Are runes witchcraft?
No. But magic really did stand beside them. Runes began as writing. People wrote names with them, left memorial inscriptions, marked ownership and passed on ordinary messages. But sometimes they did something else entirely with them.
Runes were cut on amulets. They were used to write protective formulas and calls for help. In the old texts they turn up beside healing, victory, protection and divination. So calling all runes «witchcraft» is wrong. And saying there was never any link between runes and magic is wrong too.
So what were they really?
The simplest answer: runes were an alphabet that was sometimes used magically. Just as a written word can be a letter, a prayer, an oath or a spell, the sign itself does not settle why it was written. Thousands of runic inscriptions are utterly everyday.
«X raised this stone in memory of Y».
And beside them stand amulets, formulas and inscriptions that were clearly meant to do more than carry information. That very mixture is what makes runes so interesting.
And what about divination?
Around AD 98 Tacitus describes Germanic people casting marked pieces of wood and reading the lot from them. He does not say those marks were runes. So it is very tempting to picture an ancient runic spread — but the source does not allow it. We know that lot-casting happened. We know that runes existed. Whether those two were one ritual back then, we do not know.
Where does modern rune magic come from, then?
It did not appear in a single day. Old magical practices with runes really did exist, but the modern systems of meanings, spreads and esoteric correspondences are far younger. One of the most influential turns came in 1908, when Guido von List published Das Geheimnis der Runen. He created his own system of 18 runes. That is not the Elder Futhark of 24 signs you see on this site.
Later still, new meanings, psychological readings, magical correspondences and ways of divining were added to the runes. Part of that rests on old sources. Part is a modern tradition. And those two are better kept apart.
Do you have to believe in magic to use runes?
No.
You can see magical signs in them. You can treat them as an old tradition. Or you can simply draw one rune and let an unfamiliar image put a question to you that you would not have asked yourself. You do not need to call yourself a witch, a pagan or anything else for that.
A rune asks no belief of you. It gives you an image. The rest is between it and you.