Johan Bure (1568-1652), or Johannes Bureus as he is best known, is one of the most multifaceted figures in Swedish history. He was a teacher to both Gustav II Adolf and Queen Kristina. Johannes Bureus has been called the father of Swedish grammar and was also the great pioneer of rune research. Bureus mixed runes and Norse myths with Kabbalah, astrology, Hermeticism and magic in a unique system that he called adul-runa, or a Gothic Kabbalah. Johannes Bureus saw himself as a prophet and intended to revive a primordial religion that, according to him, had existed among the oldest Goths in the area around Uppsala.

In the spirit of perennialism, Bureus tried to combine ideas from his own Christian religion with concepts from Judaism and Islam. The unifying framework for Bureus’s project, however, is Gothicism and the emerging Protestant Swedish great power’s polemic against the Pope and the imperial power. Bureus’ world of thought belongs to Western esotericism, but in a local interpretation that can be called “Gothic esotericism” where the national claims run like a red thread through the esoteric speculations.

Pages: 300

Binding Type: Hardcover Case Wrap

Interior Color: Black & White

Dimensions: US Trade (6 x 9 in / 152 x 229 mm)

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