Table Of ContentThe Pagan Religions
of the
Ancient British Isles
Callanish Stone Circle Reproduced by kind permission of Fay Godwin
The Pagan Religions
of the
Ancient British Isles
Their Nature and Legacy
RONALD HUTTON
BLACKWELL
Oxford UK & Cambridge USA
Copyright © R. B. Hutton, 1991, 1993
First published 1991
First published in paperback 1993
Reprinted 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998
Blackwell Publishers Ltd
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Oxford 0X4 1JF, UK
Blackwell Publishers Inc.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Hutton, Ronald
The pagan religions of the ancient British Isles: their
nature and legacy / Ronald Hutton
p. cm.
ISBN 0-631-18946-7 (pbk)
1. Great Britain—Religion—To 449. I. Title.
BL980.G7H87 1991
291'.09361— dc20 90-27166
CIP
Typeset in 11 on 13pt Caslon by Hope Services (Abingdon) Ltd, Oxon
Printed and bound in Great Britain
by T. J. International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
This book is printed on acid-free paper
Contents
Preface vi
Preface to The Paperback Edition ix
Acknowledgements xvi
Guide to Pronunciation of Celtic Words in the Text xxi
1 The Mysteries Begin (c.30,000-c.5000 BC) 1
2 The Time of the Tombs (c.5000-c. 3200 BC) 16
3 The Coming of the Circles (c.3200—c. 2200 BC) 52
4 Into the Darkness (c.2200—c.1000 BC) 88
5 The People of the Mist (c.1000 BC-c.AD 500) 139
6 The Imperial Synthesis (AD 43—410) 201
7 The Clash of Faiths (AD c.300—c.1000) 247
8 Legacy of Shadows 284
Notes 342
Additional Source Material 374
Index 377
Preface
The purpose of this book is to set out what is at present known about the
religious beliefs and practices of the inhabitants of the British Isles before
their conversion to Christianity. The term 'pagan' is used as a convenient
shorthand for those beliefs and practices, and is employed in the title
merely to absolve the book from any need to discuss early Christianity
itself. Throughout, I have used the same word, and others such as 'faith',
'cult' and 'religion' itself, in a manner which may seem unsatisfactory to
theologians and philosophers who prefer stricter definition and more
precise application of these terms. I hope nevertheless that my looser
usage will be deemed sufficient for a work of history (and prehistory) such
as this. My principal intention is to bring to a wider public the very large
amount of new evidence and ideas relating to the subject that has been
published in the past two decades, much of which seems to be known only
to experts within narrow areas of study. Although some more general
surveys (often of superb quality) have appeared covering particular
periods and places — for example, celebrated prehistoric monuments, the
Roman province, the 'Celts' and the Anglo-Saxons — there exists no more
general treatment. Furthermore, some of these existing surveys are
already out of date or seem to me to be overconfident in certain of their
judgements.
My own acknowledged expertise has hitherto lain only at the latter end
of the stretch of time encompassed here. But much of the rest was already
familiar territory to me before I started this book. During my adolescence
I took part in a number of archaeological excavations, including some
sites of relevance to the present subject, such as Ascott-under-Wychwood
long barrow, the Pilsdon Pen Iron Age temple and the Harlow Romano-
British temple. At university I specialized in history, but kept up with
Preface vii
developments in archaeology by attending Glyn Daniel's seminars and by
constant reading of reports, a habit I have since maintained. The
substructure for another part of the work was formed by my long
standing interest in early Irish and Welsh literature, which had already
stood me in good stead in providing material for my lectures on Irish
history at Bristol and in enabling me to fulfil an unexpected position as
patron of the university's Welsh society. My mother, Elsa Hutton, was
an old-fashioned antiquarian of the best kind: her intention to publish a
guide to the prehistoric chambered tombs of England and Wales was
thwarted by her tragically early death, but the data which she had
collected rendered me thoroughly familiar with this class of monument.
In addition, each chapter of the book has been read by a specialist in the
period concerned.
A work of this nature has obvious actual or potential defects. In
covering such an enormous time-span, it is almost inevitable that I shall
have neglected or under-emphasized items which some specialists feel to
be important. I may well have failed to notice some relevant publications,
and such is the pace of modern scholarship (especially in archaeology) that
some of my information will probably be rendered redundant by
announcements in the interval between my last revisions and publication.
After the first couple of chapters I have paid little attention to comparable
work in other European countries, and I draw relatively few ethnographic
parallels. This is certainly a fault, but given the size of the task which I
already had in hand, the addition of these other spheres of interest would
have made the book unwieldy. I regret that when I was sketching objects
and patterns in the field and in museum collections, I did not note down
scales to be printed with them: an omission common to most authors who
have included such material, but still an error. Some of my illustrations
might have been better replaced by good photographs, but here financial
constraints and complications of reproduction came into play. I have been
concerned both to keep source-references to a minimum, and yet to ensure
that no assertion should be left without one. As a result, I have sometimes
provided a reference to a large modern work which contains within it
precise details of ancient texts of which I make mention in my own pages,
rather than citing the latter myself. Though some scholars may find this
unsatisfactory, it was the best compromise I could make given the
conflicting constraints of space and thoroughness. The same problem
occurred on a larger scale when it became necessary to cut the text to keep
the book within original unit costs. Only a few sections, such as that
dealing with the claims of Glastonbury to be a pre-Saxon holy place, were
viii Preface
excised completely: but many pieces of evidence which had been supplied
to buttress assertions were struck out. The result may be a more
streamlined work, and I hope that the remaining compilations of data are
still sufficient to prove their points.
My greatest anxiety is that there exists no colleague whose expertise
covers the whole subject of the book, so that it must be evaluated by those
who find what falls within their fields all too familiar and what falls
outside them all too alien. But that, of course, is the principal reason for
my feeling that somebody ought to write it.
R.H.
May 1990
Preface to The Paperback Edition
In the original preface to this book I predicted that parts of it would be
overtaken by further discoveries even before it was through the press.
This has proved correct, and, in addition, various constructive critics, of
whom Leslie Grinsell has been the most indefatigable, have pointed out
ways in which the original might be improved. Some of my responses to
both will be obvious in the text, but most are best stated here. Recent
excavation and source analysis has provided a lot of data which extends the
information provided in the original; I only have space to consider that
which significantly alters or reinforces the latter.
There seem to have been no dramatic developments in the study of
Palaeolithic religions. Instead, the same symbolism can be constantly
reinterpreted; thus, the American writer Ceiswyr Serith points out to me
that the so-called instrument in the hooves of the 'bison musician' at Trois
Freres may simply be steam coming from the creature's nostrils. In the
scholarship of British and Irish megalithic tombs the most significant
discovery may be that made by Ian Armit at Loch Olabhat in the
Hebrides, reported in Current Archaeology 127 (1991), pp. 284-7. It
consisted of a mid-Neolithic settlement preserved by inundation, the
houses of which exactly resembled local tombs. This powerfully supports
the theory that the tomb-shrines were dwellings for the dead, their
architecture copying those of the living, but built in durable materials,
whereas villages and farms vanished unless preserved by accident as at
Loch Olabhat.
Much more destructive of conventional teaching is the work of Peter J.
Ucko, Michael Hunter, Alan J. Clark and Andrew David, in Avebury
Reconsidered (1991). Having studied the results of a geophysical survey of
the Avebury complex and also seventeenth-century accounts of it, they
Description:religious beliefs and practices of the inhabitants of the British Isles before their conversion to Christianity. The term 'pagan' is used as a convenient shorthand for
