Pagans?
People Against Goodness And Normalcy?
Many thanks for this very interesting article and link; it’s right up my alley! ;^)
There’s a movie, starring Charlton Heston, called “THE WARLORD”, that sort of deal with this subject, in a way; great movie, BTW and if you haven’t seen it, see if it’s on YouTube. It has a GREAT caste, is well written and acted, and is spot on accurate re costumes and even hairstyles, and historical data, but in modern day English, instead of the way early English was spoken.
I think people have an incorrect and false expectation that when Christianity first came to England and other northern European lands, that the people immediately eschewed, abandoned all their previous belief systems and customs. Think about how hard this would have been for people to suddenly abandon all their prior beliefs and customs in the blink of an eye.
As I understand, during the late Saxon period in England, many early Christian burials incorporated both Christian and Pegan rituals and practices – they may have not been so sure which one to follow and so and were hedging the bets by incorporating both just in case.
The Green Man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQHl2mzF1Do
Many originally pagan customs were not eliminated but incorporated into Christian traditions. Christmas trees and greens, yule logs, Easter eggs, and so on.
And don’t even get me started on some of the Norwegian Christmas traditions I grew up with, many of which while today “Christian” have some roots in ancient pagan Norse mythology.
