Looking for the Lost Gods of England

This is a short book, with 45 pages listed before the appendices. It is an introduction to the scant available literature which historically links the culture and language of the Old English to their Baltic roots. For prose which is liberally sprinkled with Old English, Latin and Saxon is a surprisingly easy read. Given that I often only have ten minutes at a time for reading it's writing style is such that it remains readable despite interruption. It has many helpful footnotes and a long set of appendices including glossary of place names, several maps a Futhorc and a calendar.(I'm uncertain why Amazon has started including their idiot's checklist for fiction reviews for some nonfiction books; the checklist doesn't apply to this one even though it is a forced choice.)

Small book with interesting info; she needs to expand more and document more. Nice addition to my Anglo-Saxon library, though.

I found this short book (whose title actually is Looking for the lost GODS of England) very good. It explains how Anglo-Saxon politheistic religion, while being essentially that of all germanic peoples including the Vikings, it had its own peculiar aspects, especially in the worship of Nature, embodied in Nerthus, a uniquely English deity. It also tells us how paganism survived long after the official conversion to Christianity of the Anglo-Saxon kings and how even after the Norman conquest the rituals connected to the yearly rebirth of nature survived. The texts of charms and prayers are given in Old English and in translation. I certainly recommend it to readers who are interested in the archaic stages of English culture, especially if, like me, they have been foisted a rather vague and confused idea of "barbarians" and their world.

I love this wee book by Kathleen Herbert who tells us more about the religion of the Anglo-Saxons in its 60 pages than many other works over twice its length manage to do. In addition to the main text the work contains five very helpful maps, a section concerning songs and dances for spring and summer, a heathen English calendar, a glossary of place names and an index.In the main, it seems that the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons were a peace loving crowd who only engaged in war if there was no other choice. They didn't behave any worse or do any more bad things before they became Christians than they did after embracing the Christian Faith. It seems it was the leaders who were the most keen to embrace Christianity because they saw in its hierarchical organisation a pattern to be adopted for their own absolute rule over their subjects. Old Anglo-Saxon pagan beliefs have lingered on in our culture right down to the present day.Four days of the week are named after the ancient Anglo-Saxon gods, plus two after the sun and moon and one, Saturday, after a Roman god. Even the Christian liturgical year follows the pattern of pre-Christian rituals with the most important of all Christian festivals, Easter, retaining the name of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of renewal, Eastre, whose feast was celebrated at the spring equinox on 21 March. It was these pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons who founded the basis of the English language now the second most spoken language in the world next to mandarin Chinese.All too often we find that, when we access a reference book to find out information about something, we have to wade through a despondent slough of irrelevancies before we find what we are looking for - if we're lucky. This wee book is so good that it's quicker than looking things up on the internet. Wafflers watch out! Kathleen Herbert's about!

This is very short , virtually a monograph, but is very impressive, The author has a vast knowledge of her subject. and relates it in the context of subsequent literature . It is cross-referenced with academic rigour, but still manages to be witty and informative

An insight into what I call 'hidden history' - we're not necessarily taught about the old ways, Gods & Godessess. This short book will fill many gaps.

excellent thank you