Tom Rowsell
Tom Rowsell is a British historian, YouTuber, filmmaker, and former journalist. Rowsell operates Survive the Jive, a YouTube channel focused on pre-Christian religions, particularly Germanic paganism, but which also explores wider historical subjects such as Archaeogenetics and Indo-European studies.
Prior to becoming a YouTuber, Rowsell wrote as a journalist for publications including iD magazine and Dazed magazine.[1] In 2014, Rowsell directed From Ruins to Runes, an independent documentary about Anglo-Saxon paganism. The Folklore Society describes the documentary as focused on "Anglo-Saxon haunted barrows and pagan shrines to the dead; seeks evidence for roots of a" pagan past by consultations with neo-pagans and Viking re-enactors, and finds healing gods and ancient cultures in old chronicles"[2] Far-left newspaper Morning Star commented in their review, "The documentary features a sword display by Fighters Against Racism, an anti-racist martial arts group, but as Rowsell emphasizes historical heritage belongs to neither the right or left. It’s more important than that."[3]
In 2020 the Danish broadsheet newspaper Weekend advising described Rowsell as a "British journalist and historian" in an article detailing his role in the dispute between historian Sturla Ellingvåg and the scientist Eske Willerslev regarding a paper they co-authored on the subject of genetics of the Viking age.[4]
References
- The Folklore Society. 2014. "Non-Print Media Away 2014". Online. Last accessed November 15, 2020.
- Morning Star
- Weekendavisen