> From: Dr. Karen Jolly [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
>
> I can suggest a few of my favorite books, and some with which I
> disagree completely but represent arguments from one end of the spectrum
> or the other:
>
> <snip>H. R. Ellis Davidson, Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early
> Scandinavian
> and Celtic Religions have good surveys of the non-Christian religions of
> early British Isles and Scandinavia.
>
Davidson is one of my favorites, too--whatever she writes--but she
does tend to lump all the beliefs and practices together as if they were one
entity. This especially characterizes her book _The Northern Goddess_. For a
first book of hers to read, I'd suggest the _Lost Beliefs of Northern
Europe_ which Barnes & Noble recently released in a "Bargain Books" edition.
<snip>
> I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I also have Prudence
> Jones and Nigel Pennick, A History of Pagan Europe (Routledge, 1995).
>
I have read this book. I found it to be an interesting overview of
all the pre-Christian traditions in Europe. Written for popular audiences,
it's an easy read, has appropriate illustrations, and is generally accurate.
> The dust jacket says that it pulls together "the fragmented sources of
> Europe's native religions" to "establish the coherence and continuity of
> the Pagan world vision" as a challenge to traditional Christian
> history. In this sense, I think they are inventing "pagan" as a
> contiuous tradition by broadening the definition of pagan in line with
> post-modern religious sensibilities.
>
That seems to be true of all of Pennick's writings.
Francine Nicholson
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