Recommended reading: “Staging the Pagan Past” edited by Ralf Hoppadietz and Karin Reichenbach

The collection of essays Staging the Pagan Past edited by Ralf Hoppadietz and Karin Reichenbach has been published in open access.

The allure of the Pagan past—the prehistoric and early medieval eras before Christianisation—pervades modern media, from fantasy novels and video games to Viking TV series and comics about ancient heroes. This volume explores the deeper, more political currents running through the popular fascination with these distant times. Focusing on three key areas—historical reenactment, ethnic Neopaganism, and the metal music scene—the book examines how these fields not only entertain but also serve as powerful vehicles for political ideologies.

The collected essays explore how these “popular Pagans” create romanticised images of pre-Christian societies, idealising their perceived naturalness, ethnic purity, and martial heroism. Drawing on ethnicist thinking, ancestral identification and nostalgia for an unadulterated past, these portrayals often disregard current scholarly discourse. Instead, they perpetuate outdated narratives, that are more in line with far-right ideals, fostering exclusionary beliefs and anti-democratic rhetoric. Based on research discussions initiated at the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe, this volume is the first to shed light on the political role of the Pagan past in contemporary Germany, Poland and Hungary.

The book is available as a print publication and in open access here.