Imagining the pagan past, Marion Gibson

Imagining the past: gods and goddesses in literature and history since the Dark Ages by Marion Gibson, 2013, Routledge

This sounded like a title that should include Rosemary Sutcliff and it does!  There is talk of Kipling and how Sutcliff is influenced by him in her writings.  She appears in the Something Old Something New chapter, under the heading: From Gog to Coventina: god and goddess in folklore, religion and fiction.  


'The Eagle of the Ninth (1954) uses the Romano-British period and its gods to negotiate contemporary issues of generational change, masculine friendship and difference ...' pg 95

There is not a huge amount about Sutcliff, but it is likely that anyone interested in her books will find much to contemplate due to the exploration of the background of the pagan past

Excerpts of the Gibson's work can be found on Google Books.  Contents include: 

• From Geoffrey of Monmouth to William Camden 
• Pagan deities from the antiquaries to the Romantics
• Pagan deities from the first Celtic Revival to the mid twentieth century 
• Heathen men and northern deities from the Middle Ages to the mid twentieth century
• Melting the ice gods 
• Three schools of contemporary god and goddess fiction