The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy

by Ronald Hutton

This is the first survey of religious beliefs in the British Isles from the Old Stone Age to the coming of Christianity, one of the least familiar periods in Britain's history. Ronald Hutton draws upon a wealth of new data, much of it archaeological, that has transformed interpretation over the past decade. Giving more or less equal weight to all periods, from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages, he examines a fascinating range of evidence for Celtic and Romano-British paganism, from burial sites, cairns, megaliths and causeways, to carvings, figurines, jewellery, weapons, votive objects, literary texts and folklore.

Genres: History, Religion, Nonfiction, Paganism, Mythology, Spirituality, Witchcraft

422 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Ronald Hutton (born 1953) is an English historian who specializes in the study of Early Modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and contemporary Paganism. A professor of history at the University of Bristol, Hutton has published fourteen books and has appeared on British television and radio.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a sober yet detailed look at what little we really know about historical paganism which along the way highlights how neopaganism takes so much for granted. Neopaganism covers a wide spectrum of beliefs from Black Magic to ecopaganism, from Wicca to fuzzy New Age thinking, and on examination can often seem to be founded on outdated scholarship and speculative antiquarianism, both ancient and modern. Ronald Hutton is both a pagan and an academic and so is particularly well-placed to appreciate the nuances of both approaches, and this study should be required reading for all who lean towards being part of a revived religion.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wish I'd read this years ago. It presents itself as a summary of the evidence of ancient British religion for the general reader, which accounts for the first half of each chronological chapter, and which H. does extremely well (the answer being, in each case, that there isn't much). The fun starts, though, when H. moves on to discuss the nonsense peddled by New Age and neo-pagan authors on these subjects. The Great Goddess, the survival of the witch-cult, ley lines, all succinctly and politely debunked.

H. is, importantly, not unsympathetic to the New Agers. He is careful to appreciate the attraction of these views to their modern audiences, to show where New Age authors have taken their cues from traditional academic scholarship, and to be honest about where they might have a point; equally, he is has a proper sense of the limitations of archaeology and of the extreme scarcity of the evidence. His admirable fairness and balance, though, just makes the debunking all the more final. There was no single Goddess revered throughout Stone Age Europe, medieval churches were overwhelmingly not built over ancient pagan sites, and people who call themselves pagans in the 21st century are not maintaining traditions that date back thousands (or even hundreds) of years. This book explains why not.

[Kirsten Mortensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this well enough that I've now purchased another of Hutton's books.

The edition I picked up was published in 1993, and be warned: much of it reads like a catalog of archeological finds. Many pages are little more than dry lists of bones, grave goods, pottery bits, and talismans dug up from tombs, monuments, and ruins.

Don't ask me why I liked reading all that stuff, but I did (I'm an off-the-scale dork, I suppose?) And in any case the payoff is Hutton's analysis of the archeology and the scholarship that's accompanied it.

(Also, as I think about it now, the fact that he seems to have considered every single tomb, monument, ruin -- along with all the relevant written materials, both academic and lay, historical and contemporary -- contributes to the sense that he's extremely careful and judicious when it comes to the analysis. It gives his analysis weight.)

And much of his commentary consists of his conclusions about what we *don't* know, which was refreshing. He refrains from speculation, but instead states frankly that the evidence is often so slight and lacking in cultural context that we have no idea what it means.

He's also amusing when he turns his attention to other peoples' speculation -- or worse. One example is the 19th Century forgeries of Edward Williams; Williams invented a mystical Druidic tradition and attributed it to prehistoric Welsh pagans. "By the time of his death," Hutton writes, "he had achieved the romantic's highest goal, of having his dream taken as reality by others." (Ah, that's so my goal, too!!!)

An awful lot of what modern people think of as paganism, Hutton would argue, is also the dreams of romantics. Poke around the interwebs and you'll find that some people are pretty unhappy with him about that. He argues that there's no credible evidence that humans passed through a peaceful, harmonious, Goddess-centered period, for example (according to Hutton, scholarship that proposed this in the 19th and 20th centuries has since been soundly refuted). That's earned him enemies. He also sees no real evidence for other supposedly pagan notions that are taken seriously in some quarters today, such as ley lines.

For all that, he strikes me as hugely sympathetic to contemporary pagans. He's honest about traditions that he thinks have no roots in pre-historical culture, but he's respectful of them for what they are.

Recommended for anyone interested in a clear-eyed review of what academics up through the early 90s believed to be true of ancient pagan culture.

[Monty Milne · Rating 5 out of 5]

There tend to be two sorts of book on this subject: those which are solidly focussed on the archaeological records, and rubbish the contemporary neo-pagans - if they even consider them at all; or the works of the neo-pagans, which construct wondrous edifices of the imagination with little or no basis in established fact.

The genius of Hutton is that he is deeply sympathetic towards the imaginative quest of the neo-pagans whilst at the same time taking us clearly back to the archaeological and historic source material. In the end, there is not much he can say beyond the fact that what we can know for sure is very little indeed - a fact which he regrets. But this does not lessen the enjoyment and fascination of the journey he takes us on.

[Jeannie Miller]

TL;DR: Three hundred plus pages of detailed summaries of cave drawings, burials, megaliths, Roman-era writings, medieval poetry, and modern-era scholarship, speculation and embellishment, all to the point we know next to nothing with any confidence. Along the way our author celebrates the cultural legacy that the traces of pre-Christian religion have fostered and lauds neopagans for their ingenious and beautiful reconstructions but pleads with everyone to just give up the pretense of historical continuity. If that description intrigues rather than infuriates, Hutton is your guy. The rest of you may content yourselves with his remarkable closing paragraph:

"What, then, after so many pages, can be said about the pagan religions of the ancient British Isles? First, that we know very little about them. An immense quality of recent work has served to show that most of what we had formerly believed that we knew is either wrong or unprovable. In fact, the only groups about which we can speak with any confidence are those of the Roman Britain, some aspects of which remain a mystery and which may obscure, rather than reveal, the nature of the native cults. Second, that part of a tremendous diversity derives from our discovery of a tremendous diversity of ritual practice and architecture, over both space and time, which may reflect an equal diversity of belief and which almost defies generalization. The peoples of our remote past have emerged as more creative, more dynamic, more fascinating and more baffling. Third, that the old religions of these islands perished a very long time ago, and absolutely. They fell before Christianity both because of tricks of fortune and because they were not well equipped to resist the new faith, but they left an enormous and varied cultural legacy. And partly because of ignorance of them and partly because of our different needs and circumstances, they are lost to us forever."

Wowza. I am still going to read The Triumph of the Moon, though.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a great book on the actual evidences we have of ancient British religions. Says nothing of said religions [Insert a summary of discusion wether or not we can reconstruct archaic beliefs of which we have almost no written accounts.].

[Alexa Petre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really useful book for understanding more about ancient Celtic paganism, and especially, the difference between what is ancient and the new wave of modern paganism.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for every honest modern day pagan.

[Dave B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative but obviously a little dry!

[Andrew Pixton · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the main recommended readings for modern pagans, especially Druids of the Isle traditions though it'd help with any. Hutton's approach is VERY empirical, takes a very strict adherence to the evidence which he frequently summarizes (and we kind of take his word for it since the only data presented directly was pictures and which were drawings instead of photographs). Sources cited at back. I'm pretty skeptical myself but even I found him casting doubt too far. He's very dismissive of the gods in Welsh and Gaelic traditions, aside from a handful, because they look so human. But couldn't it be that they were gods humanized in order to survive Christianization? I think he eventually did note that but spent very little time on it. He didn't pay as much attention to linguistic layouts, or commonalities in mythology, such as independent similarities in the Tain Bo to Gallic rumor which imo strengthens the claims about both. There's also that this was published in '92. Three decades ago. I know of one update where he speculates on the origins of the Stonehenge stones being from Wales which he dismissed, but this has been confirmed as they were set up there then removed into England. His scrutiny will make religious people uncomfortable but that's the point, challenge your beliefs and believe what the evidence leaves open to you, choose the best and most plausible explanation.

[Glinsky]

“If a real goddess was involved, was the person performing the charm
expected to believe in her? Or had she simply become part of a line of
doggerel?”

The constant refrain of ‘beliefs’ and ‘faith’.

“In recent centuries, it was a local custom for parents to pass sick children through the apertures in the belief that they would thereby be healed. Was this a lingering memory of the actual purpose for which the stones were raised? Or did the country people invent stories and customs about these monuments, millennia after their original significance had been completely forgotten?”

And this seems as good a picture of the general drift of the entire sequence of Hutton’s work as we might want. And precisely what contemporary paganism, with its self-conscious confections, lacks, which is not historical continuity, but a genuine depth to its response to the remnants of the history.

[Liam Guilar · Rating 5 out of 5]

A historian (who I suspect wants to believe) scrutinises the evidence for pagan religion before the coming of Christianity, and then looks at the long shadow it is supposed to have cast. He's very good at pointing out the flaws in popular claims about both paganism and its survival, while not simply dismissing those claims out of hand.

It's this balance of the book that makes it both useful and attractive. Some of the material, like the information on Anglo-Saxon burials, might need updating, but the overall argument is unlikely to be challenged.

If you are thinking of reading it and have access to a copy, read the introduction and the last paragraph of the book first. Not only does the former set out what he tried to do, but the latter sums up what he did.

[James Fishwick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent clear introduction to the archeological and literary sources for non-Christian beliefs systems of the Ancient Britons. Turns out, we know very little about what they actually believed or their ritual systems.

Also an excellent analysis of neo-Pagan movements and where they misuse & stretch the evidence.

[Rodrigo Bahamondes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure how to rate it. It's a very interesting work, but extremely hard to read, specially the first chapters. It's notoriously the first "pagan" book by Hutton for lay people, so I put the blame in that for the convoluted prose. Maybe, as some friends suggest me, I should have read "Pagan Britain", a more recent book about the same subject by the same author. I advise you to do that.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well structured and concise look at the pagan religious history of the British Isles from the Neolithic to the 1980s. I appreciated the drawings and art that were included to help me visualize more complex topics.

[Allen Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book for those curious about their Celtic Pagan roots or for those that are armchair anthropologists like myself. It certainly gave me a lot to think about. The information is well researched and captivating.

[Crosby Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Academic with a biting wit, especially loved the commentary on the triple goddess mythos / drunk Robert Graves poetry. All the info you'd ever need to know, and more, about rocks being moved to mysterious places, and the things buried under them.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly researched and utterly fascinating. Absolutely loved how he dispels common myths about paganism.

[Timothy · Rating 1 out of 5]

The title should be something more like how Christ conquered Britain. Very little in the way of actual Celtic Paganism, and spent too much time lambasting modern popular writers.

Not recommended

[Stephen Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book would probably have been better titled as something like "The Archaeology Of The Pagan Religions...", as the book is intensely driven by the physical evidence for various theories and conjectures. If you're looking for a detailed telling of ancient pagan mythology ("they worshiped this god while wearing these clothes and chanting these words"), you're not going to find that.

It does, however, do an excellent job of detailing what is known (or at least what is supported) about ancient religious beliefs based upon what has been found in the archaeological record. I believe the author also does a very good job of pointing out the limitations of what that record can ever hope to reveal or explain.

One of the more enjoyable threads throughout the book is how the author will systematically use evidence to expose past mistakes in portraying/describing ancient pagan practices. In most cases he's reasonably generous about it (he doesn't really mock the modern pagan movement, but rather just points out that the practices aren't really based on any true historical evidence) but he is fairly harsh in dealing with the more deliberate frauds and incompetents.

All in all, a very good book on the subject, but probably not for the casual reader who doesn't want to read about a lot of archaeology.

[Fred Kohn · Rating 3 out of 5]

We are blessed in our time to have a plethora of scholarly specialists who are gifted enough writers to make the essentials of their fields accessible in popular form. This is what Hutton makes an admirable effort to accomplish, but sadly he is not up to the task. By my estimation, at least half of this book is dedicated to dry descriptions and speculations about burials. Nevertheless, I found this book well worth reading, in part because to my surprise I found myself being fascinated by the variety of methods by which early people disposed of their dead (in contrast with today), and in part because when Hutton wasn't talking about corpses and bones he is absolutely fascinating.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good look at contemporary interpretations of Pre-Roman religious practices and how much (or rather how little) we can prove and how much is actually speculation and inference. References to archaeological evidence and some commentary on modern Pagan revival practices.

[Dru · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars because: I recall that this was a well-put-together bit of scholarly work, and not some pastiche of nonsense to appease the masses. On the other hand, I recall drudging through this, as it is dry and not terribly interestingly written.

[Kerr Cuhulain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on ancient Pagan spirituality. I recommend it.

[Denny · Rating 3 out of 5]

good by dry.

[Dean Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comprehensive and weighty work. Not for everyone, but excellent for Scholars and those who are interested in the historical roots of Paganism.

[J. Hennig]

There is an agenda, no question... but it's an informative one. I'd like this one for my personal reference library.