Runes 102 - Book Reviews - Runic Book of Days

There are few books that I think hit the mark better than S. Kelley Harrell's Runic Book of Days.  With the exception of wanting a little more history about runic calendars, a point I realize is personal preference, I thought the book moved pretty seamlessly from topic to topic.

In her introduction, Harrell makes a few important remarks and states what she believes this book will do for her readers.  Her approach makes the book feel more comfortable.  "I'm not interested in preaching a method on how to use the runes.  I'm also not going to present my perspective as if it's the gospel according to Freya."  This is important, because she also states that she doesn't believe that anyone knows the original context or rune usage with certainty.  I agree, and Harrell is consistent in regularly telling her readers to explore and do what feels right and what works for them.

Harrell divides the book into two main parts - Engaging the Runes and Living the Runes.  In discussing engaging the Runes, she offers a brief, but thoughtful overview of the history and origin of the Runes with equal time on their more academic beginnings as an alphabet and their mythological story through Odin and the Nine Worlds.  Harrell also makes the point that, "A detailed knowledge of Old Norse history isn't required to study the runes, though it helps tremendously."  Some understanding of the culture in which Runes were derived gives deeper meaning to their engagement.

Chapter two in Harrell's Engaging the Runes section provides a variety of ways to use the Runes, from tools to ways of reading, and galdr methods.  It's a good overview and reiterates her point about doing what works for you.  She concludes the chapter by talking about the aetts.  After so many years engaging the Runes, I am still hesitant to assign the aetts to a particular god, but there is some common practice there and Harrell's explanations are well-linked to her intention in her practice and creates a strong thread within the book.

Getting into the staves (individual Runes) in chapter three, Harrell touches on an important aspect of their meaning, that its direct translation is rudimentary and the indirect translation stems from cultural and timing issues.  "The indirect translations focus on how we experience the literal translation..."  This may be why her detailed interpretations of each Rune are thoughtful and range from recognizing the mundane to looking through the lens of the Norse cosmology.

Harrell concludes the first section of the book with a chapter explaining the Runic calendar, including how it came to be, and discusses sabbats, devotionals, initiations, and affirmations.

Part two is where the year-long experience - Living the Runes - begins.  The year is split into half months with an assigned Rune, and for each, Harrell offers a devotional or affirmation, and each half month also includes an affirmation.  She starts the calendar at the end of June, but since we are at the end of October, I skipped to that part and it explained a lot about the week I'm having.  The timing is interesting, because it is a transition from the first aett to the second - Wunjo to Hagalaz, joy to hail.  It's a tough transition.  October 28th, when Hagalaz takes over, rings in Samhain in the north and Harrell dedicates a few pages to that and another two to the Samhain Sabbat Initiation, ending, of course, with its affirmation.

Hagalaz Half-Month Affirmation

This brings me to Harrell's claim from the introduction about what Runic Book of Days will do for the reader.  "...you will come away equally unafraid to explore the runes as you choose, while [being] comfortably aware of how they are traditionally situated and understood."  Her statement is true, for me.  I have opened myself to exploring and considering the Runes in new and deeper ways.

If you have any experience with the Runes, this book will deepen your connection to them. 

Runes 102 - Book Reviews - Runes Plain & Simple

I struggle with books that are trying to teach the reader something, but have no reference section.  Such is the case with Runes Plain & Simple, by Kim Farnell.  The biggest issue I have with this book relative to not having any citations comes at the back in Tables 1 and 2.  These are magical correspondence tables, where Farnell has likened Runes to everything from specific gods and goddesses to colors, stones, trees, herbs, flowers, and more.  I have no faith in these tables without references and no explanation as to how they were derived.

I also struggled with the errors in her historical references.  Although I can't go into many, I can pick out a few.  The most egregious for me is claiming that Heimdall led the Vanir with Freyja and Freyr in the war against the Aesir.  Another one of her claims is that the Vanir beheaded Hoenir, when, in fact, they beheaded Mimir.  According to the text, Loki created a set of arrows, not the single dart that he actually created, and gave them to Hödr to kill Baldr.  When I began my journey with Runes, three Rune masters told me that I had to understand the culture and mythology from which the Runes came.  I spent years studying both and still recognize that there is far more for me to learn that I already know.

She does offer a chapter on making your own Runes, which is okay.  Some of what she says strikes me as fluff, and some of her "statements" strike me as personal preference more than actually being necessary.  She does offer information about different types of wood/trees, which is interesting, but I still struggle with it (and this is me personally), because she doesn't give any citations about the source from which she derived this information.  Within this chapter, she also has a section called "Consecrating Your Runes".  I would like this section better if her statements were suggestions, because there is no standard practice for how to make your Runes your own.  The same holds true with her comments on "activating" your Runes.  She claims that you should hold each Rune in your left hand, close your hand around it like a cylinder, and blow into it.  What?  There is nothing plain or simple about the processes she describes.

Although this book is called Plain & Simple, I would not recommend it to beginners.  Only someone with some level of expertise could spot the errors and questionable information in this book, and be able to discern the few pieces worth taking away from it.

Runes 102 - Book Reviews - Runes: Ancient Scripts

I came to the Runes through academic channels, which may be why Martin Findell's book, Runes: Ancient Scripts, caught my eye.  Though it's short, Findell provides a reasonable overview of the Runes as an alphabet, which is the primary goal of his book.

There are a number of aspects of this book that I like.  First, for those who are new to Runes, the writing isn't too dense; it does a good job of providing background on the Runes as a form of writing and communication.  And, although most of you who read my blog are engaged with Runes as an oracle, we should understand both sides of this coin.  Findell explains what Runes are in terms of a writing vehicle; he follows a chronology as the Runes changed and split from the original Futhark to the Anglo Saxon Futhorc and the Younger Futhark used in Scandinavia during the Viking Age.  I like the fact that he suggests there may have been more than a single original version of the Futhark.  There is some truth behind it if for no other reason than the existing examples of the Runic writing are scarce and there are inconsistencies in form.  It is similar to different dialects in language.

In his chapter on Rune names, Findell shows us one of the most interesting images in the entire book.  It is an 18th century copy "of an earlier late 10th-/11th-century manuscript [that] preserves the earliest [copy] of the rune-poems from which we can learn about the tradition of runes-names." The picture is from a book by George Hickes, an English Divine (church clergy) and scholar who lived from 1642-1715.  Some researchers believe that the Rune Poems were used as a way of remembering the letters of the Futharks.  I can see that given the ABC songs we are taught as children.  In modern times, we have adopted the meanings named in the poems to serve as the foundation for using Runes as an oracle.

The other insightful piece of Findell's book is his chapter on the work of Runologists.  From an academic and historical perspective, his explanation begins to lend an eye to the depth of work that has transpired to develop our understanding of runic writing and the cultures and environments in which runic inscriptions were made.  Runology, while being its own area of academic study, incorporates work in numerous disciplines - linguistics, archeology, art history, literary history, and cultural history.  I could also see anthropology and geography fitting into that mix.  Findell shares some of the challenges with interpreting inscriptions as well as the processes used to gain a full understanding of each object and not simply figuring out what is carved on it.

In his final chapter, Findell includes a nod to MR James and JRR Tolkien, but claims that there is seldom any connection between "fantasy Runes" (those developed by James and Tolkien in their books) and real Runes.  I would amend that slightly to suggest that the mistake is that some readers take James and Tolkien at face value and consider their fantasy Runes to be the real ones.  Next, he touches on the Nazi misappropriation of Runes, something that still taints the Runes and their surrounding culture.

Where I feel Findell goes astray is near the end when he seems to condemn modern uses of Runes for divination, stating that new age or pagan magic is perhaps the most prevalent present-day use of Runes.  While that remark is true, the tone of his writing changes and he seems to denounce it, stating, "Most pagan books or websites will mention the historical use of Runes as writing, but this is treated as something secondary to their symbolic and oracular function."  He further suggests that the Runes are viewed primarily as magical symbols and function as a writing vehicle "only secondarily and incidentally".  I largely disagree with this, for while Findell points out that most "pagan books and websites" present the Runes as an alphabet secondarily, that is because their primary purpose is to present them as an oracle, just as Findell presents them primarily as a written language and discusses modern uses secondarily.

I am sure there are some people who see the Runes as nothing more than a divination tool.  However, my experience has been that those who take Runes seriously and are dedicated to them as an oracle give equal credence to their history, historical culture, and role as a writing form.  This is actually why I reviewed this book; not to correct his assumptions about the Runes as an oracle, but rather to share information about the Runes as a writing vehicle, which we come to understand through the complex and multi-faceted approach that academics, like Findell, take in their work to unravel the mystery and history of the Runes and the cultural of which they were a part.

Runes 102 - Book Reviews - Icelandic Magic

Icelandic Magic: Practical Secrets of the Northern Grimoires, by Stephen Flowers, left me wanting more, but not for the reasons you might think.  The book is divided into two parts.  The first part provided a backdrop into which Icelandic magic occurred and it was informative.  But, it was the second part (beginning with chapter 9),which is supposed to be "a unique book of magic in the traditional Icelandic form", that I felt was lacking guidance and that is where I really wanted more.

In Part One, Flowers provides an overview of the world in which Icelandic magic developed and existed.  He covers some chronology and includes information on how Christian and southern magical influences played roles in it as well.  It was interesting to see how they merged in many regards; for example, he talks about a medieval Rune stick (yes, carved in Runes) that uses "a Christian magical formula to allow for easy childbirth".  Even though the words were carved in Runes, the words themselves were Latin and talked about Christ, Elizabeth who gave birth to John the Baptiste, and the Lord.  Flowers also notes that single spells included references to Norse gods and goddesses, alongside the Christian god and Christian demons.

During his chronology, he highlights a few key Icelandic magicians, all of whom had ties to the church as bishops, vicars or predating Christianity and serving as goði (priest, chieftain) and whom are described in greater detail later.  This leads into a discussion of the Icelandic books of magic, which I felt was the most enlightening pieces of the book.  If you read only one chapter of this book, choose this one.  Although it is just an overview of magic books, it helped to paint a picture of the important historical magic books and their influences.

After this, the book began to get confusing for me, but I thought things would fall into place when I got to chapter 8, which covers preparation and inner work and they begin to.  Flowers claims the outer preparation - setting the ritual space - requires less effort than the inner preparation.  This made sense.  With regard to inner work, he says, "These skills of concentration, visualization, and memorization that are the ones that the ancients took for granted and that modern people almost entirely neglect."  By taking them for granted, he means that the ancients understood that they had to undertake these preparations.  It went without saying.  When we don't do that today, the result is "magical failure".

Chapter 9 is the last chapter before part 2 of the book and it is also where I began to lose interest and feel like I am being deprived of some pivotal information that would help me understand his overview of the process better.  I found many of his explanations lacking and his focus on invoking Odin incomplete.  I confess that I work with the Elder Futhark and acknowledge that the ancient magicians would have used the Younger Futhark, but that is secondary to my ability to understand the process that he lays out in terms of the inner work.  While I understand Odin's role in the Runes, when I invoke a god for Rune work, I choose Heimdall.  So, what does it mean to use another god or even the goddess Freyja and incorporate aspects of seiðr?

The final piece, Part Two - Gray Skin - was really disappointing.  Flowers states that it is a unique book of magic in the traditional Icelandic form and it contains work done in the Rune-Gild, a group that he formed in 1980.  The struggle that I have with this piece is that he doesn't provide a single example as to how these spells were derived or arrived at or how to enact them.  It is that understanding that I need where this book falls short for me.

This book is not the kind of Rune work that I do or am interested in and, with a few exceptions, was not for me.  That doesn't mean that you would not find some benefit in it.  I did find the historical context to be helpful.

Runes 102 - Book Review - The Runes in 9 Minutes

Simple.  Inviting.  Easy to follow.  The Rune in 9 Minutes, by Eoghan Odinsson speaks to its readers in a friendly, comfortable tone.  When you begin, you feel almost like you're having a conversation with the author, which is especially important as the book is geared toward those just starting out with the Runes and provides a gentle introduction to them.

Besides it's friendly tone, there are many things to like about The Runes in 9 Minutes.  For starters, the author provides you with at way to make your own set of Elder Futhark Runes, in case you don't have one.  I smiled as I read his instructions, because they sounded very much like what I did last summer when I was traveling and forgot my Runes, so I made a temporary set.  He also suggests other ways to make a more permanent set.

In addition, Odinsson gives good overviews of some key aspects of the Runes.  He explains some basic or common lay outs for Rune casts.  I especially like his explanation for the three-Rune cast or draw, likening it to the Norns (from Norse Mythology, the Norns represent past, present, and future).  Although I've seen this spread before, I have not tried it, but I'm going to give it a shot now.  The Norn cast idea is a nice follow up to the chapter he writes on quantum physics and wyrd; wyrd is fate.  Odinsson does a nice job of applying the idea of quantum physics to wyrd and linking it to probabilities to demonstrate that, while wyrd shapes our lives, we have the ability to manipulate it through our choices and the probably of outcomes related to them.

Before concluding the book, Odinsson outlines the origins and evolution of the Elder, Younger, and Anglo-Saxon Futharks and offers some insight into books to use for further study - Northern Mysteries and Magick, by Freya Aswynn; The Rune Primer, by Sweyn Plowright, and Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic, by Edred Thorsson - with his providing the basic essentials to get you started.

However, the two most interesting aspects of this book are the unexpected Hafskjold Rune casting chapter, and his chapter on how to read Runes.  The former is a truly original experience with the Younger Futhark, taught to Odinsson by his Stav instructor.  Stav is a body, mind, and spirit system that uses Runes and Norse Mythology.  The Hafskjold cast requires repeating the sixteen-symbol futhark three times over twenty-four Runes, so that each Rune has two characters on it, one on top and one on bottom.  This is another Rune cast I am looking forward to trying soon.

The chapter on how to read the Runes, though, might be what makes this book most handy.  Whether you're a beginner or intermediate Rune user, The Runes in 9 Minutes provides a wonderful chapter with each Rune in the Elder Futhark having its own page dedicated to its image and meaning.   While the meanings are minimal, this is an aspect I like, because it allows the Rune user to develop their own personal interpretation of each Rune, based on the original meaning of the Rune.  And, at the bottom of each page, for each Rune, is the Anglo-Saxon Rune poem on which the meanings of the Elder Futhark Runes are created.

If you're just starting with the Runes and looking for a simple and welcoming book to help you get started, Odinsson's book is definitely one to consider.

Runes 102 - Book Review - The Rune Primer

Shortly after I started this blog, someone suggested that I get a book called The Rune Primer: A Down-to-Earth Guide to the Runes, by Sweyn Plowright.  Heeding this advice, I bought the book, because I had been relying on Blum's, Book of Runes.  However, I was already aware of the the issues with that book, but had not found another book that resonated with me.

This book was a pleasant surprise and suited me well, because it deals primarily with the facts about what we know about the Runes.  In fact, Plowright states flat out in his introduction that the purpose of the book is "to keep it brief and to the point, to stick to the known facts and established conventions, and to avoid unnecessary elaborations."  To that end, Plowright fulfilled his goal.

His approach worked well for me, because I sought a deeper understanding of individual Runes.  Moreover, I found that the simplicity of the book allowed me to more openly and confidently interpret the Runes in a way that felt comfortable and accurate and allowed me to grow with the way I understand them.  Plus, as someone whose life has been spent in academia and around academics and researchers, I connected with his focus on factual information without a bunch of detailed interpretations or or his own influences.

In fact,  I use his book as much more of a workbook or reference book, because of the contents.  It contains the Rune poems in two ways.  First, he lists all three together for each Rune.  In the "Resources"section of the book, he lists them again by location (Old English, Old Icelandic,and Old Norwegian).  In this section he includes the original text and the modern translation.  In addition, there is an interpretation section, but, even within that, the details do not overwhelm the reader, rather give broad strokes and allow the reader to development his/her own more detailed sense of each Rune.

Plowright is also what I would consider a purist.  This has both positive and negative connotations.  I appreciate his desire to be as historically accurate with Rune use and interpretation as possible.  As I undertake to make my first set of Runes (Runes 301 - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8), I am trying to make them in the same historically accurate fashion, because it is important to me.  However, on some level, he scorns some of the modern day, new age, uses of Runes, because they are not based on known information or historical sources.  While I appreciate this, I think it is important for there to be some evolution in Rune interpretation to keep them relevant to today's lifestyle.

For example, Fehu translates literally as cattle, but it has evolved into the idea of wealth and, following on that, the reality that wealth has many forms beyond mere financial gains.  My guiding Rune is Jera; it represents the harvest, but for me, the harvest is simply the final stage in a long focused process and it is the process idea where I use Jera, because if we want to have a successful harvest, whether it is growing crops, writing a book or any other endeavor, we must acknowledge the process and work with it.

The Rune Primer is a great resource for those looking for a solid entrance into using Runes and I recommend it for that.  Even with his negative scrutiny of some modern authors and Rune users, Plowright does make some very important points - you should ask critical questions, understand where authors derive their information, and have a basic understanding of the history and origin of Runes - and I recommend it for that too.

Runes 102 - Book Review - Song of the Vikings

When I began reading Song of the Vikings, by Nancy Marie Brown, I expected to learn about Snorri Sturluson.  I did; but Brown provides so much more than his life story.  She doesn’t simply walk her readers through this essential historical figure’s day-to-day life; she gives us the context (both in Iceland and northern Europe) in which his life existed; she relates him to his culture, and she even gives us tidbits of the myths he recorded, while inferring potential links that Snorri may have made between the gods, himself, and the influential people of his day whom he tried so desperately to impress.  While all of these details are important to understanding Snorri Sturluson and his writing, perhaps the greatest contribution of this book is to show how Snorri’s impressive writing was not only reborn, but came to influence many great writers and, of course, the illustrious composer, Richard Wagner.

According to Ms. Brown, Snorri wanted two things in life – to be the “uncrowned king of Iceland” and the king’s skald, his poet.  Brown tells us how the shrewd Snorri achieved the first by becoming Lawspeaker and the most powerful chieftain in Iceland.  However, what I found to be truly fascinating and engagingly written was not simply that Snorri wrote the Prose Edda and several sagas, but why he wrote them – to achieve the second thing, becoming the king’s poet.  Brown explains this aspect brilliantly.

As I neared the end of the book, and with Snorri being dead by this point in the story, I wondered what else there could be to discuss.  This is when I found Brown’s jewel – she leads us from the myths being forgotten within a hundred years of Snorri’s death to their rebirth and influence on great writers like Stephen King, JK Rowling, and Terry Brooks, but, most notably on JRR Tolkien.  Brown brings the relationship between Tolkien and CS Lewis to life, so the reader feels their enthusiasm and excitement for Snorri’s work and understands its importance to literature.

For anyone wanting to learn more about the life of Snorri Sturluson, life in early medieval Iceland, the origin of the Norse myths or how these great works have affected world literature and culture, I recommend Nancy Marie Brown’s Song of the Vikings.  She takes all of these aspects of Icelandic culture and weaves them together in an appealing and informative way.

Runes 102 - Book Review - The Book of Runes

Today, I begin a new series, Runes 102.  In this series, I will  review both books about Runes and the culture from which the Runes originated.  Before I begin today's book review of Ralph Blum's The Book of Runes, I ask that, if there is a book you would like to suggest for review, please add a comment to this post or contact me with your recommendations.  I will be reviewing books about Runes, the Viking Age, and Norse Mythology.

I chose to review Ralph Blum's book for a couple of reasons.  First, there are a number of controversies around this book, which adds to its intrigue.  Second, it was the first book about Runes that I used.  I'll begin with the latter, then move on to the more interesting first aspect.

While I was doing research for my novel (The Son of Nine Sisters), a couple of my sources referenced Blum's book, so I decided to take a look at it.  Now, it didn't hurt that the book came with its own set of ceramic Runes in a velvety gray pouch.  I bought the book and started to memorize the Runes and their meanings.  For me, this was a huge step into a new area, because I was never much of a believer in Tarot or things like that.  But, the Runes spoke to me.  Shortly after I launched this blog, people started to recommend other books to me, books that were more traditional in their Rune interpretations.  While I recognized immediately the differences, I also noticed some similarities and some complements in those interpretations.  That's the next step.

Yes, there are differences, which I will discuss next, but for now, I want to look at the similarities and complements.  Many of the meanings of individual Runes are the same in Blum's book as they are in traditional interpretations.  In fact, Blum states these one-word meanings first.  Although many of his detailed explanations for each Rune differs somewhat from the original meanings, I find that he has taken a specific idea and made it more abstract.  Perhaps this makes it easier for people today to relate to them?  For example, Hagalaz is the Rune of Hail, but he calls it elemental disruption.  Just as a hail storm can ruin a year's crop, the idea can be transferred to present day lives where, instead of hail destroying a crop, maybe an event happens that causes the loss of a job or the end of a relationship.  In this way, Blum makes each Rune more relatable to our times.

Don't get me wrong, I am not tooting his horn by any means.  Blum's book also has several issues, especially if you are looking for the true meaning of the Runes.  The biggest issues include the blank Rune, the order in which he places the Runes, and having meanings for the Rune in upright and reversed positions.  To me, these are the most obvious and biggest differences.  Let's look at them in order.

The Blank Rune.  The simple answer to this is that there isn't one.  There is absolutely no evidence pointing to the existence of a blank Rune.  It is probable that Blum made this up.  I think he did it, in part, due to the way he organized the letters.  He put them in rows of five, which means that he had an extra space in his last line.  So, he created the blank Rune to fill it and referred to it as Odin's Rune, the Rune of the unknowable.  If a Rune is related to Odin, it is Ansuz, not a newly created blank Rune.

Rune Order.  The Runic Alphabet is called the Futhark, because of the first six letters in the alphabet.  Blum's first letters are - MGAQUP.  He also lays them out from right to left.  While some Runestones are carved this way, many also read from left to right, while others are boustrophedon.  However, the standard or Elder Futhark comes in three aetts, three lines of eight.  As Blum himself says, he established his own order and, the final chapter of his book is an amusing, albeit self-serving, justification for it.  Nonetheless, his order does not follow the traditional order of the Futhark, rather ignores it.

Reversed Rune Position.  Another major factor differentiating Blum's study of Runes with the historic understanding of Runes is the idea that the Rune's interpretation changes based on whether it is upside right or upside down.  This is another one of his creations.  If for no other reason, this is called into question, because not every Rune has a reversed position.  Isa is Isa, either way, though Algiz does look different when it is upside down.  It creates an inconsistency.  Moreover, the Rune Poems, on which the meanings of the Runes are based, do not offer different poems for inverted Runes.

Given these blatant inconsistencies with the Rune Poems and the Futhark, am I suggesting that you not use or reference Blum?  No.  What I recommend instead is that, if you use his book for your readings, that it be part of a larger library of sources, because it will give you a fuller, richer picture of what the Runes are saying.  Don't let Blum serve as your only source for Runes.  I say this from experience.