runemaster

rune +‎ master

runemaster (plural runemasters)

1. A runesmith; one skilled at carving and deciphering runes.
   • 1867, George Stephens, The Old-Northern Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and England, volume I, London: John Russell Smith, page 335:

     Without delay he got it taken out and removed to the Palace-yard, and afterwards commissioned the Rune-master Olaf Worm to visit and decipher it.

   • 1989, Lisa Peschel, A Practical Guide to the Runes: Their Uses in Divination and Magic, St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn Publications, page 99:

     This excerpt from the histories of a contemporary of the Teutonic runemasters is, as far as can be determined, factual[.]

2. One who has mastered the use of runes for magical, divinatory, or other esoteric uses.
   • 1982, Ralph Blum, The Book of Runes, New York: St. Martin's Press, page 26:

     The Rune Masters of the Teutons and Vikings wore startling garb that made them easily recognizable. Feared, honored, welcomed, these shamans were familiar figures in tribal circles.

   • 1989, Edred Thorsson, Runelore: A Handbook of Esoteric Runology, York Beach, Me.: S. Weiser, page 76:

     This stone, not attached to any grave and probably originally part of a ritual stone arrangement, is then charged by the force of the runemaster in this threatening aspect of "the malicious one" and "the raven."

• runemistress