Reading the runes

Martin Palmer is without doubt one of our leading authorities on the subject of Nature and sacred writing today — among his previous publications being Sacred Gardens and The Sacred History of Britain. One of the primary aims of his latest book is to teach us how to ‘read’ our surroundings; for, he believes, like all sacred art, Nature can be read as a book, if only one understands the language. Thus, through ‘decoding’ the towns, villages and countryside of Britain, we may come to see that ‘we are caught up in a part of something much greater and grander than ourselves’.

The first half of the book covers ‘the beliefs and stories that have shaped the landscape of Britain’, in which Palmer explains what he means by the sacred and why it is important for us to be aware of it. He guides us from pre-history to the present through long barrows, standing stones, islands, caves, groves, wells, battlefields and hills, taking in prevailing winds, the evolving shape of fields, the significance of place names and the orientation of villages and towns, with their festivals, market crosses and burial grounds.