Autorentext

Edited by D. Brewer

Klappentext

This book is an ideal introduction for people new to the subject of runes. It serves as a beginner's guide, describing the historical evolvement of the runic alphabets leading to modern day usage and instructions on how to cast runes for magic and divination. It is thought the word 'rune' is derived from the Proto-Germanic word 'r n ', which means 'letter', 'literature' and 'secret' and also from the Germanic word 'run' and the Gothic 'runa', meaning 'secret' and 'whisper'. Runes are defined as sets of symbols that make up alphabets, used initially by Germanic people of the Viking Age of central and northern Europe, probably inspired by the Latin alphabet of the Romans, to communicate in a written form. Runology is the study of runes and their history. As well as a form of communication, each individual runic symbol is said to hold an inherent powerful magical nature and hence they have also been used for magic and divination, and examples are found over 2000 years of history regarding this type of use. The earliest references to runic inscriptions appear from the end of the 1st century AD, and their use continued until Latin began to take over from the 11th century AD onwards due to Christianisation. However, runic alphabets continued to evolve and be used for more specialised writings and magical influence and examples can be found right up until the present day.