In Scandinavia
The practice of casting lots was described by Tacitus, in Chapter X of his Germania, as a practice used by the Germanic tribes. He states:
"To divination and casting of lots, they pay attention beyond any other people. Their method of casting lots is a simple one: they cut a branch from a fruit-bearing tree and divide it into small pieces which they mark with certain distinctive signs and scatter at random onto a white cloth. Then, the priest of the community if the lots are consulted publicly, or the father of the family if it is done privately, after invoking the gods and with eyes raised to heaven, picks up three pieces, one at a time, and interprets them according to the signs previously marked upon them."
This practice was still in use in the ninth century, when Anskar, a Frankish missionary and later bishop of Hamberg-Bremen observed the practice several times in the decision-making process of the Danish peoples. In this version, the runes were believed to determine the support or otherwise of gods, whether Christian or Norse, for a course of action or act. For example, in one case a Swedish man feared he had offended a god and asked a soothsayer to cast lots to find out which god. The soothsayer determined it was the Christian god and he later found a book that his son had stolen from Bishop Gautbert in his house.
Read more about this topic: Cleromancy