conditions too). So if you make them out of bottle caps and feel more comfortable with those than with any others you'll be okay.

[Rick]

Originally posted by Ankou
So if you make them out of bottle caps and feel more comfortable with those than with any others you'll be okay

Umm... only if the caps came off of really good German beer... :D or Mead... :bigredgri

The statement about misconceptions comes from so many people over the years looking at my Runes & saying "But they're supposed to be made from rocks."

~shrugs~ Ah, well, whatcha gonna do? :)