Egil Skallagrimmson, a great magician, was warned that there was a sick woman. She had been given a healing spell by a neighbour's son, but it seemed to do more harm than good. Here Egil himself gives us a strong warning:
-Thorfinn says: "Runes have been carved on her, and it was the son of a neighbouring peasant who did it, but she is much worse off now than before. Do you know, Egil, anything that might cure her?"
-Egil says: "I might not hurt him if I try."
And when he had eaten his fill, Egil went to where the woman lay and spoke to her; he ordered her to be taken out of bed and fresh sheets to be put on, and this was done. Then he searched the bed where she lay and found a whalebone on which were runes. Egil read them, and then scraped off the runes and threw them into the fire; he burned the whole bone and ordered the sheets he had used to be aired. Then Egil said:
“He shall not carve runes,
but the one who knows how to read them
There are many who err
when using the mysteries;
I have seen on a branch
ten runes of magic,
caused the owner
long and hard pain.”
Runes should not be used if you cannot read them, Egil was clearly very advanced in rune magic and sorcery, and did not suffer from these problems. Therefore it is better to use or learn rune magic in the proper way. There are many more mentions of spells and magical uses for runes in the Eddas, the Sigrdrífumál, the Saga of Egil Skallagrimmson, which serve as examples of how rune magic and other spells were used.
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