The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft

by Ronald Hutton

Overview

A fully updated new edition of Ronald Hutton's classic work on the history of modern pagan witchcraft.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198870371
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/01/2021
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	544
Sales rank:	421,038
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Ronald Hutton is Professor of History at the University of Bristol. He is the author of seven other books, including The Stations of the Sun, which The Times Literary Supplement called "a tour de force from one of the liveliest and most wide-ranging English historians." He lives in the United Kingdom.

Table of Contents

Macrocosm

1. Finding a Language
2. Finding a Goddess
3. Finding a God
4. Finding a Structure
5. Finding a High Magic
6. Finding a Low Magic
7. Finding a Folklore
8. Finding a Witchcraft
9. Matrix
10. God (and Goddess) Parents

Microcosm

11. Gerald Gardner
12. Gerald's People
13. The Wider Context: Hostility
14. The Wider Context: Reinforcement
15. Old Craft, New Craft
16. The Man in Black
17. Royalty from the North
18. Uncle Sam and the Goddess
19. Coming of Age
20. Grandchildren of the Shadows
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

An excellent reference edition....I highly recommend it.

Weekly Alibi

Hutton has synthesized a huge body of sources, and woven together a fascinating narrative with supreme skill. The reader is sure to be gripped by the wonderful cast of characters that he assembles...Hutton shows us that paganism is a matter of interest not only for the classicist and archeologist, but for the modern historian as well. In doing so his Triumph of the Moon proves to be a triumph of cultural history.
— History Today

Owen Davies

This spirited, amusing and immensely informative history of paganism in 19th- and 20th-century Britain centers on Wicca, the system of witchcraft Gerald B. Gardner introduced to a startled public in the 1950s. The book's first half takes the reader on a breakneck tour of Victorian and Edwardian culture, demonstrating that Wiccan belief and practice owe much to the scholars, novelists and poets who resurrected Pan and the Goddess, crafting romantic visions of a pre-Christian past. The second half proceeds at a more leisurely pace, detailing the development of British witchcraft over the past 50 years among Gardner's followers, critics and rivals. In this meticulously researched book, Hutton modestly demolishes myths perpetuated by both pagans and their hostile critics and maintains an attitude that is at once skeptical and ultimately sympathetic. He displays astounding breadth, with literary references ranging from Keats to Mary Daly, and peppers his work with insightful portraits of characters such as Madam Blavatsky, Aleister Crowley, D.H. Lawrence, Dion Fortune, Alex Sanders, Starhawk and the obscure 19th-century wonder-worker and wart-healer known as Cunning Murrell. In a field generally characterized by polemical or apologetic historiography, Hutton's exceptional work is by far the most scholarly, comprehensive and judicious analysis of the subject yet published. It will remain the standard for many years to come. (Feb.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This is a fine book. The story it tells is compelling and persuasive, and no one, after reading it, will think about Britain in quite the same way again.
—Times Literary Supplement

T.M. Luhrmann

"Hutton's book is a must-read not only for anyone interested in modern Paganism, or the occult, but it also embodies a deep insight into the development of British society and culture." — Pavel Horak , Czech Academy of Sciences

"An excellent reference edition...I highly recommend it."—Weekly Alibi

"Hutton uses his historical skills to tease apart some of the themes in this popular rural romanticism, and to locate their purely modern origin."—Times Literary Supplement, UK

"Hutton's book is excellent..."—Times Literary Supplement

"Hutton has synthesized a huge body of sources, and woven together a fascinating narrative with supreme skill. The reader is sure to be gripped by the wonderful cast of characters that he assembles...Hutton shows us that paganism is a matter of interest not only for the classicist and archeologist, but for the modern historian as well. In doing so his Triumph of the Moon proves to be a triumph of cultural history."—Owen Davies, History Today (UK, Vol. 50 No. 3)

From the Publisher