{"id":6549,"date":"2014-06-30T11:35:26","date_gmt":"2014-06-30T17:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6549"},"modified":"2014-06-30T11:35:26","modified_gmt":"2014-06-30T17:35:26","slug":"literary-british-paganism-and-an-unusual-thors-hammer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6549","title":{"rendered":"Literary British Paganism and an Unusual Thor’s Hammer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Photo from National Museum of Denmark<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00b6 Ethan Doyle White reviews Ronald Hutton’s Pagan Britain<\/em> and Marion Gibson’s Imagining the Pagan Past<\/em> (free PDF download<\/a>). The first I have, but the second might actually be more valuable to anyone studying contemporary Paganism, for it looks not at “not at paganism [sic<\/em>] itself, but instead explores how pagan deities \u2013 both native and foreign \u2013 have been interpreted in British literature from the Early Medieval right through to the present day.”<\/p>\n

After all, at least nine or ten centuries elapsed between the effective end of cultic Paganism in that area and the mid-twentieth century revival. Hutton, too, has written on how literary works kept the old gods in public consciousness (at least that of educated readers) during\u00a0 eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.<\/p>\n

\u00b6 Speaking of the last era of old European Paganism, archaeologists have discovered an unusual Thor’s hammer talisman \u2014 unusual in that it was plated with precious metal and bore a runic inscription.<\/a>\u00a0 It was found in Denmark and dated to the tenth century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00b6 Ethan Doyle White reviews Ronald Hutton’s Pagan Britain and Marion Gibson’s Imagining the Pagan Past (free PDF download). The first I have, but the second might actually be more valuable to anyone studying contemporary Paganism, for it looks not at “not at paganism [sic] itself, but instead explores how pagan deities \u2013 both native […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":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":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,88,156,216,134,5,4],"class_list":["post-6549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-archaeology","tag-britain","tag-denmark","tag-literature","tag-norse","tag-paganism","tag-scholarship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1HD","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1121,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1121","url_meta":{"origin":6549,"position":0},"title":"Handbook of Contemporary Paganism in Print","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My contributor copy of the new Handbook of Contemporary Paganism from Brill arrived. (You can tell from the price that it is intended primarily for the institutional market.) Here is the table of contents:\"The Modern Magical Revival,\" Nevill Drury\"The Influence of Aleister Crowley on Gerald Gardner and the Early Witchcraft\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13427,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13427","url_meta":{"origin":6549,"position":1},"title":"Ronald Hutton’s Gresham Lectures Available Online","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 19, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The five lectures that Ronald Hutton gave this past spring in the Gresham College series Finding Britain's Lost Gods are available for viewing online. Each lasts about an hour. Gods of Prehistoric Britain Paganism in Roman Britain Anglo-Saxon Pagan Gods Viking Pagan Gods in Britain Finding Lost Gods in Wales\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Britain\"","block_context":{"text":"Britain","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=britain"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/hutton-anglo-saxon-1024x582.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/hutton-anglo-saxon-1024x582.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/hutton-anglo-saxon-1024x582.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11548,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11548","url_meta":{"origin":6549,"position":2},"title":"Interview with an American Pagan Studies Scholar in Latvia","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 20, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Long-time Pagan studies scholar Michael Strimska has been in Latvia the last few months on a Fulbright, teaching at Riga Stradii\u0161 University. He edited the volume Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives\u00a0 and guest-edited a recent\u00a0 issue of The Pomegranate devoted to Paganism and politics. The university has published\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Europe\"","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=europe"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1185,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1185","url_meta":{"origin":6549,"position":3},"title":"Mainstreaming British Paganism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Another \"Pagans in our midst\" article, this one from The Guardian, a generally left-of-center British newspaper.Writer Cole Morton advances the \"fastest-growing religion\" meme, promoted also by the Pagan Federation:The Pagan Federation, which aims to represent all \"followers of a polytheistic or pantheistic nature-worshipping religion\", claims the number of adherents has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Britain\"","block_context":{"text":"Britain","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=britain"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13693,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13693","url_meta":{"origin":6549,"position":4},"title":"20 Years of British Paganism: Free Zoom Lecture with Glastonbury-based Writer Liz Williams","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 21, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"UPDATE: This event has been postponed. I do not know why -- I just got the email from \"The Zoom Team.\" I will post when it is re-scheduled. Sad. Liz Williams is a science fiction and fantasy writer living in Glastonbury, England, where she is co-director of a witchcraft supply\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Britain\"","block_context":{"text":"Britain","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=britain"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/liz-williams.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/liz-williams.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/liz-williams.webp?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/liz-williams.webp?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/liz-williams.webp?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/liz-williams.webp?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14218,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14218","url_meta":{"origin":6549,"position":5},"title":"Upcoming Zoom with Robin Douglas, Sasha Chaitow","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 7, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Two leading scholars of contemporary Paganism will be live on Zoom this weekend: Robin Douglas has a book in press with the Equinox series on Pagan studies: The Pagan Revival A Documentary History of Modern Paganism, 1700-1950. Sasha Chaitow is also widely published, including in The Pomegranate: The International Journal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Britain\"","block_context":{"text":"Britain","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=britain"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/robin-sasha.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/robin-sasha.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/robin-sasha.webp?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/robin-sasha.webp?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6549","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=6549"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6551,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6549\/revisions\/6551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}