Rune magic: what is attested, piece by piece
People did use runes in magic, and the record survives in pieces. Words carved for luck or protection stand on real objects, alu the most common among them. Chants called galdr are named in the old poems, and bound signs stand in the inscriptions. Each of those pieces is real, each is dated by its own sources, and each has its own page here. What the record does not hold is a single system of rune magic: the pieces never assemble into one book of instructions. The modern reading systems are their own layer, and the pages below keep the layers apart.
Where this comes from
attested use attested in named objects and poems: alu, galdr, bind runes
The attested pieces, each with its own page and its own dates. Alu, three runes on at least fourteen named objects from the third to the eighth century, the most common early runic charm word. Chants called galdr, named in Hávamál and sung in the poems of the Edda. Bound runes in real inscriptions, spelling words and names. None of them adds up to a system, and the instructions people follow today belong to the modern layer, named as modern wherever it appears on this site.
What the poems say
The four witnesses describe the runes one at a time and give no spells. The chants live in other old poems, Hávamál among them, and the story of how Odin won the runes has its own page here. What each rune means stands rune by rune.
Alu: the most common early runic charm word Galdr: the chant the old poems name Bind runes: what is attested, and what is new