Anglo-Saxon Paganism

by David M. Wilson

David Wilson draws together the varied evidence for the pagan religion of the early Saxons and interprets this evidence. This comprehensive investigation is intended to rectify the hitherto scant treatment in articles and occasional chapters addressing particular aspects. Wilson's approach is distinctive in that the evidence is in the main taken from this country, without using later Scandinavian material and "back projecting" it into early England. Much of what can be gleaned about Saxon paganism comes from the funeral rites of the people, and their sometimes sinister overtones, and these are dealt with at some length, together with the sorts of evidence that tell us about gods and the places where they might have worshipped and the impact of the coming of Christianity. The book concentrates on factual evidence rather than on extreme and unsubstantiated theories, although interpretations must often be matters of conjecture or controversy, even more so as this was a non-literate society and consequently there are no contemporary writings to help.

Genres: Anglo Saxon, British Literature, History

208 pages, Hardcover

First published December 22, 1992

About the author

Sir David Mackenzie Wilson is an English archaeologist, art historian, and museum curator, specialising in Anglo-Saxon art and the Viking Age. He lives on the Isle of Man.

Wilson was the director of the British Museum from 1977 to 1992, and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In 1985 he was Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cambridge.

Reviews

[Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prior to the release of this work, most attempts at an interpretation of Anglo Saxon paganism were short chapters in books like Turville-Petre's Myth and Religion of The North or Davidson's Gods and Myths of The Viking Age. Most of these works explored Anglo Saxon paganism in relation to much later Scandinavian written sources and paid little attention to English archaeological remains. Not so for Divid Wilson, the main focus of this work is on place names and archaeology.

The book explores place name evidance, looking at the spread of place names that include the names of gods such as Woden, Thor and Tyr. Wilson then looks at names that may contain references to places that were considered sacred to the Anglo Saxons.The rest of the book investigates burial and cremation customs and the Sutton Hoo site.

This is a book that is constantly referenced in Anglo Saxon studies and as become the standard work on pre Chistian belief in England, but the work is extremely scarce. Routlegde seriously need to do a reprint of this book for those who missed getting a copy on publication.

[Riversue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but seems a bit dated,