Freemasonry and the Germanic Tradition * Stephen Edred Flowers (2008)

I was looking for something on Amazon when I ran into this book. The subject may be surprising to many, but not really new to me. The Dutchman Farwerck has written about the subject extensively in 1970 and I have touched on the subject in a couple of articles. I was curious what Runegilder Flowers/Thorsson has come up with.
Rûna Raven books are usually thin (this one is about 70 pages), A5 format, photocopied and not cheap to get to Europe ($ 22,- if I remember correctly). Unfortunately there no longer seems to be European distribution to cut the costs for us over here a bit. In any case, Flowers opens with a personal account of his very brief encounter with Freemasonry. He might have better looked for a lodge that fitted him instead of just turning to the local one. Flowers traces roots (not the roots) of Freemasony in the Northern European guild tradition. Not new perhaps, but he uses some arguments that I do not remember to have encountered earlier, mostly references in old texts about certain practices. The author compares Masonic rituals with Norse rituals, presents a translation of Guido von List’s Origins and Symbolism of Freemasonry (1910) (yes the Armanen fellow, not a great text but some nice references) and calls out to all “worthy brothers” to help to restore the original spirit and mission of Freemasonry and to non-Masons to not let Freemasonry die out. Flowers being a scholar is open about the problems with some of his arguments and tries his best to present good evidence, but still I have the idea that he jumps conclusions here and there. Of course this is just an initial investigation that some time somebody should finish (or should we just translate Farwerck into English?). The greatest feat of the booklet, by the way, is that Flowers mentions an early work that has dealt with the subject and of which I had not heard yet: Early History and Antiquities of Freemasonry: as connected with ancient Norse guilds and the oriental building fraternities by George Fort (1884). Something to look into.
2008 Rûna Raven Press