The eighth annual summer course was held at Potton in Bedfordshire
between the 22nd and 28th of August this year. For the first
time all four of Ivar Hafskjold's senior students were present and teaching,
Shaun Brassfield Thorpe, Ronayne Lodderus, David Watkinson and Graham Butcher.
Students came from far and wide, from Australia, the USA, Sweden, Scotland
and from all over the UK. At the peak there were 28 people and one
Eagle Owl present.
For the first two days a beginners course was run covering the Stances, elementary martial arts, basics of runelore with the emphasis on preparing the six students present for training in the more advanced aspects which followed later in the week. This was mainly taught by Alex Fell-Bowers and David Stone under the watchful eye of Ivar.
In the main part of the course Ivar's senior students taught seminars on their own areas of expertise:
Shaun taught rune lore covering mythology, meanings and associations of the runes, numerology related to the runes and the fundamentals of creating and using bind-runes.
Ronayne taught manipulation, energy work and dietary practices for health improvement and healing.
David taught martial arts with a particular emphasis on defending against knives and bottles.
Ivar taught rune counselling with a particular emphasis on treating depression.
There were also several open sessions supervised by Ivar where everyone contributed and learned as much as they could. These covered use of the Staff, the most important weapon in the martial training and how to do the stances correctly.
There was also a Seid session in a Bastu (special shelter) which was built for the occasion by Phil Brough and Alex Fell-Bowers.
Everyone seems to have enjoyed themselves and learned a great deal.