The Triumph of the Moon

The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft is a book of religious history by the English historian Ronald Hutton, first published by Oxford University Press in 1999. At the time, Hutton was a Reader in History at Bristol University, and had previously published a study of ancient pre-Christian religion, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles (1991) as well as studies of British folk customs and the Early Modern period. The Triumph of the Moon dealt with the early history of Wicca, a contemporary Pagan religion which developed in England in the early 20th century. The first academic study to tackle the entirety of this subject, Hutton questioned many assumptions about Wicca's development and argued that many of the claimed connections to longstanding hidden pagan traditions are questionable at best. However, he also argued for its importance as a genuine new religious movement. The work was first presented as "The Triumph of the Moon" by Hutton, at the Centre For Pagan Studies in 1995.The Triumph of the Moon was well received in both academia and the mainstream press. Various academics working in the fields of Pagan studies, the history of western esotericism and the history of magic have praised it as an influential study that helped to legitimise the historical investigation of alternate and occult religious movements. An academic anthology edited by Dave Evans and Dave Green was later published in its honour, entitled Ten Years of Triumph of the Moon (2009). The book received a mixed reception from the Pagan community itself. Many welcomed it, praising it as an authoritative account of Wiccan history, but others were more critical, arguing that Hutton had prematurely rejected the idea that Wicca was the continuation of an ancient, pre-Christian tradition. Several Wiccans taking the latter view openly published their criticisms, with the Wiccan Jani Farrell-Roberts taking part in a published debate with Hutton in the British Pagan magazine The Cauldron (2003), whilst the New Zealander Ben Whitmore published a short book casting a critical eye on Hutton's work, entitled Trials of the Moon (2010).