Archaic England

The author investigates England's prehistoric past by reading megalithic monuments, earthworks, place-names, coins, customs, and folktales as surviving traces of earlier beliefs. He examines saint legends, fairy superstitions, linguistic survivals and landscape features to argue for continuity of folk memory and to reinterpret sites such as hill figures, dolmens and sacred orchards. Combining archaeological description, comparative mythology, etymology and local tradition, the book proposes links between classical and native motifs and offers thematic chapters and appendices that synthesize evidence toward a reconstructed picture of archaic belief and ritual.