Ralph Blum is one of the world's foremost authorities on the Viking Runes and an American New Age author of several books dealing with runes, including The Book of Runes, The Healing Runes, and The Rune Cards.
Encountering the Runes while doing research in England, he subsequently explored their origins and reinterpreted their meanings in terms appropriate for our time. He has been working with the Runes Oracle as a tool for self-counseling since 1977.
Blum received his degree in Russian studies at Harvard University. Following a period in Italy as a Fulbright Scholar, he returned to Harvard, where he did graduate work in anthropology with grants from the National Science Foundation and the Ford Foundation. He has since authored numerous books on Runes and is widely acknowledged as a leading modern day authority on the oracular tradition.
Blum's books - each packaged with a set of ceramic runestones or cardstock rune cards - have drawn criticism from some rune enthusiasts for including a non-traditional blank rune and rearranging the runes from their traditional order, as well as for Blum's non-traditional interpretation of some of the rune meanings.