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

 

Queens of the Wild 

Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe

An Investigation

by Ronald Hutton

The term “pagan survivals” refers to the theory that in a Christianized West, pagan rituals and beliefs lived on, concealed under local customs, folklore and even certain Christian rites, allowing paganism to thrive beneath a socially respectable and acceptable veneer. This "pagan survival" theory was a mainstream concept amongst anthropologists, folklorists and historians from the mid-19th Century onwards, fuelled by a heady mix of Romantic ideals, subversive politics, animosity towards organised religion and, in the 20th century, the rise of feminism.  Although this idea has remained a powerful one in popular culture (providing one of the most defining tropes of the literary and cinematic “folk horror” genre), since the 1960s there has been a wave of revisionism amongst both academics and amateur enthusiasts, who have questioned the allegedly “ancient” roots of certain relatively recent traditions. 

In the initial chapter to this book, scholar Ronald Hutton places himself firmly in the revisionist camp. However, this volume is no one-sided polemic and, on the contrary, shows that a more nuanced and balanced approach can reveal the complexity behind certain popular beliefs which often escape easy categorisation as “Christian” or “pagan”. 

The focus in this book is on four female deity-like figures (hence the title) which are definitely not “Christian”, but similarly difficult to define as “ancient pagan goddesses”.  Hutton dedicates a chapter to each of these – Mother Earth, the Fairy Queen, the Lady of the Night, and the Cailleach (the Gaelic “Giant Old Woman”).  In an epilogue, which might appear rather tangential to the key chapters of the book, but covers similar thematic ground, Hutton examines the figure of the Green Man which, typically, was long considered to be the heir of ancient forest deities, but whose roots are actually more mysterious – principally because they have no obvious explanation. 

Hutton’s erudition sparkles throughout the book.  The areas which he draws upon in his exploration of these female figures are wide-ranging, comprising history, folklore, religion, anthropology, literature and music. This holistic approach leads to some interesting insights – for instance, as to how literature was inspired by, but then in turn inspired, popular belief (such as in the case of Shakespeare and his portrayal of the fairy world).

There are ample footnotes, which not only provide references, but often allow the author to expand on specific points and debate the sources without interrupting the flow of the main text. What struck me in particular, however, was Hutton’s generosity towards schools of thought which he evidently disagrees with, seeking to find points of contact between differing positions.  He ends his survey on a hopeful note that opposing camps may find common ground, observing that the protagonists of his volume offer:

... a direct challenge to current structures of academic debate, as outlined in the first chapter of this book. They suggest that Christian Europe, both in the Middle Ages and after, was capable of developing new superhuman figures which operated outside of Christian cosmology. These did not do so in direct opposition to Christianity and were not associated with a particular sect or faction, although they were often thought to favour and teach service magicians. They were part of the thought-world of people who were otherwise orthodox Christians for their place and time. It seems wrong to refer to such figures as pagan survivals. Though they may have drawn on ancient ideas and motifs, they appear to have been products of the Christian period and to have gone on being produced...in the late medival and early modern periods. On the other hand, to describe them as Christian, unproblematically and straightforwardly, is to miss the point of how completely they functioned outside of, and alongside the Christian world picture. It may be that we need to find a new labelling system for such entities, to fit and increasingly post-Christian society in which more of their kind, such as the Green Man, are arising, and for which the old polarizing terminology of Christian and pagan is no longer suitable.

 

Format

359 pages, Kindle Edition

Published

May 31, 2022 by Yale University Press