Queens of the Wild
Queens of the Wild: Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe: An Investigation by Ronald Hutton
After an opening discussing the difference between the survival of paganism and a pagan survival, he dices up five images held to be pagan survivals. Only four of them female, actually.
The first is the Great Mother, which was the fruit of Victorian myth-making on inadequate evidence. The second is the Fairy Queen who appears to be the literary creation of the High Middle Ages though traveling back into the folklore -- as in appearing in witch trials. The third is the night-traveling ladies who were also folklore, and denounced as devils, with names that clearly came from Christian sources. (One was called Diana, but was found only where Diana wasn't worshipped in antiquity.) The fourth is the hag, who was apparently wide spread in folklore but whose unity was a product of folklorists pushing together very disparate elements. The fifth is the Green Man, drawn together from very different elements, many of them more modern than they seem.
After an opening discussing the difference between the survival of paganism and a pagan survival, he dices up five images held to be pagan survivals. Only four of them female, actually.
The first is the Great Mother, which was the fruit of Victorian myth-making on inadequate evidence. The second is the Fairy Queen who appears to be the literary creation of the High Middle Ages though traveling back into the folklore -- as in appearing in witch trials. The third is the night-traveling ladies who were also folklore, and denounced as devils, with names that clearly came from Christian sources. (One was called Diana, but was found only where Diana wasn't worshipped in antiquity.) The fourth is the hag, who was apparently wide spread in folklore but whose unity was a product of folklorists pushing together very disparate elements. The fifth is the Green Man, drawn together from very different elements, many of them more modern than they seem.