The Icelandic & Swedish Rune Poems

Rendered & discussed by Mathias NordviG
with art by Jacqui Alberts

The rune poems are a group of alliterative items found among speakers of West and North Germanic languages. They provide not only names for the runes but consist of creative treatments of the traditional order of the runic alphabets, the Futhark.

In this second entry in a planned three part series covering all of the rune poems, Danish scholar Mathias Nordvig (University of Colorado Boulder) translates and discusses the Icelandic and Swedish rune poems. In these three poems, two of them quite rarely translated into English, we learn that each rune has a name and these concepts are explored by the poets in artistic and fascinating ways. This edition also includes discussion from Nordvig on examples of early bindrunes.

This edition features illustrations from American artist Jacqui Alberts (Wovnwyrm), who provides original depictions of a variety of important runic finds from especially Sweden, and it is introduced by scholar Haukur Þorgeirsson (Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies). It is edited by Joseph S. Hopkins (Mimisbrunnr.info & Hyldyr).

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A UNIQUE & APPROACHABLE
ILLUSTRATED EDITION
FOR EVERYONE

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First edition: limited to 333 hand-numbered copies
131 pages. 5x7. Published by Hyldyr.
Printed in the USA and/or Canada.

See Also