Stephen Edred Flowers, commonly known as Stephen E. Flowers, and also by the pen-names Edred Thorsson, and Darban-i-Den, is an American runologist, former professor, and proponent of occultism, especially of Neo-Germanic paganism and Odinism. He helped establish the Germanic Neopagan movement in North America and has also been active in left-hand path occult organizations. He has over three dozen published books and hundreds of published papers and translations on a disparate range of subjects. Early life and education Stephen Edred Flowers was born in Bonham, Texas, the only son of Betty Jane Eden, daughter of Edred Cosgrove Eden (1888-1945). In 1960 his family moved to Dallas. Flowers attended the Bryan Adams High School (class of 1971). In the summer of 1974 Flowers moved to Austin and did his graduate work in Germanic and Celtic philology under professor and scholar Edgar Polomé at the University of Texas at Austin from 1973 to 1984. In May 1979 he received an M.A. degree with a thesis entitled "Rebirth and Rites of Transformation in the Saga of Sigurðr Sigmundarson" (later released on a limited basis within the Rune-Gild under the title "Sigurðr, Rebirth and Initiation, and republished as “Sigurðr: Rebirth and the Rites of Transformation" in 2015). In 1981-1982 he studied academic runology at the University of Göttingen, Germany under Klaus Düwel. Flowers received his Ph.D. in Germanic Languages and Medieval Studies in 1984 with a dissertation entitled Runes and Magic: Magical Formulaic Elements in the Elder Tradition. Academic career Flowers began his career as a university lecturer. From 1984 to 1989 he was a lecturer in the departments of English and Germanic Languages at the University of Texas. Flowers was last known to be teaching classes in the Humanities at Austin Community College. Occult career In June 1974, while riding in the backseat of a car from Houston to Austin, Flowers says that he heard the sound roonah. He said that the experience was the first milestone in his journey. In 1978 Flowers joined the Asatru Free Assembly (old AFA) where he was one of the earliest members, with membership number 072. In May 1979 he founded the Austin "skeppslag" (later kindred) of the AFA. In 1980 he was initiated as a goði by Stephen A. McNallen. In Yule-Tide 1979/80 Flowers founded the Rune-Gild, an initiatory order focused on "the revival of the elder Runic" tradition, advocating runic magic. On November 11, 1983,