The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe

by H.R. Ellis Davidson

Fragments of ancient belief mingle with folklore and Christian dogma until the original tenets are lost in the myths and psychologies of the intervening years. Hilda Ellis Davidson illustrates how pagan beliefs have been represented and misinterpreted by the Christian tradition, and throws light on the nature of pre-Christian beliefs and how they have been preserved. The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe stresses both the possibilities and the difficulties of investigating the lost religious beliefs of Northern Europe.

Genres: History, Mythology, Nonfiction, Religion, Paganism, Scandinavian Literature, Folklore

181 pages, Hardcover

First published August 5, 1993

About the author

Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson was an English antiquarian and academic, writing in particular on Germanic paganism and Celtic paganism.

Reviews

[Fred]

I love Davidson's work but for me this was just not her best. It was interesting but disjointed. Overall it was a good overview of pagan religions among Celtic and Germanic peoples.

[Elentarri]

Interesting, but somewhat disorganized. Unfortunately the lost beliefs of Northern Europe still remain lost.

[John Fredrickson]

This is a good book, although it is not quite what I expected. I like the Hilda Ellis Davidson's work in general, and look forward to reading more.

This book is more of a history book than I expected, but it gives a very good overview of the historical and cultural contexts in which Celtic and Norse gods were worshiped. Davidson talks through some of the works and authors that are involved in communicating these myths to us, and also explores the impacts that Christianity may have had in influencing what we have come to know.

Davidson also draws comparisons across the Celtic and Norse mythological systems (which IS the kind of book I was expecting. I find it very interesting to see recurrent themes in different mythological systems. In the last part of the book, she also explores how many of the recent mythological interpreters (Frazer, Eliade, Dumezil) differ from each other in approaches and interpretations.

[Piali]

H.E. Davidson's books are always very engaging. What sometimes takes away from the joy is the poor annotation and stating those poorly annotated facts as truisms. It happened a bit more frequently for this book. Oh, well.

[Aivil Vice]

I'd have given it more stars, were it not for the last two pages. I HATED them.
So read it, especially if you're a beginner, but skip the conclusion.

[Emma Hastings]

The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe (1993) book does contain a lot of interesting information, but it is not always packaged in an easy to follow way. Focusing largely on Scandinavian, Icelandic, and Celtic peoples, but also touching on the Germanic, Davidson surveys the archaeological, literary, and folkloric evidence to attempt to elucidate the religious beliefs of pre-Christian northern Europe. While many of us might think we know about Norse religion, especially, from Marvel and entertaining books like Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology, Davidson complicates that picture, pointing out that many myths are contradictory and layered in poetic language that makes their meaning difficult to grasp, and explains that they might not reflect how ordinary people actually thought about and worshipped their deities. To me, the book was at its most interesting when analyzing archaeological and iconographic evidence and when attempting to lift the veil of Christian interpretation that overlays most written myths to glimpse the underlying pre-Christian beliefs, while acknowledging that this project is full of guesswork. On the downside, the book is 30 years old, and thus lacks more recent archaeological discoveries. It also tends to throw many pieces of information at the reader without forming a coherent, well-organized narrative. And if you’re reading this book to inform your own religious beliefs, you should know: Davidson takes an unnecessary swipe at reconstructionist Pagans in the conclusion, literally comparing them to Nazis. However, for those with a deep interest in pre-Christian European religion, this book will provide you with plenty of information to add to your repertoire.

[Sem]

Poorly organised and, for that reason, disappointing but a pleasant read.

[Helga]

Good book, pretty pictures.