Runes for a yes or no question

The usual form is one rune: upright for yes, reversed for no. The form is modern: no old text describes it, and reversed readings are themselves younger than a century. As this site draws them, eight of the twenty-four runes cannot fall reversed at all, so a third of the row can never say no.

Where this comes from

oldest description Tacitus, Germania, chapter 10 · about AD 98

Tacitus has the priest lift three of the scattered lots, one at a time. His description knows refusal: if the lots forbid an undertaking, there is no consulting about it again that day. What it does not know is a single rune turned upside down for a no: reversed runes are a twentieth-century practice.

That verdict is about reading systems. Carving runes with intent is ancient, and where that stands written is its own page.

Where all of this comes from

What the poems say

The poems describe the runes, one by one, and stop there: none of the four witnesses describes a way to cast or read them. What each rune means in them is gathered rune by rune.

all 24 runes The sources

The rune of the day: one rune, one question