Silence of the Gods: The Untold History of Europe's Last Pagan - Hardcover

The formal conversion to Christianity in 1387 of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania seemingly marked the end of Europe's last 'pagan' peoples. But the reality was different. At the margins, often under the radar, around the dusky edgelands, pre-Christian religions endured and indeed continued to flourish for an astonishing five centuries.

Silence of the Gods tells, for the first time, the remarkable story of these forgotten peoples: belated adopters of Christian belief on the outer periphery of Christendom. These include:

• The Sámi of the frozen north,
• The Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians around the Baltic,
• The Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia's Volga-Ural Plain.

These communities, Dr. Young reveals, responded creatively to Christianity's challenge but, for centuries, stopped short of fully embracing it.

His book addresses why this was so, uncovering stories of:

• Fierce resistance,
• Unlikely survival,
• Considerable ingenuity.

Dr. Young revolutionises understandings of the lost religions of the last pagans.