Silence of the Gods

The Untold History of Europe's Last Pagan Peoples

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The formal conversion to Christianity in 1387 of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania seemingly marked the end of Europe's last 'pagan' peoples. But the reality was different. At the margins, often under the radar, around the dusky edgelands, pre-Christian religions endured and indeed continued to flourish for an astonishing five centuries. Silence of the Gods tells, for the first time, the remarkable story of these forgotten peoples: belated adopters of Christian belief on the outer periphery of Christendom, from the Sámi of the frozen north to the Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians around the Baltic, as well as the Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia's Volga-Ural Plain. These communities, Dr Young reveals, responded creatively to Christianity's challenge, but for centuries stopped short of embracing it. His book addresses why this was so, uncovering stories of fierce resistance, unlikely survival and considerable ingenuity. He revolutionises understandings of the lost religions of the last pagans.

• The first book in English about the late survival of pre-Christian religion in northern and eastern Europe, even after the climacteric Battle of Grunwald in 1410
• Francis Young is an established and internationally acclaimed authority on the history of pre-Christian belief and the intersection between history and myth: both his previous CUP books were academic bestsellers
• Brings entirely new and surprising perspectives to the interpretation of pagan religions in Europe in the period post–1387
• The history of paganism is a subject of considerable appeal and fascination, to readers in several fields: history, religion, myth and folklore, and the history of ideas