Ron Hutton's new book, Blood and Mistletoe: a history of the Druids in Britain, is reviewed by the Independent here.
They say it 'is a tour de force: surely the definitive work on our perception of the Druids. The only thing missing from this exhaustive account is an overview, however brief, of today's colourful Druid groups – an odd omission by the acknowledged historian of neo-Paganism. For that, you need his earlier book [The Druids: A History].'
They say it 'is a tour de force: surely the definitive work on our perception of the Druids. The only thing missing from this exhaustive account is an overview, however brief, of today's colourful Druid groups – an odd omission by the acknowledged historian of neo-Paganism. For that, you need his earlier book [The Druids: A History].'
Comments
I don't see him as 'The acknowledged historian of neo-paganism' since he seems to center on Celtic British neo-paganism and Siberian Shamanism.
Neo-paganism is a lot bigger than that... and involves a lot more diverse set of religions.... for that matter, when I came into paganism folks primarily would point at Margot Adler's book (Drawing Down the Moon) as the book on neo-paganism.
I also remember there being in the 80s some rather good scholars on ancient Celtic beliefs and religious practics teaching courses at Harvard and Brandeis.
I may be a little out of touch with the community in the past decade or so....
His Triumph of the Moon is supposedly a classic on modern paganism. I've not read it though.
Edited at 2009-05-15 09:46 pm (UTC)