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Ronald Hutton
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Stations Of The Sun Paperback – June 28, 2001

by Ronald Hutton (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 160 ratings
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Comprehensive and engaging, this colourful study covers the whole sweep of ritual history from the earliest written records to the present day. From May Day revels and Midsummer fires, to Harvest Home and Hallowe'en, to the twelve days of Christmas, Ronald Hutton takes us on a fascinating journey through the ritual year in Britain. He challenges many common assumptions about the customs of the past, and debunks many myths surrounding festivals of the present, to illuminate the history of the calendar year we live by today.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    560 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  4. Publication date
    June 28, 2001
  5. Dimensions
    5 x 1.4 x 7.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0192854488
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0192854483
  8. Lexile measure
    1650L
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review


."..a highly readable text that will serve the scholar and general reader alike to provide the first truly complete survey of the history of communal, seasonal rites and customs....In this engaging exploration his work will be useful to students of popular culture and literature, folklorists, historians, and even the old-fashioned enthusiast."--Journal of Ritual Studies
."..a breath of much-needed fresh air...a well-organized, methodical analysis..."--American Reporter
"This book, with its rich combination of history and folklore, is a valuable work of reference."--American Historical Review


.,."a highly readable text that will serve the scholar and general reader alike to provide the first truly complete survey of the history of communal, seasonal rites and customs....In this engaging exploration his work will be useful to students of popular culture and literature, folklorists, historians, and even the old-fashioned enthusiast."--Journal of Ritual Studies
.,."a breath of much-needed fresh air...a well-organized, methodical analysis..."--American Reporter
"This book, with its rich combination of history and folklore, is a valuable work of reference."--American Historical Review



, .."a highly readable text that will serve the scholar and general reader alike to provide the first truly complete survey of the history of communal, seasonal rites and customs....In this engaging exploration his work will be useful to students of popular culture and literature, folklorists,
historians, and even the old-fashioned enthusiast."--Journal of Ritual Studies
, .."a breath of much-needed fresh air...a well-organized, methodical analysis..."--American Reporter
"This book, with its rich combination of history and folklore, is a valuable work of reference."--American Historical Review


,.".a highly readable text that will serve the scholar and general reader alike to provide the first truly complete survey of the history of communal, seasonal rites and customs....In this engaging exploration his work will be useful to students of popular culture and literature, folklorists,
historians, and even the old-fashioned enthusiast."--Journal of Ritual Studies
,.".a breath of much-needed fresh air...a well-organized, methodical analysis..."--American Reporter
"This book, with its rich combination of history and folklore, is a valuable work of reference."--American Historical Review


..".a highly readable text that will serve the scholar and general reader alike to provide the first truly complete survey of the history of communal, seasonal rites and customs....In this engaging exploration his work will be useful to students of popular culture and literature, folklorists,
historians, and even the old-fashioned enthusiast."--Journal of Ritual Studies
..".a breath of much-needed fresh air...a well-organized, methodical analysis..."--American Reporter
"This book, with its rich combination of history and folklore, is a valuable work of reference."--American Historical Review

About the Author

Ronald Hutton is Reader in History at the University of Bristol.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; New Ed edition (June 28, 2001)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 560 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0192854488
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0192854483
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1650L
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 1.4 x 7.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 160 ratings

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Ronald Hutton

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
160 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Rachel
5.0 out of 5 stars Really helpful resource
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2013
Verified Purchase
The most exciting insight I received from this book is just how quickly traditions change from generation to generation. This insight has been helpful to me in reading primary documents in other areas of research.

I am a Neopagan, and I'm always interested to know where the sources of commonly held beliefs really lie. What I find is that a large percentage of the practices and meanings associated with the Neopagan holiday cycle are Medieval in origin, or later, and changed rapidly thenceforward.

I'm okay with this knowledge. Wicca, my religion, definitely evolved in an Abrahamic environment and is compatible with Medieval material. I can understand why some modern Pagans would be frustrated to learn how little can really be discerned about their parent cultures, though.

The most useful element to this work is the fact that Hutton details the source material available to readers, AND provides his assessment of their reliability. He gives good reasons for these assessments. The reader isn't obligated to accept his line of reasoning, and the great thing is that one can go back and read those other sources and get a more detailed picture.

I think the Pagan community needs to remember that secondary and tertiary sources are not acceptable as "proof" of anything. Secondary source material is helpful to suggest lines of interpretation. Tertiary source material, like histories written for general readership, can only summarize the opinions of scholars and select from among them the ones that seem most reasonable to the author at the time. In other words, just because half a dozen tertiary sources agree on an interpretation does not make that opinion more believable. It only makes it more popular.
31 people found this helpful
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Sven D.
5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply researched
Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2022
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A great resource to the holy days of the pagan year. Stations of the Sun is well research and provides a much deeper and accurate understanding of the important days in the year's cycle.
One person found this helpful
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BL
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2022
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This is a very interesting and well researched book, if a bit dry at times. Even so, I'm really enjoying it. Definitely offers a window into times gone by
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Alison
4.0 out of 5 stars A Brick of Scholarship
Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2005
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This book is not for a casual reader. It is, instead, a compendium of primary source information for those curious about the calendar year in Britain. It's fascinating scholarship and absolutely authoratative in its research, but not for "just reading"! At some points, the paragraphs are so thick with citations and details that my eyes began to gloss. In general, though, the prose remains readable, even when detailing minutia.

I do want to address one criticism from an earlier reviewer, who said this about the book:

"Hutton debunks everything he presents; after a while it kind of got on my nerves. Virtually every description and explanation is followed by some sort of 'but this probably didn't happen' or 'this probably wasn't really the way it was' disclaimer. fter reading several chapters, my attitude morphed into 'why are you wasting my time telling me about stuff that didn't happen? Can't you tell me about anything that probably DID happen?'"

I'm not sure if this reviewer and I were reading the same book. Yes, Hutton debunks many myths surrounding these customs, but to say that he provides no information on what DID happen, or how it happened, is bunk. The book is thick with information, a real brick of scholarship. There are ten chapters alone on the evidence of various Christmas and New years traditions!

Those with a serious interest in the development of many Western calendar customs in Britain (many of which are also the ultimate root of our American traditions) should definitely add this boo to their collections.
56 people found this helpful
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lkhedley
5.0 out of 5 stars Life lived on the ancient patterns of Sun and Harvest
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2017
Verified Purchase
Hutton is both rich with professional detail and yet easily reachable by the lay person. The book is a compendium and therefore it is full of details and alternative interpretations - but this is as designed. I bought it for historical research - not entertainment. I have never known Hutton to disappoint and he certainly did not with this book. Exactly what I have been searching for.
5 people found this helpful
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TeacherMom
3.0 out of 5 stars Dense but he is a good writer
Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2020
Verified Purchase
I was really excited about this book because I love Ronald Hutton. He’s so engaging. I found it just a little bit dense for my taste. I guess I’m not as interested in all the regional variations of customs as I thought. However it is easy to read and has tons of interesting things to learn.
3 people found this helpful
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William W. Cooper
5.0 out of 5 stars Charming.
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2016
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A charming book and fun to read.
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Greenjeepin
5.0 out of 5 stars Professor Hutton is a Historical Master!
Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2008
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Professor Hutton is a well-spring of information about pagan history. I don't think there is anything he doesn't know! If you really want to learn more about how certain practices came about, you definitely need this book. He's also an excellent speaker!
6 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Eve87
5.0 out of 5 stars Großartiges Buch - auch für den interessierten Laie
Reviewed in Germany on April 18, 2024
Verified Purchase
Ich will ehrlich sein, ein Lesevergnügen war das Buch nicht. Es ist voll gepackt mit Zahlen, Daten, Fakten. Keine leichte Lektüre, aber wenn man sich die Zeit dafür nimmt, eine wahre Fundgrube an historischem Wissen. Was mir besonders gefallen hat, der Autor stellt unterschiedliche Bräuche unterschiedlicher Regionen in Großbritannien vor, unterfüttert mit Zitaten aus Primärquellen. Und er macht auch deutlich, woher die Informationen kommen und schreibt auch klipp und klar, was heute einfach nicht nachweisbar ist.
Großartiges Buch!
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Marilyn Allan
1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Reviewed in Spain on December 3, 2022
Verified Purchase
Interestingly, all the people who have give them this five stars have all said it wasn’t what they wanted, which was information about pre-Christian traditions. This book should be called the stations of the son rather than sun as it seems to only begin with Christianity and regurgitate a lot of truths, which we will know about that religion, and all the stories that are made up about it. Also, most of the book is a negation of anything that might have been considered informative about the traditions and festivals of pre-Christian Britain. If you want to know anything about pre-Christian beliefs, do not buy this book.
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
Reviewed in Italy on September 20, 2019
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Quite good book about this matter
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J M
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on May 14, 2015
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Came as advertised. Well researched book!
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Titus L
5.0 out of 5 stars From Community to Individual and Back Again; On The Seasonal Festival
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 4, 2011
Verified Purchase
As a dozen good reviews could not begin to provide a fair account of this book, I shall offer a few key points which caught my attention as introduction only.

At the outset I had hoped for a more 'traditionally' pagan account of the ancient seasonal festivals, their origins and meanings.
I was initially surprised and eventually delighted to find however that although this work is more of an Academic compote of facts and dates and included ongoing assessment of earlier authors often unfounded but sometimes inspirational conjecture than I had anticipated (of Sir James Frazer et al) nevertheless this is a very enjoyable, remarkably researched and admirably objective book-collection of essays.

That much of this morass concerns the developments and impacts of constantly changing traditions due to Christian Reformation and Counter Reformation (certainly comedic at this distance in time), the ongoing process a seminal crucible (reminding me of both grail and cauldron) proved revealing, as the general view of folk traditions and their origins seems to usually favor the more arcane sources, this book by contrast documents only definite evidence, largely that of written records, of church, kirk and council across the land.

With a nod to the Scandinavian Yuil, as well as the Roman Kalendae, we embark on an exploration of the traditions of Christmastide, the Twelve Days, the Rites of Celebration, Purification and of Charity which included the remarkable Clementing, Elementing and Souling, even Thomasing, Gooding, Mumping and Corning (as well as more)regional begging customs, by which means the poor would recant rhymes for contribution of food for a feast of their own.
Similar socially accepted appeals for reward included the Hocktide 'heaving' or 'lifting' at Easter, in which gangs of men assaulted women for favor and groups of women also pursue and caught men of their fancy for same, at its best a raising up on a lifted chair of a person as proxy 'Lord' to commemorate the Holy ascent of Easter, the chosen surrogate released upon a reward of money or a kiss, at its worst a mere grasping by hands and throwing upwards as an occasion for assault and robbery.
The ongoing exposition of numerous social customs of this kind, both dazzle the mind with its quantity, as well as provides a clear insight into how poverty was communally accepted, dealt with by innovative appeals to the community at large and that these were often 'sanctioned' by inclusion of some short Christian phrase in the introductory verse or chant.

The author traces the development of such customs and portrays their eventual descent into more high spirited, reckless and even angry demands for assistance that could be met with threats and violence if not accepted.
Once national schools were established and later a more centralized protection for the poor was introduced, such earlier community traditions dissipated further, demonstrating the authors argument throughout this book of the movement from a community sharing seasonal rituals and traditions including those aspects of display that were geared to earn rewards, to the de-socialization of such community into a society characterized by its more insular and private approach to seasons and their festivals or traditions.

The Christianization of earlier traditions also has its place in this book, as for example the feast marking the end of winter and start of the summer months ahead at February 1st, Imbolc (the etymology of its name relating to ewes milk and thus new life) initially dedicated to the Irish goddess Brigid, but who was later morphed into the Christian St Bride.
This is an important theme of both this book and of the mythological psycho-social developments of these Isles. Most surprisingly the often claimed genesis or inception of many Christian traditions in the pre Christian, infact seems to have increasingly worked in reverse. As religious conflicts in the land over changing orthodoxies developed, the Catholic tradition with its wealth of near magical rituals was vigorously being uprooted from the public and community sphere of practice by the ascent of the puritan Protestant, the ensuing personal spiritual void resulted in many cases in the earlier magical Catholic rituals being carried on privately at home and eventually (d)evolving into allegedly ancient 'survivalist' 'folk-traditions'. Conversely, some of the Christianized traditions do appear to have had earlier sources such as the Rogationtide and Pentecost processions, at which time the people marched en mass around the crop fields, singing hymns at chosen stop points as the church ministers blessed the crops.

The book does feature ancient tradition where evidence has supported this, such as for example the affirmation of the Beltane as an accepted fire festival in certain regions of Northern Europe and the outlaying regions of the British Isles (unlike the later Samhain, for which evidence of a major 'Celtic' fire festival is less apparent). With greater detail due to the weight of evidence available however, Hutton explores the cultural progress towards our more modern current perspectives, for example plotting the development of the 'May' (which unsurprisingly did have ancient antecedents in the delight of Spring returned) as people initially adorned self and home with garlands and greenery, which in time became a tradition of young women selling garlands, later children took over this role, and in their turn both to manage the unruly and the revenue these were eventually taken over by schools and local institutions. By contrast, the Mummers Plays with their essentially Christian derived themes of battle, death and resurrection, were more officially sanctioned groups from the outset and had less to do with earlier pre Christian traditions.

Despite growing religious and institutional involvement in previously communal activities and traditions, the populace applied themselves with great enthusiasm to any occasion of social bonding, often at some cost to the societies they lived in (other than merely of money or means) such as the many community Maypoles stolen by rival villages and towns resulting in pitched battles between the two, the anarchic Saturnalia of Misrule as witnessed at the Shrovetide street 'foot-ball' games played across whole towns which could involve thousands of people and provided an occasion for licensed misrule resulting in damage to property and individual (although less violent than the serious riot and rebellion which was reserved for the Summer games as a time more suited for battle on the streets or field). The Church Ales or festivals also developed their Abbots of Unreason and a myriad practices of inversion and nonsense (Samuel Butler now we know where your inspiration came from).
Charting how an apparently arcane 'folk tradition' once also considered a surviving pagan fertility rite had originated in high social circles of the Royal Courts and devolved into the rural communities, Hutton's' research into the Morris dancers is fascinating for its explanation of how we may manufacture new ancient traditions out of nowhere.

Perhaps my favorite exposition in this work is that of the origins and evolution of The Jack in the Green, identified as a 'survival' of an ancient pagan fertility rite by the Frazerite Lady Raglan of the Folklore society in 1939, established on her view linking the dancing Green-Man in May day processions with the foliage faces on church walls. This was a lineage unresolved till 1979 Roy Judges study revealed the true origins to be somewhat less arcane, and linked them to a more traditional social ritual evolved as so many traditional customs of display were, to celebrate the new season with a display deigned to garner reward. To explain, during the17thC, London milkmaids danced the streets on May Day with their pails covered in flowers which symbolized the Springs new growth and so presented the promise of new grass for the cattle thus promising fresh milk, cream and butter. These displays earned them money as reward and therefore can be seen to serve a double purpose, of advertising their wares, as well a gathering much needed financial support after a lengthy winter without much income. They later left the pails for lighter wooden frames similarly covered in flowers and greenery, and later still were imitated in their greenery attired frames and street dancing display by the London Chimney sweeps whose claim for sympathy at this time was based on the end of winter cold meaning no more fires or work for them till next fall.

Hutton surmises this work with a number of provocative and insightful observations, for example that the notion of a distinctive 'Celtic' ritual year with four festivals at the quarter days and an opening at Samhain, is a scholastic construction of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries which should now be considerably revised or even abandoned altogether.
Whilst the debt to a medieval, magical Catholicism seems to be growing apparent in my reading of serious studies of the origin of neo-pagan traditions, Hutton's final words over the changing Christian influence upon the traditional festivals of the year are revelatory.
He establishes that soon as the system of salvation through ritual was scrapped at the Reformation, the merry making began to be regarded as a liability by the social and religious elites....thus the ''evolution of a religious ideology ...(had) produced a society imbued with a general taste for ceremony and acted as a means to endorsement of secular festivity. In other words, Merry England was inspired by the fires of hell''
Finally that 'the rhythms of the British year are timeless and impose certain patterns on the calendar customs', to celebrate spring, to make merry in summer and draw close at fall, despite government and mass media atomization of community, seems a fair conclusion. Overall this book suggests to me that whilst certain traditions may not have an established ancient provenance, nevertheless because people are increasingly applying such meanings to the seasons cycles as an inherent pagan response to nature itself, we may now be seeing a further reversal of the community oriented neglect of seasonal festivals and a resurgence of a more nature based community oriented society at large.

Not a book for the exclusively poetic or methodologically minded, but if read in the objective manner with which it is presented, this book provides a wealth of insight and understanding into the seasonal festivities as they have evolved in these British Isles and the influence they bear on modern pagan perspectives, Recommended.
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