A Little Book About the Runes

by Bjorn Jonasson

This short and readable book tells the story of the Runes, and explains each one with the help of a runic rhyme dating from the Viking Age. The old runic letters were much used in the Viking Age.

Genres: Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published May 1, 2002

Reviews

[Angie Lisle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would be a good gift for kids.

From the back of the book: “A Little Book about the Runes is a quick guide...”.

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn’t decide what to read next out of my big two bookshelves full of TBR stuff, so I picked up something short and sweet that wouldn’t take enough time to make me cranky if I decided it wasn’t what I wanted, although possibly it would wreck my average page count for the year. The short and sweet something I picked up ended up being Bjorn Jonasson’s A Little Book About the Runes, which, true to its name, is a tiny little book that walks you through the runic alphabet (better known as the futhark). It is very cute and easy-to-read and uses an ancient Nordic rune poem to walk you through the names of each rune. The poem is apparently one of three fairly similar poems, known as the Icelandic, the Norwegian, and the Anglo-Saxon rune poems. This one is the Icelandic rune poem, although there is no particular reason to believe it is specifically Icelandic in origin. Anyway, it’s a nice little baby’s-first kind of reference to have on hand in case I need to use runes for nerd shit in the future.

Originally posted at Futhark 101.

[Matic Sket · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kratka knjiga ki predstavi rune.

[Maëva Catalano · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book to get started with Runes and what is around mythology for beginners :)

[Lizzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It very much is a little book about the runes. The Ronseal of runes. The Runeseal.

[Joaquim Rosa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A small guide on runes with runic verses for each one. My copy was bought on Reykjavik so, just by looking at it, I get back there instantly.

[Stina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book #97 for 2018
The Legendary Book Club of Habitica's Ultimate Reading Challenge: A book tied to your ancestry/heritage
PopSugar: A book tied to your ancestry
Mt. TBR Challenge #24
GenreLand: Wildcard

Well, the December theme for GenreLand was indigenous authors, and it's entirely possible that Mr. Jónasson qualifies, considering how homogeneous the population of Iceland is. But there isn't a whole lot of information on him, at least not that I can determine with any confidence is about this particular Björn Jónasson, and I'm not even sure how the term "indigenous" works someplace like Iceland, so I'll just play my one wildcard for the 2018 game and call it good.

I picked this up at the DMNS Vikings exhibit, and it's a neat little book. I use the elder futhark alphabet, and this focused on much more recent (and smaller) alphabets, so it doesn't have much in the way of direct application for me, but it was still interesting to see the changes over the years. I also enjoyed the Viking poem presented here. This was a pleasant way to close out my reading year.

[Tyna DV · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is a very short book which gives you an illustration of each letter with a poem. Good to have it in the living-room for guest to look at it and get distracted, entertained while acquiring a bit of knowledge.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple, accessible description of runes.

[Ana Teresa Queiroga · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine little introductory book about the runes.