The W G Hoskins Lecture 2003

‘Paganism, folklore and historians: a witches’ brew’ presented by Professor Ronald Hutton.

The fourteenth Hoskins lecture

30 May 2003

Professor Ronald Huton took as the title of his lecture ‘Paganism, folklore and historians: a witches’ brew.’ He prefaced his lecture by stating that his own contact with Hoskins was tenuous, and all the more so as, in recent years most of his work has centred round aspects of the ritual year rather than walking the fields, as espoused by Hoskins. His interest in folklore and paganism had developed gradually. The main theme of the lecture was a discussion on the development of attitudes towards folklore culture towards the end of the nineteenth century and the questioning of such attitudes that started in the 1970s.

In the century from 1870 scholars painted a picture of the countryside as timeless and based on rural customs and ritual. Many of these rituals were considered to have pagan origins. Sir Edward Tylor was the first ot expound such ideas which were taken up by others in succeeding years, in particular by the leaders of the Folklore Society that had been founded in 1878. This romantic ideal of folklore was a product of the Romantic Movement that had such a strong impact on intellectuals, and the general public, in Victorian and Edwardian England. One of the conclusions for seeking to base folklore customs on pagan origins was a denial of the importance of the role of Christianity.

Another of the leading figures in the folklore revival was Sir James Frazer, whose book The Golden Bough, first published in 1890, had a profound effect on the thinking of several generations. It expounded an idealised picture of rural England and rural English customs, all of which was taking place at a time of unprecedented change in the country, when more and more people were living in cities and working in factories and, for the first time in history, only a minority lived in villages. The approach of the folklore romantics was to condemn cities as ugly and the repository of all evil while the countryside was the provider of everything beautiful and good. Perhaps this explains why The Golden Bough was so popular.

Professor Hutton returned to religious aspects and how intellectual thought did not really encompass support for established religion. This enabled ideas to develop where it was argued that Christian rituals had been superimposed on earlier pagan beliefs. He cited some examples; the idea that the story of Lady Godiva was a pagan fertility right that was later given a Christian interpretation; that pancake-tossing had been a magical rite to make the crops grow; that Shrove Tuesday football matches began as ritual struggles between the forces of dark and light. Jesse Weston, the respected scholar of the Arthurian legend, argued at the turn of the century that the main story originated from a pagan religion concerned with fertility. This approach to the belief in folklore origins survived well into the middle of the twentieth century.

Professor Huton concluded by pointing out that it was not until the 1970s that the romantic view of calendar ritual was challenged by modern academics.

The lecture was followed by tea in Marc Fitch House and the book sale, which, once again organised by Mike Thompson, raised over £300 for the Friends.

From an original report by David Holmes.