The Runes of Elfland [Hardcover]

Ari Berk (Author), Brian Froud (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2003

Froud, the leading fairy authority, interprets the ancient and mystical runes of Celtic and European origin through Elfland, a world of fairies and myth, through 24 never-before-seen paintings.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up-If runes are the keys to Faery, this book is an Open Sesame. For each rune, Berk tells a brief story (borrowing from traditional myth and tale), often ambiguous and fragmentary, and then evokes the sign's significance and associations. The stories suggest mystical meanings and the sections on significance also tell stories, and urge participation ("seek a place of stone under the waning moon"). The 24 runes govern human activities: journeys, exchange, joy, loss, fate, memory, etc. Berk explores etymological links, origins, and natural correspondences. Life lessons, folk wisdom, and psychotherapy all play a role in this user's guide, and if the approach is a trifle portentous and highly poetic, readers are expecting no less. The pictures are classic Froud: a fistful of Arthur Rackham, a measure of Pre-Raphaelites, scattered seasoning from other 19th-century illustrators. (One painting is a clear Millais-Rossetti homage.) The palette is subdued, with a few touches of ruby or lapis adding glow to the greenish cast of the faery world. Each rune has a full-page heraldic illustration and a couple of elvish creatures forming the letter's shape with their bodies. It's all great fun and Froud fans will be ecstatic.
Patricia D. Lothrop, St. George's School, Newport, RI
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About the Author

Brian Froud is an award-winning illustrator, author, and Faery authority. His books include international best-sellers such as Faeries, with Alan Lee; Lady Cottington's Pressed Faery Book, with Monty Python's Terry Jones; Lady Cottington's Fairy Album; and The Faeries Oracle. He also served as the conceptual designer on Jim Henson's films The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. Froud resides in Devon, England, with his wife and son. Ari Berk is an artist, poet, and teacher of mythology, folklore, American Indian studies, and medieval literature. He has published works on rune lore, faerie stories, the Wild Hunt, landscape and myth, and many other topics. Dr. Berk is a professor of literature at Central Michigan University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; First Printing edition (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810946122
• ISBN-13: 978-0810946125
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,333 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > Divination > Runes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Myth that goes to the bone, March 13, 2004

By 

M. Secara "maggiros" (N. Hollywood, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Runes of Elfland (Hardcover)

What can I say? On one page I held my breath. On another, I lost it. One page left me in tears, the longing and the recognition were so poignant. When I went to look for that page again, I couldn't find it, like the gold under the rainbow. It will happen to you. At some point you'll discover the page that haunts your dreams, describes your world, or makes you smile.

Ari Berk's exquisitely informed text and Froud's always extraordinary pictures combine to open the world you know is there but have forgotten how to see. The runes, charms, and stories delineate the bargains, the sorrows, and the treasures of the journey.

Get this book. Get copies for your friends. If you've ever heard the voices under your bed and wanted to know their names, or wept at a sunset for no reason, or considered walking through the door at the back of the wardrobe, just in case--get this book. They're playing your song.

48 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's all about stories..., January 29, 2004

By 

Justin E. Jacobson "silent_bombadil" (Fort Walton Beach, FL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Runes of Elfland (Hardcover)

The word "rune," once, a long time ago, could refer to anything from a single letter to a whole poem, or to an object inscribed with these letters. Ari Berk knows this, and each elfin letter in this book grows or hatches or blooms or fractals out from a letter to a poem to a legend.

I got this book as a present, on the longest night of the year, and found warmth in those stories, found inspiration and magic, found myself feeling restored and refreshed from watching those stories grow.

The illustrations are wonderful and often reminiscent of art from "Good Faeries/Bad Faeries" or "Faeries" more than "strange stains and mysterious smells," but this is a good thing, as they aren't pictures to accompany silly stories: they're paintings to convey, with the help of Berk's retellings of old legends, the importance of stories, since stories have long been a window to Elfland if not a road.

If you like folklore, buy this book. If you like Brian Froud's art, buy this book. if you like stories that are on par with Neil Gaiman's in terms of creating the sense that these things are going all around us but we generally don't take notice, buy this book.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The kind of stories that don't exist anymore, November 22, 2005

By 

Inspector Gadget "Go Go Gadget Reviews" (On the trail of Doctor Claw) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Runes of Elfland (Hardcover)

Let's face it, the majority of stories we tell each other these days is nothing but gossip. Gone are the days of fables and poems and limericks. Stories like this are considered bedtime rituals for kids rather than something important that we can learn from.

Brian Froud and Ari Berk team up in this book to deliver 24 stories (some short, some long) based on ancient culture, each one with a twist in the tale and the meaning of of it laid out afterwards. A runic code is also featured for every one, that takes a few minutes to unravel. But once you get familiar with the Key, it'll be easier for you.

Some of these stories are easy to identify with, but some are really out there. Since Berk has a degree in Modern, Classic and Medieval English Literature you can expect him to have pretty diverse writing skills. All of the stories may be set in the same world but you'll never know where he'll go in the next one.

Froud's paintings are definitely interesting and vivid, but I'd be hard-pushed to call them beautiful. Some are so abstract and weird that I could look at it for ages and still not fully understand it's point.

It took quite a while to get through this book. A lot of patience is needed to decipher the codes and I'm not the kind of guy who can read several different fables in one night. It does make for a good bedtime read for kids and adults though. But I wouldn't expect many children to appreciate the book at all.