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Queens of the Wild
- Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe: An Investigation
- Narrated by: Gary Paul Williams
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
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Queens of the Wild
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Summary
A concise history of the goddess-like figures who evade both Christian and pagan traditions, from the medieval period to the present day
In this riveting account, renowned scholar Ronald Hutton explores the history of deity-like figures in Christian Europe. Drawing on anthropology, archaeology, literature, and history, Hutton shows how hags, witches, the fairy queen, and the Green Man all came to be, and how they changed over the centuries.
Looking closely at four main figures—Mother Earth, the Fairy Queen, the Mistress of the Night, and the Old Woman of Gaelic tradition—Hutton challenges decades of debate around the female figures who have long been thought versions of pre-Christian goddesses. He makes the compelling case that these goddess figures found in the European imagination did not descend from the pre-Christian ancient world, yet have nothing Christian about them. It was in fact nineteenth-century scholars who attempted to establish the narrative of pagan survival that persists today.
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What listeners say about Queens of the Wild
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Geraldine Charles
- 17-03-23
Interesting but ruined by narration
I have no idea where Audible found this narrator, but his voice is unpleasant to listen to and the over-stressing of certain words annoying. Some words are not pronounced correctly. I haven't been able to listen for long enough to make an adequate judgement of the content, but usually enjoy anything by Ronald Hutton.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Don't leave your toaster in the rain
- 02-02-23
Terrible narration!
This is the worst audiobook reading I have ever encountered. I was listening to a novel with a reading app that had more warmth and animation. Some of the mispronunciations are howlers! They are not just manglings of placenames and technical terms but failures of common vocabulary. It really distracts from the text. Prof Hutton himself is an engaging speaker. Don't know why he was asked to read his own work
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ariadne Rainbird
- 03-05-23
Interesting book but Very slow reading
A very informative book. I started listening at normal speed but the narration was unbearably slow. Thank goodness for the option to increase the speed. I listened to it at 1.5x and that was okay
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Gavin Bennet
- 23-02-23
Good book, bad narration
It's probably best to just buy a copy of the actual book and read it yourself rather than listen to this. The book itself is excellent but the narration almost makes it unlistenable. It's as if the reader is seeing the text for the first time and is just stumbling through it. The mispronunciations are also very off putting, I mean, everyone knows how to pronounce Gawain, don't they? Well this narrator doesn't. Why isn't there a producer to pick up on this sort of thing, or is there and they are just as clueless as the reader? Shame it wasn't sent to the author first to high light this sort of thing. I will steer clear of anything read by Gary Paul Williams in the future.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- GeraniumCat
- 28-01-24
Buy it on Kindle, the narrator is dreadful!
How can the publisher think that they are serving an author well when they agree to such an appalling reading? I was eager to hear this book by an author I admire tremendously, only to be horrified when I started to listen. Another reviewer has said that it sounds like text-to-speech and I agree, that was my first thought as well. In fact, if you were to listen to it via the text-to-speech function on Kindle you'd probably find the reading much more coherent.
If the quality of the book is as good as the lectures I've seen by Professor Hutton, then it's well worth finding in another format. That's what I'm going to do.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 09-06-23
Unbearable Audio
It sounds like a text-to-speech programme. in fact, I'm tempted to believe it is given just how artificial and jarring it is. I assume the content is brilliant, given the author and other works. But you wouldn't know from this. Tried listening on 1.2 and 1.5 speeds - no good. As an audiobook, absolutely atrocious. Gave up. Will return it.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Sam
- 05-04-23
I just couldn’t stand the narration
I was very much looking forward to this book after hearing some lectures but I couldn’t even get through the first chapter. The robotic, over stressed pronunciation made this just unbearable. Just buy the book.
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2 people found this helpful