The scientific and esoteric history of runic studies from the Renaissance to the modern era

• Explores the five periods of runic revival: the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Romantic period, the early 20th century, and the late 20th century 

• Examines the use of runes by the foremost magicians and scholars of each era, including mystic and scholar Johannes Bureus, who developed his own integrated system of runology known as Adalruna 

• Reveals how the Nazi misguided use of the runes showed a lack of comprehension of what was being discovered by scientific rune scholars of the day 

In this exploration of the history of the runes from 1500 CE to the present day, Stephen Edred Flowers examines the five periods of runic revival: the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Romantic period, the early 20th century, and the late 20th century. For each period, he discusses both the scholarly studies and those focused on the esoteric mysteries of the runes--and how these two branches of study were at first intertwined yet diverged in later revivals. Focusing in particular on the first runic revival, Flowers examines the use of runes during the Renaissance by the foremost magicians and scholars of the era, including mystic and scholar Johannes Bureus, the “grandfather of integral runology,” who developed his own system known as Adalruna.