Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe

Part of: Magic, the Supernatural, and the Lost Gods of Europe

This lecture considers a set of superhuman female figures found in medieval and early modern European cultures - Mother Nature, the roving nocturnal lady often called Herodias, the British fairy queen, and the Gaelic Cailleach. None seem to be surviving ancient deities, and yet there is nothing Christian about any of them either. Do they force us to reconsider our own existing terminology when writing the religious history of Europe?

Professor Hutton is Professor of History at the University of Bristol. He took degrees at Cambridge and then Oxford Universities, and was a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. He is now a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Learned Society of Wales, and has won awards for teaching and research.  He has lectured all over the world, authored 18 books and 83 essays, appeared in or presented scores of television and radio programmes, and sits on the editorial boards of six journals concerned with the history of religion and magic.

This FREE event is run by Gresham College in London.  You must regsiter at: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/pagan-goddesses