PREFACE:
THE LIFE AND WORKS OF
HILDA ELLIS DAVIDSON
Hilda Ellis Davidson is one of those rare scholars whom one finds it hard,
sometimes, to believe can really exist. Her publications include the very full
commentary to The History of the Danes: Saxo Grammaticus (1979–80);
The Road to Hel (1943; reprinted 1968); Gods and Myths of Northern Europe
(1964); Pagan Scandinavia (1967); Scandinavian Mythology (1969); The
Viking Road to Byzantium (1976); Myths and Symbols of Pagan Europe
(1988) and The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe (1993). These erudite and
readable books have helped extend popular as well as scholarly interest in
the fields of Norse, Germanic and British myth and folklore, with translations
into Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch and Japanese. Indefatigable in her
own work, Hilda is equally energetic in the support of other good work,
wherever she comes across it: sometimes gathering up valuable and neglected
papers to find them a publisher, sometimes advising a promising student on
their approach to research. For many a young scholar Hilda has been, if not
quite a goddess, then at least a fairy godmother. As Jacqueline Simpson, the
last President of the Folklore Society, has said, Hilda’s first great gift is
enthusiasm which communicates itself to all who work with her.
Her second great gift is in combining different fields of study, bridging
gaps between the disciplines of archaeology, literature, folklore and history.
Two fine examples of this can be found in her presidential addresses to the
Folklore Society in 1975 and 1976: ‘Folklore and Literature’ and ‘Folklore
and History’, which are touchstones for rigorous scholasticism within
interdisciplinary material. They warn against any distorting tunnel-vision
which selects only what fits one’s own argument, or a reductive, motifcollecting attitude to the subject in which the mythology appears. Further,
there are the equal dangers of pursuit of an ‘archetype’ figure or tale. Instead,
these papers remind us, it is essential to acknowledge a variety of possibilities
and complications: the fluidity of myths, and their interplay with changing
situations or contexts, are a part of their longevity.
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