num_pages: 208
description: David Wilson draws together the varied evidence for the pagan religion of the early Saxons and interprets this evidence. This comprehensive investigation is intended to rectify the hitherto scant treatment in articles and occasional chapters addressing particular aspects. Wilson's approach is distinctive in that the evidence is in the main taken from this country without using later Scandinavian material and back projecting it into early England. Much of what can be gleaned about Saxon paganism comes from the funeral rites of the people and their sometimes sinister overtones and these are dealt with at some length together with the sorts of evidence that tell us about gods and the places where they might have worshipped and the impact of the coming of Christianity. The book concentrates on factual evidence rather than on extreme and unsubstantiated theories although interpretations must often be matters of conjecture or controversy even more so as this was a non-literate society and consequently there are no contemporary writings to help.
language: English
title: Anglo-Saxon Paganism
publisher: Routledge