Gorey's illustrations emphasize the reality of death in a way that even children understand. Despite the suffering they are about to go through, the children's faces are more often than not blank or even serene before their death. The runes sing these things to themselves in the mirror, duet by duet, until you get to the clue, the key to the secret, number 15 in the middle - Helix, standing alone all twisted, singing we should twine this poem aound itself and look at it again.Gorey's frank depictions of death are often snapshots of the seconds leading up to the deaths. A beautiful weapon is one thing but a thorn can really hurt you. They sing duets about light, renewal, a song of home and exile. Now fold your line in half so number 1 is next to 29, 2 next to 28, etc. Take the letters, cut them apart from each other, carve them into bits of wood if that helps you, and line them up in a row. There’s a riddle in this collection of alphabet riddles, deep in its structure. This poem has another secret hidden in its folds that fascinates me.
The Rune Poem is a collection of riddles that could divine the future. They could do this because each stanza of the Rune Poem, gives a little bit of wisdom, a little picture of life, sometimes a warning. In secret, when nobody was looking, people could carve the runes into bits of wood and cast lots with them. The secret is these letters weren’t just for writing.
In Old English the word rune means secret.
Every stanza of the poem describes a letter, a rune. It looks like an alphabet book, but like a modern alphabet book there’s infinitely more to it, if you look close. The Old English Rune Poem is an alphabet book. Very early we learn from the one to the infinite is but a step. Ball, bear, boat, banana, so many B things.
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