Edred Thorsson is the name under which Stephen Flowers publishes esoteric work, and the separation is stated by the author rather than inferred. He took a doctorate in Germanic languages and medieval studies at the University of Texas at Austin, has published academic and translation work under his legal name, and reserves the pen name for the initiatory material, on the argument that the two kinds of writing answer to different standards and should not be read as though they were one. The atlas records the distinction because it is unusual: most modern esoteric authors working with historical material do not draw the line at all, and a reader who does not know it exists will take a claim from one shelf as though it came from the other.
The system taught under the pen name is built on the Elder Futhark, the twenty four character runic row of the earliest inscriptions, with each character given a meaning, a sound, a posture and a place in a course of graded work. He founded the Rune Gild as the body that carries that course, structured as an initiatory order with stages rather than as a study group. He has also written at length on the earlier German rune occultism of Guido von List and the Armanen current, treating it as a subject of historical study as well as a predecessor.