Review: Helrunar by Jan Fries

Jan Fries' book 'Helrunar' is in my estimation one of the better books on the subject. The author lays the foundation for the futhark by examining the history of the runes. This is split into the early history of runic markings and annotated language, as well as more recent history relating to the Third Reich's misuse of the futhark and how that might affect those who wish to utilise the runes today.

What I especially like about this book is that Fries mostly keeps himself to the more factual and referenced information about each rune - relating each to the various rune poems - rather than listing the runes and connecting them to a list of rather arbitrary associations (such as "Fehu is linked to the cow as its animal, the colour yellow, the smell of ammonia and the taste of garlic and the I-Phone 4S...") as some other authors have done. Instead, he encourages the reader to research each rune and meditate upon it for themselves for insights.

Despite the depth of information within, I found the book surprisingly easy to read and by the end of the book I was wanting to purchase more of the authors works so that I could enjoy his writing style some more. Additionally, there is no attempt by the author to tie in a myriad of unnecessary viking references to help secure a stronger market.

Some readers might like to note, however, that the author approaches the subject viewed from his own grounding in chaos magic - some might prefer the author to be a follower of one of the northern traditions. Myself, I did not find this a problem, however, actually appreciating minimal references to the gods, goddesses and heroes of the norse/anglo saxon pantheon.

All in all, an excellent text on the runes. Definitely worth buying for any serious runeworker.

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