Queens of the Wild: Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe: An Investigation by Ronald Hutton

Queens of the Wild: Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe: An Investigation
Ronald Hutton
Page: 256
Format: pdf, ePub, mobi, fb2
ISBN: 9780300261011
Publisher: Yale University Press
Queens of the Wild: Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe: An Investigation

Free books download pdf format Queens of the Wild: Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe: An Investigation English version

Overview

A concise history of the goddess-like figures who evade both Christian and pagan traditions, from the medieval period to the present day

In this riveting account, renowned scholar Ronald Hutton explores the history of deity-like figures in Christian Europe. Drawing on anthropology, archaeology, literature, and history, Hutton shows how hags, witches, the fairy queen, and the Green Man all came to be, and how they changed over the centuries.
  
 Looking closely at four main figures—Mother Earth, the Fairy Queen, the Mistress of the Night, and the Old Woman of Gaelic tradition—Hutton challenges decades of debate around the female figures who have long been thought versions of pre-Christian goddesses. He makes the compelling case that these goddess figures found in the European imagination did not descend from the pre-Christian ancient world, yet have nothing Christian about them. It was in fact nineteenth-century scholars who attempted to establish the narrative of pagan survival that persists today.

Items