> > Read the Sagas, Egil's Saga in particular. There are some
> quite good descriptions, and cautionary tales.
>
> I have. There is not much there, and what there is there was
> not written by practitioners of rune magic. And for good
> reason, because the word 'rune' is related to a word meaning 'secret'.
But compared with most other descriptions of systems of RW magic, it's pretty good. No, it's not a "Runes for Dummies" manual, but it's a lot better than nothing.
For the benefit of the OP and anyone else, here's an on-line version: http://www.northvegr.org/lore/egils_saga/
And a quick search of that whole site with "rune" as a key suggests that it may well be worth further study. At the very least, it should give a pretty good idea of what the users of runes believed them to be capable of, and what they looked like in use (painting and so on), which is what's needed for creating rules.
> >>and anyway magic does not actually work in the RW,
> ...
> > This is probably the wrong list on which to make that sort of
> > assumption.
> ...
> I see no assumption here, only a statement of fact.
The difference between which is a matter of view-point. Using an assumption about the RW which many of the list do not believe to be true (whether or not either side is correct) is unlikely to be helpful.
> A million
> dollars awaits you if you can prove otherwise (see www.randi.org).
> This is a game rules list, not a Wiccan list.
Quite. Hence my merely pointing out that opinions differ, and taking it no further. I have no intention of "proving" anything, here or elsewhere, merely pointing out when an argument is based on assumptions which may disagree with the assumptions made by (some of) the writers of the rules.
> As you say to, there can be difference between 'flashy' and 'subtle'
> magic. Which is it to be? And how subtle, if subtle?
Entirely up to the narrator. But rune magic as described and used by Egil was subtle, not flashy. A sceptical outsider could, I think, always have ascribed some other cause to its supposed effects.
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