Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Magic
Bill Griffiths

Magic is something special, something unauthorised; an alternative perhaps; even a deliberate cultivation of dark, evil powers. But for the Anglo-Saxon age, the neat division between mainstream and occult, rational and superstitious, Christian and pagan is not always easy to discern.

To maintain its authority (or its monopoly?) the Church drew a formal line and outlawed a range of dubious practices (like divination, spells, folk healing) while at the same time conducting very similar rituals itself, and may even have adapted legends of elves to serve in a Christian explanation of disease as a battle between good and evil, between Church and demons; in other cases powerful ancestors came to serve as saints.

In pursuit of a better understanding of Anglo-Saxon magic, a wide range of topics and texts are examined in this book, challenging (constructively, it is hoped) our stereotyped images of the past and its beliefs. Texts are printed in their original language (e.g. Old English, Icelandic, Latin) with New English translations. Contents include:- twenty charms; the English, Icelandic and Norwegian rune poems; texts on dreams, weather signs, unlucky days, the solar system; and much more.

£14·95 ISBN 1-898281-33-5 250mm x 175mm 10" x 7" hardback 256 pages

Rune Cards
Brian Partridge & Tony Linsell

This boxed set of 30 cards contains some of the most beautiful and descriptive black and white line drawings that I have ever seen on this subject. Pagan News

I feel sure that these Rune Cards will quickly gain the recognition and popularity they richly deserve. Here, one feels, is a package that provides everything one needs to learn how to read the runes, devised by an expert who obviously knows his subject thoroughly and whose enthusiasm successfully inspired a talented artist to transcribe the message of the rune into evocative images. Prediction Magazine

The runes and their interpretation are based on the Old English Rune Poem

30 drawings by Brian Partridge - 96 page booklet by Tony Linsell

£9.95 - ISBN 1-898281-34-3

The purpose of this book is to provide both a comprehensive introduction for those coming to the subject for the first time, and a handy and inexpensive reference work for those with some knowledge of the subject.

The Abecedarium Nordmannicum and the English, Norwegian and Icelandic rune poems are included as are two rune riddles, extracts from the Cynewulf poems and new work on the three Brandon runic inscriptions and the Norfolk 'Tiw' runes.

Headings include: The Origin of the Runes; Runes among the Germans; The Germanic Rune Row and the Common Germanic Language; The English Runic Tradition; The Scandinavian Runic Tradition; Runes and Pseudo-runes; The Use of Runes; Bind Runes and Runic Cryptography.

£4·95 A5 ISBN 1-898281-16-5 Illustrations 96 pages

Anglo-Saxon Runes
John. M. Kemble

Kemble's essay On Anglo-Saxon Runes first appeared in the journal Archaeologia for 1840; it draws on the work of Wilhelm Grimm, but breaks new ground for Anglo-Saxon studies in his survey of the Ruthwell Cross and the Cynewulf poems. It is an expression both of his own indomitable spirit and of the fascination and mystery of the Runes themselves, making it an attractive introductions to the topic.

For this edition new notes have been supplied, which include translations of Latin and Old English material quoted in the text, to make this key work in the study of runes more accessible to the general reader.

Contains the Old English Rune Poem and the Cynewulf poem

£4·95 A5 ISBN 0-9516209-1-6 80 pages