For a very long time I have wanted to have a look at the famous “Galdrabók”. I knew that Stephen Flowers of the Rune Gild and the Woodharrow institute had a translation, but it ran out of print and is impossible to get. Now there is a “second and revised edition”, not released by Weiser, but by Flower’s own Rûna Raven Press. However the first edition has a colour cover and 135 pages, this new edition is more like a photocopied (but well-bound) 100 page A5 booklet. I don’t know what happened in between.
Of the 100 pages there is only 16 pages Galdrabók. Flowers starts with a very interesting introduction into Northern European magic. The writer devides Icelandic magic in three periods: the pagan age, the Christian age and the age of the Reformation. It in in the latter that magic was forcefully suppressed, but most manuscripts written down. The introduction compares systems, points to currents (Christian, Eastern, etc.), gives the history and an idea of the practise of it. After this follow the 16 pages of the Galdrabók and then another few pages with magic from other sources.
I expected a bit of a ‘runic version’ of the famous Medieval grimoires, but this is only partly true. A few symbols my remind of for example the Lesser Key of Solomon, but many do not. Also there aren’t that many drawings involved, more like spells and curses, not quite unlike the short spells from the Papyri Graecae Magicae (see elsewhere on this site). Most spells, etc. are very simple, totally unlike the long and detailed instructions in Medieval sorcerers books. I guess that Flowers is right when he says that these are writings for ‘pros’ and not for ‘beginners’. Also there are not that many runic figures involved or ‘pagan deities’, many texts come straight from the Bible or Judaic or Gnostic spell-books. Interesting nonetheless, especially with the great introduction of Flowers.
Rûna Raven Books are not cheap, especially not when you live outside the USA. I ran into Europa ltd. who sent me this booklet for $ 32,- and a long wait. You may have a search a bit, since that webshop seems to be offline (26/6/2017).
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