Ronald Hutton | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Ronald Edmund Hutton (1953-12-19)19 December 1953 (age 71) Ootacamund, India |
| Occupation(s) | Historian, author |
| Known for | The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles (1991), The Rise and Fall of Merry England (1994), The Stations of the Sun (1996), The Triumph of the Moon (1999), Shamans (2001) |
| Title | Professor of History |
| Honours | Coote Lake Medal |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Pembroke College, Cambridge(BA) Magdalen College, Oxford(DPhil) |
| Thesis | The Royalist war effort in Wales and the West Midlands, 1642–1646 (1980) |
| Doctoral advisor | Hugh Trevor-Roper |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | History |
| Sub-discipline | English folklore, pre-Christian religion, contemporary Paganism |
| Institutions | University of Bristol |
Ronald Edmund HuttonCBE FSA FRHistS FLSW FBA (born 19 December 1953) is an Indian-born English historian specialising inearly modern Britain, Britishfolklore,pre-Christian religion, andmodern paganism. A professor at theUniversity of Bristol, Hutton has written over a dozen books, and often appears on British television and radio. He held a fellowship atMagdalen College, Oxford, and is a Commissioner ofEnglish Heritage.
Born inOotacamund,India, he returned to England with his family, where he attended a school inIlford and became interested inarchaeology. He volunteered in a number of excavations until 1976 and visited the country's chambered tombs. He studied history atPembroke College, Cambridge, and thenMagdalen College, Oxford, before he lectured in history at the University of Bristol from 1981. Specialising in Early Modern Britain, he wrote three books on the subject:The Royalist War Effort (1981),The Restoration (1985), andCharles the Second (1990).
He followed these with books about historical paganism, folklore, and modern paganism in Britain:The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles (1991),The Rise and Fall of Merry England (1994),The Stations of the Sun (1996), andThe Triumph of the Moon (1999), the last of which would come to be praised as a seminal text inPagan studies. Subsequent work includeShamans (2001), coveringSiberian shamanism in the western imagination;Witches, Druids and King Arthur (2003), a collection of essays on folklore and Paganism; then two books on the role of the Druids in the British imagination:The Druids (2007) andBlood and Mistletoe (2009).
Elected a Fellow of theLearned Society of Wales in 2011,[1] then a Fellow of theBritish Academy in 2013,[2] Hutton was appointedGresham Professor of Divinity in 2022.[3]
"I had begun in the 1960s by believing completely in the concept of early modern witchcraft as a Pagan religion of feminism, liberation, and affirmation of life. In 1973 I debated against the historianNorman Cohn at Cambridge University, defending the historical legitimacy ofCharles Godfrey Leland's "witches' gospel"Aradia, and was floored by him. During the rest of the decade my belief in the old orthodoxy concerning the witch trials slipped away, as I read more and more of the new research and checked the original records (for England and Scotland) myself."
Hutton was born on 19 December 1953 inOotacamund, India, to a colonial family,[5][6] and is of part-Russian ancestry.[7] Upon arriving in England, he attendedIlford County High School, whilst becoming greatly interested inarchaeology, joining the committee of a local archaeological group and taking part in excavations from 1965 to 1976, including at such sites asPilsdon Pen hill fort,Ascott-under-Wychwood long barrow,Hen Domen castle and a temple onMalta. Meanwhile, during the period between 1966 and 1969, he visited "every prehistoric chambered tomb surviving in England and Wales, and wrote a guide to them, for myself [Hutton] and friends."[8]
Despite his love of archaeology, he instead decided to study history at university, believing that he had "probably more aptitude" for it. He won a scholarship to study atPembroke College, Cambridge, where he continued his interest in archaeology alongside history, in 1975 taking a course run by the university's archaeologistGlyn Daniel, an expert on theNeolithic.[8] From Cambridge, he went on to study atOxford University, where he gained adoctorate, supervised byHugh Trevor-Roper,[9] and took up a fellowship atMagdalen College.[6]
In 1981, Hutton moved to theUniversity of Bristol where he took up the position of reader of History. In that year he also published his first book,The Royalist War Effort 1642–1646, and followed it with three more books on 17th century British history by 1990.
Hutton followed his studies on the Early Modern period with a book on a very different subject,The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy (1991), in which he attempted to "set out what is at present known about the religious beliefs and practices of the British Isles before their conversion to Christianity. The term 'pagan' is used as a convenient shorthand for those beliefs and practices, and is employed in the title merely to absolve the book from any need to discussearly Christianity itself."[10] It thereby examined religion during thePalaeolithic,Neolithic,Bronze Age,Iron Age,Roman occupation andAnglo-Saxon period, as well as a brief examination of their influence on folklore and contemporary Paganism. In keeping with what was by then the prevailing academic view, it disputed the widely held idea that ancient paganism had survived into the contemporary and had been revived by the Pagan movement.
The book proved controversial amongst some contemporary Pagans and feminists involved in theGoddess movement, one of whom, Asphodel Long, issued a public criticism of Hutton in which she charged him with failing to take non-mainstream ideas about ancient goddess cults into consideration.[11] Ultimately, Hutton would later relate, she "recognised that she had misunderstood me" and the two became friends.[12] Another feminist critic,Max Dashu, condemned the work as containing "factual errors, mischaracterizations, and outright whoppers" and said she was "staggered by the intenseanti-feminism of this book". She went on to attack Hutton's writing style, calling the book "dry as dust" and said she was "sorry I bothered to plough through it. If this isrigor, it ismortis."[13]
Meanwhile, whilst he faced criticism from some sectors of the Pagan community in Britain, others came to embrace him; during the late 1980s and 1990s, Hutton befriended a number of practising British Pagans, including "leading Druids" such as Tim Sebastion, who was then Chief of the Secular Order of Druids. On the basis ofThe Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles (which he himself had not actually read), Sebastion invited Hutton to speak at a conference inAvebury where he befriended a number of members of the Pagan Druidic movement, includingPhilip Carr-Gomm,Emma Restall Orr and John Michell.[14]
In the following years, Hutton released two books on Britishfolklore, both of which were published byOxford University Press:The Rise and Fall of Merry England: The Ritual Year 1400–1700 (1994) andThe Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain (1996). In these works he criticised commonly held attitudes, such as the idea ofMerry England and the idea that folk customs were static and unchanging over the centuries.[15][16] Once again, he was following prevailing expert opinion in doing so.
In 1999, his first work fully focusing on Paganism was published by Oxford University Press;The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. The book dealt with thehistory of the Pagan religion ofWicca, and in the preface Hutton stated that:
Hutton questioned many assumptions about Wicca's development, argued that many of the claimed connections to longstanding hidden pagan traditions are questionable at best and also for its importance as a genuinenew religious movement.
The response from the Neopagan community was somewhat mixed. Many Pagans embraced his work, with the prominent Wiccan ElderFrederic Lamond referring to it as "an authority on the history ofGardnerian Wicca".[18] Public criticism came from the practising Wiccan Jani Farrell-Roberts, who took part in a published debate with Hutton inThe Cauldron magazine in 2003. Farrell-Roberts was of the opinion that in his works, Hutton dismissedMargaret Murray's theories about theWitch-Cult usingNorman Cohn's theories, which she believed to be heavily flawed. She stated that "he is... wrongly cited as an objective neutral and a 'non-pagan' for he happens to be a very active member of the British Pagan community" who "had taken on a mission to reform modern paganism by removing from it a false history and sense of continuance".[19]
Hutton next turned his attention to Siberianshamanism, withHambledon and London publishingShamans: Siberian Spirituality in the Western Imagination in 2001, in which he argued that much of what westerners think they know about shamanism is in fact wrong.
In his review for the academicFolklore journal, Jonathan Roper of theUniversity of Sheffield noted that the work "could profitably have been twice as long and have provided a more extended treatment of the issues involved" and that it suffered from a lack of images. On the whole he thought it should be "recommended to readers as an important work" on the subject of shamanism, and hoped that Hutton would "return to treat this fascinating topic in even greater depth in future".[20]
In 2003, Hambledon & London also publishedWitches, Druids and King Arthur, a collection of various articles by Hutton, including on topics such as the nature of myth and the pagan themes found within the works ofJ.R.R. Tolkien andC.S. Lewis.
"Predictably, Hutton finds himself defending his position on two fronts. Neo-pagans, clinging to the notion that their beliefs are part of an ancient nature religion, and radical feminists upholding the idea of a primeval matriarchal society (which Hutton finds "rather delightful"), scorn Hutton's refreshingly cheerful acceptance that there seems little evidence for either of these. And his less unbuttoned colleagues shake their heads at his optimism about Druidry and other 'alternative spiritualities' as valid contemporary religions."
After studying the history of Wicca, Hutton went on to look at the history ofDruidry, both the historical and the contemporary. His first book on the subject,The Druids, was published in 2007. Part of this material was given as the first lecture of theMount Haemus Award series.[22] Hutton's next book, which was also about Druidry, was entitledBlood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain, and released in May 2009.
In a review byDavid V. Barrett inThe Independent,Blood and Mistletoe was described as being more "academic and more than three times the length" ofThe Druids, although Barrett argued that despite this it was still "very readable", even going so far as to call it a "tour de force".[23] The review byNoel Malcolm inThe Daily Telegraph was a little more critical, claiming that whilst Hutton was "non-sensationalist and scrupulously polite" about the various Druidic eccentrics, "occasionally, even-handedness tips over towards relativism – as if there are just different ways of looking at reality, each as good as the other. And that cannot be right."[24]
"My colleagues would kill me for saying this, but historians are increasingly conscious of the fact that we can't write history. What we can write about is the way in which people see history and think history happens."
Hutton was married to Lisa Radulovic from August 1988 to March 2003, when they divorced.[5]Although he has written much on the subject of Paganism, Hutton insists that his own religious beliefs are a private matter. He has instead stated that "to some extent history occupies the space in my life filled in that of others by religion or spirituality. It defines much of the way I come to terms with the cosmos, and with past, present and future."[8] He was raised Pagan, and was personally acquainted with Wiccans from youth.[25] He has become a "well-known and much loved figure" in the British Pagan community.[26]
Interviewing Hutton forThe Independent, the journalistGary Lachman commented that he had "a very pragmatic, creative attitude, recognising that factual error can still produce beneficial results", for instance noting that even though their theories about the Early Modernwitch-cult were erroneous,Margaret Murray andGerald Gardner would help lay the foundations for the creation of the new religious movement of Wicca.[21]
Hutton was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the2024 New Year Honours for services to history.[27]
Hutton's books can be divided into those about seventeenth-century Britain and those about paganism and folk customs in Britain.
Hutton's many works on early modern Britain includeThe Royalist War Effort 1642-1646 (1982), a pathbreaking work when mostEnglish Civil War scholarship focused on the Parliamentarians. He has written a biography ofCharles II as well as several works of narrative history. Hutton has also written a historiographical essay on the period,Debates in Stuart History (2004). Hutton is currently working on a multivolume biography ofOliver Cromwell of which the first two volumes have been published,The Making of Oliver Cromwell (2021) andOliver Cromwell: Commander in Chief (2024). In hisWhat If the Gunpowder Plot Had Succeeded?, Hutton considered what might have happened if theGunpowder Plot of 1605 had succeeded in its aims of the death ofKing James I and the destruction of theHouse of Lords. He concluded that the violence of the act would have resulted in an even more severe backlash against suspected Catholics than was caused by its failure, as most Englishmen were loyal to the monarchy, despite differing religious convictions. England could very well have become a more "Puritan absolute monarchy", rather than following the path of parliamentary and civil reform.[28]
| Title | Year | Publisher | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Royalist War Effort 1642–1646 | 1982 | Routledge (London) | |
| The Restoration: A Political and Religious History of England and Wales 1658–1667 | 1985 | Clarendon | 0-19-822698-5 |
| Charles the Second, King of England, Scotland and Ireland | 1989 | Clarendon | 0-19-822911-9 |
| The British Republic 1649–1660 | 1990 | Palgrave Macmillan | |
| The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy | 1991 | Blackwell (Oxford and Cambridge) | 0-631-18946-7 |
| The Rise and Fall of Merry England: The Ritual Year 1400–1700 | 1994 | Oxford University Press (Oxford and New York) | 9 780198-203636 |
| The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain | 1996 | Oxford University Press (Oxford and New York) | |
| The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft | 1999 | Oxford University Press (Oxford and New York) | 9 780198 207443 |
| Shamans: Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination | 2001 | Hambledon and London (London and New York) | 1-85295-324-7 |
| Witches, Druids and King Arthur | 2003 | Hambledon | |
| Debates in Stuart History | 2004 | Palgrave Macmillan | |
| The Druids: A History | 2007 | Hambledon Continuum | |
| Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain | 2009 | Yale University Press (London) | 978-0-300-14485-7 |
| A Brief History of Britain 1485–1660: The Tudor and Stuart Dynasties | 2011 | Robinson | 978-1845297046 |
| Pagan Britain | 2013 | Oxford University Press | 978-0300197716 |
| The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present | 2017 | Yale University Press | 978-0300229042 |
| The Making of Oliver Cromwell | 2021 | Yale University Press | 978-0300257458 |
| Queens of the Wild: Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe: An Investigation | 2022 | Yale University Press | 978-0300261011 |
| Oliver Cromwell: Commander in Chief | 2024 | Yale University Press | 978-0300278941 |
1991Educational Excursions1-878877-06-2
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