ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the use and representation of runes in medieval poetry as the layer in the complex reception history of the runic script, produced by a culture contemplating the runic tradition from the vantage point of a developed literary culture. It focuses on the runes in poetry on their own terms –as meaningful components of literary texts, rather than as a pale reflection of existential runic practice–and also to contextualise the poetic constructs by reference to the wider literary tradition. The book focuses on the link between inscription and inheritance in Old English poetry, beginning with a discussion of the evidence for theoretical engagement with the origins of the runic script by Anglo-Saxon antiquarians. It considers intellectual responses to runes in poetry to the aesthetic sensibilities that dictated their adoption in certain poetic contexts.
