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Subject:

Fw: TMR 17.04.18 Melrose, Religion in Britain from the Megaliths to Arthur (Johnson)

From:

Davide <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Society for The Academic Study of Magic <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Fri, 28 Apr 2017 17:28:15 +0300

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

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text/plain (202 lines)

Melrose, Robin. <i>Religion in Britain from the Megaliths to Arthur: An 
Archaeological and Mythological Exploration</i>. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 
2016. Pp. 284. $45.00. ISBN: 978-1-4766-6360-9 (hb); 978-1-4766-2426-6 
(ebk).

   Reviewed by Máire Johnson
        Emporia State University
        [log in to unmask]


In <i>Religion in Britain from the Megaliths to Arthur</i>, Robin Melrose 
explores the archaeology of Britain and Ireland from the Neolithic through 
the early Middle Ages in search of clues concerning the nature of religious 
beliefs and practices in this long era. He parallels this archaeological 
evidence with linguistic and textual sources as a means of fleshing out the 
extant data about religion in the prehistoric period. Throughout the book, 
Melrose augments analysis and description with numerous photographs and 
drawings. The main points of <i>Religion in Britain from the Megaliths to 
Arthur</i> are: that the Druids of the Iron Age were the continuation of a 
Neolithic priesthood; that the deities of prehistoric Britain may be 
perceived in the archaeology of that era in conjunction with later textual 
sources; and that Arthur himself was "originally, in part at least, a pagan 
god or gods who took on a human shape in the Christian era" (13).

In the preface and introduction, Melrose establishes that the analysis of 
this book rests on the foundations laid by Barry Cunliffe and John Koch 
concerning the origins both of the Celts and of Druidism, with some 
modifications to each. Melrose accepts the prior arguments of both scholars 
that archaeology, textual references from inscriptions and Greek and Roman 
writers, and linguistics together suggest the rise of the Celts not in 
central Europe with subsequent migrations to the west, but on the Atlantic 
coasts with subsequent movements to the east. However, where Cunliffe has 
argued for the earliest development of druidic practices and beliefs in the 
period of 4000-2500 BCE, Melrose has adopted Koch's approach that both the 
Celts and the Druids emerged between 1500 and 700 BCE. Melrose also follows 
Koch's redefinition of prehistoric Britain as divisible into the Age of 
Megaliths, encompassing roughly 4000-1600 BCE and therefore the Neolithic 
and Early Bronze Ages, and the Age of Depositions, or c.1300 BCE-43 CE, 
covering the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. After the Age of Depositions, 
Melrose describes the Roman and the Early Medieval periods, the latter of 
which Melrose terms the "Age of Arthur" as "a shorthand for traces of 
earlier beliefs which persisted among newly converted Christians, and which 
came together in the first Arthurian stories and in the Welsh mythological 
tales known as the <i>Mabinogion</i>" (13).

Melrose divides this chronology across the chapters of his book. Chapter 1 
addresses the Neolithic stone monuments of the Megalithic Age, considering 
the archaeology of those structures aligned with astronomical events such as 
the solstices or equinoxes. Melrose asserts that the high degree of 
organization inherent to these sites, along with their "focus on astronomy," 
imply the existence of a dedicated priesthood, which Melrose suggests "may 
well have been" the roots of the Druid priesthood (32-33). Chapter 2 moves 
from the Neolithic into the Early Bronze Age, and attends to the rise of 
Beaker Culture and the subsequent shift of burial customs from plain graves 
to those containing rich grave goods, and from the universal practice of 
cremation to a mixture of cremation and inhumation. Among the items found in 
such interments are gold "sun disks," which Melrose parallels to similar 
disks on the continent; their presence, he asserts, mingles with the remains 
of cattle and/or horses at or near such locales to signify both a belief in, 
and a practice of sacrificing animals to honor, a sun god (49).

In chapters 3 (Late Bronze Age), 4 (Iron Age), and 5 (later Iron Age), 
Melrose assesses the Age of Depositions. In this period, the archaeology 
shifts from megalithic construction to the votive offering of 
deliberately-damaged metalwork either in watery contexts or in earthen pits. 
In chapter 3, Melrose suggests that the numerous "burnt mounds" of England, 
Wales, and Ireland--that is, of mounds containing burnt stones, charcoal, 
and organic remains--signify the worship of a god of fire and water in 
Late-Bronze-Age Britain. In the archaeology of feasting, such as raised 
platforms and extensive middens, Melrose sees proof of rituals and 
priesthoods associated with his proposed divinity. On the other hand, 
dry-ground feasting sites and particularly their middens were, he argues, 
dedicated to the earth goddess and provide "perhaps the best evidence for 
priests and religious ceremonies" that offer the initial signs of Druidic 
knowledge and observance (74-75).

In chapter 4, Melrose first turns his attention to a sky god; in his view, 
Britain and Ireland's Iron Age hillforts were "almost certainly dedicated" 
to this deity (78). Melrose suggests both that the Roman accounts of 
continental Celts using excarnation for the honored dead may explain the 
practice's frequency in Early and Middle Iron Age Britain, and that the 
exposure of excarnation was one method of sending the souls of the deceased 
to the sky as to an afterlife; he also cites Julius Caesar's report that the 
Gauls considered themselves descended from Dis Pater, the Roman god of the 
underworld, as indicating that the interment of human remains in pits or 
ditches may have been intended to return the deceased to a Celtic version of 
this deity. In chapter 5, Melrose demonstrates the role played by 
continental influences in Late Iron Age Britain's chariot burials, new 
settlement patterns, and new types of religious shrine. Because, as Melrose 
demonstrates, the timbers for building a variety of structures were felled 
in cycles that coincided with lunar eclipses, he suggests that Iron Age 
priests continued the knowledge and traditions of their forebears from the 
Neolithic and Bronze Age--and that these later priests were likely the 
Druids themselves.

Melrose assesses Britain's Roman period in chapter 6. Though he observes 
many ways in which Rome's presence brought greater urbanization, new burial 
rituals, new deities, and new shrines to the archaeological landscape, he 
also notes that Roman practices generally left room for the continuation of 
native British traditions. He then focuses on the "Age of Arthur" in 
chapters 7 through 10, a period he views as beginning with the withdrawal of 
Rome's legions and the rise of Christianity in Britain. Because <i>art-</i> 
likely means "bear," Melrose argues for a connection between Arthur and a 
pre-Iron Age veneration of bears in chapter 7; there he also reports the 
earliest references to Arthur in literature from Ireland, Wales, and 
Britain. In chapter 8, Melrose examines medieval Welsh tales such as <i>The 
Spoils of Annwn</i>, in which Arthur's ship, Prydwen, travels to the Welsh 
otherworld and thus links Arthur--albeit as a secondary character--to 
supernatural attributes and places.

Chapter 9 looks at instances in medieval Welsh and Latin literature that 
present Arthur as a more significant figure who kills witches and monsters 
or, in the case of saints' Lives, is viewed rather less favorably. Here, 
Melrose traces the history of Arthur's image from a shadowy ruler whose 
function is as a comparative model against which warriors and enemies are 
measured to a man depicted as the king of Britain; at its most developed, 
this narrative includes Arthur's transportation to the Isle of Avalon, a 
kind of otherworld, to heal and await the proper time to return to the 
mundane world and restore the glories of England. Based on these data, 
Melrose asserts that Arthur was "originally a god connected with rebirth or 
reincarnation, dwelling on a sacred island, perhaps associated with the sun, 
the moon, or other heavenly body, who...once presided over a mythological 
golden age" (202). Chapter 10, for its part, discusses the islands of 
Britain considered holy in the early medieval period, examines hillforts 
with some connection to Arthur or Arthurian legend, and argues for a Bronze 
Age origin of the tale of Tristan and Isolt, an Arthurian story the extant 
versions of which date to the twelfth century.

Melrose concludes his book with chapter 11, in which he asserts that the 
Druids of Iron Age Britain were essentially replaced by prominent Christian 
figures like saints and monks. To Melrose, the Druids of the Late Bronze and 
Iron Age would have lived in sacred places characterized by 
astronomically-aligned Neolithic structures, which would then have attracted 
Christian foundations in the Early Middle Ages. He argues that the Fourth 
Branch of the <i>Mabinogion</i>, <i>Math Son of Mathonwy</i>, provides 
information about "Druids in Welsh mythology" (234). In part because the 
name <i>Math</i> may etymologically descend from "the ancient word for 
'bear'," Melrose suggests several parallels between Math and Arthur (243). 
Ultimately, Melrose concludes that Arthur's origins are "complex" and draw 
from "Neolithic bears and shamanism, prehistoric sacred islands, and 
influences from Germanic or Thracian soldiers in Roman times;" to Melrose, 
"Arthur seems to have brought together British pagan beliefs spanning a 
period of at least three millennia" (248).

The great strength of <i>Religion in Britain from the Megaliths to 
Arthur</i> is its abundant archaeological evidence. Melrose has gathered 
together an impressive amount of data from numerous locations, including 
middens, megalithic monuments, hillforts and promontory forts, chariot 
burials, Roman towns, feasting locales, and more; indeed, such an assemblage 
of sites and artifacts is, on its own, a very useful resource. In addition, 
the 94 black-and-white photographs filling the book add information and 
interest to Melrose's detailed textual descriptions.

At the same time, it is not entirely clear why Melrose presumes that a deity 
of the earth must be feminine when--as he states--Roman writers described 
the Celts as believing in a version of the god Dis Pater. Similarly, though 
Melrose does discuss Indo-European versions of a male god of fire and water 
elsewhere, it is not evident why the deity of water in Britain must have 
been male. Indeed, inscriptions in Gaul and Britain mention primarily 
goddesses as associated with springs and rivers, and a number of whom modern 
rivers are named (e.g., the Seine [Sequana] and the Boyne [Boann]) for these 
deities. The British goddess Sulis, too, became conflated with Minerva at 
Bath (something Melrose does discuss). There are also several instances in 
which Melrose uses medieval material the oldest extant version of which 
appears to be no older than the eleventh century--and in some cases no older 
than the fourteenth or fifteenth century, e.g., Malory's <i>Le Morte 
d'Arthur</i> of 1485--to provide glimpses into the prehistoric past. This 
approach can be inherently problematic, as it presumes that such glimpses 
are accurate representations rather than literary archaisms. The extant 
Arthurian corpus of the eleventh and later centuries arose in a strongly 
Christian milieu, represents a courtly world of elites living in castles and 
engaging in quests and acts of derring-do; this is an environment vastly 
different from that of prehistoric Britain. Though assuredly Arthurian 
stories do have otherworldly components, it is risky to presume that those 
components must descend from or reflect the attitudes of Britons from up to 
a thousand years previously. Finally, and rather less significantly, Melrose 
adopts a sixth-century date for the Life of St. Mochudu (244), while more 
recent scholarship, such as that of Pádraig Ó Riain in <i>A Dictionary of 
Irish Saints</i> (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2011, p. 471), tends to place 
it closer to the early thirteenth century.

There are a few minor proofing errors. There is a missing comma after "on 
the other hand" on line 16 of p.15. The word "along," line 15, p. 27, should 
be "a long." "Monument," line 9, p. 69, should be plural. Anne Ross's name 
is misspelled on line 15, p. 109 and in the bibliography on p.271. The 
period after "ditch," line 9, p. 123, should be a comma. The 't' is missing 
from "Catuvellauni", line 3, p. 134, and the first 'r' is missing from 
"Gloucestershire," in the heading of line 4, p. 157. The period after 
"Arthur," first line of quoted narrative, p. 203, should be a question mark. 
"Swear," line 14, p. 240, should either be "swore" or "swears," and the 
period after "lands" in line 5 of the first quoted passage, p. 246, should 
be a comma.

All in all, <i>Religion in Britain from the Megaliths to Arthur</i> offers 
an eminently readable archaeological survey of Britain from the Neolithic to 
the Middle Ages, and it collects a wide variety of site data and artefactual 
information from across this chronological period. The issues noted above 
may offer some challenges to Melrose's conclusions, but they do not negate 
the likelihood that his work will prompt new ways of looking at Britain's 
archaeology and Arthurian material. Indeed, his ideas unquestioningly offer 
fertile ground for further exploration and debate. 

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