Customer Reviews

Runecaster's Handbook: The Well of Wyrd

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Runecasters Handbook is part of a three part series that Thorsson wrote as an introduction to the Rune Gild organization which he created. This book is by far the weakest addition to that series.

As usual, Thorsson provides a solid traditionalist view on the runes and intertwines a lot of mythology and lore into both the descriptions of the runes and his methods of castings. What I found to be the problem with this book is that because it draws so heavily on the other books in the series, Runelore and Futhark, there is not as much new information presented in this volume as I had hoped for. Both other books were chock-full of historical research and significance, while this one was primarily a rehashing of information which was covered before.

If you do not have a solid amount of background knowledge concerning northern mythology, this book is probably too advanced for you. Thorsson presumes a great deal of knowledge in this volume, in particular, knowledge of the nine worlds and of the roles of the Norns and the world tree.

Overall a decent book, but if you are familiar with Thorsson's other works, you can skip this one.

Edred Thorsson in my opinion is the best author for anything to do with Runes or Northern culture and magic. I have been studying Runes and Northern culture for 10 or so years now and his books are the only ones I have come accorss that strip things back to the beginning. The information in his books is probably the most accurate and truthful information you will get anywhere. I recommend his books to any and all, especially those starting out with this kind of thing as there are too many books out there to do with Runes etc, which are vague and misleading. Also there are too many books with Christian and new age (I Ching etc) twists which don't truthfully represent the Runes at all. Edred does!

A great book for anyone whishing to learn more about the runes. Offers a good starting point for beginners and also a great resource for the more advanced runester. I have all three of Thorsson's books in this series (Futhark, Runelore & the Well of Wyrd) together they are a fantastic resource and a great spring-board to the more advanced studies.

Highly recommend it!

You will not find a better book on the topic on Rune readings and Rune divination. One reviewer below me was so bold as to give this book 1 star, and then praise Ralph Blum. HA ! Mr. Blum has done more to harm the Runic Revival than he has done to help.

This is a highly recommended book to anyone serious about Runes or Runic divination.

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.

I would call this the best intro to the Runes to be found in print, but Sweyn Plowright's _The_Rune_Primer_ nudges _Runecaster's_Handbook_ out by virtue of its clear vision and more engaging writing style.

That said, _Runecaster's_Handbook_ is still a must read, particularly for its section on creating and charging your own Runes. Thorsson comes from a bit of an eccentric Asatru perspective, but non-Trar can benefit from his careful and thorough explanations.

This book offers a good foundation on Runes and the use of them in divination. Several methods are presented, in an understandable format. A good useable book.

This is an excellent handbook for approaching the study of runes, including how to use them, make them, interpret spreads, etc. I highly recommend this book to people just starting with runes or those farther along that want an excellent reference. I use this as the handbook I give when I make a gift set of runes, because it's authentic and approachable. I've purchased four of them so far. Highly recommended.

Excellent book, but a little deep for me. But if you are more experienced you will like it.

Thorsson's book is great for anyone wishing to learn the art of casting runes. He has always been considered an expert in this field and this book shows the extent of his knowledge , great for anyone wanting to learn about runes .