You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
A fresh examination of one of the most contentious issues in runic scholarship - magical or not? The runic alphabet, in use for well over a thousand years, was employed by various Germanic groups in a variety of ways, including, inevitably, for superstitious and magical rites. Formulaic runic words were inscribed onto small items that could be carried for good luck; runic charms were carved on metal or wooden amulets to ensure peace or prosperity. There are invocations and allusions to pagan and Christian gods and heroes, to spirits of disease, and even to potential lovers. Few such texts are completely unique to Germanic society, and in fact, most of the runic amulets considered in this boo...
Runes and Their Secrets is a collection of articles written mainly in English by recognized scholars, examining a wide range of runological topics. The articles originated as papers read at an international runic symposium that was held in 2000. Jelling Runes embraces Danish runic inscriptions from the first to the sixteenth century, including such topics as the names of the runes, their chronology, literacy, runic coins, etc. There are also articles on the oldest runic research and runic magic. Several of the articles present brand new knowledge, for example about runic encryption of military and erotic secrets from the middle of the sixteenth century. (Formerly titled: Jelling Runes)
"The swastika and similar symbols were employed by the ancestors of the modern-day Germans. With the Nazi seizure of power, studies of such ideographs became directly supported by the state. The Science of the Swastika is the first theoretically informed study of the relationship between an academic discipline and what the Nazis termed their Weltanschauung. It surveys the fate of Old Germanic studies under the Nazis, a discipline of especial interest to the forces of German reaction. German swastika studies also gave rise to the SS-Ahnenerbe, the antiquarian research organization through which medical experiments were later to be performed on the inmates of concentration camps. The Old Germanic studies of the Nazi period proved to be a creative foil to the almost overwhelmingly destructive side of National Socialism."--BOOK JACKET.
Shortlisted for the 2008 Katharine Briggs Award. For centuries the witch has been a powerful figure in the European imagination; but the creation of this figure has been hidden from our view. Charles Zika’s groundbreaking study investigates how the visual image of the witch was created in late fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe. He charts the development of the witch as a new visual subject, showing how the traditional imagery of magic and sorcery of medieval Europe was transformed into the sensationalist depictions of witches in the pamphlets and prints of the sixteenth century. This book shows how artists and printers across the period developed key visual codes for witchcraft, such...
None
This follow-up to the classic Futhark breaks new ground by applying current scientific theories on how magic works in traditional societies to the world of practical magic. ALU, An Advanced Guide to Operative Runology contains completely new and fresh descriptions of all the individual runes based on traditional sources, rune-poems, Old Norse literature, and more. Thorsson one of the most respected runic scholars living today, synthesizes the old and the new, the scholarly and the practical, and brings the use of runes in magical work to a new level in ALU, An Advanced Guide to Operative Runology. ALU features:Practical magic Divination practicesReveals new techniques and methodsHow modern English can be used in the creation of runic writings
This book breaks with three common scholarly barriers of periodization, discipline and geography in its exploration of the related themes of heresy, magic and witchcraft. It sets aside constructed chronological boundaries, and in doing so aims to achieve a clearer picture of what ‘went before’, as well as what ‘came after’. Thus the volume demonstrates continuity as well as change in the concepts and understandings of magic, heresy and witchcraft. In addition, the geographical pattern of similarities and diversities suggests a comparative approach, transcending confessional as well as national borders. Throughout the medieval and early modern period, the orthodoxy of the Christian Church was continuously contested. The challenge of heterodoxy, especially as expressed in various kinds of heresy, magic and witchcraft, was constantly present during the period 1200-1650. Neither contesters nor followers of orthodoxy were homogeneous groups or fractions. They themselves and their ideas changed from one century to the next, from region to region, even from city to city, but within a common framework of interpretation. This collection of essays focuses on this complex.
Essays on the depiction of animals, birds and insects in early medieval material culture, from texts to carvings to the landscape itself. For people in the early Middle Ages, the earth, air, water and ether teemed with other beings. Some of these were sentient creatures that swam, flew, slithered or stalked through the same environments inhabited by their human contemporaries. Others were objects that a modern beholder would be unlikely to think of as living things, but could yet be considered to possess a vitality that rendered them potent. Still others were things half glimpsed on a dark night or seen only in the mind's eye; strange beasts that haunted dreams and visions or inhabited exoti...
None