These original contributions to the study of medieval literature and civilization in Britain and Scandinavia are published as a memorial to Norman Garmonsway, Chair of English at King's College, University of London, who died in 1967. The aim has been to offer to the public a book of essays which have a direct bearing upon his central academic interests and which is thus structured, in some measure, after his mind. He saw the study of the language and literature (together with the history and archaeology) of early Britain and Scandinavia as forming a single coherent discipline and this conception of unity in diversity can be glimpsed both in the range of matters which he chose to write upon and in many of his individual pieces. These essays will also appeal to the interested non-specialist, reflecting the fact that Norman Garmonsway was, despite his erudition, the very antithesis of the remote and secluded scholar.

Frazer's series which attempted to define the shared elements of religious belief and scientific thought, discussing fertility rites, human sacrifice, the dying god, the scapegoat, and many other symbols and practices whose influences had extended into 20th-century culture. His thesis is that old religions were fertility cults that revolved around the worship and periodic sacrifice of a sacred king. Frazer proposed that mankind progresses from magic through religious belief to scientific thought.