Runecaster's Handbook: The Well of Wyrd Kindle Edition

This is only my 2nd book on runes. The first was one by Nigel Pennick. I'm finding Thorsson-Edred's explanations to usually have more substance and clarity. At times though he seems to get carried away with amazing himself to the extent that what is written is simply unintelligible. I don't like that. It doesn't impress me. Neither am I impressed with his obsessive need to explain each rune in its Old English, then Old Norse, then Old Icelandic meanings. Let me provide an example:"Berkano in OERP, is Birch without fruit but just the same it bears limbs without fertile seed, it has beautiful branches"... Now in ONRR, "Birch twig is the limb greenest with leaves...." Now OIRP, "Birch twig is a leafy limb and a little tree and a youthful wood." My question would be, of what value are these meaningless variations on the same theme? To be sure Mr. Thoresson/Edred has some good information to present and most consider him an expert in this field. I am just no longer a student in college; I am not obsessive in my learning. I just want clarity from which to learn. Mr Thorsson/Edged, in my opinion, needs to take some time to think about what he has to say and of how to put it down in a clear form without needless repetition and without getting lost in his words. He can certainly continue to write papers and small pamphlets for the academicians who will no doubt digest every word he puts down. However, when he writes books for the general public he needs to remember he is writing for the general public who wish to advance their knowledge in this area. I am probably being unduly unfair but this is how I feel.

Awesome book, but please be aware that this book was originally titled "At the Well of Wyrd". If you already have that one don't make the mistake i did and buy this one too thinking it's a new book, as it's the same one. Unless you need more than one copy for some reason.As far as the book is concerned , i like it a great deal! Thorsson has done an enormous amount of research over the years to bring together a workable system of rune divination and spiritual practice. This book focuses primarily on the divination end of things. After a short section on rune history, he gets straight into the meanings of the runestaves themselves, each one covered on a couple pages with the rune poems listed first. These poems are probably the best source we have for runic lore, so i appreciate that they are easily accsessible . After the list of meanings, it goes into techniques for reading and increasing our inner understanding of the runes. All in all its a short but very informative book, easily navigated and easy to use.i would like to also add that it presents "A" system for reading runes, not "THE" system. We have relatively little information about historical rune use, and almost none regarding divination (save for Tacitus's account of a possible rune casting) ,so for the most part any rune tradition you read about is a reconstruction, and the "Traditional" way of runecasting, if there was one, is lost to us. Working intimately with the runes will nurture your own understanding which is the most important, and this book can be a really great aid in that direction. i would also highly recommend "Reading the Past" by R.I. Page. It's not expensive, fairly short reading, and is a great resource for learning some rune history.

If you are a beginner who wants to learn Runes to be used in Divination, this isn't the book for you just yet. This is third of the author's series on Rune Studies (so far):FUTHARK - dealing with rune magic.RUNELORE - dealing with rune history and philosophy.RUNE CASTER - dealing with divination.Like the author's preceding works, some parts tend to be too wordy and repetitive. But in fairness to the author, this book is an easier read compared to his previous 2 works. Interpretations of each rune for divinatory purposes are not well delineated, giving the reader a certain feeling that most runes mean the same thing. If you are an experienced tarot reader, and this is your first purchase on Rune Divination, you'd probably feel at a lost because a lot of the other more specific symbol for interpretation present in tarots are not mentioned to belong to any rune (e.g. 7 swords, 9 swords, 4 coins/pentacles, 6 cups, etc.)The only things making this book worth your while (and money) would be:1. The fact that it is written in a very scholarly fashion. If you are just dabbling in runes and you are not planning to take studying the art seriously, you would be better off reading through the web because: A. It's free. B. You'd get more variety in interpretative keywords than the ones the author provides in this book.2. The lay-outs are as "traditional" as you could get (read: the author's interpretation on how rune casters would have carried out rune casting rituals based on traditional texts and lore).All in all, this book is for people who are SERIOUS in studying runes. If you are just interested in learning how to use runes in divinations, it;d be better to just buy a rune set and study how to interpret online. If after that, you still feel that you want to pursue studying runes, then this book is for you.

a clearly written easy to understand resource book, definitely one for the bookcase

best

Ein schneller Überblick über das Wissen der Runen - und Edred Thorsson sorgt dafür, dass die ersthafte Arbeit mit Runen nicht zum Mittelaltervergnügen wird, sondern den nötigen Hintergrund besitzt.Ich habe mir die englischsprachige Ausgabe gekauft, weil mir bei den deutschen Ausgaben Schreibfehler oder Tippfehler oder Übersetzungesdefizite auffgefallen sind.Ich wollte überprüfen, ob die deutsche Ausgaben seiner Bücher eventuell durch eine "eigenwillige" Zensur gequetscht wurden. Immerhin sind seine Informationen und Aussagen über Textabschnitte aus der Edda - so wie sie aus den original Maniuskripten vorliegen, derartig verschieden von den typisch deutschen Ausgaben, so dass mir ein "Licht" aufging. - Danke Herr Thorsson! - Frau lernt nie aus...

Highly recommend this book if you are starting out on your runecasting journey or wanting to further develop your practice.

Un must! Consiglio per chi legge in inglese questo è uno degli autori migliori sull argomento rune