R 77 Variations and Incantations: • Rumplestiltskin In Literature: • "There has to be a magic word, Rumplestiltskin, something!" -- Patricia, "Fare thee Well," emxc.org • "'Should have said the magic word,' the girl said as she passed. . . . Benedict engaged his mouth before thinking. 'Yeah. Rumplestiltskin.' Her forehead creased in a mock frown. 'Gorgonzola.' And with that she was gone, through the door and out into the street. Benedict stood and watched her disappear, ecstatic, heartbroken and relieved all at the same time. Rumplestiltskin? What were you thinking? Jeez. Way to impress. Yeah, but it did the trick, dint it?" -- Matthew Collins, Death by Lingerie (200 ) • "It's a little like Rumpelstiltskin: if we wait for someone else to come along and wave a magic wand, naming us an artist, ('Ah- hah! You there! You are an artist!'), we may wait a terribly long time." -- Julia Cameron, The Vein of Gold (1996) • "It's the secret belief most of us carry forward from childhood, that we might have in us somewhere the capacity, like Rumpelstiltskin, to rupture and transmogrify out of a sheer tantrum of desire." -- Barbara Kingsolver, High Tide in Tucson (1995) Rune The "flame-word rune" is the Word of the higher Inspiration, Intuition, Revelation which is the highest attainment of Thought. -- Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, Vol. III (1988) Mystique: It is doubtful that any word captures the spirit of "esoteric knowledge"8 more than rune. Rune is a primitive relic, a talisman with something of the sacred about it.9 "The very word rune conjures up magical associations in the word hoard of Old English and Germanic languages."10 "As a magical word, rune must be understood from self-created viewpoints, and as such its true 'meaning' cannot be communicated through profane, natural speech. As a magical word it is 'whispered in our ear' by the Odhinn [the god of poetry] within."11 8 Paul Rhys Mountfort, Nordic Runes: Understanding, Casting, and Interpreting the Ancient Viking Oracle (200 ) 9 Mark Osteen, in his critical introduction to Don DeLillo's White Noise (1998) 10 Paul Rhys Mountfort, Nordic Runes: Understanding, Casting, and Interpreting the Ancient Viking Oracle (200 ) 11 Edred Thorsson, Runelore (1987)