Ronald Hutton
Encyclopedia
Ronald Hutton is an English historian who specializes in the study of Early Modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and contemporary Paganism. A reader in the subject at the University of Bristol
, Hutton has published fourteen books and has appeared on British television and radio. He has held a fellowship at Magdalen College, Oxford
and is also a Commissioner of English Heritage
.
Born in Ootacamund
, India into a middle class English family, Hutton subsequently returned to England, attending a school in Illford and getting particularly interested in archaeology, taking part in a number of excavations until 1976 and touring the country's chambered tombs. Ultimately he decided to study history at Pembroke College, Cambridge
and then Magdalen College, Oxford
before gaining employment as a reader in history at the University of Bristol in 1981. Focusing his efforts on Early Modern Britain, he published a trio of books on the subject during that decade; The Royalist War Effort (1981), The Restoration (1985) and Charles the Second (1989).
During the 1990s he produced a string of books dealing with historical paganism, folklore and contemporary Paganism in Britain; The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles (1991), The Rise and Fall of Merry England (1994), The Stations of the Sun (1996) and The Triumph of the Moon (1999), the latter of which would come to be praised as a seminal text in the discipline of Pagan Studies. In the following decade he moved on to look at other topics, publishing a book about Siberian shamanism in the western imagination, Shamans (2001), a collection of essays on folklore and Paganism, Witches, Druids and King Arthur (2003) and then two books on the role of the Druids in the British imagination, The Druids (2007) and Blood and Mistletoe (2009).
in India
to a colonial family, and is of part-Russian ancestry. Upon arriving in England, he attended Ilford County High School
, whilst becoming greatly interested in archaeology
, joining the committee of a local archaeological group and taking part in excavations from 1965 to 1976, including at such sites as Pilsdon Pen
hill fort, Ascott-under-Wychwood
long barrow, Hen Domen
castle and a temple on Malta
. Meanwhile, during the period between 1966 and 1969, he visited "every prehistoric chambered tomb surviving in England and Wales, and wrote a guide to them, for myself [Hutton] and friends." Despite his love of archaeology, he instead decided to study history
at university, believing that he had "probably more aptitude" for it. He won a scholarship to study at Pembroke College, Cambridge
, where he continued his interest in archaeology alongside history, in 1975 taking a course run by the university's archaeologist Glyn Daniel
, an expert on the Neolithic
. From Cambridge, he went on to study at Oxford University, where he held a fellowship at Magdalen College
.
where he took up the position of reader of History. In that year he also published his first book, 'The Royalist War Effort 1642-1646', and followed it with three more books on 17th century British history by 1990.
itself." It thereby examined religion during the Palaeolithic, Neolithic
, Bronze Age
, Iron Age
, Roman occupation
and Anglo-Saxon period, as well as a brief examination of their influence on folklore and contemporary Paganism. In keeping with what was by then the prevailing academic view, it disputed the widely held idea that ancient paganism had survived into the contemporary and had been revived by the Pagan movement.
The book proved controversial amongst some contemporary Pagans and feminists involved in the Goddess movement
, one of whom, Asphodel Long, issued a public criticism of Hutton in which she charged him with failing to take non-mainstream ideas about ancient goddess cults into consideration. Ultimately, Hutton would later relate, she "recognised that she had misunderstood me" and the two became friends. Another feminist critic, Max Dashu
, condemned the work as containing "factual errors, mischaracterizations, and outright whoppers" and claimed that she was "staggered by the intense anti-feminism of this book". She went on to attack Hutton's writing style, calling the book "dry as dust" and claimed that she was "sorry I bothered to plough through it. If this is rigor, it is mortis
."
Meanwhile, whilst he faced criticism from some sectors of the Pagan community in Britain, others came to embrace him; during the late 1980s and 1990s, Hutton befriended a number of practicing British Pagans, including "leading Druids" such as Tim Sebastion, who was then Chief of the Secular Order of Druids. On the basis of The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles (which he himself had not actually read), Sebastion invited Hutton to speak at a conference in Avebury
where he befriended a number of members of the Pagan Druidic movement, including Philip Carr-Gomm
, Emma Restall Orr
and John Michell.
, both of which were published by Oxford University Press
: The Rise and Fall of Merry England: The Ritual Year 1400–1700 (1994) and The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain (1996). In these works he criticised commonly held attitudes, such as the idea of Merry England
and the idea that folk customs were static and unchanging over the centuries. Once again, he was following prevailing expert opinion in doing so.
of the Pagan religion of Wicca
, and in the preface Hutton stated that:
Hutton questioned many assumptions about Wicca's development and argued that many of the claimed connections to longstanding hidden pagan traditions are questionable at best. However, he also argued for its importance as a genuine new religious movement
.
". Public criticism came from the practicing Wiccan Jani Farrell-Roberts, who took part in a published debate with Hutton in The Cauldron magazine in 2003. Farrell-Roberts was of the opinion that in his works, Hutton dismissed Margaret Murray
's theories about the Witch-Cult using Norman Cohn
's theories, which she believed to be heavily flawed. She stated that "he is... wrongly cited as an objective neutral and a 'non-pagan' for he happens to be a very active member of the British Pagan community" who "had taken on a mission to reform modern paganism by removing from it a false history and sense of continuance".
In 2011, a New Zealand writer named Ben Whitmore published a short book criticising both Hutton and Triumph.
, with Hambledon and London publishing Shamans: Siberian Spirituality in the Western Imagination in 2001, in which he argued that much of what westerners think they know about shamanism is in fact wrong.
In his review for the academic Folklore journal, Jonathan Roper of the University of Sheffield
noted that the work "could profitably have been twice as long and have provided a more extended treatment of the issues involved" and that it suffered from a lack of images. On the whole however he thought it "certainly [should] be recommended to readers as an important work" on the subject of shamanism, and he hoped that Hutton would "return to treat this fascinating topic in even greater depth in future."
In 2003, Hambledon & London also published Witches, Druids and King Arthur, a collection of various articles by Hutton, including on topics such as the nature of myth and the pagan themes found within the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.
series. Hutton's next book, which was also about Druidry, was entitled Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain, and released in May 2009.
In a review by David V. Barrett
in The Independent
, Blood and Mistletoe was described as being more "academic and more than three times the length" of The Druids, although Barrett argued that despite this it was still "very readable", even going so far as to call it a "tour de force". The review by Noel Malcolm
in The Daily Telegraph
was a little more critical, claiming that whilst Hutton was "non-sensationalist and scrupulously polite" about the various Druidic eccentrics, "occasionally, even-handedness tips over towards relativism – as if there are just different ways of looking at reality, each as good as the other. And that cannot be right."
Interviewing Hutton for The Independent
, the journalist Gary Valentine Lachman
commented that he had "a very pragmatic, creative attitude, recognising that factual error can still produce beneficial results", for instance noting that even though their theories about the Early Modern Witch-Cult
were erroneous, Margaret Murray
and Gerald Gardner
would help lay the foundations for the creation of the new religious movement of Wicca.
of 1605 had succeeded in its aims of the death of King James I
and the destruction of the House of Lords
. He concluded that the violence of the act would have resulted in an even more severe backlash against suspected Catholics than was caused by its failure, as most Englishmen were loyal to the monarchy, despite differing religious convictions. England could very well have become a more "Puritan absolute monarchy", rather than following the path of parliamentary and civil reform.
----
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...
, Hutton has published fourteen books and has appeared on British television and radio. He has held a fellowship at Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
and is also a Commissioner of English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
.
Born in Ootacamund
Ootacamund
Ootacamund , is a town, a municipality and the district capital of the Nilgiris district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Ootacamund is a popular hill station located in the Nilgiri Hills...
, India into a middle class English family, Hutton subsequently returned to England, attending a school in Illford and getting particularly interested in archaeology, taking part in a number of excavations until 1976 and touring the country's chambered tombs. Ultimately he decided to study history at Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college has over seven hundred students and fellows, and is the third oldest college of the university. Physically, it is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from almost every century since its...
and then Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
before gaining employment as a reader in history at the University of Bristol in 1981. Focusing his efforts on Early Modern Britain, he published a trio of books on the subject during that decade; The Royalist War Effort (1981), The Restoration (1985) and Charles the Second (1989).
During the 1990s he produced a string of books dealing with historical paganism, folklore and contemporary Paganism in Britain; The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles (1991), The Rise and Fall of Merry England (1994), The Stations of the Sun (1996) and The Triumph of the Moon (1999), the latter of which would come to be praised as a seminal text in the discipline of Pagan Studies. In the following decade he moved on to look at other topics, publishing a book about Siberian shamanism in the western imagination, Shamans (2001), a collection of essays on folklore and Paganism, Witches, Druids and King Arthur (2003) and then two books on the role of the Druids in the British imagination, The Druids (2007) and Blood and Mistletoe (2009).
Early Life: 1953–1980
Hutton was born at OotacamundOotacamund
Ootacamund , is a town, a municipality and the district capital of the Nilgiris district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Ootacamund is a popular hill station located in the Nilgiri Hills...
in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
to a colonial family, and is of part-Russian ancestry. Upon arriving in England, he attended Ilford County High School
Ilford County High School
Ilford County High School is a selective boys' secondary grammar school and a specialist science college in the Barkingside area of the London Borough of Redbridge.ICHS is a four-form entry school, each form comprising up to 30 pupils...
, whilst becoming greatly interested in archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
, joining the committee of a local archaeological group and taking part in excavations from 1965 to 1976, including at such sites as Pilsdon Pen
Pilsdon Pen
Pilsdon Pen is a 277 metre hill in West Dorset, England, situated five miles west of Beaminster at the north end of the Marshwood Vale. It is Dorset's second highest point and has panoramic views extending for many miles...
hill fort, Ascott-under-Wychwood
Ascott-under-Wychwood
Ascott-under-Wychwood is a village and civil parish in the Evenlode valley about south of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.-History:The village is one of several named after the historic forest of Wychwood; the others being Shipton-under-Wychwood and Milton-under-Wychwood.Ascot d'Oilly Castle was...
long barrow, Hen Domen
Hen Domen
Hen Domen, Welsh, meaning "old mound", is the site of a medieval timber motte-and-bailey castle in Powys, Wales. It is the site of the original Montgomery Castle and was built by Roger de Montgomery in 1070....
castle and a temple on Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
. Meanwhile, during the period between 1966 and 1969, he visited "every prehistoric chambered tomb surviving in England and Wales, and wrote a guide to them, for myself [Hutton] and friends." Despite his love of archaeology, he instead decided to study history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
at university, believing that he had "probably more aptitude" for it. He won a scholarship to study at Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college has over seven hundred students and fellows, and is the third oldest college of the university. Physically, it is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from almost every century since its...
, where he continued his interest in archaeology alongside history, in 1975 taking a course run by the university's archaeologist Glyn Daniel
Glyn Daniel
Glyn Edmund Daniel was a Welsh scientist and archaeologist whose academic career at Cambridge University specialised in the European Neolithic period. He edited the academic journal Antiquity from 1958–1985...
, an expert on the Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
. From Cambridge, he went on to study at Oxford University, where he held a fellowship at Magdalen College
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
.
Bristol University and First Publications: 1981–1990
In 1981, Hutton moved to the University of BristolUniversity of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...
where he took up the position of reader of History. In that year he also published his first book, 'The Royalist War Effort 1642-1646', and followed it with three more books on 17th century British history by 1990.
The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: 1991-1993
Hutton followed his studies on the Early Modern period with a book on a very different subject, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy (1991), in which he attempted to "set out what is at present known about the religious beliefs and practices 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 ChristianityEarly Christianity
Early Christianity is generally considered as Christianity before 325. The New Testament's Book of Acts and Epistle to the Galatians records that the first Christian community was centered in Jerusalem and its leaders included James, Peter and John....
itself." It thereby examined religion during the Palaeolithic, Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
, Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
, Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
, Roman occupation
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
and Anglo-Saxon period, as well as a brief examination of their influence on folklore and contemporary Paganism. In keeping with what was by then the prevailing academic view, it disputed the widely held idea that ancient paganism had survived into the contemporary and had been revived by the Pagan movement.
The book proved controversial amongst some contemporary Pagans and feminists involved in the Goddess movement
Goddess movement
The Goddess movement is an overall trend in religious or spiritual beliefs or practices which emerged out of second-wave feminism, predominantly in North America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand in the 1970s...
, one of whom, Asphodel Long, issued a public criticism of Hutton in which she charged him with failing to take non-mainstream ideas about ancient goddess cults into consideration. Ultimately, Hutton would later relate, she "recognised that she had misunderstood me" and the two became friends. Another feminist critic, Max Dashu
Max Dashu
Max Dashu is a teacher, writer, historian, and artist who founded the Suppressed Histories Archives, which is a collection of over 14,000 slides she has photographed and 100 slideshows she has created on global women's history, archaeology, Goddess traditions, female priests and female shamans...
, condemned the work as containing "factual errors, mischaracterizations, and outright whoppers" and claimed that she was "staggered by the intense anti-feminism of this book". She went on to attack Hutton's writing style, calling the book "dry as dust" and claimed that she was "sorry I bothered to plough through it. If this is rigor, it is mortis
Rigor mortis
Rigor mortis is one of the recognizable signs of death that is caused by a chemical change in the muscles after death, causing the limbs of the corpse to become stiff and difficult to move or manipulate...
."
Meanwhile, whilst he faced criticism from some sectors of the Pagan community in Britain, others came to embrace him; during the late 1980s and 1990s, Hutton befriended a number of practicing British Pagans, including "leading Druids" such as Tim Sebastion, who was then Chief of the Secular Order of Druids. On the basis of The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles (which he himself had not actually read), Sebastion invited Hutton to speak at a conference in Avebury
Avebury
Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles which is located around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, south west England. Unique amongst megalithic monuments, Avebury contains the largest stone circle in Europe, and is one of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain...
where he befriended a number of members of the Pagan Druidic movement, including Philip Carr-Gomm
Philip Carr-Gomm
Philip Carr-Gomm is an author in the fields of psychology and Druidry, a psychologist, and one of the leaders of The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids.-Biography:...
, Emma Restall Orr
Emma Restall Orr
Emma Restall Orr is a British neo-druid, animist, priest, poet and author . She worked for the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids in the early 1990s, becoming an Ovate tutor. In 1993 she became joint chief of the British Druid Order staying until 2002...
and John Michell.
Studies of British folklore: 1994–1996
In the following years, Hutton released two books on British folkloreFolklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
, both of which were published by Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
: The Rise and Fall of Merry England: The Ritual Year 1400–1700 (1994) and The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain (1996). In these works he criticised commonly held attitudes, such as the idea of Merry England
Merry England
"Merry England", or in more jocular, archaic spelling "Merrie England", refers to an English autostereotype, a utopian conception of English society and culture based on an idyllic pastoral way of life that was allegedly prevalent at some time between the Middle Ages and the onset of the Industrial...
and the idea that folk customs were static and unchanging over the centuries. Once again, he was following prevailing expert opinion in doing so.
The Triumph of the Moon: 1997–1999
In 1999, his first work fully focusing on Paganism was published by Oxford University Press; The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. The book dealt with the historyHistory of Wicca
The history of Wicca documents the rise of the Neopagan religion of Wicca and related witchcraft-based Neopagan religions. Wicca originated in the early twentieth century, when it first developed amongst several secretive covens in England who were basing their religious beliefs and practices upon...
of the Pagan religion of Wicca
Wicca
Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...
, and in the preface Hutton stated that:
- the subtitle of this book should really be 'a history of modern pagan witchcraft in South Britain (England, Wales, Cornwall and Man), with some reference to it in the rest of the British Isles, Continental Europe and North America'. The fact that it claims to be a history and not the history is in itself significant, for this book represents the first systematic attempt by a professional historian to characterize and account for this aspect of modern Western culture."
Hutton questioned many assumptions about Wicca's development and argued that many of the claimed connections to longstanding hidden pagan traditions are questionable at best. However, he also argued for its importance as a genuine new religious movement
New religious movement
A new religious movement is a religious community or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of modern origin, which has a peripheral place within the dominant religious culture. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, such as Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, in...
.
Response from the Pagan community
The response from the Pagan community was somewhat mixed. Many Pagans embraced his work, with the prominent Wiccan Elder Frederic Lamond referring to it as "an authority on the history of Gardnerian WiccaGardnerian Wicca
Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian Witchcraft, is a mystery cult tradition or denomination in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner , a British civil servant and scholar of magic...
". Public criticism came from the practicing Wiccan Jani Farrell-Roberts, who took part in a published debate with Hutton in The Cauldron magazine in 2003. Farrell-Roberts was of the opinion that in his works, Hutton dismissed Margaret Murray
Margaret Murray
Margaret Alice Murray was a prominent British Egyptologist and anthropologist. Primarily known for her work in Egyptology, which was "the core of her academic career," she is also known for her propagation of the Witch-cult hypothesis, the theory that the witch trials in the Early Modern period of...
's theories about the Witch-Cult using Norman Cohn
Norman Cohn
Norman Rufus Colin Cohn FBA was a British academic, historian and writer who spent fourteen years as a professorial fellow and as Astor-Wolfson Professor at the University of Sussex.-Life:...
's theories, which she believed to be heavily flawed. She stated that "he is... wrongly cited as an objective neutral and a 'non-pagan' for he happens to be a very active member of the British Pagan community" who "had taken on a mission to reform modern paganism by removing from it a false history and sense of continuance".
In 2011, a New Zealand writer named Ben Whitmore published a short book criticising both Hutton and Triumph.
Shamans and Witches, Druids and King Arthur: 2000-2006
Hutton next turned his attention to Siberian shamanismShamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
, with Hambledon and London publishing Shamans: Siberian Spirituality in the Western Imagination in 2001, in which he argued that much of what westerners think they know about shamanism is in fact wrong.
In his review for the academic Folklore journal, Jonathan Roper of the University of Sheffield
University of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield is a research university based in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original 'red brick' universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities...
noted that the work "could profitably have been twice as long and have provided a more extended treatment of the issues involved" and that it suffered from a lack of images. On the whole however he thought it "certainly [should] be recommended to readers as an important work" on the subject of shamanism, and he hoped that Hutton would "return to treat this fascinating topic in even greater depth in future."
In 2003, Hambledon & London also published Witches, Druids and King Arthur, a collection of various articles by Hutton, including on topics such as the nature of myth and the pagan themes found within the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.
The Druids and Blood and Mistletoe: 2007–2009
After studying the history of Wicca, Hutton went on to look at the history of Druidry, both historical and Pagan. His first book on the subject, The Druids, was published in 2007. Part of this material was given as the first lecture of the Mount Haemus AwardOrder of Bards, Ovates and Druids
The Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids or OBOD is a Neo-Druidic organisation based in England, but based in part on the Welsh Gorsedd of Bards...
series. Hutton's next book, which was also about Druidry, was entitled Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain, and released in May 2009.
In a review by David V. Barrett
David V. Barrett
David V. Barrett is a British author who has written on religious and esoteric topics. He is also a regular contributor to The Independent, Fortean Times, and the Catholic Herald....
in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, Blood and Mistletoe was described as being more "academic and more than three times the length" of The Druids, although Barrett argued that despite this it was still "very readable", even going so far as to call it a "tour de force". The review by Noel Malcolm
Noel Malcolm
Noel Robert Malcolm FBA FRSL is a modern English historian, writer, and columnist.-Life:Malcolm was educated at Eton College , read History at Peterhouse, Cambridge, wrote his doctorate dissertation at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was for a time Fellow of Gonville and Caius College,...
in The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
was a little more critical, claiming that whilst Hutton was "non-sensationalist and scrupulously polite" about the various Druidic eccentrics, "occasionally, even-handedness tips over towards relativism – as if there are just different ways of looking at reality, each as good as the other. And that cannot be right."
Personal life
Although he has written much on the subject of Paganism, Hutton insists that his own religious beliefs are a private matter. He has instead stated that "to some extent history occupies the space in my life filled in that of others by religion or spirituality. It defines much of the way I come to terms with the cosmos, and with past, present and future." Nonetheless, he has become a "well-known and much loved figure" in the British Pagan community.Interviewing Hutton for The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, the journalist Gary Valentine Lachman
Gary Valentine Lachman
Gary Lachman, born December 24, 1955 in Bayonne, New Jersey, is an American writer and musician. Lachman is best known to readers of mysticism and the occult, in the numerous articles and books he has published...
commented that he had "a very pragmatic, creative attitude, recognising that factual error can still produce beneficial results", for instance noting that even though their theories about the Early Modern Witch-Cult
Witch-cult hypothesis
The Witch-cult is the term for a hypothetical pre-Christian, pagan religion of Europe that survived into at least the early modern period. As late as the 19th and early 20th centuries, some scholars had postulated that European witchcraft was part of a Satanic plot to overthrow Christianity; most...
were erroneous, Margaret Murray
Margaret Murray
Margaret Alice Murray was a prominent British Egyptologist and anthropologist. Primarily known for her work in Egyptology, which was "the core of her academic career," she is also known for her propagation of the Witch-cult hypothesis, the theory that the witch trials in the Early Modern period of...
and Gerald Gardner
Gerald Gardner
Gerald Brousseau Gardner , who sometimes used the craft name Scire, was an influential English Wiccan, as well as an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, writer, weaponry expert and occultist. He was instrumental in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to public attention in Britain and...
would help lay the foundations for the creation of the new religious movement of Wicca.
Works
Hutton's books can be divided into those about seventeenth-century Britain and those about paganism and folk customs in Britain.Seventeenth-Century Britain
In his What If the Gunpowder Plot Had Succeeded?, Hutton has considered what might have happened if the Gunpowder PlotGunpowder Plot
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby.The plan was to blow up the House of...
of 1605 had succeeded in its aims of the death of King James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
and the destruction of the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
. He concluded that the violence of the act would have resulted in an even more severe backlash against suspected Catholics than was caused by its failure, as most Englishmen were loyal to the monarchy, despite differing religious convictions. England could very well have become a more "Puritan absolute monarchy", rather than following the path of parliamentary and civil reform.
Books
| Title | Year | Publisher | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Royalist War Effort 1642-1646 | 1982 | Routledge (London) | |
| The Restoration: A Political and Religious History of England and Wales 1658-1660 | 1985 | Clarendon | 0-19-822698-5 |
| Charles the Second, King of England, Scotland and Ireland | 1989 | Clarendon | 0-19-822911-9 |
| The British Republic 1649-1660 | 1990 | Palgrave Macmillan | |
| The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy | 1991 | Blackwell (Oxford and Cambridge) | 0-631-18946-7 |
| The Rise and Fall of Merry England: The Ritual Year 1400–1700 | 1994 | Oxford University Press (Oxford and New York) | |
| The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain | 1996 | Oxford University Press (Oxford and New York) | |
| The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft | 1999 | Oxford University Press (Oxford and New York) | |
| Shamans: Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination | 2001 | Hambledon and London (London and New York) | 1-85295-324-7 |
| Witches, Druids and King Arthur | 2003 | Hambledon | |
| Debates in Stuart History | 2004 | Palgrave Macmillan | |
| The Druids: A History | 2007 | Hambledon Continuum | |
| Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain | 2009 | Yale University Press (London) | |
| A Brief History of Britain 1485-1660: The Tudor and Stuart Dynasties | 2011 | Robinson | 978-1845297046 |
Academic reviews
- Barry Collett, Review of Stations of the Sun, Sixteenth Century JournalSixteenth Century Society and ConferenceThe Sixteenth Century Society and Conference is a learned society that promotes research on the early modern period. The society is interdisciplinary in membership, welcoming scholars in history, art history, religion, history of science, musicology, dance history, and literary and cultural...
, 29/1 (1998): 241–243. - Christopher W. Marsh, Review of Stations of the Sun, Journal of Ecclesiastical HistoryJournal of Ecclesiastical HistoryThe Journal of Ecclesiastical History is a peer-reviewed academic journal published four times a year by Cambridge University Press. It was established in 1950 and has been published in each year since....
, 50 (1999): 133–135. - Jonathan Roper, Review of Shamans, FolkloreFolklore SocietyThe Folklore Society was founded in England in 1878 to study traditional vernacular culture, including traditional music, song, dance and drama, narrative, arts and crafts, customs and belief...
, April 2005, - Chas S. CliftonChas S. CliftonChas S. Clifton is an American academic, author and historian who specialises in the fields of English studies and Pagan studies. Clifton currently holds a teaching position in English at Colorado State University-Pueblo, prior to which he taught at Pueblo Community College.A practicing Pagan...
, Review of Witches, Druids and King Arthur, The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies, 7/1 (2005): 101–103. - Christopher ChippindaleChristopher ChippindaleChristopher Chippindale is a British archaeologist. He works at the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. He is the author of the book Stonehenge Complete, published in 2004.-References:...
, Review of The Pagan Religions Of The Ancient British Isles, History TodayHistory TodayHistory Today is an illustrated history magazine. Published monthly in London since January 1951, it is the world's leading, and possibly oldest, history magazine. Its successful mission has always been to present serious and authoritative history to as wide a public as possible...
, (1992) - Hill, Dr. J. D. (2004) A Reply to Ronald Hutton’s Commentary ‘What did Happen to Lindow Man?’ TLS Jan 30th. Sent to The Times Literary SupplementThe Times Literary SupplementThe Times Literary Supplement is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.-History:...
7 February 2004. (Hutton's original article available here)
Other reviews
- Margaret Murray and the Distinguished Professor Hutton by Jani Farrell-Roberts: originally published as The Great Debate by Farrell-Roberts and Hutton in The Cauldron, 2003.
- Long, Asphodel P. (1992) Review of "The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles", Wood and Water 39, Summer 1992.
- Barrett, David V.David V. BarrettDavid V. Barrett is a British author who has written on religious and esoteric topics. He is also a regular contributor to The Independent, Fortean Times, and the Catholic Herald....
, 21/07/2007, IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
. Book review: The Druids: A History - Hutton, Ronald, 01/12/1996, history.ac.ukInstitute of Historical ResearchThe Institute of Historical Research is a British educational organisation providing resources and training for historical researchers. It is part of the School of Advanced Study in the University of London and is located at Senate House. The Institute was founded in 1921 by A. F...
, Review of The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations. - A review of Ronald Hutton's The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles by Max Dashu, 1998 (suppressedhistories.net).
- A Review of Ronald Hutton's Blood and Mistletoe in the Independent
External links
- Webpage for Ronald Hutton
- The Origins of Modern Druidry by Ronald Hutton, Mt Haemus Award Lecture
- An Interview with Ronald Hutton in which he talks about his historical work and spiritual path.
- Listen to 'The Changing Face of Manx Witchcraft'. A Public lecture by Professor Ronald Hutton at the Manx Museum, Friday 15th January 2010
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