Pagan Britain

Ronald Hutton's Pagan Britain is a fascinating and comprehensive survey of the archaeological and historical evidence for British paganism. His erudition is amazing. Hutton considers literally hundreds of articles, books, objects and sites in his quest to provide a complete review of what is known about British pagan beliefs. He also traces how British paganism has been interpreted from Victorian times to the present day. The historiography often fascinated me as much as the discussions of henges and burial mounds. He analyzes how scientists and humanists approach the same material in markedly different fashions. Thus, the book is ultimately a meditation on how (in his words) "truth can be established in scholarship...especially in the study of the remote past."I can best give you an idea of his comprehensive approach by discussing his chapters on Mesolithic and Neolithic Britain. He discusses famous sites, such as Stonehenge, and the history of both the research at the site and theories about the site. He discusses typical artifacts from the period, and how they have been used to contemporary scholars to try to understand the past. Scholars have used many approaches to understand this material and Hutton never uses dismissive language to discuss any of them. He has a fascinating discussion on how contemporary academicians and "alternative" archaeologists have approached the same material. He traces the intellectual history of both and shows how what was yesterday's "alternative" explanation sometimes becomes today's orthodoxy. Again and again, Hutton emphasizes how little we actually know about the preliterate past and how many explanations can be attached to the same artifacts. Archaeology of religion, he writes, can "recover the material remains of ritual action...but not (usually) the ideas which inspired them."Little seems to escape his purview as he discusses paganism through the Iron Age, Roman Britain and the conversion of Britain to Christianity. He also has a comprehensive discussion of possible survivals of paganism in Christian period. Contemporary Pagans may be disappointed that he finds relatively little evidence for paganism surviving into the medieval age. In these chapters again he emphasizes what is actually concretely known and how this evidence is used. Thus, in discussing the possibility of human sacrifices, he devotes much time to detailing graves, burial practices and human skeletal remains found in unusual locations. Decapitated skeletons have been found and Hutton discusses alternative explanations for this. Roman sources claiming the British practiced human sacrifice are carefully deconstructed. Hutton also discusses various contemporary theories about human sacrifice. Hutton's conclusion here--as it is again and again in this book--is that the evidence supports a variety of possible explanation for archaeological remains and that human sacrifice in prehistoric Britain remains and will probably remain unprovable.He also discusses the intellectual history of modern interpretations of the British pagan past. Thus, he has an illuminating discussion on the "Goddess" theory which so riveted many scholars earlier in the 20th century. He shows how the needs and thought patterns of the present have often skewed the interpretations of the past.Hutton is a very fine writer. His prose is always clear and often beautiful. I imagined once or twice that a reincarnation of Shakespeare might shamelessly lift from Hutton's prose the way the actual bard did from Holinshed, though I suppose today creative plagiarism of that nature is out of style. The major difficulties reading the book result from the sheer amount of information presented. This is a dense and fascinating book. The book is illustrated with drawings and black and white photographs. Embedded in the text, they illuminate the argument of the book but do not particularly add to its beauty.I think anyone interested in history, archaeology, pagan religions or Britain would find this book well worth the time. Hutton is not sensational the way some books and TV shows about this material have been but his solid scholarship is much more illuminating.I do not know how a contemporary Pagan would react to this book; but it seems to me Hutton, a genial and intelligent man, is totally and completely respectful of contemporary Pagan spirituality and that a contemporary Pagan might very well want this book in his library.

Another excursion into the most page turningly, addictively readable, and yet completely scholarly history you're likely to find. Ronald Hutton's expertise lies in the history of paganism, "witchcraft", pre-Christian history and religion, and fields that touch these, and he is a force of nature that really brings the past to life in (as I said) a very readable but clearly quite scholarly way. His books are really long though - monstrous tomes that publishers make more palatable to a generalist audience by making the print about as small as most books use for footnotes. It was the same with his masterful "Triumph of the Moon" which I just finished. "Pagan Britain" is going to be just as good but readers looking for airy apologetics or mystical imagined history need to look elsewhere, and lots of his reviews show this. Many people in the pagan community look desperately for scholarly justification for what is modern, invented religious theater, (as opposed to authentic, historical religious theater, I suppose?) and he doesn't pretend to do more than to bring the actual history before you and lay it on the table. Lots of people dislike this. Know that you're getting history and not The Sorcerer's Apprentice and you'll make a new history friend in Ronald Hutton.

It is a dense read for sure, but the author presents just about everything you'd ever want to know about pagan worship in pre- and post-Roman Britain. A LOT of time is spent describing earthen mound burials and other monuments erected over several millennia. The photos are black and white and not particularly useful. I liked that he talked about which archaeologists/historians have presented what theories as to the meaning behind these monuments and other artefacts over time. It ends in the early 2000's, so if you want something really up-to-date, you may want to search further.

This is a fantastic book that I thoroughly recommend. It is detailed and fact filled, yet well-written enough to be easily comprehensible to the beginner in the subject. I recommend it for anyone who wants to learn more about British pre-history and British pagan religion. Notably, it takes care not go further than the data. It states what is known, it provides what interpretations have been presented by other scholars, and encourages the reader to make their own mind up. This is important as so much is unknown about British prehistory, it is very much impossible to prove many theories one way or the other. Therefore it is a highly educational and empowering book that helps the reader imagine the distant past in a valid and personal way.One note of warning, if you're looking for blood thirsty descriptions of pagan sacrifice, the author tends to minimize the possibility of this type of thing, even when I would say they are justified. I think out of respect for the modern pagan movement.

Once again Hutton provides a meticulously written work that is long on scholarly research and short on the fuzziness and conjecture that is seen in a lot of work on this subject. 'Pagan Britain ' covers the length and breadth of the island with frequent references to Ireland as well. Although Hutton's work is (at times) heavy going, this is really to be expected when the material is covered in such exhaustive depth, the information contained in this book can be used again and again for academic research ( which is my purpose) or for simply allowing oneself to take a snapshot look back into a much maligned period in history. Hutton doesn't advocate any specific position in this book, but he does allow room for new scholarly works that could be viewed as controversial. A very interesting book and an important book for any seerious book collector.

Hutton knows his material well. This is a fascinating and thoroughly researched book. It’s hard to put down. His transitions from paganism through to Christianity are well done and gives a bird’s eye view of the time in which he writes. Highly recommended.

Book arrived promptly in excellent condition. This is a fascinating account of the archaeological finds across a huge expanse of time, from the early stone age up until the medieval period of Britain. The writing is not at all dry, but easy to read and often captivating. Hutton draws conclusions that are well-founded and reasonable, providing well-rounded explanations for the archaeological evidence amidst a wide gamut of current and past explanations for these finds. Would highly recommend the seller, the author, and the book.

Twenty years in the making, piecing together fragments of the torn and worn tapesty of the history of predecessors using the "clues" they must have hoped would survive long enough for future generations to discipher and dissern. Messages left in cave walls,, on monuments, tools, weapons and in various word forms filtered down through the ages,possibly distorted and almost lost through various renditions of Christianity and what that means at various times through human history. Chistianity, mostly seems to try to subdue, subvert and destroy anything like or unlike itself and the people that have knowledge of "old traditions, rituals and rites." I look forward to delving deep into Ronald Hutton's Pagan Britain.

My mistake for not paying extra for a hardcover. The paperback version is awful quality. Miniscule print and pictures, low quality paper, flimsy cover... will be a nightmare to even attempt a comfortable read. Super disappointed as this was my first Ronald Hutton purchase. Yale University Press should be ashamed. Will need a magnifying lens for the pages and some sort of stiff stabilizing jacket to hold the cover; ridiculous.

Professor Hutton is, perhaps, one of the most affable and publicly recognisable academics in Britain today and, arguably, its greatest authority on this country’s pagan history and heritage. In this volume, he sets himself the task of surveying the rise and fall of paganism in our island story, from the distant Palaeolithic to the early modern period. However, whereas the matter of the pagan revivalism of the past century is touched upon, it is not treated in any depth in itself, although it is considered in connection with the retro-projection of its beliefs, and practices, into the distant past. He has previously dealt with the subject matter of the history of Wicca in his book, ‘The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft,’ a work that, apparently, caused umbrage amongst certain elements of the contemporary pagan community.  The primary message that came through in this thorough and engaging treatment of the subject was this: there is much that remains in terms of the material legacy of the pagan past, yet next to nothing with respect to our knowledge of the concrete beliefs and rituals conducted by pagans at various points in the pre-Christian era of our island. Much of what is commonly supposed about the pagan beliefs of the inhabitants of Britain is little more than that: supposition, based upon the most tenuous of textual evidence, and erroneous conjecture arising from the once widespread belief that the uneducated mediaeval populace adhered to a basically pagan set of beliefs beneath a superficial veneer of Christian piety. None the less, it is this very absence of certainty with respect to the beliefs and practices of our pagan past, in which much of this subject’s charm and appeal inheres; it is cloaked in an aura of mysticism.    Hutton marshals and interprets an impressive array of evidence to provide an outline of developments in ritual practice. From prehistory we by definition have access only to archaeological remains, but this period has bequeathed to us such a rich legacy of different types of ceremonial monument – henges, stone avenues, barrows cursuses, dolmens, etc. – that it is evident, thanks to the development of carbon dating, that beliefs were far from static. From the Mesolithic onwards, there were significant shifts in monumental form, with many sites – the most famous of all being Stonehenge – being refashioned over the centuries and millennia, presumably to keep pace with changing ritual practice and belief. As to the detail of the actual substance of these beliefs – the names of any gods, goddesses and spirits called upon and propitiated, and the mythologies attendant upon them – they will forever remain beyond our grasp. Only with the entry of the island of Britain into the orbit of the ancient literary cultures of ancient Greece and Rome, do we find any indications as to what these beliefs and deities were, and even then, what we are left with is fragmentary and, perhaps, rather tendentious in nature; it does not present us with an objective ethnographic commentary on the beliefs and practices of the ancient Britons. We remain in the historical twilight. Rather more is known about the religious beliefs and practices of the Roman conquerors, and cult precincts and associated dedicatory inscriptions reveal that many of their gods and goddesses were revered here, often, as elsewhere in the Empire, in syncretistic form with native deities, with the most famous case being that of Sulis-Minerva at Bath. To what extent the coming of these new deities supplanted those already resident in the imaginations and devotional practices of the island’s inhabitants is unknown, but it could be argued that an eclectic form of fusion and co-existence took place, before Christianity asserted its grip.  One question that will also forever go unanswered will be the extent to which late-Roman Britain was Christianised. Evidence exists – such as from the Romano-British pagan temple at Brean Down – that non-Christian beliefs were still adhered to in the second part of the fourth century, which would be consonant with Julian the Apostate’s (361-363) attempt to revive Hellenistic paganism. However, by the time that Theodosius – the last Emperor to rule over both the eastern and western halves of the Roman Empire – began to vigorously enforce Christianity as the sole state religion from the 380s onwards, Roman Britannia was already in a position of significant material decline and marginalisation, and would be lost to the Empire in 409 or 410.  The pagans of post-Roman Britain left us no written record of their beliefs and practices, and all we have to go on are a handful of hostile references produced by Christian scholars such as Gildas and Bede. As Hutton emphasises here, we possess only the most tenuous of knowledge relating to the newly arrived deities beyond their names: Woden, Thunor, Tiw and Frigg. Indeed, he calls into question the commonly believed assumption that there was an Anglo-Saxon goddess named Eostre. This appears to possess but the flimsiest of foundations, with Bede’s supposition that Eosturmonuth was named after such a goddess likely to have been a misunderstanding, with the name of the month (equivalent to April), simply meaning ‘the opening month,’ which Hutton suggests could well refer to the unfurling of leaves.  The material evidence for pagan belief during the fifth to seventh centuries is even more scant than that of earlier eras, for no single pagan temple from this period has been conclusively identified in Britain. What we are presented with, however, are changes in burial practice, that are clearly not Christian, and often include the interment of grave goods alongside the Saxon dead. It seems, however, that once the Anglo-Saxon, British and Pictish elites had adopted Christianity, the new religion readily established itself amongst the mass of the population. What greatly eased this transition, argues Hutton, was Christianity’s ability to present its new followers with an array of saints who functioned in a manner analogous to that of the old gods and goddesses who looked after a particular sphere of life, or a particular place.  There is much more that Hutton discusses in this book with respect to possible pagan survivals, including mediaeval Welsh and Irish textual sources, as well as folk traditions relating to a parallel supernatural realm populated by fairies, hobgoblins and so on. However, once the pagan Danish settlers had converted to Christianity, it is Hutton’s opinion that paganism ceased to operate as a coherent system of operational belief within the island of Britain. He also dismantles the widely cherished belief in a prehistoric ‘Great Goddess,’ tracing the emergence and development of this concept in modern times, and uses the concept of human sacrifice to show how remains – particularly decapitated ones – can be used both in favour of this theory, and against it. His treatment of these issues, and the subject as a whole, is even-handed, pluralistic and non-prescriptive. He encourages the reader to reflect, and to draw his or her own conclusions with respect to the evidence presented. For anyone interested in this area of our history, this book makes for a rewarding, and essential, read.

As the title to this review suggests, this book explains all that isn’t known about pre-Christian Briton – which is just about everything really. It seems that British archaeologists and historians know more about ancient cultures that existed on the other side of the globe than they do about those from their own island home.The hundreds of ancient mounds that dot the country may be burial mounds: but seeing as not all of them contained bodies or parts thereof, they may not be. The many stone circles and henges could be anything really – nobody knows and, those that think they do can’t agree with each other. Strange signs scratched or hammered into rock faces on out of the way hilltops in the early Neolithic may be messages to gods, or other travellers, or perhaps just the doodles of bored apprentice hunters told to sit on a cold, windy hilltop and watch out for the annual reindeer migration. And so it goes on.Having said that, the book is extremely well written and the author explains fully and in depth all that is not known about pagan Briton. The huge amount of data that is not known explains the length of this book.I fully recommend this book to anyone who has their own ideas about British pre-history to see if they share opinions with others, or their ideas are new. Perhaps between us we can add our new ideas to the whole chaos and make matters even worse than they are now.