Nowadays, we think of literacy as a common skill, with those who can neither read or write as being very much in the minority. But, at the time when the runes were current in the northern hemisphere, literacy of any kind was very much the exception. Most people, faced with a Fulthark inscription, wouldn't have known where to begin, even if they recognised any of the letters. Yet, the script was very much in demand, even from people who couldn't tell one end of a rune from another. The tendency is to equate the Runes with either a Viking warrior script, cut and read by conquerors; or as a mystical & magical alphabet which was purveyed exclusively by sorcerers and witches. Both ideas are right, but they are also wrong!
Runes were studied and used by individuals, who might have been scholars, poets, farmers, sorcerers, warriors or even solicitors and merchants. They learned their Runecraft from someone who already had already mastered the use of the Runes; more than likely a woman as magic in the Northern Hemisphere, at that time, was mostly taught by women.
Because the knowledge required to use the Fulthark, either for magical or secular purposes, was essentially specialist, the runecutter or runemaster was a valued member of society. Runecutters and runemasters were different people, the former being competent in the cutting of the runes and the reading of them. The latter had an understanding of the full magical powers of the Fulthark in addition to having the runecutter's skills.
