Silence of the Gods
The Untold History of Europe's Last Pagan Peoples

A masterful new history of Europe's last, and sometimes forgotten, unchristianised peoples – from Fennoscandia to the Baltic and European Russia.

Francis Young (Author)

9781009586573, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 June 2025

456 pages
22.3 x 14.9 x 3 cm, 0.72 kg

'This is an excellent and valuable contribution to pagan and religious studies beyond Western Europe and the Mediterranean world … Highly recommended.' A. Sheppard, Choice

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.

Introduction
1. Europe's unchristianised edge: who were the 'Pagans'?
2. Mere Christianisation: curiosity and ethnography in the fifteenth century
3. (Counter-)reformation in unchristianised Europe: the sixteenth century
4. Antiquarians and witch-hunters: the seventeenth century
5. Darkness in light: pre-Christian religion in enlightenment Europe
6. Folklore and fantasy: the nineteenth-century reinvention of paganism
Epilogue: pre-Christian, post-Christian?

Subject Areas: History of religion [HRAX]