Last year I received quite a few requests for reviewing various Heathen-related publications, from zines to journals and even full-length books. Unfortunately, due to a very busy schedule including attending various live events, restarting my studies, and relocating abroad, I developed such a backlog that I only managed to get into these tomes long after the beginning of the following year.
Still, there is an advantage of delaying these reviews until now: instead of spreading them out slowly over a period of many months, I get to present to you all four at once, so that you, dear reader, can immediately get a feel for what you may want to give a try. From reactualized ancient folklore, and treatises on mysterious symbols, to musings on actual mythology and theology, I hope that you will find something to like, and more importantly, to read.
The Fools’ Mirror (#1½): Roadside Trolls of Mostly Norway
Eirik Storesund
Troll Cat Press
56 pages
Available via Bigcartel
Published by Trollcat Press, a small independent publishing house based somewhere in the dark depths of Delaware, comes the second (or, first-and-a-half, as indicated on the cover) issue of The Fools’ Mirror. Masterminded by Eirik Storesund, a Norwegian transplant mostly known for his BruteNorse podcast and advocacy for a frankly disorienting, yet purposeful, exploration of Nordic culture and heritage, this issue is dedicated to the wonderful world of troll statuary and trollish imagery at large.
Focusing especially on Norway, issue first-and-a-half of The Fools’ Mirror introduces the various interconnected traditions surrounding the depictions of trolls in the public space. As inconspicuous as they may be to most of the local Scandinavians, these numerous fiberglass and wooden troll figures, statues, and other often improbable sculptural constructs tend to be subject the subject of much bewildered interested among outsiders of all stripes.
What the Hel are those (frankly grotesque) figures doing in front of tourist shops? By the side of rural gas-stations? All over hiking trails? In the middle of amusement parks? Within children’s books? Where do they come from? What is the appeal? And, most importantly, does anyone actually unironically like those… things? If you ever asked yourself these very serious questions, getting your hands on this 50-something pages’ magazine will provide with most, if not all the answers you need.
If I, who lived in Norway for nearly 15 years, studied and wrote about Norse myth and folklore, and even earned actual money through my expertise on trolls (a story I will have to tell one day), learned a bunch of things I did not know on the topic, you betcha that you will too. If you look at matters such as folklore, tradition, and cultural heritage with an outlook that is as irreverent as it is sincere, this small yet exceptional work on popular trollology is for you, no questions asked.
The Elder Futhark: The Oldest Runes
Jacqui Alberts (art) & J. S. Hopkins (text)
Hyldyr
144 pages
Available via Bigcartel (for the US), Etsy, (for elsewhere).
The output of the experimental publishing house Hyldyr has really taken off in the past year. Based out of Olympia, Washington, and steered by Joseph S. Hopkins and Lauren Fountain, Hyldyr published ten titles in 2024, double the output of the previous year. Among the volumes published, one can find Old Norse-Icelandic poetry, folklore, romantic proto-fantasy, and even grimoires! The one volume I want to talk most about, however, deals with runes.
A topic I broached the first time I wrote about Hyldyr back in 2023 was how difficult it can be to find factual and accessible books on popular (some could also say “trendy”) Pagan and Pagan-adjacent topics like runes. Most often than not, books on runes tend to have little to no grounding on the actual sources and quickly dissolve into awful New-Age mumbo-jumbo. In this volume, however, you will find nothing of the sort.
Here, the topic of the earliest runic inscriptions and the older Futhark alphabet in general is treated with utmost care and competence. Starting with an introduction by Germanicist Bernard Mees, the volume introduces the world of Iron-Age Germanic peoples through the dual lens of linguistics and material culture. Topics as fundamental as the origin of runic literacy, the dating of inscriptions, and the evolution of Germanic tongues are all aptly introduced early on to arm the reader with the tools to interpret the data presented further on.
The bulk of The Elder Futhark: The Oldest Runes indeed consists of specific artifacts and inscriptions (beautifully rendered by illustrator Jacqui Alberts) presented and contextualized by J. S. Hopkins, followed by a rune-by-rune commentary of the entire futhark alphabet. Truly, the wealth of factual knowledge found within this slim volume makes it one of the best introductory work on the topic. The only downside I could find with it is that, in some instances, certain concepts, such as specific words, etymologies, or linguistic interpretations could have benefited from being discussed a bit further. Other than that, it would be hard to call this book anything but a frank success.
(Disclosure: the author of the present review has collaborated with Hyldyr in the past, and one of his pictures (a photograph of the Svigerud runestone) is featured in this volume.)
Heathenry: The International Journal for Heathen Research: Volume 1
Sif Brookes & Dan Coultas (eds)
Asatru UK
139 pages
Available via Amazon
It is a secret to no one that Asatru UK (AUK) has experienced significant growth in the past few years. As I have personally documented, this growth is due in no small parts to the high output level the organization and its associated members have kept when it comes to publications. Latest of a now rather long line of books, pamphlets and essays, is the inaugural volume of Heathenry: The International Journal for Heathen Research; this new journal aims to give a writing outlet for the more academically-minded members of the contemporary Heathen scene.
Edited by Dan Coultas and Sif Brookes, productive authors in their own rights, this first volume features, besides three book reviews, three articles authored by, respectfully, Coultas, Brooks, and Andrew Pardy. As Brookes’s contribution is directly taken from her full-length book (reviewed below), I will hereby solely focus my commentary on Pardy’s and Coultas’s articles.
Dan Coultas, a published author and PhD candidate in medieval literature, contributed to this issue with an article on the perception of queerness in Old Norse sources. Framed by fourth-wave feminist and queer studies approaches, the piece laid largely outside of my comfort zone.
Nevertheless, I quickly came to appreciate the way the author presented his hugely diversified pool of sources before applying his theoretical framework unto them. Unfortunately, the article has maybe too wide a scope for its own good and specific points of interests end up feeling under-utilized. For instance, although I would disagree with Coultas’s view on the Aran-Ásmund relationship dynamics in Egils saga einhenda og Ásmundar berserkjabana, it is an area of study which would be deserving of its own standalone article. I think many would also appreciate an extended treatment of the surprising, apt, and refreshing section putting side to side the mythologized and queer aspects of Odin, and, of all figures, Lord Byron.
The third article featured here, penned by Andrew Pardy of the Pagan Police Association is a presentation of the use of Pagan symbols by the British far-right. Although this is a topic I know a fair bit more about than the previous article, I still managed to learn some new things: for instance, the one-time use of a symbol made of three rotated Eihwaz runes by the Nazi Beer-Hall putschists in 1923, or the existence of numerous neo-Anglo-Saxon secessionist groups (like the Independent Mercia movement). Some sections of the article, such as the one about the use of crusader imagery, could have easily been left out, while other eye-catching topics (I am thinking especially of what Pardy terms “Paganised accelerationist militias”) were barely explored at all. Still, the article proved decently informative and suffers more from a lack of editorial polish than from intrinsic flaws in its thesis.
Although Heathenry’s first volume was a modest offering showcasing some room for improvement, there is no reason to doubt that it will not become the basis for later issues featuring a larger pool of contributors and a more refined editorial strategy. I, for one, am very much looking forward to issue number two.
Valkyrjur, Servant or Master?
Sif Brookes
Three Little Sisters
266 pages
Available from Three Little Sisters
Illustrator, podcaster, and all around content creator Sif Brookes takes a huge step forward in her career within the English-speaking Heathen and Pagan world with her first solo full-length book. Titled Valkyrjur, Servant or Master?, this essay represents the maturing of many years of independent research and personal practice focusing on the mysterious and often misunderstood supernatural female figures.
Written in what Brookes dubs an “academic-lite” language, the book is written in a well-paced prose which makes ample space for numerous citations from primary sources and academic works. However, constructed by the assembling and reworking of various thematic pieces, some old, some new, Valkyrjur, Servant or Master? can feel shuffled at times. Although the first few chapters remain well-paced and showcase a systematic and smooth-flowing argumentation, later ones (despite the wealth of information they provide) display less cohesion with the overall thesis of this essay.
This weakness, it should be noted, does little to deter the reader from engaging with Brookes’s main argument: that the Valkyries are all but minor mythological figures characterized by subservience and a lack of agency. By aptly utilizing sources ranging from Viking-Age poems to late Medieval sagas and chronicles, the author skillfully demonstrates, for instance, how Valkyries wielded a lot more influence upon the fates on the battlefield than is generally believed.
Another strength of this essay is the emphasis, far too rare in publications of the sort, on the evolution of the figure of the Valkyrie, although this could have been paired with more vigorous text-criticism and a narrower, more focused subject matter. As it is, maybe too much of the essay is dedicated to arguably more peripheral supernatural women figures which, as fascinating and even, in some cases, relevant to the present study as they are, do weaken the overall structure of the work as a whole.
All in all, despite some minor faults, Valkyrjur, Servant or Master? proved to be an informative and at times, enticing read. While the theory presented therein would benefit from being reworked in a more structured and systematic manner, there is no denying that it contains numerous nuggets of intellectual and spiritual ideas that will be well-worth exploring in the future.
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