The Book of Runes

Product Information

Blum seems to be a well-intentioned, spiritually-minded monotheist with a propensity for adopting other cultures' divinatory systems. The problem, for me, is that rather than write a book that seeks to collect historical information for neophytes, or a book called "My Life with the Runes" which details his personal interpretation of the runes and methods for using them, he has combined a bit of each and released it as the authoritatively-titled "Book of Runes." The same curse and use of the word, rune, is also found on the Stentoften Runestone. There also are some inscriptions suggesting a medieval belief in the magical significance of runes, such as the Franks Casket (AD 700) panel. de Gruyter, Walter (2002). The Nordic Languages, Volume 1. Walter de Gruyter. p.700. ISBN 9783110197051 . Retrieved 2018-05-22.

On the other hand, Blum is honest about what he's doing and that the form of divination he's invented is one that's based on intuition. He's not misguiding anyone or trying to say that he's way is accurate. He's just sharing the method that has worked for him. Taken as an indiviual's spiritual journey, it's an enjoyable read.Main article: Younger Futhark The Younger Futhark: long-branch runes and short-twig runes While also featuring a runic inscription detailing the erection of a bridge for a loved one, the 11th-century Ramsung carving is a Sigurd stone that depicts the legend of Sigurd.

Blum has also written books on the Tao Te Ching, Zen Buddhism, and UFOs. His work has also been published in Readers Digest, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Saturday Evening Post, and Western Horseman. Blum also published three novels: The Simultaneous Man (1970), Old Glory and the Real-Time Freaks (1972), and The Foreigner. Both The Simultaneous Man and Old Glory... reflect his involvement in early drug research. In this inscription, several runes repeat in a sentence to form an unknown meaning. Various scholars have proposed that these runes represent repeated Begriffsrunen. The " West Germanic hypothesis" speculates on an introduction by West Germanic tribes. This hypothesis is based on claiming that the earliest inscriptions of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, found in bogs and graves around Jutland (the Vimose inscriptions), exhibit word endings that, being interpreted by Scandinavian scholars to be Proto-Norse, are considered unresolved and long having been the subject of discussion. [b]Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference The earliest runic inscriptions found on artifacts give the name of either the craftsman or the proprietor, or sometimes, remain a linguistic mystery. Due to this, it is possible that the early runes were not used so much as a simple writing system, but rather as magical signs to be used for charms. Although some say the runes were used for divination, there is no direct evidence to suggest they were ever used in this way. The name rune itself, taken to mean "secret, something hidden", seems to indicate that knowledge of the runes was originally considered esoteric, or restricted to an elite. [ citation needed] The 6th-century Björketorp Runestone warns in Proto-Norse using the word rune in both senses: The moon portrays the urge to sink oneself into the experience of living, without having to evaluate or understand the experience; it also symbolises the urge for comfort, and for the satisfaction of emotional needs. While the sun strives for differentiation, the moon strives for relationship and merging of identity ( Greene, pp. 33–34). Main article: Medieval runes Medieval runes A church bell from Saleby, Västergötland, Sweden, including a runic inscription from 1228 AD If you’re fasciated by runes, you’re not alone. Runes occupy a prized place in divination. The runes we use today in divinatory settings are actually thousands of years old, systems that reach deep into ancestral wisdom. It can definitely feel intimidating if you’re wondering how to read runes! But it doesn’t have to be. In this list of the 10 best books for learning runes, you’ll find books that teach you how to read runes for beginners as well as more intermediate to advanced books for learning to read runes. The variety of learning runes books here will tell you all about the runic alphabet, the history and culture of the Norsemen, and how to learn to read runes for divinatory purposes.

Brix, Lise (May 21, 2015). "Isolated people in Sweden only stopped using runes 100 years ago". ScienceNordic. Archived from the original on July 19, 2019 . Retrieved July 22, 2015. One of three children born to silent film star, Carmel Myers, during her second marriage to husband Ralph Henriques Blum, Sr. (1893-1950) (Her first marriage was to Isidore Kornblum, which ended in divorce in 1923). Ralph Blum (Jr.), was also the nephew of Hollywood writer and director, Zion Myers, Carmel's older brother. Sweyn Plowright probably has little but contempt for some of the books on this list. If you’ve found yourself having the same reaction, and scornfully muttering, “Just the facts, please,” then The Rune Primer: A Down-to-Earth Guide to the Runes may be for you. a b c Matasović, Ranko (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. Brill. p.316. ISBN 9789004173361.

Learning Runes for Intermediate and Advanced Readers

According to Carl-Gustav Werner, "In the isolated province of Dalarna in Sweden a mix of runes and Latin letters developed." [51] The Dalecarlian runes came into use in the early 16th century and remained in some use up to the 20th century. [52] Some discussion remains on whether their use was an unbroken tradition throughout this period or whether people in the 19th and 20th centuries learned runes from books written on the subject. The character inventory was used mainly for transcribing Swedish in areas where Elfdalian was predominant. The Elder Futhark, used for writing Proto-Norse, consists of 24 runes that often are arranged in three groups of eight; each group is referred to as an ætt (Old Norse, meaning ' clan, group'). The earliest known sequential listing of the full set of 24 runes dates to approximately AD 400 and is found on the Kylver Stone in Gotland, Sweden.