{"id":1322,"date":"2010-03-05T16:45:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-05T16:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1322"},"modified":"2010-03-05T16:45:00","modified_gmt":"2010-03-05T16:45:00","slug":"pagans-folklore-and-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1322","title":{"rendered":"Pagans, Folklore, and Dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click over to Pagans for Archaeology, where Yewtree interviews Australian Pagan scholar David Waldron,<\/a> author of Shock! The Black Dog of Bungay: A Study in Local Folklore<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, about dogs, folklore, and the Pagan revival.<\/p>\n

I think a key issue for me was that transmission of symbols, images and ideas from the pagan past are very fragmentary, complex and ambivalent. People are very quick to throw the \u201cPagan Survival\u201d label around because they so badly need to feel a connection to the past and a feeling of pastness in what they do. People can also be very quick to deny connection to a Pagan past when debunking. One thing that was really apparent to me when doing my research on the Black Dog of Bungay from a local history perspective, was that it is not a zero sum game. Let\u2019s look at the Black Dog of Bungay for example. There are fragments in the myth from the Celts, Vikings and Romans for example. However, if I was to speak to a 16th century Puritan in Bungay he may not even know what a Celt was and would certainly take offense at the suggestion his view of the attack on St Mary\u2019s church by a Black Dog or \u201cDevile in such a likenesse\u201d was Pagan.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He makes some interesting points about how folklore incorporates outside interpretations, digesting them, and  presenting them as truly indigenous and original. Worth a read<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click over to Pagans for Archaeology, where Yewtree interviews Australian Pagan scholar David Waldron, author of Shock! The Black Dog of Bungay: A Study in Local Folklore, about dogs, folklore, and the Pagan revival. I think a key issue for me was that transmission of symbols, images and ideas from the pagan past are very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[102,21,37],"class_list":["post-1322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-dogs","tag-england","tag-folklore"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-lk","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11319,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11319","url_meta":{"origin":1322,"position":0},"title":"“Folkloric” Pagan Statues Spark a Confrontation in Poland","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The news article, \"Locals demand removal of \u201cdemonic, pagan\u201d sculptures on tourist folklore trail in Poland,\" starts this way: A small community in northern Poland is embroiled in a dispute over 13 wooden sculptures of spirits based on local folklore, pitting Catholics warning of \u201cdemonic idolatry\u201d conservatives against officials seeking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Catholicism\"","block_context":{"text":"Catholicism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=catholicism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/folkloric-statue.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13906,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13906","url_meta":{"origin":1322,"position":1},"title":"Does the Pagan Resurgence Start with Folklore?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 10, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Politics is downstream from culture,\" people like to say online -- which is just a re-statement of something that I have long believed, that \"Life imitates Art.\" Maybe I am just reflecting my online environment and the podcasts that I listen to, but folklore is suddenly big. My feed has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"culture\"","block_context":{"text":"culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=culture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Hellebore-cover.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10588,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10588","url_meta":{"origin":1322,"position":2},"title":"Religion News Service: Baltic Pagans Spurred by Conservation","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A new article from the Religion News Service, which does not normally acknowledge polytheists, describes the long-standing Pagan revivals in the Baltic republics: The pagan [sic] religions have been spurred especially by a growing awareness of climate change and the rise of conservation movements that tap into a deep local\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Estonia\"","block_context":{"text":"Estonia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=estonia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/webRNS-Baltic-Neopaganism2-053119-807x454.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/webRNS-Baltic-Neopaganism2-053119-807x454.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/webRNS-Baltic-Neopaganism2-053119-807x454.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/webRNS-Baltic-Neopaganism2-053119-807x454.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5788,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5788","url_meta":{"origin":1322,"position":3},"title":"New Book on Ukrainian Paganism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Return of Ancestral Gods: Modern Ukrainian Paganism as an Alternative Vision for a Nation by Mariya Lesiv, who teaches in the Department of Folklore at\u00a0 the Memorial University of Newfoundland, has now been released by McGill-Queen's University Press in Canada. From the publisher's site: In The Return of Ancestral\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Europe\"","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=europe"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mqup.ca\/filebin\/images\/products\/main\/9780773542624.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7677,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7677","url_meta":{"origin":1322,"position":4},"title":"Massive 2015 Year-End Link Dump! Something for Everyone!","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Some of the links that I saved that never turned into blog posts . . . \u2022 The Internet loves quizes, so \"What Kind of Witch Would You Be?\" (answer: hearth witch). I always suspect that the answer is based on just one question, while the others are there just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"animism\"","block_context":{"text":"animism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=animism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theoutdoorwire.com\/image_archive\/2210514.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":227,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=227","url_meta":{"origin":1322,"position":5},"title":"Creating Pagan Identity Back at\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 25, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Creating Pagan Identity Back at my campus office, I discovered a review copy of Witching Culture by folklorist and anthropologist Sabina Magliocco. The publisher's cover blurb calls it \"the first ethnography of this religious movement to focus specifically on the role of anthropology and folklore in its formation.\" I think\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}