Runes of the North

by Sigurd F. Olson

In Runes of the North Sigurd F. Olson explores the haunting appeal of the wilderness. He recounts how the legends of the northern vastness of Canada and Alaska have influenced him, weaving the tales and myths with his own stories and experiences as an explorer, writer, grandfather, and biologist. Now available in paperback for the first time, Runes of the North is a mystical and reflective guide to the northern wilderness written with a oneness and communion with nature that is unique to Olson's pen. It is a work filled with beauty, wisdom, and renewal.

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Essays, Travel, Autobiography, Environment, Wilderness

280 pages, Paperback

First published August 12, 1963

About the author

Sigurd F. Olson was an American author, environmentalist, and advocate for the protection of wilderness. For more than thirty years, he served as a wilderness guide in the lakes and forests of the Quetico-Superior country of northern Minnesota and northeastern Ontario. He was known honorifically as the Bourgeois — a term the voyageurs of old used of their trusted leaders.

Reviews

[Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

🌲🌲 Sigurd Ferdinand Olson (April 4, 1899 – January 13, 1982) was an American writer, environmentalist, and advocate for the protection of wilderness. For more than thirty years, he served as a wilderness guide in the lakes and forests of the Quetico-Superior country of northern Minnesota and northwestern Ontario. He was known honorifically as the Bourgeois — a term the voyageurs of old used of their trusted leaders. (Wiki)

🛶 Early on in her writing career, Margaret Atwood commented in one of her books - it might have been Surfacing - that to understand Canada and Canadians, you had to understand the importance of wilderness, solitude, and vast unpopulated spaces to get into their psyches. I think this is probably true of Americans in Alaska and the northwestern states as well, probably most of the Scandinavian countries, and Russia, likely northern Scotland too, especially the Hebrides and the Orkneys. Her point was, it makes people different when they live in lonely places with an abundance of quiet and isolation.

🌙So that’s my preamble to recommending this book by Olson and indeed any and all of his books. They take you to some of the lonely, vast, unpopulated places and keep you there long after you’ve turned the final page or slipped past the final screen of type. I’ve read many of them, pipe and coffee at hand, by a small campfire late into the night, trees and stars thick about me. Few finer things 🌖

[Els · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five primally magnificent stars to this masterpiece, also: I am definitely moving.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pleasurable way to remind yourself of the power of language. Sigurd Olson does the near impossible, connecting his experience to perfect description. His stories are even more powerful in his spartan style; with seeming ease, he gets right to the essence. You are there with him in the moment. Bonus: he's talking about nature. Get your itches scratched with this book, as Olson takes you through uncommon but not unattainable adventures. This ain't your typical escapism, no quaint markets in France or bike rides in Italy. Less about desire and more about stripping away; feel refreshed by the raw exposure to the wilderness.

[John Benson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, Sigurd Olson's fourth book, shows similarities to his previous three books. The book includes essays on the wilderness country around Ely, MN where Sigurd Olson lived, sharing many similarities with his first two books, THE SINGING WILDERNESS and LISTENING POINT. The second half moves to northern Canada and Alaska and is more reminiscent of his third book, THE LONELY LAND, where he explored rivers in northern Saskatchewan. This book is less focused than his earlier books which were either environmental essays or explorations. Here he combines them into one book.

[Connie Kronlokken]

Sigurd Olson has a way of writing that shows you his deep excitement for being in the bush. His love of wilderness is shown in his lush writing, and in this book he takes you on some of the adventures, both near his home in the boundary waters between Canada and Minnesota, and into the further north, the pays 'en haut. He tells us of the adventure books he read as a young man and how Robert Service caught the magic better than anyone else: "There's a whisper on the night wind, there's a star agleam to guide us, And the wild is calling, calling ... let us go."

Hardly anyone writes with this kind of excitement any more. Olson was born the same year Hemingway was, and it is easy to see which of them caught the tide of the culture! Olson did a great deal for all of us, however, working tirelessly to get wilderness areas set aside. This is a great book of stories. He explains the sauna down to the cup of coffee afterwards sitting on the stoop! "Ours was a sense of fullness and belonging to a past of simple ways." Read it, and be reminded that what we think limits us, doesn't really.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book came out of my grandfather’s house and at first I was surprised, the subject matter and style didn’t seem to fit with the man I remember. But, I have a vague recollection of being told that his Christmas trees were always kind of scrawny because he thought the more perfect trees looked better in the woods. I don’t know how true that story is, but it fits in with Sigurd Olson’s view of the wilderness and god’s nature. This book is a collection of canoeing tales of the North woods, from the Boundry Waters to the Yukon and Hudson’s Bay. Olson and his companions are modern day voyageurs, covering vast distances with nothing but a compass and a paddle. The woods and waters are beautifully described and clearly loved.

[Greg]

Beautifully written by one of the country's preeminent professors, naturalists, and north woodsmen. Olson was a former President of the National Parks Association and a consultant to the Department of the Interior.

This, along with his companion books ("The Singing Wilderness," "Listening Point," and "The Lonely Land"), offer some of the most intimate and carefully observed accounts of the Boundary Waters and canoe country of northern Minnesota and southern Ontario, Canada. His insights are both scholarly and deeply personal.

[Mark Geisthardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of essays which Sigurd Olson wrote about the far north, near and beyond the Arctic Circle in northern Canada and in Alaska. A great read for those who love wilderness as well as for those who wonder what is the wilderness and why does it matter.

Every once and a while, I need to go back and sit with Sigurd Olson as he shares with me his stories and his philosophy of wilderness. It is always a good rich place to be. Thank you Sigurd!

[Dick Aichinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually have an older edition of this book. I love these books. If you love the wilds or like the idea of loving the wilds, these collections of thought will captivate you. Especially if you have experienced the Boundary Waters region in Minnesota. Sigurd Olson is the wilderness canoist's godfather.

[Mary-Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! I read most of it while I was at a fishing lodge in Canada and I felt like I was immersed in the scenery the author was describing. Anyone who has a respect for the North Country would love reading this book. Oh, how I long to be a voyageur!!

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book better than "Reflections". Where Reflections was philosophy, "Runes of the North" was storytelling at its north country finest. Good book.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Olson was the poet philosopher of the great northern wilderness. His advocacy on environmental issues lives on. But his love of the wild is what grabs me. It doesn't hurt that he's a good word smith.

[Karla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than the last "Olson" book I read. Enjoyed it.

[Doyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only 56 people have rated this book? Fifty-six! Come on folks!

[Tom Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my money this is one of Sigurd's best. It was kind of an overview of his expeditions in the north.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice stories and remembrances of the North...homesick.

[Rory Fraser · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want some cranberries.

[Elliot Lang]

Summary
From the lakes of Minnesota, to the freezing tundra of the Northwest Territories, to the snow peaked mountains of Alaska, Our author, narrator and main character, Sigurd Olson travels all across the beautiful boreal forests of North America. He tells stories, meets new people and encounters many animals.

Analysis
The book really made me ask myself about the idea, purpose and central idea of the book. I'm still not sure what the main idea of the book is, but I do have some ideas. Exploration and discovery is all over the book and loving where you are and what you do. Sigurd Olson loves exploring, discovering and nearly everything that he does in the woods. There isn't a true plot in the book, it’s as if he is telling you different stories that may not even be all true. But it all starts by him talking about a Chippewa tale of a baby that lied under a tree as his guardians stoked the fire around them, the baby was sleeping and he was protected from bad dreams by the dream catcher that was hung in the tree above him. Then he talks about his trek across the Quetico-Superior of Minnesota, from Grand Portage to a town called Winton. He had his pack and a canoe that he paddled up the Rainy River and across land covered in lakes. Great stories like this make up the book, and another story that I liked is one that takes place way up near Great Slave Lake, he was in a tiny patch of open water in a bog that was located right on the edge of a large forest where all the trees were beautifully covered in frost and a massive tundra that was coated in frost. Down in the bog were cranberries that were very ripe and ready to harvest. He strapped on his waiters and hopped in the bog where he ate many berries and scooped up a whole basket full. I thought that Sigurd Olson was very wise and a great woodsman.

Final Thoughts
I loved the book and is probably in my top 5, not only because I loved the stories, but because it was really able to make me think about my experience up in the north woods of Minnesota and Wisconsin. The way everything was described made me feel quite nostalgic. My favorite part was when he saw a huge whitetailed deer peeking between the trees. I loved this book and would definitely recommend it to anyone who has spent time in the north woods.

[Kevin Dineen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is very easy to have your thoughts trail off into this wilderness while you read Olson's adventures into the North. Reflective and full of description, Olson's writing gives you a little taste of what traveling and camping was like in the Canada and how it's beauty can still affect people who become lost in it's wilderness.

[Pat Breunig · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t know how I found this book other than it just fell into my lap. It captivated me from the beginning. A book I’ve been needing to read. Since I’ve been traveling and gotten to know some wilderness experiences it filled in some of the gaps. I loved Alaska and Denali and all it’s geography and history. I think my son Danny would enjoy this wilderness experience.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once more Olson takes us into the beautiful pristine wilderness. His respect and adoration of the wild places is wonderfully felt in all his writings.

[Ehryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt like Olson really brought you into his experiences and the beauty of the wilderness. My only issue was his crudeness in referring to Native Americans.

[Sherri Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the tracing of the voyageurs journeys and the quotes from the fur traders but the parts about Alaska were lacking.

[Henry Kline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some pretty word pictures but no real continuity or depth.

[Richard Rk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even better than The Singing Wilderness!

[Ted Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun ruminations about travels in the Great Lakes region and northward.

[Cullen Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read most of Olson’s works in 2023 and thought they were amazing.

[Ron Jensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had 2 independent parts. The first takes place in the Quetico-Superior, and reminded me of previous Sigurd Olson books. I read it while paddling in the Quetico and enjoyed it very much, because I was in a contemplative environment - the perfect place to read a Sigurd Olson book! The second half takes place in several different locations in northern Canada, a much different environment. I also found it very interesting and descriptive. I read this mostly while flying home from Europe. I became a little impatient with the repetitive descriptions, which is my main problem with Sigurd Olson’s books - a little too much of the same descriptions of landscape and travels. But overall I love his books.