Finding Britain’s Lost Gods

March 23, 2023 12:29 PM

I. Gods of Prehistoric Britain; II. Paganism in Roman Britain; III. Anglo-Saxon Pagan Gods; IV. Viking Pagan Gods in Britain: the first four of an on-going series of hour-long lectures at Gresham College by cravat-wearing historian Ronald Hutton. (Previously).
posted by misteraitch (14 comments total)

Thanks for this, I think I"ll like it.
posted by Liquidwolf at 1:06 PM on March 23, 2023

I've read several of his books and they were all very interesting (his questionable sartorial choices notwithstanding).
posted by orrnyereg at 1:24 PM on March 23, 2023

Oh lord, I wanted to like Hutton's book on witches but it was just too dry for me. At least this is video because mythology is very firmly in my wheelhouse.
posted by Kitteh at 1:26 PM on March 23, 2023

Hutton is always fun when he turns up on UK living history TV to tell them how they celebrated harvest and solstices or tell the odd ghost story.
posted by tavella at 2:22 PM on March 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

I know we shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but watching one of the vids and this guy looks and sounds exactly like what I'd expect from the description!
posted by drewbage1847 at 2:23 PM on March 23, 2023

This is a great post.

Please tell me this man has been interviewed by Philomena Cunk.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:41 PM on March 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

If you want more of Richard Hutton, I think he appeared near the end of every episode of Tudor Monastery Farm, getting people to celebrate some old English religious thing. Here he is jumping over a Midsummer fire.
posted by clawsoon at 2:51 PM on March 23, 2023 [6 favorites]

Abehammerb Lincoln, he did! In Cunk on Britain, for sure. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s in others.
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 3:02 PM on March 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

I had a copy of Stations of the Sun, but lent it to someone who didn't return it, argh. I need to get another one.

I have wanted a copy of The Rise and Fall of Merry England, but it's been out of print and hundreds of dollars for a copy. But maybe it's available as an ebook now.

This is the long way of saying that Ronald Hutton is terrific.
posted by jb at 6:08 PM on March 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

Clicked through for the cravat, was not disappointed! I'll watch more for the interesting content, but well done on the hook.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:31 PM on March 23, 2023

I have wanted a copy of The Rise and Fall of Merry England, but it's been out of print and hundreds of dollars for a copy. But maybe it's available as an ebook now.

Ahem.
posted by greycap at 11:59 PM on March 23, 2023 [4 favorites]

*swoon*

I know what I'm doing this weekend.
posted by heatherlogan at 6:39 AM on March 24, 2023

Back in 2018, in answer to an AskMeFi question, I recommended Hutton's documentary A Very British Witchcraft as 'a lively and fair-minded account of Gardnerian Wicca'. The 2018 link is dead now, but there's another one here.
posted by verstegan at 7:55 AM on March 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

Hutton's a great writer and I will really enjoy these when I get a chance. Pagan Britain is excellent. I agree he can be quite dry but one great thing about him, at least in that book, is his unwillingness to speculate - he's really good at just saying 'we simply don't know what was in their heads' rather than making spicy stuff up.
posted by dowcrag at 4:46 AM on March 27, 2023 [1 favorite]