Reading List
History
Non-fiction about people, practices and places in the Old Lore.
The Gods of the Celts (1993)
★★★
Book | This book is going to disappoint you but you should probably read it anyway. By, and for, archeologists - an overview of the physical evidence for various kinds of worship and practice in the Celtic world. Dry, but a useful reminder that history be like this; and there's plenty of gaps here for you to go to work on, to understand the kinds of concepts and priorities the ancients might have had. Plus cool photos of finds.
✪ Aspects of Anglo Saxon Magic (1996)
★★★★★
Book | Really good. An overview of Anglo-Saxon belief, and a set of magical charms and poems in the language with a translation. Discusses topics like beliefs on life after death, the existance of pantheons, the role of elves and dwarves, and so forth. Even though I see this publisher as a little dodgy, a little wish-fulfillment, I nevertheless think this book has a serious ring of truth to it - inviting the reader to overturn their assumptions about what "religion" was for the ancients.
Looking for the Lost Gods of England (1994)
★★★★
Book | The historical accuracy of this book is debateable, but it delivers what you want: a workeable ritual calendar and set of gods for authentic-feeling Anglo Saxon paganism. Definitely deserves a spot on any pagan bookshelf, with that caveat. This era we know very little about, and you can feel the grubby fingers of Women's Fertility Cult all over this. I've read books by archeologists of the period, and they are significantly more guarded about their conclusions. But this is Fencraft; play is our path. So I do commend this book to you, I like it very much. It's important for what we do to feel possible.
The Druids (2017)
★★★★★
Book | Hutton has two books on druids. Blood and Mistletoe is a brick, exploring the world of the druids in great detail; the Druids is basically the same research for the pop-history audience. You should read at least one of them. The Druids is the lighter work, but structured in a very cool way: themes like "The Wise Druids", "The Barbaric Druids" and "The Green Druids" ask what evidence there is for this in history, and where this narrative came from. I read and enjoyed Druids; I unwisely tried Blood and Mistletoe straight after, and found I was druid-ed out. But strongly recommended, both as pagan history as well as a lesson in historymaking.