What is a Rune: And Other Essays by Collin Cleary

About What is a Rune?

In these nine remarkable essays, Collin Cleary expands upon the ideas of his path-breaking book Summoning the Gods and ventures into entirely new territory:

• “What is a Rune?” explores the nature of mytho-poetic thought and the problem of recovering the mysteries of runa.
• “The Fourfold” uses Martin Heidegger’s phenomenology of “dwelling” as a means of approaching our ancestors’ way of being in the world.
• “The Ninefold” offers a philosophical interpretation of the nine worlds of Germanic myth.
• “The Gifts of Odin and his Brothers” unveils the inner meaning of the account of human origins found in the Eddas.
• “The Stones Cry Out” advances the revolutionary thesis that “openness to Being” explains the sudden appearance of art in Europe 40,000 years ago.
• Cleary’s controversial essay “Ásatrú and the Political” argues that Ásatrú is inseparable from White Nationalism.
• “Are We Free?” skewers the false conception of freedom to which Westerners are in thrall.
• “Heidegger: An Introduction for Anti-Modernists” offers readers the best English-language introduction to the most important philosopher of the last century.
• “The Prisoner and Ibsen’s Brand” is a sequel to Cleary’s popular essay on The Prisoner from Summoning the Gods, exploring this enigmatic television series in the light of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play about implacable moralism.