The fate of otherworldly beings after the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons

Tags

anglo saxon literature, Anglo-Saxon England, Anglo-Saxon literature and culture, Anglo-Saxon Studies (History), Christianisation, Christianity, Conversion, mythology, Old English, Old English Language and Literature, Paganism, Weland

Barbara Yorke

in: Dying Gods – Religious beliefs in northern and eastern Europe in the time of Christianisation, Neue Studien zur Sachsenforschung 5 (2015).

Among the questions posed in the planning for the Pader-born conference were what happened to the former gods and other supernatural beings after conversion to Christianity, and whether sources written after conversion could preserve anything useful about earlier pagan beliefs. These are issues that I wish to explore for the Anglo-Saxons. Although there is the potential that early Anglo-Saxon written sources could provide a route into their pagan past, recent studies have suggested that the uses and evocations of pagan beings did not remain static or backward-looking after conversion, but continued to evolve in new contexts.

Click here to read the full article at academia.edu