Imagining the Pagan Past: Gods and Goddesses in Literature and History Since the Dark Ages

Description

Imagining the Pagan Past explores the pagan stories of Britain s past. These tales have been characterised by gods and fairies, May Day celebrations, nursery rhymes and in fiction for adults and children. But the pagan history and its stories have always had an uncomfortable relationship with the scholarly world; being seen as childish, self-indulgent and, worse, encouraging tribal and nationalistic feelings. From the Middle Ages to the present, Marion Gibson explores the ways in which British pagan gods and goddesses have been represented in poetry, novels, plays, chronicles, scientific and scholarly writing. From Geoffrey of Monmouth to Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare to John Dryden and H.G. Wells to Naomi Mitchison it explores Romano-British, Celtic and Anglo-Saxon deities and fictions. The result is a comprehensive picture of the ways in which writers have peopled the British pagan pantheons throughout history. Imagining the Pagan Past will be essential reading for all those interested in the history of paganism. Cover IMAGINING THE PAGAN PAST Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Breaking the pagan silence: from Geoffrey of Monmouth to William Camden 2 ‘Gods of every shape and size’: pagan deities from the antiquaries to the Romantics 3 Something old, something new: pagan deities from the first Celtic Revival to the mid-twentieth century 4 ‘I wonder what Wotan will say to me’: ‘heathen men’ and northern deities from the Middle Ages to the mid-twentieth century 5 New ages: melting the ice-gods 6 ‘Find me in your own time’: three schools of contemporary god and goddess fiction Notes Select bibliography Index