H. R. Ellis Davidson

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Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson is a British antiquarian and academic, writing in particular on Norse mythology. Gods and Myths of Northern Europe (Penguin Books, 1964) is considered one of the most thorough and reputable sources on Icelandic, Norse and Germanic mythology. Davidson uses literary, historical and archaeological evidence to discuss the stories and customs of northern Europe. She is also known as Hilda Roderick Ellis, as demonstrated by the title page of the 1943 edition of The Road to Hel.

[edit] Life

1914: born Bebington, Cheshire (now in Merseyside)
education
- Park High School for Girls, Birkenhead
- Newnham College, Cambridge: Firsts in English and Archeology
1940: Ph.D.: pagan beliefs of Scandinavia under Professor and Mrs Chadwick
1939-1944: Assistant Lecturer in English at the Royal Holloway College
part-time lecturer in English at Birkbeck College
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
member of the Council of the Folklore Society
held a Caloutse Gulbenkian Research Fellowship at the Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge

[edit] Publications

The Road to Hel (1943)
The Golden Age of Northumbria (1958)
The Sword in Anglo-Saxon England: its archaeology and literature (1962)
Gods and Myths of Northern Europe (1964)
Pagan Scandinavia (1967)
Scandinavian Mythology (1969)
The chariot of the sun, and other rites and symbols of the Northern Bronze Age (with Peter Gelling) (1969)
The Viking Road to Byzantium (1976)
Patterns of Folklore (1978)
The History of the Danes/ Saxo Grammaticus (editor) (1979-1980)
Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: early Scandinavian and Celtic religions (1988)
Myths and Symbols of Pagan Europe (1989)
The Seer in Celtic and other traditions (1993)
The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe (1993)
Boundaries and Thresholds: papers from a colloquium of the Katherine Briggs Club (editor) (1993)
Roles of the Northern Goddess (1998)
Supernatural Enemies (editor with Anna Chaudri) (2001)