Thorsson (actually, under his real name, Stephen Flowers) did translate the Galdrabók into English, and the commentary is problematic but the translation is okay (he is usually more down-to-earth when he’s using his real name). It could also be that the theory is wrong, or just doesn’t apply to this particular symbol.
![huld manuscript huld manuscript](https://64.media.tumblr.com/a4dc01834b9258027d5ca8c82b415700/tumblr_n5zogvEzUT1t271yno1_1280.jpg)
They also had incredibly complex and detailed methods for ciphering. Alphabets 325-329 are all called Völvurúnir ’Völva’s runes.’ If it is true that staves were composed in that way, the number of symbols the creators had at their disposal is really completely unknown. Here are two pages from Huld, ÍB 383 4to from 1860, compiled from at least three older manuscripts according to Galdrasýning (which dates it rather to 1847) which can be viewed online at handrit.is. It’s true that the symbols don’t look like any runes that we’re used to seeing, but by this time there were huge collections of alphabets that the manuscript authors called “runes” but which are completely unrecognizable as them. One theory is that at least some of the Icelandic magic staves are complicated bindrunes which have become stylized, either intentionally by the creator or maybe over time while being copied. They are obviously collections of things from elsewhere, some probably copied from other books which have themselves now been lost. galdraskræður) or black books in English. It can be difficult to determine what parts are home-grown Icelandic ideas and what parts originate in more southern parts of Europe.
![huld manuscript huld manuscript](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CNVsIKFUsAAMEkX.jpg)
There are actually kind of a lot of these books of magic spells and signs in Iceland, which are called galdraskræða (plur. There’s a lot that’s not really known about the origin and development of the Icelandic magical staves, but it is clear that they are part of a wider European “black book” tradition.