A lot of people get hung up on the Viking age when they talk about Asatru, but it's important to remember that Asatru is much much older than that.
There are a few different rune rows but they all stem back to what we call the Elder Futhark, this rune row however was not originally a writing system and that's something many tend to forget.
The Runes are powerful symbols and words that was handed down to us from Odin himself after he hung in the Yggdrasil for nine nights to get them.
While using the runes as a writing system ensures the longevity of them, it also trivializes their importance, and it's of utter importance to always keep in mind what the runes are.
They're just as strong today as they were thousands of years ago, but it takes years to learn how to use them for magical purposes, and we can only hope to obtain a fraction of the skill and knowledge of magicians of the past and of the gods and goddesses.
I use the elder futhark sometimes when writing but I've mostly stepped away from that to focus on what they actually are through magic workings.
Using the runes in magic practice isn't just copying some symbols and shouting some words and kablam your foes were just hit by lightning, you must understand the symbols, experience their power and spend many years continuing your training before you can properly use them.
Some use the rune row to write their intent, thinking this is a way to power the spell and create the effect they're looking for, but this is a fallacy as each separate rune has a meaning and a power, without properly powering it you won't have much use of it, and even if you did, the spell wouldn't take the meaning of the word you wrote, but the runes themselves.
The runes are not inherent to any specific language or area and there isn't more power in trying to write in old norse, or archaic Swedish, Norwegian, or Icelandic than there is in writing in any other language.
It's ok to use the runes as a writing system, but don't expect magic workings based on the text you write with them.
Asatru magic isn't based on intent, to affect the web you need to know what you're doing, you need to practice and study, you can't get a good grip of the magic without studying the lore, reading the eddas is a good start (And preferably multiple translations, or if like me you speak multiple languages, translations into multiple languages, it'll explain so much more.).
