The Isles of the Many Gods: An A-Z of the Pagan Gods & Goddesses worshipped in Ancient Britain during the First Millennium CE through to the Middle Ages

This is a very handy reference on the Gods that were historically worshipped in the what is now the UK and Ireland. I really like the way the book is laid out, the detailed references, the short but information-packed descriptions, and the useful charts. I like that I can find what I want and need at a glance. Includes appendices which I found useful.This book, by its structure, gives a wide overview rather than a deep study. Thus, it is excellent for helping the reader to organize their own future studies and researches and for assisting one in making connections when learning more about the Gods and/or the spiritual viewpoints of the many cultures which settled or visited the Isles.This review refers to the Kindle edition. Since I typically read my ebooks on an iPad in landscape mode, I had none of the problems with the charts that another reviewer noted. I bought this book for the Kindle app because I specifically wanted a version on my iPad (which I use as my mobile office). But I usually prefer hard copy books and like this one well enough that I may buy it in print at some point.I would have liked to have seen illustrations of some of the inscriptions and landscape referred in the book to since many, if not most, of the Gods are Spirits of place: rivers, springs, areas or provinces. That would have pushed the book up to a stellar five star review. It also would have been a lot more work for the authors. So, for what the intention of the book was, apparently, to be, the authors did a super job.I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to study and research this topic or who just wants a handy reference.

Sorita D'Este and David Rankine have put together an awesome book that discusses all the Gods and Goddesses tht were were worshipped on the British Aisles. I think there were clese to 147 of them give or take a few. The deities come frm a variety of different pantheons ranging from Welsh, Irish,Gaulic,Saxon, Norse, Roman, Greek and Egyptian. There might have been a few I missed. That's a big infusion of Gods and Goddesses. The Britsih Aisle have been invaded by score of different people over the last millenia or so. The Roman and North European invasions have brought over the largest contribution of deities worshipped. I think the Romans brought over most of teh foreign deities save for the Norse and Saxon ones. The Romans conflated most of the deities or equated them to corresponding deities in their pantheon. The most popular was Jupiter.Most of the entries are encylcopediac and numerous . There is a chart on the top which tells you their place of origin, where they were worshipped, what literary evidence reamin of them and their other names. The entries tell the reader what they were worshipped for and what areas of life they were in charge of. Entries also expalin what artifacts of them remain. Most deities have roughly half a page to maybe a page of information on them pending availability of knowledge available. Sometime there are scant remains or scant references to the various deities. Other deities have sometimes up to 5 pages on them and they are detailed.For those who work magic and wish to work with British deities then this book gives a great over view. If you are using the kindle addition there is one drawback and that is not the fault of the author's but rather the technology. The charts are not big enough to fit on the page and there are these little arrows that make the other half show up. On some of there longer charts this can get rather cumbersome. Excellent book.

The Isle of the Many Gods is a wonderful new addition to the study of the deities in ancient Britain.Rankine and D'Este provides a well researched, well written overview of the numerous gods and goddesses.For each entry, the authors provide the origins of the deity's name, the place where they wereworshiped, literary references, and archaeological evidence (i.e. inscriptions, etc.) They stick to the"facts" and avoid flying off into New Age fantasy. The text is both informative and enjoyable reading. This is a wonderful book which I will refer to frequently!

When I ordered this book, I was expecting a decidedly British Isles take on all the many local gods; gods who inhabited the rivers and lakes, the thickly forested hills, the misty moors. I found those, all right, but also hundreds of imported gods, gods who came to the Isles with others -- Romans, Celts, Scots, Picts, Angles, Saxons, Danes, in short, EVERYone who ever stepped foot on or in Britain. Following the alphabet of gods made it easy to trace the tracks left by the myriad invaders of these Isles. Many names were familiar, many of the names sounded more Latin, and I wondered how it happened that a Latin-named god became one worshipped in groves and springs. And how long did a particular god find favor before he or she was "dumped" in favor of the latest "New God?" Still, I like having it on my shelves; I can find quickly, no matter how obscure the name, a god or goddess as the need arises.

This book is ok so far but I need to say I’m a little upset at the audio on this book. The woman can’t even pronounce “Celtic” right or “Gaelic” right. I feel it needs better audio than what is on this for kindle. Please sort this? They are pronouncing it like the football team. I need the audio for my dyslexia would be nice to hear the words said how they are meant to be said.

I bought the kindle version of this and i found adjusting the text slightly awkward nothing to dramatic as it did not effect reading this fantastic book! I found this book a great source for starting looking into the pagan gods of the British isles, the amount of knowledge contained within the pages is incredible there is more information then i thought of and its presented in an easy way to read and understand! I feel the book has been well researched and put together and i would readliy recommend this for anyone who is interested!

This book succeeds at being a great reference work for pagan deities worshipped in the British isles in the pre-Christian period. I was pleasantly surprised to find more than I expected. There were Celtic deities, Roman ones, Greek, Egyptian, Persian (these ones coming over to this country with the Roman occupation), Saxon one and more. I was particularly pleased that the authors avoided idle speculation, but backed up their work with verifiable archaeological and literary sources.I'd just like to respond to the reviewer who criticised the work for being too pricey. The Kindle Edition (which I read) is *not* that expensive, and given that Kindle reading apps are free, this is not really a fair criticism.

A comprehensive coverage of the gods of the islands of the mighty. There are a few omissions like Gog and Magog. Any one interested in the gods of Merlin's Isle would value this. No real depth about the myths related to the gods. Some entries barely more than inscription dedicated to this God exists at name of place