Pagan Places: Contemporary Paganism, British Fantasy Fiction, and the Case of Ryhope Wood

Abstract

This chapter opens with a brief account of the author’s visit to Wayland’s Smithy in Oxfordshire, England, one of many ancient sites in England that have become important to contemporary pagans. This introduction is the launch pad for consideration of the pleasures available in the repeated trope of pagan settings, especially as they are represented in fantasy fiction set in Britain of the late twentieth century. Through a close reading of Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Wood (1984), Wilkins argues that the pleasures of pagan settings in fantasy fiction mirror and reinforce the pleasures that real-world pagan places afford.