“Branch-runes learn, if a healer wouldst be,
And cure for wounds wouldst work;
On the bark shalt thou write,
and on trees that be
With boughs to the eastward bent.”

Linguistically dated to the late pagan period of the Viking Age, Sigrdrífumál is a fascinating poem that features the voice of a valkyrie, here called Sigrdrífa (meaning ‘victory-driver; victory-bringer’). Awoken from her thorn-induced slumber, the valkyrie recites a pagan prayer to the gods before offering a horn of drink and feverishly reciting intense wisdom and runic magic to the hero. Preserved in a fragmentary state, the poem is enigmatic not only for its mysticism and insight into the Younger Futhark, the Viking Age development of the runic alphabet, but also for the Hávamál-like wisdom it provides cloaked in ethereal and uncanny imagery.

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A UNIQUE & APPROACHABLE
EDITION INTENDED
FOR EVERYONE

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First edition
2025. 131 pages. 5x7. Published by Hyldyr.
Non-fiction, European history, folklore, & occult (file with runes)