Reading the Runes in Old English and Old Norse Poetry

Presenting five linked case studies of runes in poetry, this study is the first to compare responses to runic heritage in the literature of Anglo-Saxon England and medieval Iceland. The author views these representations through the paradigm of scriptural reconstruction and the validation of contemporary literary, historical and religious sensibilities to enhance our understanding of early medieval attitudes to a literate past, and to explore the relationship between Anglo-Saxon and Norse textual cultures.