Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe by H.R. Ellis Davidson: Complete Guide

Overview

Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions was published in 1988 by Syracuse University Press, the culmination of decades of research by one of the 20th century's foremost scholars of Norse religion. The book represents Davidson's attempt to place Norse religion within its broader European context by systematically comparing it with the Celtic traditions of Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and Gaul.

The comparison is significant because the Scandinavian and Celtic peoples, though linguistically distinct (Germanic vs. Celtic branches of the Indo-European language family), occupied adjacent territories, shared climatic and ecological conditions, and came into direct contact during the Viking Age. The question Davidson addresses is whether the resemblances between their religious systems are the product of this contact, of common Indo-European heritage, or of both.

Her answer, characteristically nuanced, is that both factors are at work. The deepest parallels (the World Tree, the cult of the head, the structure of the Otherworld) likely reflect common Indo-European roots. The more specific parallels (particular ritual practices, artistic motifs, and mythological narratives shared between Viking-age Scandinavia and Celtic Ireland/Scotland) may reflect direct cultural exchange during the period of Norse settlement in the British Isles.

The book is organized thematically rather than by region, with each chapter addressing a specific aspect of religious life (sacred landscapes, the cult of the dead, sacrifice, divination, the Otherworld, etc.) and comparing the Norse and Celtic evidence for each. This thematic organization allows the reader to see the parallels directly, side by side, rather than having to construct the comparison from separate accounts of each tradition.

Who Was H.R. Ellis Davidson?

Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson (1914-2006) was born in Bebington, Cheshire, and educated at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she studied Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic under the supervision of H.M. Chadwick, one of the founders of the academic study of early medieval Northern European culture. Her doctoral thesis, completed during World War II, was published as The Road to Hel (1943), a groundbreaking study of Norse beliefs about death and the afterlife that established her reputation as a leading authority in the field.

Davidson's career spanned over six decades. She held academic positions at Birkbeck College London, Cambridge, and Lucy Cavendish College Cambridge (where she served as president). She was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a council member of the Viking Society for Northern Research. She published prolifically, with major works including:

• The Road to Hel (1943): Norse death beliefs and afterlife practices
• Gods and Myths of Northern Europe (1964): The standard accessible introduction to Norse mythology, still widely used
• Scandinavian Mythology (1969): A shorter, illustrated guide
• Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe (1988): The comparative Norse-Celtic study
• The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe (1993): A reassessment of what can and cannot be known about pre-Christian Norse and Germanic religion

Davidson's approach combined rigorous philological scholarship with a genuine sympathy for the religious worldviews she studied. Unlike some scholars who treated pre-Christian European religion as "primitive" or "barbaric," Davidson consistently presented it as a sophisticated symbolic system that addressed the deepest questions of human existence with its own distinctive vocabulary and conceptual tools.

Methodology: Four Types of Evidence

Davidson's comparative study draws on four distinct types of evidence, each with its own strengths and limitations:

Archaeological evidence: Burial sites, temple remains, votive deposits (objects deliberately deposited in bogs, lakes, and rivers as offerings), iconographic carvings, and other material remains provide direct physical evidence of religious practices. Archaeological evidence has the advantage of being contemporary with the practices it documents, but it requires interpretation: a sword found in a lake might be a ritual offering, an accidental loss, or something else entirely.

Key archaeological sources include the Gundestrup Cauldron (a Celtic ritual vessel found in a Danish bog, decorated with scenes of sacrifice and divine figures), the ship burials at Sutton Hoo (Anglo-Saxon) and Oseberg (Norse), the bog bodies of Denmark and Ireland (possibly sacrificial victims), and the temple remains at Uppsala (Sweden) and Emain Macha (Ireland).

Literary evidence: The Poetic and Prose Eddas, the Icelandic sagas, the Irish mythological cycle (Lebor Gabala Erenn, Cath Maige Tuired, Tain Bo Cuailnge), the Welsh Mabinogion, and other texts preserve mythological narratives, ritual descriptions, and theological concepts. Literary evidence is rich in detail but late in date: most Norse and Celtic literary texts were written down in the 12th-14th centuries, centuries after the conversion to Christianity, by Christian scribes whose understanding of the original pagan beliefs may have been partial or distorted.

Historical evidence: Accounts by Roman and Greek observers provide contemporary descriptions of Celtic and Germanic religious practices. Caesar's Gallic Wars (50s BCE) describes Celtic sacrifice and the Druids. Tacitus's Germania (c. 98 CE) describes Germanic rituals, sacred groves, and the worship of Nerthus. Adam of Bremen (c. 1075) describes the temple at Uppsala. These accounts have the advantage of being contemporary but the disadvantage of being written by outsiders whose understanding of the religions they observed was limited and often hostile.

Folkloric evidence: Customs, beliefs, and practices surviving into the modern period (or at least into the era of systematic folklore collection in the 19th and early 20th centuries) may preserve traces of pre-Christian religious practices. Bonfires on Midsummer and Samhain, the veneration of wells and trees, and beliefs about the dead returning at specific times of year all potentially reflect older religious patterns. Folkloric evidence is the most speculative of Davidson's four types but also the most evocative, suggesting continuities of belief and practice across millennia.

Sacred Landscapes

Davidson documents extensive parallels between Norse and Celtic concepts of sacred space:

Sacred groves: Both traditions treated groves of trees as sacred spaces where the divine was especially present. Tacitus describes Germanic peoples worshipping in sacred groves (nemeton in Celtic, lundr in Old Norse), and the practice is documented archaeologically and literarily across both cultures. The grove served as a natural temple: a space set apart from ordinary life where communication with the gods was possible. The clearing of sacred groves by Christian missionaries (Boniface felling the Oak of Thor in 723 CE, for example) was understood as a direct assault on the old religion.

Holy wells and springs: Both traditions attributed sacred power to water sources. Wells were sites of divination, healing, and communication with the Otherworld. The Norse Well of Urd (where the Norns water Yggdrasil and determine fate) and the Irish Well of Segais (the source of poetic inspiration, surrounded by the hazels of wisdom) are mythological expressions of this widespread reverence. Archaeological evidence confirms the practice of making offerings at wells and springs across both Norse and Celtic lands.

Mountains and hills: Elevated places served as sacred sites where the human world approached the divine. In Norse tradition, mountains are associated with giants, dwarves, and the dead. In Celtic tradition, hilltops are associated with the Otherworld (the sidhe mounds of Ireland, the tors of Britain). The universal human tendency to associate height with transcendence (Mircea Eliade's axis mundi concept) receives specific cultural expression in both traditions.

Water deposits: One of the most striking archaeological parallels is the practice of depositing valuable objects (weapons, jewelry, cauldrons, and sometimes human remains) in bogs, lakes, and rivers as offerings to the gods. The Gundestrup Cauldron, the Battersea Shield, and the thousands of weapons found in Scandinavian bogs all testify to this shared practice of giving precious things to the waters, possibly reflecting a belief that water was a gateway to the Otherworld.

The Cult of the Head

Davidson identifies the "cult of the head" as one of the most significant parallels between Celtic and Norse religion. Both traditions attributed special power to the human head, treating it as the seat of the soul, the source of prophetic knowledge, and an object of veneration and preservation.

Celtic evidence: Classical authors describe the Celtic practice of collecting and displaying the heads of defeated enemies. Archaeological sites across the Celtic world have yielded skull niches (stone alcoves designed to hold human skulls), head-shaped carvings, and remains consistent with head-hunting practices. The literary tradition preserves the motif of the prophetic severed head: Bran the Blessed's head continues to speak after his death (Mabinogion), and the head of Conall Cernach is a powerful talisman in Irish saga.

Norse evidence: Odin obtains wisdom by consulting the severed head of Mimir, which he preserves with herbs and charms. The god Heimdall is connected to a "head" that may represent a cosmic principle. Sagas describe the practice of placing the heads of horses on poles (nidstang, the "scorn-pole") to curse enemies, suggesting a belief in the head's power to project force across distances.

Davidson argues that this shared reverence for the head derives from a common Indo-European belief in the head as the concentrated essence of a person's being, the physical object that most fully embodies the individual's power, wisdom, and spiritual force. This belief explains why heads were collected (to capture the enemy's power), preserved (to retain the power for one's own use), and displayed (to assert dominance through the accumulation of captured spiritual force).

Battle-Goddesses: Valkyries and the Morrigan

Davidson devotes careful attention to the parallel between Norse Valkyries and Celtic battle-goddesses, arguing that both represent a common Indo-European concept of feminine supernatural power associated with warfare, death, and the selection of the worthy dead.

Norse Valkyries: The Valkyries ("choosers of the slain") are supernatural women who serve Odin by selecting warriors who have died honourably in battle and conducting them to Valhalla, where they will feast and fight until Ragnarok. In the earliest sources, the Valkyries are terrifying figures associated with ravens, wolves, and the carnage of battle. In later sources (particularly the Eddic heroic poems and the sagas), they become more individualized and romanticized, appearing as beautiful women who fall in love with mortal heroes (Brynhild and Sigurd, Sigrun and Helgi).

Celtic battle-goddesses: The Irish Morrigan ("Great Queen" or "Phantom Queen") is a trinity of war-goddesses (Morrigan, Badb, Macha) who appear on battlefields as crows or ravens, influence the outcome of combat through supernatural intervention, and collect the dead. Like the Valkyries, the Morrigan is associated with death, prophecy, and the feminine power that governs the fate of warriors. Badb's appearance over a battlefield in crow form is an omen of slaughter; Macha's curse condemns the men of Ulster to the weakness of childbirth at their time of greatest need.

Davidson notes several specific parallels: both Valkyries and Celtic war-goddesses are associated with ravens and crows (birds that feed on the battlefield dead), both have the power to determine the outcome of battles, both combine sexual attractiveness with terrifying violence, and both serve as intermediaries between the world of the living and the world of the dead. She traces these parallels to a common Indo-European concept of the divine feminine as the power that governs the boundary between life and death.

Sacrifice: Human and Animal

Sacrifice is one of the most extensively documented aspects of both Norse and Celtic religion, and Davidson's comparative treatment reveals both shared patterns and distinctive differences.

Norse sacrifice: The Old Norse term blot ("sacrifice") denotes the central ritual act of Norse religion: the offering of animal blood to the gods, typically by slaughtering cattle, horses, or other animals, sprinkling the blood on the altar and the participants, and consuming the meat in a communal feast. Human sacrifice, while more controversial, is documented in literary sources (the accounts of the temple at Uppsala by Adam of Bremen, the saga descriptions of sacrificial hangings for Odin) and supported by some archaeological evidence (the bog bodies of Denmark and Sweden).

Celtic sacrifice: Caesar and other classical authors describe Celtic human sacrifice, including the famous "wicker man" (a large wicker structure filled with victims and set ablaze). Archaeological evidence includes the Lindow Man (a bog body found in Cheshire, England, who appears to have been killed through a combination of blows, garrotting, and drowning, possibly representing a "triple death" sacrifice) and the numerous votive deposits found in Celtic sacred sites.

Davidson identifies common patterns in Norse and Celtic sacrificial practice: both involve reciprocity (gifts to the gods in exchange for divine favour), both include communal feasting (the sacrificed animal's meat is consumed by the community), both target specific seasons (midwinter and harvest are common times for sacrifice), and both may include the preservation and display of body parts (heads, skins, bones) as continuing objects of sacred power.

She is careful to note that sacrifice should be understood within its cultural context rather than judged by modern standards. Sacrificial killing was not murder but a sacred act of communication with the divine, governed by specific rules, performed by authorized personnel, and understood as essential for maintaining the cosmic order. The transition from a sacrificial to a non-sacrificial religious culture was one of the most profound changes effected by Christianization.

The Cult of the Dead

Both Norse and Celtic traditions maintained complex relationships with the dead, treating them not as absent but as present members of the community who could influence the living for good or ill.

Norse ancestor veneration: The dead were believed to dwell in their burial mounds (the haugr), from which they could emerge to communicate with the living, protect their descendants, or punish those who disturbed their rest. Saga literature is full of encounters with the dead: the draugr (a restless dead person who haunts the living) and the aptrgangr (a "walker-after-death") are among the most vivid figures in Old Norse literature. Ancestor worship also took the form of pouring ale on burial mounds, performing sacrifices at the grave, and invoking the names of the dead in legal and ritual contexts.

Celtic ancestor veneration: The Celtic festival of Samhain (November 1), marking the beginning of winter, was the time when the boundary between the living and the dead was thinnest and the dead could return to the world of the living. The Irish sidhe mounds were both fairy dwellings and burial sites, and the identification of fairies with the dead (documented by Evans-Wentz in The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries) suggests that ancestor worship and fairy belief were closely intertwined. The Breton cult of the Anaon (the congregation of the dead) preserved vigorous ancestor veneration practices well into the modern period.

Davidson argues that the cult of the dead represents one of the most deep-rooted elements of both Norse and Celtic religion, predating the historical period and probably reflecting very ancient Indo-European (or even pre-Indo-European) patterns of belief. The dead are not gone; they are present in the landscape, in the mounds, and in the community's memory. Maintaining a proper relationship with the dead, through offerings, remembrance, and respect, is essential for the well-being of the living community.

Seasonal Festivals

Both Norse and Celtic calendars were structured around seasonal festivals that marked the transitions of the agricultural and pastoral year:

Davidson notes that while the specific dates and practices differed, the underlying pattern was the same: the year was punctuated by sacred festivals that marked the transitions of the natural cycle and that involved sacrifice, feasting, assembly, and communication with the divine. The survival of many of these festivals in Christianized form (Christmas absorbing Yule and midwinter observances; Halloween absorbing Samhain; St. Brigid's Day absorbing Imbolc) testifies to their deep roots in the rhythms of northern European life.

Animal Symbolism

Both Norse and Celtic traditions assigned sacred significance to specific animals:

Ravens and crows: Odin's ravens (Huginn and Muninn, "Thought" and "Memory") bring him news from the world. The Irish Morrigan appears as a crow over battlefields. Both traditions associate these corvids with death, wisdom, and the boundary between worlds.

Wolves: Odin is accompanied by wolves (Geri and Freki). The monstrous wolf Fenrir will devour Odin at Ragnarok. Celtic traditions include the goddess Morrigan in wolf form and the wolf as a symbol of the outlaw and the warrior.

Horses: The horse is sacred in both traditions. Odin's eight-legged horse Sleipnir traverses the nine worlds. The Celtic horse goddess Epona was widely worshipped. Horse sacrifice is documented in both Norse and Celtic contexts, and the horse serves as a psychopomp (guide of the dead) in both traditions.

Boars: The boar is associated with Freyr in Norse tradition (his golden boar Gullinbursti) and with warrior cult in Celtic tradition (boar-crested helmets, boar imagery in Celtic art). The boar represents ferocity, courage, and the wildness of the natural world.

Serpents/dragons: The Midgard Serpent (Jormungandr) encircles the world in Norse mythology. Celtic art is filled with intertwined serpentine forms. Both traditions associate serpents with the underworld, with hidden knowledge, and with the forces of chaos that the divine order must contain.

Davidson argues that these shared animal symbols reflect a common Indo-European "bestiary" of sacred animals, each associated with specific divine or cosmological functions. The correspondence is too systematic to be coincidental: ravens with death and wisdom, horses with sovereignty and the afterlife journey, boars with warrior prowess, serpents with the underworld and cosmic boundaries.

Divination and Prophecy

Both traditions maintained sophisticated systems of divination and prophecy:

Norse seidr: A form of shamanic practice, traditionally associated with women (volva, seeress), involving trance states, spirit journeys, and the consultation of supernatural beings. The seidr practitioner sat on a high platform (seidhjallr), entered a trance state through chanting and drumming, and received visions of the future or knowledge of hidden things. Odin himself practiced seidr, though it was considered somewhat disreputable for a male god to do so (Loki mocks him for it in the Lokasenna).

Celtic prophecy: The Irish fili (poet-seer) and the Druids served as prophets, diviners, and intermediaries between the human and divine worlds. The practice of imbas forosna ("the wisdom that illuminates") involved sensory deprivation, chewing raw flesh, and entering trance to receive prophetic visions. The Welsh tradition of awenyddion (inspired ones) similarly describes individuals who entered altered states to access divine knowledge.

Davidson identifies structural parallels: both traditions distinguish between ordinary knowledge and prophetic knowledge (accessible only through altered states), both associate prophecy primarily with women or with men who adopt feminine ritual roles, and both treat the prophet/seer as a liminal figure who stands on the boundary between the human and divine worlds. She traces these parallels to a common Indo-European shamanic heritage, documented comparatively by Mircea Eliade in Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (1951).

The Otherworld

Both Norse and Celtic traditions describe an Otherworld that exists alongside the physical world:

Norse Otherworld: Multiple afterlife destinations: Valhalla (for warriors chosen by the Valkyries), Folkvangr (Freya's hall), Hel (the realm of the ordinary dead), and the burial mound (where many dead were believed to dwell). The nine worlds of Norse cosmology represent different dimensions of existence, each accessible through specific means.

Celtic Otherworld: Tir na nOg (Land of the Young), Mag Mell (Plain of Delight), Annwn (the Welsh Otherworld), and the sidhe mounds (fairy/ancestor dwellings). The Celtic Otherworld is characterized by its beauty, abundance, and altered time (years pass as days, or vice versa).

Davidson identifies several shared features: both Otherworlds are associated with the west (the direction of the setting sun and thus of death), both can be reached through water (crossing the sea, descending into wells or lakes), both are characterized by feasting and abundance, and both maintain communication with the living world through specific points of access (mounds, caves, islands). She argues that these shared features reflect a common Indo-European concept of death as a journey to a realm that is not separate from the living world but coexistent with it, accessible at specific places and times.

Indo-European Roots vs. Viking Contact

Davidson carefully distinguishes between two types of Norse-Celtic parallels:

Deep parallels (probable Indo-European heritage): The World Tree/cosmic axis, the cult of the head, the three-function ideology (sovereignty, warfare, fertility, as identified by Georges Dumezil), the concept of fate as a spinning/weaving process (the Norse Norns, the Celtic triple goddess), and the basic structure of the Otherworld. These parallels are too deep and too widespread to be explained by cultural contact alone; they likely derive from the common religious heritage of the Indo-European-speaking peoples before their dispersal across Europe.

Specific parallels (probable Viking-age contact): Particular ritual practices, artistic motifs, and mythological narratives shared between Viking-age Scandinavia and Celtic lands (particularly Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man) where Norse settlement occurred. The Viking presence in the British Isles (from the late 8th century onward) created conditions for extensive cultural exchange, and some parallels may reflect this recent interaction rather than ancient common heritage.

Davidson avoids forcing all parallels into a single explanatory framework. Some are better explained by common heritage, others by contact, and some by a combination of both (ancient parallels reinforced and elaborated through later contact). This nuanced approach distinguishes her work from earlier comparative studies that tended to explain all parallels through a single mechanism.

Scholarly Significance

Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe remains the most comprehensive scholarly comparison of Norse and Celtic religious traditions. Its significance lies in several contributions:

Methodological: Davidson's use of four types of evidence (archaeological, literary, historical, folkloric) provides a model for multi-disciplinary religious studies that avoids the limitations of any single approach.

Comparative: By placing Norse religion in its Celtic context (and vice versa), Davidson reveals patterns that are invisible when either tradition is studied in isolation. The parallels illuminate both traditions, showing what is shared (and therefore possibly universal or at least Indo-European) and what is distinctive (and therefore culturally specific).

Interpretive: Davidson treats pre-Christian European religion as a coherent symbolic system rather than as a collection of superstitions. Her respectful, empathetic approach allows the religious worldview of the pagan Norse and Celts to speak on its own terms rather than being filtered through Christian or modern rationalist assumptions.

The book has been criticized for occasional over-generalization (treating "Celtic religion" as a single entity when it varied significantly across time and space) and for relying too heavily on later literary sources (which may not accurately reflect earlier religious practices). But these limitations are acknowledged by Davidson herself, and her work remains the indispensable starting point for anyone interested in the comparative study of Norse and Celtic paganism.

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