Rûna #24
I think I have more issues than the three that are new reviewed, but it has always been hard to keep up with “Rûna”. I do not know how to learn of new issues and so far ordering went through email and with a lot of patience. A while ago I ran into Arktos Media that sells “Rûna” and who have a descent webshop. I think #24 is the last issue, so I got my one of them. In my head “Rûna” is a nice Asatru magazine with links to the Rune-Gild, an organisation that has an ‘alternative’ approach to the Northern path. Reading back my two reviews it seems that I am not always totally happy with “Rûna”. Actually, this also goes for #24… “Exploring Northern European myth, mystery and magic” the cover always says. There is a lot of stress on the “magic” part this time. After a nice, but not groundbreaking essay about “Luck, Fate and Heroes” we have a very uninteresting article of Thomas Karlsson about “Dark Initiatory Witchcraft”. Thomas also returns interviewed about his Dragon Rouge order with its LHP (“left hand path”) magical approach and there is also an article about “Dragon Runes” which also smells of Dragon Rouge. Not that I have anything against that order and certainly not against Thomas who did some excellent work investigating Johannes Bureus, but just to stress the stress on the “magic” part. Further there is yet another interview with Stephen Flowers (of the Rune-Gild), an article about Northern gematria of Wulfila, Robert Taylor tells his history as a heathen and the highlight is kept for the end, Annabel Lee investigates medicine in the grail legends and compares the references to Hildegard von Bingen and some other medieval sources. Actually I only like Annabel’s text… Perhaps in another issue the focus will lay more on the Northern way again. We will see.
Click on the cover to go to Arktos Media where you can get a copy as long as they have them.
I didn’t even remember that I ordered the new issue, but it fell into my mailbox today, so that was a nice surprise. As you have read before, Rûna is a publication of Ian Read and there is a big involvement of the Rune Gild. #21 Is another nice read. It opens with a man who met Odin, Collin Cleary continues with a philosophical approach to the runes, Alice Karsdóttir writes how she became a pagan affiliated with the Rune Gild, David Jones has written a strange short fiction story about Nazi Disneyland, then continues the conversation with Stephen Flowers (founder of the Rune Gild), A history of song is the next article, next up a text about the use of pagan names in Iceland, an article about the pagan and not christian background of (American) law and then follow reviews, including a DVD of Benjamin Bagby singing Beowulf in the original language. I just heard about his (?) 
I had to wait so long for this (almost three months) that I completely forgot about it, so I was surprised when I found my copy in my mailbox. When I started to page through the issue it appeared to be a Tolkien issue with not too interesting articles. It opens with an article on Tolkien and dragons and continues with “Tolkien: a radical traditionalist?”. The first article is an alright read, the other is too, but I wonder why such a ‘new coined term’ has to be applied to Tolkien. But things get better with a short article on the Dagaz rune, an interesting article on “the ninth wave” (and of course Heimdallr, but it seems that the writer didn’t know Dumézil’s remarks on this very subject) and Stephen Flowers on “the comparative method”, not really new, but he put things very nicely in a page and a half. I haven’t really read anything yet (save for the intro), but since it is quite a wait, I decided to announce it nonetheless.