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In truly runic (i.e. mysterious) fashion, these secrets stealthily continued even through the later times of the Icelandic sagas, for those who can learn by reading between the lines. The warning should be well taken to heart, in the saga of Egill Skallagrímsson, when the skald encounters the ill-carved runes of an ignorant páśu. The uninitiated pretender had tried affecting a girl through carving runes he did not truly know, and it took the fortunate arrival of a genuine initiate to correct that health-destroying work.
That the runes rightly kent had tremendous power and insight to offer is apparent from an introduction to the Ljóðatal, a further speech of the Hanged God's immediately following our earlier quotation from the Hávamál (specifically the Rúnatal). Truly beginning to understand the secrets, though, most often is accomplished in the myths with the help of close spiritual allies - most notably demonstrated in the valkyrja's speech of the Sigrdrífumál.
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