Project “Vozes do Mundo Antigo e Medieval” (CEAUL/CEC): Hélio Pires (IEM-FCSH) – Presentation of the book As Runas Desvendadas: Dois Milénios de História e Mistério

Project “Vozes do Mundo Antigo e Medieval” (CEAUL/CEC): Hélio Pires (IEM-FCSH) – Presentation of the book As Runas Desvendadas: Dois Milénios de História e Mistério

Book summary: “A journey of the writing system used by the vikings, from ancient times to the current day.  Myths, legends, origins, evolution, and uses of runes throughout History. 

The word “rune” brings to our minds thoughts of mystery, magic, and secrets. But not only is that a small part of History, it is a part often emphasized over other more significative ones: although the Poetic Edda is filled with references to runic charms, and several inscriptions are of a magical nature, there are much more of a memorialist, practical, day-to-day, and even obscene, kind.

Runes were a phonetical writing system (that is, the symbols represent sounds) utilized to write all kinds of text for over a thousand years. The longevity and diversity of the more than six thousand surviving inscriptions makes them not only a source of information that contradicts modern belief about runes (that they are magical symbols or suppressed by the Church), but also an important resource for historians.

This is not, then, a book of magic, although it partially speaks of it. These are not pages about divination, despite there being lines about such. It is not even a book about neopaganism, although it touches on the subject. This is a book about runes in all their diversity, from their origins to our days, about how they are and were studied, distorted, used and reused. For a better understanding of the past, but also of the present.”

Bionote: Hélio Pires was born in Alcobaça, in 1980. He holds a Master’s in Medieval and Viking Studies from the University of Uppsala, Sweden, and a PhD in Medieval History from the NOVA University of Lisbon. With Zéfiro, he published in 2017 his thesis titled “Os Vikings em Portugal e na Galiza” and, in 2019, “Mitos e Lendas Nórdicas”. He is a member of the Instituto de Estudos Medievais and NEVE, lecturer and author of several articles about Vikings, ancient Scandinavia and Norse mythology. This work is his third book.

Date: 30 January, 2024 Schedule: 12:30 pm Venue: Amphitheatre III, School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon

Acess to Zoom Invitation: https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us/j/98022622132?pwd=Y2YvMnZ1ak5pWWhGUFJHZG85U0VpQT09 ID of the meeting: 980 2262 2132 Password: 142865