Old English Gods and Goddesses Lost and Found

with Dr Sam Newton

in The Old Court, Sutton Hoo (map)
on Saturday, 8th October, 2011

A look at some of the more authentic ways to chart the lost continent of pre-Christian mythology through literature, language, art, and archaeology.

We begin with the question of what King Æthelbert of Kent may have meant when he replied to the mission of Augustine from Rome in 597 that “we may not yet forsake the wise way that we have held for a long time with all the English folk.” We shall approach this question by examining the comparative literary, philological, artistic, and archaeological evidence which might help us to begin to map something of the lost landscape of pre-Christian Old English beliefs.

Sam Newton was awarded his Ph.D at UEA in 1991 and is the author of The Origins of Beowulf and the pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia (1993) and The Reckoning of King Rædwald, (2003). He has lectured widely around the country as a free-lance scholar and has contributed to many radio and television programmes. He is also a Director of Wuffing Education, NADFAS lecturer, and Time Team historian.

Alexander, M., The First Poems in English (Penguin Classics 2008)
Branston, B., The Lost Gods of England (Thames & Hudson 1957, 1974)
Chaney, W.A., The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England (Manchester 1970)
Ellis Davidson, H., The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe (Routledge 1993)
Faulkes, A. (tr.), Snorri Sturluson: Edda (Dent Everyman 1987)
Glob, P.V., The Bog People, tr. R.Bruce-Mitford (Cornell 1969 etc.)
Grigsby, J., Beowulf and Grendel (London 2005)
Herbert, K., Looking for the Lost Gods of England (Pinner 1994)
Lee, S., & E.Solopova, The Keys of Middle Earth – Discovering Medieval Literature through the Fiction of J.R.R.Tolkien (Palgrave Macmillan 2005)
Newton, S., The Reckoning of King Rædwald (Redbird 2003)
North, R., Heathen Gods in Old English Literature Cambridge 1997)
Oosten, J.G., The War of the Gods. The Social Code in Indo-European Mythology (London 1985)
Shippey, T.A. (ed.), The Shadow-walkers: Jacob Grimm’s Mythology of the Monstrous (Arizona 2005)
Stone, A., Ymir’s Flesh. Northern European Creation Mythologies (Loughborough 1997)
Turville-Petre, E.O.G., Myth and Religion of the North – The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia (London 1964)
Webster, L., & J.Backhouse, The Making of England. Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture AD 600-900 (London 1991)
Wilson, R., The Lost Literature of Medieval England (Methuen 1952, 1970)

Bookings

Please phone or email to check the availability of places.  Study Days are £38 per person, which includes a full day of lectures, access to the NT site, parking, coffee and tea throughout the day, and access to the NT exhibition.  Once you have reserved your place please send a cheque to confirm the booking. For your first booking please complete the application form to ensure that we have recorded your contact details correctly.

Wuffing Education,
4 Hilly Fields,
Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 4DX
(tel : 01394 386498)

Email cliff AT wuffingeducation.co.uk
(replace 'AT' by '@' in order to send email - we used 'AT' to avoid spam robots automatically sending us emails)
Website www.wuffingeducation.co.uk

Return to list of current Study Days

Website by
Adroit Solutions Ltd