you are visiting www.celtic-runes.org.uk, a member of the Runemaker Group of rune websites

Home Page   About Oswald    Search    Runemaker Group Links   FFA Links    Runes Forum

Friends and relatives saw my rune wares and craft products, and I soon started getting orders.  Realizing there might be a market for all things runic, I started taking bits and pieces to craft fairs along with the wooden toys and games that I was then making as a passtime. I was pleasantly surprised at the level of interest.

I am now retired from the day job and spend most of my time with runes and crafts as a hobby.

Dealers such as Jonathan Cainer of York and Occultique of Northampton started ordering Rune sets by the dozen and selling them all over the world. Another wonderful dealer - Snapdragon of Sevenoaks - got my rune sets featured in Ure Geller's Encounters magazine in December 1996. Then in 2002 one of my rune sets was featured in a program about divination on American TV, and I now get enquiries from as far afield as USA, Canada,  Brazil, Netherlands, Germany, India, Taiwan, Japan, New Zealand and many other countries.

The Runemaker websites are basically a one-man retirement hobby business run from home and financed from private resources. They combine three of my long-term interests - woodwork, Celtic art and runology.

I first got interested in the runes after seeing the Bewcastle monument as a teenager. My father was a Geordie, a brilliant mathematician and engineer and he knew everything. At least I thought he did! But when I spotted this monument in a Cumbrian churchyard and asked him what the writing on it was, he was stumped. This made such a big impression on me, I determined there and then to learn all about the strange angular symbols that were unknown to the great and wise Tom Oswald.

And so, for nearly 50 years I have searched, prodded and squirreled away every piece of Runic knowledge that has come my way. I started with scientific runology - the archaeological study of runes and their application purely from the historical point of view, and then moved on to read the mystic writings.

Here, I found that much of the published work on the mystic use of runes is supposition, inspiration, and downright guesswork. Whilst the early Germanic and Norse runes are well covered, little has been written about the Anglo-Friesian or Anglo-Saxon runes. I have therefore carried out my own research to establish an authentic arrangement of runes that accurately reflects their mystic use in Britain. The goods described in the Rune Wares pages are the result.

Finally - to answer the questions I am most frequently asked - I am an experienced runemaster, an Anglo-Saxon by descent and my last name really is Oswald.