The Runes of Elfland (edition 2003)

This is a wonderful presentation of the runes. Each rune is given one full page illustration, two to three smaller illustrations, a one to two page fairy tale about the rune, and a half page or so of explanation of the rune's interpretation.

My only real complaint is that some of the interpretations don't entirely match with my favored Futhark handbook. But, there is room for debate when it comes to the meaning, so it's a question of artistic license, not accuracy.

I wish I'd found this a few years ago when I was interested in this sort of thing. Now, I'm liking it mainly for the short fairy tales and lovely artwork - which is great, but I feel like I'm skipping the main point of the book.
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This is a lavishly illustrated book about the meanings of runes. (As in Norse runes). This considers the runes individually, it does not include layouts as for fortune telling. There is also a layout of the entire alphabet with the latin equivalents.

The book begins with several essays about runes, and then devotes four pages to each of the twenty-four runes. They are named by their meaning, not the rune names. Each includes a charm, stories relating to the rune, and then a section on "The Gift". Froud scatters the pages with pictures of elves/goblins. Each rune also has a full page, full color drawing relating to rune's meaning. ( )

Brian Froud's books - well, I buy them for the art ( )

This isn't Froud's best book, which is a shame, as I am a great fan of runes in general. I felt that the artwork wasn't up to par in a lot of the illustrations, and that there is something detached and overly wordy about the actual book itself.

I would only recommend it for hardcore Froud fans. ( )