Ronald Hutton

Crushed by the Romans in the first century A.D., the ancient Druids of Britain left almost no reliable evidence behind. Because of this, historian Ronald Hutton shows, succeeding British generations have been free to reimagine, reinterpret, and reinvent the Druids. Hutton’s captivating book is the first to encompass two thousand years of Druid history and to explore the evolution of English, Scottish, and Welsh attitudes toward the forever ambiguous figures of the ancient Celtic world. Druids have been remembered at different times as patriots, scientists, philosophers, or priests; sometimes portrayed as corrupt, bloodthirsty, or ignorant, they were also seen as fomenters of rebellion. Hutton charts how the Druids have been written in and out of history, archaeology, and the public consciousness for some 500 years, with particular focus on the romantic period, when Druids completely dominated notions of British prehistory. Sparkling with legends and images, filled with new perspectives on ancient and modern times, this book is a fascinating cultural study of Druids as catalysts in British history.

As bruxas estão por toda parte. Dentro e fora da ficção, sua presença imemorial nos fascina e assombra em igual medida. Combinando história, folclore, mito e mistério, a figura da bruxa desperta curiosidade e inspira muitas reflexões sobre sua natureza, sua origem e até mesmo sua existência. Muito se especula sobre as bruxas, mas será que realmente sabemos do que estamos falando? Para nos guiar nesta investigação, a Macabra orgulhosamente apresenta Grimório das Bruxas, o livro definitivo sobre a história da bruxaria, escrito pelo historiador Ronald Hutton. Motivado pela relação entre medo e bruxaria estabelecida ao longo dos séculos, Hutton mergulha numa pesquisa profunda, analisando seus contextos, crenças e origens históricas e culturais. Embora na percepção popular a bruxaria permaneça indissoluvelmente vinculada com a caça às bruxas dos primórdios do período moderno europeu, no século XV, e ao horror persecutório e sacrificial que condenou mulheres inocentes à morte em Salém, nos eua, no final do século XVII, Grimório das Bruxas nos conduz a um passado ainda mais remoto e geograficamente mais amplo. As raízes e visões da bruxaria são exploradas dos temores da Antiguidade até às superstições modernas. Hutton mapeia as minúcias das narrativas de medo associadas à bruxaria e oferece importantes contribuições historiográficas, bem como novas abordagens antropológicas e etnográficas. Como especialista em paganismo e bruxaria ao longo dos séculos, o autor nos conduz por uma jornada inesquecível pela África, o Oriente Médio, o sul da Ásia, a Austrália, a Europa e as Américas do Norte e do Sul. Todo este valioso conteúdo é amplificado com uma poderosa iconografia secular capaz de transportar o leitor para um universo de simbologias e arquétipos. Uma obra tão cuidadosa, completa e necessária feita sob medida para feiticeiras e feiticeiros: Grimório das Bruxas chegará ao nosso mundo em duas edições — Moon Edition e Witchcraft Edition, edições repletas de magia, onde a luz e as sombras encontram a alquimia certa entre cada leitor. Grimório das Bruxas nos convida a vislumbrar um futuro onde o medo do desconhecido e o espanto diante do diferente não conduzem a humanidade pelos caminhos sangrentos de outrora. Entender a história da bruxaria é o primeiro passo para que possamos inaugurar sob nossos pés uma estrada rumo a um amanhã cada vez mais mágico.

Britain's pagan past, with its mysterious monuments, atmospheric sites, enigmatic artifacts, bloodthirsty legends, and cryptic inscriptions, is both enthralling and perplexing to a resident of the twenty-first century. In this ambitious and thoroughly up-to-date book, Ronald Hutton reveals the long development, rapid suppression, and enduring cultural significance of paganism, from the Paleolithic Era to the coming of Christianity. He draws on an array of recently discovered evidence and shows how new findings have radically transformed understandings of belief and ritual in Britain before the arrival of organized religion.   Setting forth a chronological narrative, Hutton along the way makes side visits to explore specific locations of ancient pagan activity. He includes the well-known sacred sites—Stonehenge, Avebury, Seahenge, Maiden Castle, Anglesey—as well as more obscure locations across the mainland and coastal islands. In tireless pursuit of the elusive “why” of pagan behavior, Hutton astonishes with the breadth of his understanding of Britain’s deep past and inspires with the originality of his insights.

This volume investigates the physical evidence for magic in medieval and modern Britain, including ritual mark, concealed objects, amulets, and magical equipment. The contributors are the current experts in each area of the subject, and show between them how ample the evidence is and how important it is for an understanding of history.

A concise history of the goddess-like figures who evade both Christian and pagan traditions, from the medieval period to the present day   In this riveting account, renowned scholar Ronald Hutton explores the history of deity-like figures in Christian Europe. Drawing on anthropology, archaeology, literature, and history, Hutton shows how hags, witches, the Fairy Queen, and the Green Man all came to be, and how they changed over the centuries.   Looking closely at four main figures—Mother Earth, the Fairy Queen, the Mistress of the Night, and the Old Woman of Gaelic tradition—Hutton challenges decades of debate around the female figures who have long been thought versions of pre-Christian goddesses. He makes the compelling case that these goddess figures found in the European imagination did not descend from the pre-Christian ancient world, yet have nothing Christian about them. It was in fact nineteenth-century scholars who attempted to establish the narrative of pagan survival that persists today.

The first volume in a pioneering account of Oliver Cromwell—providing a major new interpretation of one of the greatest figures in history “Hutton’s book is intelligent, well documented, and stylish.”—Keith Thomas, New York Review of Books Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658)—the only English commoner to become the overall head of state—is one of the great figures of history, but his character was very complex. He was at once courageous and devout, devious and self-serving. As a parliamentarian, he was devoted to his cause; as a soldier, he was ruthless. Cromwell’s speeches and writings surpass in quantity those of any other ruler of England before Victoria and, for those seeking to understand him, he has usually been taken at his word. In this remarkable new work, Ronald Hutton untangles the facts from the fiction. Cromwell, pursuing his devotion to God and cementing his Puritan support base, quickly transformed from obscure provincial to military victor. At the end of the first English Civil War, he was poised to take power. Hutton reveals a man who was both genuine in his faith and deliberate in his dishonesty—and uncovers the inner workings of the man who has puzzled biographers for centuries.

This is the first survey of religious beliefs in the British Isles from the Old Stone Age to the coming of Christianity, one of the least familiar periods in Britain's history. Ronald Hutton draws upon a wealth of new data, much of it archaeological, that has transformed interpretation over the past decade. Giving more or less equal weight to all periods, from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages, he examines a fascinating range of evidence for Celtic and Romano-British paganism, from burial sites, cairns, megaliths and causeways, to carvings, figurines, jewellery, weapons, votive objects, literary texts and folklore.

Comprehensive and engaging, this colourful study covers the whole sweep of ritual history from the earliest written records to the present day. From May Day revels and Midsummer fires, to Harvest Home and Hallowe'en, to the twelve days of Christmas, Ronald Hutton takes us on a fascinating journey through the ritual year in Britain. He challenges many common assumptions about the customs of the past, and debunks many myths surrounding festivals of the present, to illuminate the history of the calendar year we live by today.

Here is a book that brings witchcraft out of the shadows. The Triumph of the Moon is the first full-scale study of the only religion England has ever given the world--modern pagan witchcraft, otherwise known as wicca. Meticulously researched, it provides a thorough account of an ancient religion that has spread from English shores across four continents. For centuries, pagan witchcraft has been linked with chilling images of blood rituals, ghostlike druids, and even human sacrifices. But while Robert Hutton explores this dark side of witchery, he stresses the positive, reminding us that devotion to art, the natural world, femininity, and the classical deities are also central to the practice of wicca. Indeed, the author shows how leading figures in English literature--W.B. Yeats, D.H. Lawrence, and Robert Graves, just to name a few--celebrated these positive aspects of the religion in their work, thereby softening the public perception of witchcraft in Victorian England. From cunning village folk to freemasons and from high magic to the black arts, Hutton chronicles the fascinating process by which actual wiccan practices evolved into what is now a viable modern religion. He also presents compelling biographies of wicca's principal figures, such as Gerald Gardner, who was inducted into a witch coven at the age of 53, and recorded many clandestine rituals and beliefs. Ronald Hutton is known for his colorful, provocative, and always thoroughly researched studies on original subjects. This work is no exception. It will appeal to anyone interested in witchcraft, paganism and alternative religions.

Why have societies all across the world feared witchcraft? This book delves deeply into its context, beliefs, and origins in Europe’s history "Traces the idea of witches far beyond the Salem witch trials to beliefs and attitudes about witches around the world throughout history.”— Los Angeles Times The witch came to prominence—and often a painful death—in early modern Europe, yet her origins are much more geographically diverse and historically deep. In this landmark book, Ronald Hutton traces witchcraft from the ancient world to the early-modern stake.   This book sets the notorious European witch trials in the widest and deepest possible perspective and traces the major historiographical developments of witchcraft. Hutton, a renowned expert on ancient, medieval, and modern paganism and witchcraft beliefs, combines Anglo-American and continental scholarly approaches to examine attitudes on witchcraft and the treatment of suspected witches across the world, including in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Australia, and North and South America, and from ancient pagan times to current interpretations. His fresh anthropological and ethnographical approach focuses on cultural inheritance and change while considering shamanism, folk religion, the range of witch trials, and how the fear of witchcraft might be eradicated.

Illustrations Introduction Acknowledgements 1 How Myths are Made 2 Arthur and the Academics 3 Alternative Histories 4 The New Old Paganism 5 Paganism in the Missing Countries 6 A Modest Look at Ritual Nudity 7 The Inklings and the Gods 8 The New Druidry 9 Living with Witchcraft Notes Index