Professor Ronald Hutton

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248 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Aug 2026 last heard 2 Aug

Professor Ronald Hutton’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Empire: World History · 383. Romans vs Druids: The War For Celtic Britain (Ep 1) · 2 Aug 2026 podcast

We have to imagine it, which we're entitled to do, even if we come up with different answers.

There's no absolute continuity between ancient and modern pagans.

But modern pagans are very sensibly reviving and have revived various images and ideas from the ancient world with relevance to modern needs like feminism, environmentalism, and personal growth.

They do serve those rather well.

No, it's not that.

Some of the customs carried on are genuinely old and there are some old customs at most of the festivals.

These are recorded way back to the Middle Ages, often the early Middle Ages, sometimes in the ancient world.

So that's part of the effect I spoke of, of taking genuinely ancient ideas and images and practices and making them relevant for a modern world.

People these days who celebrate the opening of summer, May Day, Beltane in Irish,

do not mostly drive livestock between two fires, but they do accept the idea of fire as an exciting and purifying element.

And they do often jump over the fires hand in hand for luck and for love, as people did long ago when they were also driving livestock around them.

I think there's such a strong link.

It can also be called a complete identity with both.

However, as in India and elsewhere, sacred waters are rather particular.

It's not any river in Britain in which people deposit huge numbers of offerings.

It's selected rivers in England flowing east, like the Thames and the Witham and the Tyne.

It's also selected small lakes in Wales and selected lakes and bogs in Scotland.

So there are very clearly bits of water which for some reason or another are sacred and others which are not.

But also the veneration of water in particular in Britain is period specific.

It's constricted mostly to round about 1000 BC or BCE through to the coming of the Romans and a bit after.

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