Book contents
- Twilight of the Godlings
- Reviews
- Frontispiece
- Twilight of the Godlings
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Plates
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 A World Full of Small Gods
- 2 Menagerie of the Divine
- 3 The Nymph and the Cross
- 4 Furies, Elves and Giants
- 5 The Fairy Synthesis
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
Epilogue
The Fairy Legacy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 March 2023
- Twilight of the Godlings
- Reviews
- Frontispiece
- Twilight of the Godlings
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Plates
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 A World Full of Small Gods
- 2 Menagerie of the Divine
- 3 The Nymph and the Cross
- 4 Furies, Elves and Giants
- 5 The Fairy Synthesis
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The book’s epilogue summarises the book’s argument that Britain’s godlings have a long history, arising from a mingling and interplay of learned and popular traditions. The epilogue looks ahead to the development of fairy belief into its recognisable, modern form in the early modern period and pays particular attention to the survival or revival of Classical (and classicising) elements in the portrayal of small gods. The epilogue concludes with a reflection on why people yearn to believe in godlings of nature, arguing that it arises from a human desire to connect with a real or imagined realm of the ‘almost human’.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Twilight of the GodlingsThe Shadowy Beginnings of Britain's Supernatural Beings, pp. 305 - 321Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023