This episode is a conversation with the eminent historian Ronald Hutton. I wanted to talk with him partly because I’m fascinated by obscure British holidays and how they add color, meaning, enchantment, and fun to the calendar, a topic on which Professor Hutton is the world’s leading authority. If you happen to share this interest, I highly recommend his 1996 book, The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Hutton and I also discuss his newest book, Queens of the Wild: Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe: An Investigation.

—the scholarly debate about whether pagan survivals or surviving paganism has obtained in Christian Europe, and Hutton’s recent intervention in this conversation (1:08)

—the tension in some thinkers’ claim that pagan manifestations in Christian Europe result simultaneously from cultural continuity and from the workings of the collective unconscious (4:10)

—Hutton’s emphasis on human creativity and his view that illiterate communities are often more dynamically creative than highly literate ones (7:51)

—how Rupert Sheldrake’s ideas about morphic resonance might shed light on debates among folklorists about where folklore comes from (10:48)

—whether familiar or unfamiliar religious material more effectively inspires artistic expression / a brief discussion of the diversity and syncretism of Christianity (15:00)

—speculation about the meaning behind ghosts and the European goddess-like figures that Hutton’s new book is about (16:59)

—Hutton’s outlook on the family of scholars of which he is a member (21:53)

—What is it that fuels Hutton’s work? (25:14)

—an important and moving moment in Hutton’s academic career when he received encouragement from an instructor (28:51)

—Hutton’s fascinating idea that practices which seem pagan to many scholars are actually Catholic practices brought into the home after the Reformation (32:50)

—Larkin’s poem "Church Going," pilgrimage, and the recent revival of folk celebrations in Britain (13:30)

—the magic of carols (37:44)

—Hutton’s take on W. B. Yeats, his splendid poetry, his sometimes-unsplendid personal behavior, and his dim view of English fairies as opposed to Irish ones (39:45)

—the secret meaning of the fall / winter festival calendar (45:00)

my website:
https://gregbrownderville.com

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music by Beekeeper Spaceman

Greg Brownderville is the author of three books of poetry, the lead singer of Beekeeper Spaceman, the creator of Fire Bones, the editor-in-chief of Southwest Review, and a professor of English at SMU in Dallas.