Rudiments of Runelore

by Stephen Pollington

The purpose of this book is to provide both a comprehensive introduction for those coming to the subject for the first time, and a handy and inexpensive reference work for those with some knowledge of the subject. The Abecedarium Nordmannicum and the English, Norwegian and Icelandic rune poems are included as are two rune riddles, extracts from the Cynewulf poems and new work on the three Brandon runic inscriptions and the Norfolk 'Tiw' runes. Headings include: The Origin of the Runes; Runes among the Germans; The Germanic Rune Row and the Common Germanic Language; The English Runic Tradition; The Scandinavian Runic Tradition; Runes and Pseudo-runes; The Use of Runes; Bind Runes and Runic Cryptography.

Genres: Paganism, Nonfiction, History, Language, Witchcraft, Divination, Religion

92 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Apostate · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book dealing with runes in a linguistic (not New Age mystical bunk)sense. It presents several Runic alphabets, deals with the history of runes & inscriptions, and gives several poems concerning runes in Old English & Old Icelandic. My only beef with the book is its small size: it barely has 80 pages of material. Each chapter could be expanded into a book of its own.

[Devon · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent resource on Germanic runes, including linguistic information, discussion of inscription, the rune poems, and the different runic systems. It is a very small book, easily read in a day or so, but it has a lot of good starting information, including a list of texts for further reading for the interested reader. I would have maybe liked to have seen more discussion of the different rune poem traditions, but I realize that might have made the book far weightier than the author intended.

[Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bit dense at parts for someone with little to no linguistic background, but overall a well-researched read. Above all, it provides what I felt was a very balanced and accessible insight into runic history and inscriptions amongst a vast array of literature that is either hopelessly academic or filled with wild flights of occult fancy.

[Joseph F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to the runes. I liked the rune poems and his description of the elder futhark.
Some parts a little difficulty understanding; the science of runic interpretation can be thorny, even for an introduction. (get it, "thorny", for the thorn rune! haha)

[David M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good info. Mostly focuses on the Anglo-Saxon futhork. Unfortunately, I've heard this author and I think the publishing company might lean towards white nationalist ideals. I'm not 100% sure, but I didn't come across anything that was racist in this book. He stuck to the runes without anything extra. Hopefully, I'm wrong and they aren't terrible people. Just in case I bought this book used.

[Brenda Lively · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fine academic introduction to runes. For such a short book, it's chock full onf information on what is known about the ancient writing systems.

[Jason Goodrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to Runelore, this little book will help you decide if you want to study further into the subject, or be sufficient if you want a basic understanding.

[Tarek von Bergmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing little book!

[Erin Zelnio · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great little book for looking at several rune poems and notable inscriptions. Academic, but not snobbish about it.

[cinnamilk · Rating 4 out of 5]

a solid introduction to germanic runes from an academic/scholarly perspective

4/5

[Kjǫlsigʀ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely (mundane rather than magickal) overview with some nice attention to the use of runes in ancient cryptography.

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

It can be tricky to find books on this topic that are both accessible and authoritative. Some can be so academic and dense that (if you can even get your hands on them) they're hard to parse without a degree in linguistics, while others tend to devolve into esoteric conjecture. Amidst those extremes this book was a delightful find and proved to be exactly what it claims to be: an affordable, comprehensive and accessible introduction and reference work.

For its 82 pages I found it to be immensely enlightening and surprisingly thorough in the information it manages to cover in that space. What runes are, how they varied across the cultures that used them, and how and why they were used are all covered. Pollington clearly knows his subject matter well and treats it with great respect. While he provides a lot of historical and archaeological examples of runic inscriptions and uses those to illustrate what we do know, he also takes care to point out that there is much that is still conjecture, and much that we can never know for certain. The linguistic details were fascinating, but my favourite aspect was certainly the glimpses into the culture and worldview of the people groups that used these runes.

Loved this particular Old English rune-poem for ᛡ:

Iar byþ eafix and ðeah a bruceþ
fodres on foldan, hafaþ fægerne eard
wætre beworpen, ðær he wynnum leofaþ.

Beaver is a riverfish yet it always enjoys
Food on land, has a fine dwelling
Surrounded by water where it lives happily

Isn't that just wholesome?

[Inforeiki Reiki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Libro fantastico sul reiki e su come gli angeli lavorano con noi