PAGANISM, ANGLO-SAXON. The "Anglo-Saxon" history of England stretches from the fifth to the eleventh centuries. Even before then, however, in 98 CE, Tacitus cites the "Angli" as one of seven tribes on the northeastern German...

The city of Pagan (also spelled Bagan), the first capital of the Burman kings, is situated in central Burma (now Myanmar) in a sharp bend of the Irrawaddy River. The city was also known as Arimaddanapura, "the city that is a crusher of...

Traditional designation of a practitioner of classical polytheisms. The early Christians often used the term to refer to non-Christians who worshiped multiple deities. Christian missionaries frequently sought to stamp out pagan practices by building...

Used of a person who is not conventionally religious, i.e. is not a Christian, Jew, or a Muslim. Loosely used of a person whose behaviour is not conformist. In Bless me, Father, by Neil Boyd, a priest calls a neighbour ‘you heathen’ in mock...

Someone who does not believe in one of the world’s main religions is a pagan. ‘Pagans’ is used insultingly on two occasions in Girl with Green Eyes, by Edna O’Brien. Etymologically the word refers to someone who lived in a...

Deserted Bst. city in Upper Burma. Filled with thousands of temples and shrines, many of very high workman ship. Founded in 847, reached zenith in eleventh century. Abandoned about 1300. Most beautiful building is Temple of Ānanda (eleventh...

Paganism (from Latin paganus, meaning "country dweller, rustic") is a term which, from a Western perspective, has come to connote a broad set of spiritual or cultic practices or beliefs of any folk religion, and of historical and contemporary...