Silence of the Gods: The Untold History of Europe's Last Pagan Peoples

by Francis Young

The formal conversion to Christianity in 1387 of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania seemingly marked the end of Europe's last 'pagan' peoples. But the reality was different. At the margins, often under the radar, around the dusky edgelands, pre-Christian religions endured and indeed continued to flourish for an astonishing five centuries. Silence of the Gods tells, for the first time, the remarkable story of these forgotten belated adopters of Christian belief on the outer periphery of Christendom, from the Sámi of the frozen north to the Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians around the Baltic, as well as the Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia's Volga-Ural Plain. These communities, Dr Young reveals, responded creatively to Christianity's challenge, but for centuries stopped short of embracing it. His book addresses why this was so, uncovering stories of fierce resistance, unlikely survival and considerable ingenuity. He revolutionises understandings of the lost religions of the last pagans.

Genres: History, Religion, Nonfiction, European History, Paganism, Christianity

452 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 19, 2025

Reviews

[Emma Ewart · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book that while at times informational, uses language that seems to declare the acts of violence throughout history were somewhat necessary for civilisations to evolve?

While I do understand why the author uses language like unchristianed and Christian people's; it makes it seem as though Pagan peoples were destined to be conquered and minimised the horrors and destruction that colonialism led by the Catholic church actually had on the native people's.

At some points using almost mocking language about naturalistic religions making guised jabs about them praying to trees rather than in houses of worship because they didn't know any better, or having said that the Pagan people's accepted the Christian faith because they understood that their gods were not powerful enough to exact revenge against the Christian God.

Overall, this book while factual is written from the facts of Christain documented history (of which the epilogue acknowledges) and seems to minimise the true people at the heart of Pagan and naturalistic religious history in favour of showing how "strong" the Catholic churches "influence" was on the "conversion" of religions.

While there are so few books of note about pagan people's this is certainly not one to quote nor rely on.

[lizard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Francis Young's Silence of the Gods is a new frontier of academic literature on the subject of European "pagans." Its stated purpose is to give readers a historical overview of the changing religious landscape that Europe's remaining unchristianised peoples faced over five centuries, until it could be said that they ceased to exist as a religious group. These groups had been found from Scandinavia to the Baltic and beyond into Russia, and faced and (to use a rather weak word) accepted Christianity at varying times and degrees.

One of the crucial points of this book, and what appears to be of Dr. Young's other work, is the creolisation, as he calls it, of indigenous (pagan) religions and the new Christian one. It wasn't as if preexisting ideas were discarded in favor of new dogma, instead, Young argues that they were intermingled for many centuries, with even Slavic priests engaging in rituals that were "paganesque." This comes in contrast to two previous viewpoints, of much the same substance, on the subject: that, from the proponents of paganism, the religion was a pure, wholly unsullied practice, and the arrival of Christianity culturally destroyed it; or, from the side of Rome, that Christianity arrived, enlightened the heathens, and secured a resounding missionary victory. While prima facie intuitive, Young proves that neither are true as presented, giving readers evidence from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries to illustrate this point.

As the first expansive, rigorously researched English language book on the subject, I feel that it can't truly be criticized for the form its ambitions necessitates it take, but it did feel like eating my broccoli at times. Even for a seasoned reader of academic and legal treatises, it was dry. Still, if you want an answer to the question of what actually happened to the pre-Christian religions of Europe and their adherents, it will give you your answer, and I'm pleased to have read it.

ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

[heptagrammaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

   Young refuses to engage in comparative mythology or speculative reconstruction. Instead, he elegantly side-steps the issue of scarce and nebulous evidence to focus on what the religious beliefs and practices of the last to be Christianized peoples of Europe looked like. These were everywhere in accessible history informed by and formed perhaps out of contact with Christianity/Christianities: whether through syncretism, cultural borrowing, or conscious construction of institutions and rites within native pagan religious which parallelled those of Christianity in order to resist it. Francis Young chooses to call them 'Christianesque'.
   What results is a fascinating interrogation of our evidence (i.e. the primitive anthropologies of the Renaissance and Early Modernity) as historical objects and what they show about the European core's relationship to religion that was foreign and often defied interpretation through familiar lenses (interpretatio romana, witchcraft.) It is about the interplay of identity, political necessities and power dynamics (crusader states were terrible at conversion and paradoxically disincentivized from even attempting it), i.e. the ways material conditions shaped religiosity.
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a reluctant note on method and bibliography: (I do not have the historiographical expertise (or time or energy for rigour) to judge how troublesome this is for Silence of the Gods as a scholarly work, but) Young is mostly reliant on secondary literature as sourcing for a significant amount of a historical detail. (Most noticable is a single source, R. Taagepera's The Finno-Ugric Republics and the Russiam State. comprising most of the historical references for the indigenous people of the [continental European] Russian Federation.) Especially when it regards peoples whose languages Young doesn't speak, this is understandable, but may be a limitation to keep in mind.

[Hanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Europe’s margins are not as mute as history would have us believe. In Silence of the Gods, Francis Young writes them into being - breathing life into the Sámi, Estonians, Lithuanians, and others whose pre-Christian religions flickered quietly long after the rest of the continent embraced the cross. It is not a dry recitation of the inevitable. Instead, Young offers a patient, knowing meditation on survival, adaptation, and the slow-motion collapse of spiritual worlds.

Young is, by training and temperament, a scholar of uncanny patience. He handles his sources - medieval chronicles, ethnographic scraps, missionary reports - with a light but unflinching touch, very much aware that every word is already shaped by both oblivion and ideology. "The act of observation was entangled with the act of destruction," he writes, and that bitter clarity is what all readers of old sources need to understand today. Christianity didn’t simply replace older faiths; it produced quiet erasure by being the lens of observation.

Yet Silence of the Gods refuses romanticism. There is no return to pristine paganism here - only creolised traditions, cobbled together by communities in the spiritual ruins of conquest. His depiction of these “creole religions” is as powerful as it is unsettling: they are makeshift spirits spun from fear and hope, from oak and ink. These were not static traditions fading beneath medieval suns but living, evolving responses to the demands of survival and identity.

Beyond the poles of pagan purity and Christian triumph, Young finds a third space; this flickering zone of resistance, creativity, and uneasy hybridity. He traces creeds that persisted not in spite of colonial forces, but alongside them, weaving indigenous resilience with Christian motifs. It is, in the historian’s sense, not a feint, but a testament.

Scholarly praise has been plentiful (and well earned). More than a revisionist history, Silence of the Gods opens doors to spiritual landscapes long overlooked, and quietly insists they still matter.

In a world quick to erase its own shadows, Silence of the Gods is an almost radical act of remembrance.

[Joanne Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A transformative work of historical scholarship, Silence of the Gods unveils a hidden spiritual world that survived Europe’s “official” Christianization long after the date on the history books. Francis Young takes readers on an eye-opening journey across the edges of Christendom—from the icy realms of the Sámi to the Baltic states and Russia’s Volga-Ural plains—revealing a landscape in which pagan belief didn’t flicker out—it endured, adapted, and sometimes thrived .

Why it stands out:
• A forgotten narrative, finally illuminated. The grand duchy of Lithuania formally embraced Christianity in 1387, a moment traditionally viewed as Europe’s last pagan conversion. Young challenges this notion, showing how paganism quietly persisted for centuries in remote communities .
• Accessible yet rigorously scholarly. Young’s command of early-modern Latin sources and his knowledge of Baltic traditions make the book both authoritative and engaging. His writing remains clear and approachable—even as he dives deep into esoteric religious practices .
• Thoughtful and nuanced analysis. This isn’t a tale of “backward” resistance versus “enlightened” conversion. Young highlights the creativity of these pagan communities—how they blended old deities with new rituals, and how their spiritual worlds shaped their responses to Christianity .

Strong endorsement from experts:
• Owen Davies praises Young’s “accessible, scholarly research” and his mastery of Latin manuscripts, calling the book “a welcome, up-to-date, and refreshing history” .
• Tom Holland hails it as “a fascinating, moving and genuinely new exploration” .
• Ronald Hutton emphasizes that Young’s narrative of pagan survival is both comprehensive and unprecedented in English scholarship .

Highlights:
• Geographical breadth: From the icy North to the Baltic coast and Russian plains, Young sketches a vivid mosaic of intercultural exchange, local belief systems, and shifting spiritual identities.
• Depth of cultural analysis: This is more than a history of relics—it’s an exploration of how communities reinterpreted, repurposed, or resisted Christian symbols to preserve spiritual autonomy.
• Rich narrative drive: Clocking in around 450 pages, the book maintains a commendable pace. Each chapter brings new characters, regions, and case studies—tying local stories into a sweeping continental framework.

Minor quibbles:
• The book assumes some prior knowledge of medieval history and theology; newcomers might wish for a few more foundation chapters.
• A few readers seeking extensive visual material may find the print edition a bit text-heavy; this is a historian’s narrative, not an illustrated travelogue.

Perfect for:
• Fans of religious history, medieval studies, or folklore
• Readers intrigued by the margins of mainstream narratives—whether in Europe’s north or modern-day spiritual enclaves
• Anyone interested in a scholarly yet readable account of Europe’s hidden past

⸻

In Silence of the Gods, Francis Young does more than recount a neglected chapter of history—he restores it. This book is an enthralling, expertly told exploration of how dogma met defiance, and how religion survived, transformed, and quietly prospered in the shadows of empire. For anyone curious about the resilience of belief, it’s essential reading.

[Ula Tardigrade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting—and, in places, illuminating—history book on a rarely considered topic. Before white Christian Europeans conquered the New World and fought indigenous religions on other continents, they did the same thing at home. And it was not the straightforward, black-and-white story we sometimes learn in school. As the author notes,

“The fact that Christianisation could not only fail, but might also be actively rejected, seldom receives the attention it deserves in histories of the conversion and Christianisation of Europe”.

Another aspect that is usually not considered is that we should not label all pre-Christian people as "pagans." Though it's challenging to accept, there was once tremendous diversity in European faiths and rituals, most of which have been forgotten. The attempt to reconstruct this vanished world is fascinating.

Just be aware that this is an academic work rather than a popular science book, so don't expect an engaging narrative. However, all the facts presented here make this book well worth reading for any history fan.

Thanks to the publisher, Cambridge University Press, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

[Daniel Silliman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book. Really dense and has a more narrow geographical scope than I expected from the subtitle, but nonetheless an impressive study of a) the challenge of understanding pre-Christian European spiritualities and b) how Christians responded to those religious practices.