Customer Reviews

The Tribe of Witches: The Religion of the Dobunni and Hwicce

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This book examines in great detail the toponyms, topography, tribe(s) and history of an important then-forested area of Southwestern England, the Cotswold hills, close to South Wales. The author connects the local tribe(s), Iron Age, Roman-era, and Saxon-era, to the toponyms and topography of the local area and makes the argument that the Celtic tribes deified natural landscape and that the principal local goddess of the local tribe, the Dobunni tribe, (later in "Anglo-Saxon" England the Hwicce tribe,) was associated with this landscape. He proposes continuity, that the Hwicce (Anglo-Saxon name) and the Dobunni (Romano-Celtic) were one and the same tribe at different times. He goes on to discuss the iconography showing "Rosmerta" with her tub (cauldron) and "Mercury", iconography widespread in the Celtic world (Britain and mainland Europe). He names the principal goddess (who has a tub or cauldron) and the principal gods of the area (including a hunter god) and suggests that the Old-English name of the tribe, Hwicce, is connected with this goddess and her cauldron. You'll have to read the book to get the name of the principal goddess and god and to find out more about them!

Some of his theses are something of a stretch but they are plausible and fascinating. There is no question that continuity of people and culture in England through the changes in language is now proven. The old idea that the "Anglo-Saxons" displaced the Celtic-speaking Britons is oversimplified. The author really does a thorough job at gathering circumstantial evidence for his theses concerning the Dobunni and presenting it. I imagine that some lay-readers will find the detail heavy-going and uninteresting. But for some readers the revelations will be worth the wait.

One major frustration I had was that the author never explicitly connects the different parts of the book together. He leaves the reader to connect the arguments into a larger synthesis. Possibly, he wanted to be cautious as an academic. Or perhaps he did not want to connect the arguments together resulting in a grand synthesis because he wants his reader to make up her or his mind. On this level, the book is a thorough academic examination of the local tribe and its geography and religion from different perspectives. As such it comes across as somewhat disjointed.

I'm going to stick my neck out and say that this leaves us with the slim possibility that in the early 1950s, Gerald Gardner or a local "coven" in the nearby New Forest area, had based their religion (now called Wicca) on an albeit transmuted local tradition based on very old local Celtic religion. IF so, it seems most likely to me that they were "reconstructionists" of their time (1950s), mixing many of the influences described in Prof. Hutton's book "Triumph of the Moon", one such influence I would suggest having perhaps been (in the light of the material in Stephen Yeates' book) the Old Celtic Religion of a local tribe, the Dobunni/Hwicce. The author may have had this in mind.

The book loses two stars (in my judgement) for lack of clarity and structure, but gains one star for bravery of his thesis and methodology, and deserves at least four stars for the thoroughness of his job.