British Gods

Subtitled 'Religion and Myth in the Western Kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon Britain',

This is Malcolm Quarrie's Masters' thesis which was expanded into a 360-page book and published by the Oxford University Press in 1924.

It is a study of the Gods of Anglo-Saxon England, primarily those Celtic, Roman, Sumerian and other Gods worshipped between 50BC and 650AD in the western portions of England.

Concentrating on a fertility Goddess called Shub-Niggurath, Quarrie makes claims regarding its worship in various forms - and under various names - in by Celts, Romans and Saxons throughout antiquity.

Most scholars who have discussed her believe Shub-Niggurath to be an aspect of the mother-goddess Brigid, but Quarrie attempts to trace her origins, believing instead that her worship originated in Assyria before it moved West through Europe to Gaul, and from there to England.

In England her worship was centred in the Forest of Dean and the towns of Gloucester, Bath, Cirencester and Brichester, where these worshippers of 'The Goat With a Thousand Young' had a very fierce reputation.

• Andrew Saunder's friend Professor JRR Tolkien - presently of Pembroke College, Oxford - gave him copy of this book.