Paganism in Arthurian RomanceBoydell & Brewer, 1997 - 304 pages Investigation of literary and archaeological evidence in search of pagan sources for the Arthurian legend. `Darrah makes the valid point that episodes in the Arthurian romances read like motifs from the ancient mythologies...[he] reconstructs a lost British paganism, grounded in the rivers, hills and woods, and especially those grey monoliths...reminders of a cosmology vanished from this island. NIKOLAI TOLSTOY, DAILY TELEGRAPH The origins of Arthurian romance will always be a hotly disputed subject. The great moments of the legends belong partly to dimly-remembered history, partly to the poets' imagination down the ages, yet there is another strand to the stories which goes back deeper and further: the traces of ancient pagan religion, found both in Arthurian heroes who have inherited the attributes of gods, and in episodes which reflect ancient religious rituals. JOHN DARRAH has also written The Real Camelot. |
Contents
The Calendar of Arthurian Romance | 19 |
The Challenge | 38 |
Tournaments and the Spring Marriage | 63 |
Severed Heads and Sacred Waters | 83 |
Healing Blood and the Dolorous Stroke | 99 |
The Nature of Paganism in Britain | 137 |
Ceremonial and Ritual | 153 |
The Geography of Arthurian Romance | 186 |
Time and Place | 209 |
Unidentified Places | 251 |
282 | |