GOGMAGOG The Buried Gods

GOGMAGOG The Buried Gods
English | Publisher: Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1957 (1957) | PDF | 106.25 Mb

Gogmagog - The Buried Gods is Lethbridge’s account of his discovery of hill figures on the banks of an Iron Age encampment known as Wandlebury, south of Cambridge. By re-interpreting a piece of local folklore and undertaking painstaking fieldwork, he believed that he had located three lost chalk-cut figures. Lethbridge’s study commenced with the dissection of a local, mediaeval tale once told by Gervase of Tilbury. He was able to decipher the myth utilising a philosophy that he shared with his great friend Sir William Ridgeway, who also believed; that if you wanted to find out anything, you must first ‘strip off the layers’.
Lethbridge’s discovery of the Wandlebury giants was frowned upon by the academics of the archaeological world. Many believed that they were figments of his over-active imagination and refused to believe in their existence. It was the negative and aggressive reaction to this work by his peers that caused Lethbridge to leave Cambridge in disgust and establish a new life away from the ‘trade unionism’ of his profession.