The Book of Runes: Tenth Anniversary Edition

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: The perfect book for any beginning runecaster, or for someone more advanced that just needs to sharpen his or her memory once in a while. This book covers all the basics, nothing is left out. Worth every penny.

Rating:
Summary: Worth absolutely nothing...
Review: This book is a poor choice if you want historically accurate information for several reasons. First, Ralph Blunn uses the blank rune. This is not historically accurate, and was invented in the 1980's. It is basically embodying the 'Outlook cloudy, try again' answer of the 'Mystical' Eight-ball. Second, Blunn uses other divination tools such as the I-Ching to aquire the meaning of the runes. While I am not casting aspersions upon the validity of this method, it is like getting 2nd-hand news. Things come out differently. Third, Blunn adds things into the definitions of runes which never were there (and yes we can know, to a limited extent, how runes were read years ago thanks to the preservation of knowledge by Germanic monks and other sources) such as adding that the essence of the rune Mannaz is water. That would be Laguz. Mannaz is representative of humanity. But I suppose Blunn feels perfectly justified in changing things, because he made up a completely different order for the runic alphabet. And to agree with and quote another reviewer, "having invented his own definitions, I'm surprised that he hasn't invented his own symbols." He rarely if ever uses the term 'futhark', and always refers to the futhark as 'the runic alphabet' or better yet the 'Viking runes'. May I point out that the runes were used throughout Northern Europe and not just in Finland where the Vikings originated. And as to one of the more recent reviews statement that says something to the effect of 'who cares if its not accurate as long as it works', I respond that you could probably do just as well drawing Scrabble letters and ascribe meanings to them. If you use the runes, use them correctly. I suggest that you go to a great website www.sunnyway.com/runes if you want to find out real information regarding this matter. Instead of buying this book or its sequel 'The Healing Runes', go to www.sunnyway.com/runes. There is a list of better books about the futhark there, as well as a wealth of links and information.