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The universe of the Anglo-Saxons

The Angles and the Saxons, afterwards known as “the Anglo-Saxons”, lived along the coast of the

North Sea. They attacked Britain while it was under the Roman domination. After the year 410,

when the Roman army left the province, the Anglo-Saxons were settled there in growing number.

The next wave of invaders from Central Europe, the Saxons, the Angles and the Jutes (all were

Germanic tribes) gradually pushed the native Celts to west, in Wales, and to north, in Scotland. The

Saxons settled in Essex, Sussex and Wessex (which covered much of the west of the country), the

Jutes limited to Kent, and the Angles settled in the east of England, in Mercia and Northumbria,

which extends up to the Scottish border. This border was well defended, so that their attack on

Scotland, in 7th century, was rejected.

In the next four centuries, the Anglo-Saxons fought each other. Offa, King of Mercia (757-797 AD),

was a strong leader and he built a ground wave along the border with Wales to isolate the Celts in

mountains. But, after his death, Wessex became the dominant kingdom. In Scotland, the Picts and

the Scottish were eventually united in one kingdom under King Kenneth MacAlpine.

At the middle of the 9th century, the Danes, known as Vikings, after a century when they attackedthe country, bringing with them their prey, decided it’s time to settle down. Among the local leaders,

  just Alfred de Wessex (871-901 AD) was strong enough to defeat them and to conclude a peace

agreement quite advantageous. The Danes, who settled in large number in York, had to control the

north and the east of the country, (“Danelaw”), while Alfred dominate the rest. Alfred is known as

“the British Navy father” because he established a strong navy which, at first, defeated the Danes at

sea, and then protected the coasts, encouraging the trade.

Although the Anglo-Saxons were a bunch of wilds which often arguing, they were the ones who

founded the English state. They divided the country in districts (which the Normans renamed

counties - comitate) and designed the agricultural system with three fields, which existed until the

agricultural revolution from 18th century. They have also founded the feudal system through which

the estate’s lord collected the taxes and organize the local army. They also created the witan or the

council which is the base of the Private Council from today.

The Anglo-Saxons brought with them their Germanic religion. Among their gods we remember

Woden, god of heaven, Thor, god of thunder and storms, and Freya, goddess of peace. Words

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday derived from their name. Christianity quickly vanished, leaving only

among the Celts of Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. In 563 AD, on Iona Island, near the west

coast of Scotland, a monk named Columban founded a monastery which Christianized the people

from north, in part. Under its influence is also built a monastery at Lindisfarne, in Northumberland,

and another at Kells, in Ireland, and many smaller ones spread the Celtic areas. Early decorative

traditions of Celts were continued under Christian auspices. At Lindisfarne were created beautiful

illustrated Gospels, now exposed at British Museum; Irish abbey created the splendid manuscript

Book of Kells, now exposed in Dublin. However, Christianity remained a secondary religion.

At the end of the 6th century, monk Augustine (that once was heard saying “O Lord, make me chaste,

but not yet”) was sent from Rome to convert the Anglo-Saxons. He has directed to Canterbury and

became the first archbishop. He was remarkably skilled in converting kings and nobility. Monks from

the north have converted masses. The monasteries appeared throughout the country and became

places of study. At Jarrow-on-Tyne, a monk named Bede or Beda (673-735 AD) wrote Ecclesiastical 

history of the English people, which, with Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, made in the next century under the

direction of King Alfred, are the main sources of information on the time. Eighth-century epic poem,

Beowulf , is the first poem written in a European language, other than Latin or Greek.

Alfred, who taught himself Latin at 40 years, translated Bede’s creation into English. Being a taught

man, he encouraged others to learn, established schools and formulated a system of laws, improved

the army and navy, earning the name of “Alfred the Great”. 

After the death of the great king, troubles came back. His successors conquered the north-east of the

country, but in 980, Viking invasions have resumed. King Ethelred tried to pay them to stop attacking,

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by establishing a tax known as the Danish taxes (danegeld). But Ethelred, called “the undecided”, was

a poor psychologist. Danes became more predatorily, while he became more and more weak.

After his death, with no strong Saxon successor, the witan elected as the leader the King of Danes,

Knut. Knut has proved as a wise ruler. He shared power between Danish and Saxon and, to protect its

northern border, he forced the Scottish King, Malcolm II, to recognize him as overlord. Twenty years

later, Malcolm’s grandson, Duncan, would be killed by Macbeth who, in turn, was also killed; thethrone will return to Duncan’s son, who became King Malcolm III. So Macbeth has a real base,

although Lady Macbeth and Banquo’s ghost are less authentic. After Knut’s death, the witan choose

Edward as king, the son of Ethelred, who spends almost all his life in Normandy, region in France

where a group of Vikings sat.

Treasure trove found in farmer’s field 

It's an unprecedented find that could revolutionize ideas about medieval England's Germanic rulers:

An amateur treasure-hunter searching a farmer's field with a metal detector unearthed a huge

collection of  Anglo-Saxon gold and silver artifacts.

The discovery sent a thrill through Britain's archaeological community, which said Thursday that it

offers new insight into the world of the Anglo-Saxons, who ruled England from the fifth century untilthe 1066 Norman invasion and whose cultural influence is still felt throughout the English-speaking

world.

"This is just a fantastic find completely out of the blue," Roger Bland, who managed the cache's

excavation, told The Associated Press. "It will make us rethink the Dark Ages."

The treasure trove includes intricately designed helmet crests embossed with a frieze of running

animals, enamel-studded sword fittings and a checkerboard piece inlaid with garnets and gold. One

gold band bore a biblical inscription in Latin calling on God to drive away the bearer's enemies.

The Anglo-Saxons were a group of Germanic tribes who invaded England starting in the wake of the

collapse of the Roman Empire. Their artisans made striking objects out of gold and enamel, and their

language, Old English, is a precursor of modern English.

The cache of gold and silver pieces was discovered in what was once Mercia, one of five main Anglo-

Saxon kingdoms, and is thought to date to between 675 and 725.

For Terry Herbert, the unemployed metal-detecting enthusiast who made the discovery on July 5

while scouring a friend's farm in the western region of Staffordshire, it was "more fun than winning

the lottery."

The 55-year-old spent five days searching the field alone before he realized he needed help and

notified authorities. Professional archaeologists then took over the find.

"I was going to bed and in my sleep I was seeing gold items," Herbert said of the experience.

The gold alone in the collection weighs 11 pounds and suggests that early  medieval England was a far

wealthier place than previously believed, according to Leslie Webster, the former curator of Anglo-

Saxon archaeology at the British Museum. 

She said the crosses and other religious artifacts mixed in with the military items might shed new

light on the relationship between Christianity and warfare among the Anglo-Saxons -- in particular a

large cross she said may have been carried into battle.

The hoard was officially declared treasure by a coroner on Thursday, which means it will be valued by

experts and offered up for sale to a museum in Britain. Proceeds will be split 50-50 between Herbert

and his farmer friend, who has not been identified. The find's exact location is being kept secret to

deter looters.

Bland said he could not give a precise figure for the value of the collection, but said the two could

each be in line for a "seven-figure sum."

Kevin Leahy, the archaeologist who catalogued the find, said the stash includes dozens of pommel

caps -- decorative elements attached to the knobs of swords -- and appeared to be war loot. He

noted that "Beowulf," the Anglo-Saxon epic poem, contains a reference to warriors stripping the

pommels of their enemies' weapons as mementoes.

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"It looks like a collection of trophies, but it is impossible to say if the hoard was the spoils from a

single battle or a long and highly successful military career," he said.

"We also cannot say who the original, or the final, owners were, who took it from them, why they

buried it or when? It will be debated for decades."

Experts said they've so far examined a total of 1,345 items. But they've also recovered 56 pieces of 

earth that X-ray analysis suggests contain more artifacts -- meaning the total could rise to about1,500.

The craftsmanship was some of the highest-quality ever seen in finds of this kind, Leahy said, and

many British archaeologists clearly shared his enthusiasm.

Bland, who has documented discoveries across Britain, called it "completely unique." Martin Welch,

a specialist in Anglo-Saxon archaeology at University College London, said no one had found

"anything like this in this country before."

Herbert said one expert likened his discovery to finding Egyptian Pharoah Tutankhamen's tomb, 

adding: "I just flushed all over when he said that. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up."

The collection is in storage at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, where some of the items are

to go on display starting Friday.

It's unclear how the gold ended up in the field, although archaeologists suggested it may have beenburied to hide the loot from roving enemies, a common practice at the time. The site's location is

unusual as well -- Anglo-Saxon remains have tended to cluster in the country's south and east, while

the so-called "Staffordshire hoard" was found in the west.

In the meantime, archaeologists say they're likely to be busy for years puzzling out the meaning of 

some of the collection's more unusual pieces -- like five enigmatic gold snakes or a strip of gold

bearing a crudely written and misspelled Biblical inscription in Latin.

"Rise up, O Lord, and may thy enemies be dispersed and those who hate thee be driven from thy

face," reads the inscription, believed to be from the Book of Numbers.

Also of interest is the largest of the crosses, which experts say may have been an altar or

processional piece. It had been folded, possibly to make it fit into a small space prior to burial, and

the apparent lack of respect shown to such a Christian symbol may point to the hoard being buried

by pagans.

"The things that we can't identify are the ones that are going to teach us something new," Leahy

said.

For England, a country at the edge of Europe whose history owes an enormous debt to the Anglo-

Saxons, the find has the potential to become one of its top national treasures, according to Webster.

Caroline Barton, assistant treasure registrar at the British Museum, said objects over 300 years old

and made up of more that 10 percent precious metal are only offered for sale to accredited

museums in Britain, so the collection will not be leaving the country.

Before and after

Before many of them converted to Christianity, the Anglo-Saxons were Germanic pagans. This

religious view in turn is directly connected to Norse mythology, as well as other pre-Christian

religions. The Romans were primarily responsible for replacing the religion of the Saxons during the

9th century.

The Synod of Whitby was the primary event for this process. Much of the traditional religion of the

Anglo-Saxons has been lost over the years, and historians today only have knowledge of it due to

customs and some documents that have survived to the present day. One document stated that the

Kentish King refused to meet St. Augustine in any place that was not in the open air. The reason for

this is because he wanted to be under the protection of Woden, the sky god.

The Christians would commonly write documents where they prohibited the pagan religions, and

their descriptions have allowed historians to get detailed information on the traditional religious

beliefs of the Anglo-Saxons. The traditional religion practiced by the Anglo-Saxons has had a lasting

effect on their languages. The days of the week used in the modern English language are derived

from Anglo-Saxon gods and goddesses. For example, Tiw, the god of war, is the god that Tuesday is

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derived from. Woden, who was considered to be the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of Odin, who was the

god of storms, had one eye, and Wednesday was taken from his name.

The Anglo-Saxon version of Thor was the thunder god, and represented Thursday. Friday is the last

day of the week, and it is the only day to be named after a goddess. This goddess in the traditional

Anglo-Saxon religion was Freo, which may also be known as Freyja. She was the goddess of love.

There is a strong connection between Anglo-Saxon mythology and Norse mythology. Like many of the people who lived in Scandinavia, the Anglo-Saxon religion was an example of polytheism, which

means that they worshipped more than one god. The Anglo-Saxons continued to practice their

traditional religion until the 7th century. Since many members of the Anglo-Saxon society were not

literate, the tales of their religion were passed via word of mouth.

The Anglo-Saxons were strong believers in what they called Wyrd, or fate. They considered creatures

such as dwarves and giants to be real, not just figments of the imagination. The history of the Anglo-

Saxon religion is not well known since it was largely erased by the 8th century.

Anglo-Saxon Paganism

Anglo-Saxon Paganism is a modern religion based on the ancient pagan tribal religions of the

Germanic tribes that moved into what is now England in the 5th century. These tribes are generallythought to be the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons, although portions of other tribes such as the Frisians

may have migrated also. It is therefore closely related to the ancient Norse pagan religion and shares

many of the deitites such as Odin (Woden) and Thor (Thunor). Modern Anglo-Saxon Paganism or

Anglo-Saxon Paganism was first revived by Garman Lord in 1976, and for years he remained its main

mover and shaker. After several false starts with groups such as the Witan Coven, he founded the

Wínland Ríce which for several years remained the major Anglo-Saxon Pagan organization. In 1996,

the Angelseaxisce Ealdriht was founded and it took the lead in Anglo-Saxon Paganism and this

remained so until 2004 when it dissolved. Today there are several Anglo-Saxon Pagan organizations,

among them White Marsh Theod and Geleafawær Fyrnsida

Anglo-Saxon Paganism is a polytheistic religion, that is it has many Gods and Goddesses. The ancient

Anglo-Saxon pagans shared many of these deities with the Norse and Germanic peoples. Others like

Eostre seem to have only been worshiped by the Anglo-Saxons. These Gods and Goddesses are not

like those of the Roman and Greek pantheons. They do not have specific things that they are the

deity of. That is while you may turn to Thunor for rain, he is not ONLY the God of rain. Modern Anglo-

Saxon Paganism worships all the deities the ancient pagan Anglo-Saxons did with a few Norse

additions. No doubt the names of many Anglo-Saxon deities have been lost.

Anglo-Saxon Paganism has many beliefs that it shares with Asatru, another modern Germanic

religion such as the belief in Wyrd and such concepts as frith. There are also codes defining social

behavior. These are generally drawn from ideas of ancient Anglo-Saxon and Germanic culture. There

are a whole host of practices varying from such things as wassailing to the rite of symbel. Due to the

lack of information on ancient Anglo-Saxon paganism, modern Anglo-Saxon Paganism is a blend of 

Norse and Anglo-Saxon practices. With the invasion of the Danes in the 9th century, and the closure

of the monasteries by Henry VIIi in the 16th century much information that may have been helpful to

reconstructing Anglo-Saxon rites and beliefs were lost., Since the Norsemen and the Anglo-Saxons

come from a common Germanic culture, such borrowing was deemed necessary to fill out religious

practice.

Wednesbury Shire practices a very specific form of Anglo-Saxon Paganism. We draw on only the

practices of the ancient Angles, using their customs as the basis for our religious practice. In addition,

we are Theodish, which means that we believe a tribal setting is the natural way for Paganism to be

practiced.

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Anglo-Saxon paganism

Anglo-Saxon paganism, or as it has also been known, Anglo-Saxon heathenism,[Note 1]

  refers to the

religious beliefs and practices followed by the Anglo-Saxons between the fifth and eighth centuries

CE, during the initial period of  Early Mediaeval England. A variant of the wider Germanic paganism 

found across much of north-western Europe, itself encompassed a heterogeneous variety of 

disparate beliefs and cultic practices.

[1]

 Developing from the earlier  Iron Age religion of continentalnorthern Europe, it was introduced to Britain following the  Anglo-Saxon migration  in the mid fifth

century, and remained the dominant religion in England until the Christianization  of its kingdoms

between the seventh and eighth centuries, with some aspects gradually blending into folklore. 

Much of what is supposedly known about Anglo-Saxon paganism is the result of the efforts of literary

antiquarians in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; in particular, the notion that Old

English poetry contains vestiges of an actual, historical pre-Christian paganism has increasingly been

queried by Anglo-Saxonists[2]

. As with most religions designated as being pagan  by later Christian

writers, Anglo-Saxon paganism is presumed to have been a polytheistic  belief system, focused

around the worship of deities known as the ése (singular ós). The most prominent of these deities

may have been Woden, for which reason the religion has also been called Wodenism,[3]

  although

other prominent gods included Thunor  and Tiw. There was also a belief in a variety of othersupernatural entities who inhabited the landscape, including elves,  nicor  and dragons.[4]

  Cultic

practice largely revolved around demonstrations of devotion, including sacrifice of inanimate objects

and animals, to these deities, particularly at certain religious festivals during the year. Pagan beliefs

also influenced funerary practices, where the dead were either inhumed or cremated, typically with a

selection of grave goods. There was also a magical component to the early Anglo-Saxon religion, and

some scholars have also theorised that there may have been shamanic  aspects as well. These

religious beliefs also had a bearing on the structure of  Anglo-Saxon society, which was hierarchical,

with kings often claiming a direct ancestral lineage from a god, particularly Woden. As such, it also

had an influence on law codes during this period.

The deities of this religion provided the basis for the names of the days of the week in the English

language. Despite this, there is much that we do not know about this medieval religion, and what is

currently known about it comes mainly from the available archaeological evidence. What is known

about the religion and its accompanying mythology have since influenced both literature and

Contemporary Paganism from the 18th century onwards. 

The Anglo-Saxon tribes were not united before the 7th century, with seven main kingdoms, known

collectively as the Anglo-Saxon  Heptarchy. Certain deities and religious practices were specific to

certain localities.[citation needed ] 

Our literary sources on Anglo-Saxon England  set in with Christianization only, leaving the pre-

Christian 6th century in the prehistoric "Dark" of  Sub-Roman Britain. Our best sources of information

on the pre-Christian period are 7th to 8th century testimonies, such as  Beowulf [5]

  and the Franks

Casket, which had already seen Christian redaction but nevertheless reflects a living memory of 

original traditions.[citation needed ] 

The transition of the Anglo-Saxons from the original religion to Christianity took place gradually, over

the course of the 7th century, influenced on one side by Celtic Christianity and the Irish mission, on

the other by Roman Catholicism  introduced to England by Augustine of Canterbury  in 597. The

Anglo-Saxon nobility were nearly all converted within a century, but the original religion among the

rural population, as in other Germanic lands, didn't so much die out as gradually blend into

folklore.[citation needed ] 

As elsewhere, Christianization involved the adoption of original folk culture into a Christian context,

including the conversion of sacrificial sites and original feast days. Pope Gregory the Great instructed

Abbot Mellitus that:

I have come to the conclusion that the temples of the idols in England should not on any account be

destroyed. Augustine must smash the idols, but the temples themselves should be sprinkled with

holy water, and altars set up in them in which relics are to be enclosed. For we ought to take

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advantage of well-built temples by purifying them from devil-worship and dedicating them to the

service of the true God.[6]

 

The question of religious allegiance of the individual kings was not a political one, and there is no

evidence of any military struggle of a native vs. a Christian faction as in that between Blot-Sweyn and

Inge the Elder during the 1080s in the Christianization of Sweden, and no military "crusade" as in the

8th century Saxon Wars  of  Charlemagne's. Each king was free to convert to Christianity as hepleased, due to the sacral  nature of kingship in Germanic society automatically entailing the

conversion of his subjects. The only exception may be found in the war of  Penda of Mercia against

Northumbria. Penda exceptionally allied himself with the Welsh Kingdom of Gwynedd  against his

Anglo-Saxon neighbours. In the Battle of Hatfield Chase, Penda together with Cadwallon ap Cadfan 

(who was nominally a Christian but according to Bede given to barbarous cruelty[7]

) resulted in the

death of  Edwin of Northumbria  (who had been baptized in 627). As a result, Northumbria fell into

chaos and was divided between Eanfrith and Osric, who both reverted to paganism as they rose to

power. Both Eanfrith and Osric were killed in battle against Cadwallon within the year. Cadwallon

was in turn defeated by Oswald of Northumbria  in the Battle of Heavenfield  shortly after. Penda

again defeated Oswald at the Battle of Maserfield  in 641, ending in Oswald's death and

dismemberment. The outcome of the battle ended "Northumbrian imperialism south of the Humber"and established Penda as the most powerful Mercian ruler so far to have emerged in the midlands

and "the most formidable king in England,"[8]

 a position he maintained until his death in the Battle of 

Winwaed in 655.

Charles Plummer, writing in 1896, describes the defeat of Penda as "decisive as to the religious

destiny of the English".[9]

 Bede makes clear, however, that the war between Mercia and Northumbria

was not religiously motivated: Penda tolerated the preaching of Christianity in Mercia, even including

the baptism of his own heir, and held those reverting to paganism after receiving baptism in despise

for their faithlessness.[10]

  This testament of Penda's religious tolerance is particularly credible, as

Bede tends to exaggerate Mercian barbarism in his account of Oswald as a saintly defender of the

Christian faith.[citation needed ] 

After Penda's death, Mercia was converted, and all the kings who ruled thereafter were Christian,

including Penda's sons  Peada, who had already been baptized with his father's permission, as the

condition set by king Oswiu of Northumbria for the marriage of his daughter Alchflaed to Peada, to

the husband's misfortune, according to Bede, who informs us that Peada was "very wickedly killed"

through his wife's treachery "during the very time of celebrating Easter" in 656.[11]

 

Penda's death in 655 may be taken as marking the decisive decline of paganism in England. Some

smaller kingdoms continued to crown openly pagan Kings, but newly Christian Mercia became

instrumental in their conversion. In 660 Essex  crowned the pagan king Swithhelm. Swithhelm

accepted baptism in 662 but his successor Sighere of Essex encouraged a pagan rebellion in 665 that

was only suppressed when Wulfhere of Mercia  intervened and established himself as overlord of 

Essex. It is not recorded if Sighere ever accepted baptism but he was forced to marry Wulfhere's

Christian niece, who he later divorced.[citation needed ] 

 Æthelwealh of Sussex accepted baptism at the behest of  Wulfhere of Mercia, although the year in

unrecorded. In 681 the Bishop Wilfrid arrived in Sussex to begin preaching to the general population.

Bede records that the king had converted "not long previously", but Wulfhere had died in 675.

Therefore Æthelwealh's baptism can only be assigned with certainty to Wulfhere's reign of 658-675,

although it was probably at the very end of this period.[citation needed ] 

This left the Isle of Wight as the last openly pagan kingdom. Wulfhere of Mercia had invaded in 661

and forced the islanders to convert, but as soon as he left they had reverted to paganism. They

remained pagan until 686 when they were invaded by Cædwalla of Wessex. The last openly pagan

king Arwald was killed in battle defending his kingdom, which was ethnically cleansed[clarification needed ]

 

and incorporated into the Kingdom of Wessex. His heirs were baptised and then executed.[citation needed ] 

Cædwalla himself was unbaptised when he invaded  the Isle of Wight. But throughout his reign he

acted in cooperation with the church and gave the church a quarter of the Isle of the Wight. He

abdicated in 688 and traveled to Rome to be baptised in 689.[citation needed ] 

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Wilfrid was still converting the Pagan population of  Sussex in 686. In 695 Wessex issued a law code

proscribing fines for failing to baptise one's children and for failing to tithe.[citation needed ] 

By the 8th century, Anglo-Saxon England was at least nominally Christian, the  Anglo-Saxon mission 

contributing significantly to the Christianization of the continental Frankish Empire.[citation needed ]

 

Germanic paganism again briefly returned to England in the form of  Norse paganism, which Norse 

Vikings from Scandinavia brought to the country in the 9th to 10th century—but it again succumbedto Christianisation. Thus, mention of the Norse "Thor, lord of ogres" is found in a runic  charm

discovered inserted in the margin of an Anglo-Saxon manuscript from the year 1073.[12]

  Polemics

against lingering pagan customs continue into the 9th and 10th centuries, e.g. in the Laws of Ælfred  

(ca. 890), but England was an unambiguously Christian kingdom by the High Medieval period. 

[edit] Mythology

[edit] Cosmology

"A worm came creeping, he tore a man in two, then Woden took nine Glory-Twigs, then struck the

adder, that it flew apart into nine [bits]... [Woden] established [the nine herbs] and sent [them] into

the seven worlds, for the poor and the rich, a remedy for all, it stands against pain, it fights against

poison, it avails against three and against thirty, against foe's hand and against noble scheming,

against enchantment of vile creatures."The Nine Herbs Charm. 

Currently, very little is known about the pagan cosmology or world view followed by the early Anglo-

Saxons. In the Nine Herbs Charm, there is a mention of "seven worlds", which may indicate that the

pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons believed in seven realms. The Anglo-Saxons referred to the realm humans

live on as Middangeard, (which was cognate to the Old Norse Midgard) and also to a realm called

Neorxnawang, corresponding to the Christian idea of  Heaven. Whilst these are terms used in a

Christian context, some scholars have theorised that they may have originally been used to apply to

earlier pagan realms.[13]

 Similarly, in the Crist  poem, there is a mention of  Earendel, which may have

been a name of the morning star, identified in the poem with John the Baptist  (who heralds the

coming of  the Christ as the morning star heralds the Sun). Various scholars, such as Brian Branston[14]

 

and Clive Tolley[15]

 have suggested that the pagan Anglo-Saxons held a belief in a  world tree, similar

to the Norse concept of  Yggdrasil, though there is no solid evidence for this.

The Anglo-Saxon concept corresponding to fate  was  wyrd ,[16]

  although the "pagan" nature of this

conception is subject to some debate; Dorothy Whitelock suggested that it was a belief held only

after Christianisation,[17]

 while Branston maintained that wyrd had been an important concept for the

pagan Anglo-Saxons.[18]

 A description of how the pagan Anglo-Saxons viewed fate, or wyrd  and the

afterlife was given by the Christian monk, the Venerable Bede, who stated that the heathens viewed

"life and death as being like the experience of a sparrow who flies out of a freezing night into a warm

hall full of feasting and merriment, and then out into the night again".[19]

 

[edit] Deities

Anglo-Saxon paganism was a polytheistic faith, worshipping many deities, who were known as ése.

The most popular god appears to have been Woden, as "traces of his cult are scattered more widely

over the rolling English countryside than those of any other heathen deity".[21]

  The importance of 

Woden can also be seen in the fact that he was euhemerized as an ancestor of the royal houses of 

Kent,  Wessex,  East Anglia  and Mercia.[22]

  There are traces of Woden in English folklore  and

toponymy, where he appears as the leader of the Wild Hunt and he is referred to as a healer in the

Nine Herbs Charm, directly paralleling the role of his continental German parallel Wodan in the

Merseburg Incantations.[22]

 

The second most widespread deity from Anglo-Saxon England appears to be the god  Thunor, who

was a god of the sky and thunder and who was "a friend of the common man",[23]

  in contrast to

Woden who was primarily associated with royalty. It has been suggested that the hammer and the

swastika were the god's symbols, representing thunderbolts, and both of these symbols have been

found in Anglo-Saxon graves, the latter being common on cremation urns.[24]

 A third Anglo-Saxon god

that we know about was Tiw, who, in the Anglo-Saxon rune poem  Tir   is identified with the star

Polaris rather than with a deity, although it has been suggested that Tiw was likely a war deity.[25]

 

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Perhaps the most prominent female deity in Anglo-Saxon paganism was Fríge, however there is still

very little evidence for her worship, although it has been speculated that she was "a goddess of love

or festivity".[25]

 Another Anglo-Saxon divinity was Frey, who is mentioned in both The Dream of the

Rood and a poem by the monk Caedmon, in both of which he is compared to the later Christian god

Jesus Christ, indicating that Frey was perhaps a sacrificial deity.[25]

 The East Saxon tribe who settled in

southern England and formed the kingdom of  Essex claimed to be the descendents of a god known asSeaxnēat, of whom little is known,

[26] whilst a runic poem mentions a god known as  Ingui and the

writer Asser mentioned a god known as Gēat.[26]

 The Christian monk known as the Venerable Bede 

also mentioned two further goddesses in his written works;  Eostre, who was celebrated at a spring

festival (Easter), and Hretha, whose name meant "glory".[26]

 

Besides the ése, Anglo-Saxons also believed in other supernatural beings or "wights", such as elves, 

and household deities, known as Cofgodas.[citation needed ] These guarded a specific household, and were

given offerings so they would continue. After Christianisation, the belief in Cofgodas may have

survived through the form of the fairy  being known as the Hob.[citation needed ]  Tutelary deities  of the

household  are part of the traditional religions of  classical antiquity, such as the Lares  of  ancient

Roman religion and the Agathodaemon of  ancient Greek religion. 

In Anglo-Saxon England, elves (aelfe) were viewed as malevolent beings who could bring harm tohumans. In the 10th century Metrical Charm "Against A Sudden Stitch" (Wið færstice), it states that

various forms of sickness, such as rheumatism, could be induced by "elfshot" - arrows fired by elves.

They were believed to possess a type of  magic  known as siden.[27]

  Alongside the elves, other

supernatural beings included dwarves  (or dweorgas), ettins (or eoten) and dragons.[citation needed ].

'Etaynes' (ettins) and 'wodwos' (wood wos / wildmen) appear in Sir Gawain & the Green Knight,[28]

 

and these are potentially remnants of Anglo-Saxon belief. The name 'ettin' roughly translates as

'devourer' (eaten / eater) and is cognate with Jotun in Norse mythos. Another important figure in

Anglo-Saxon belief appears to be 'thurse' (giant/ogre/monster), given the large number of place-

names and folk-stories associated with derived forms (AS *hobbe-thurse: hobthurse, hobthrush,

hobtrash, gytrash, trash etc).[29]

  Forms of dwarf (dwerrow, dwerger, dweorgas etc) are not as well

supported in the nomenclature of the English countryside implying that 'dwarfs' were not as widely a

held customary belief, however 'bug-' (bugbear, bugaboo, scare-bug etc) and '-mare' (woodmare,

nightmare) appear to be better supported and are potentially derived from Anglo-Saxon words. The

name 'hob' remains contentious, with the accepted meaning 'diminutive of Robert' sitting

uncomfortably with the large number of apparently old 'hob-' placenames (hobhole, hobdell,

hobgate etc) in England.[29]

 

[edit] Legend and poetry

In pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon England, legends and other stories were transmitted orally instead of 

being written down - it is for this reason that very few survive to us today. After Christianisation

however, certain poems were indeed written down, with surviving examples including the Nine

Herbs Charm, The Dream of the Rood , Waldere and most notably Beowulf . Whilst these contain many

Christianised elements, there were certain mentions of earlier pagan deities and practices contained

within them.

One of the most prominent surviving myths of the pagan Anglo-Saxons was that of the brothers

Hengest and Horsa, who are named in historical sources as leaders of the earliest Anglo-Saxon

incursions in the south of Britain. The name  Hengest  means "stallion" and Horsa  means "horse",

reminiscent of the horse sacrifice connected to the inauguration of  pagan kings. Another important

mythological figure is  Weyland  the smith, a figure who also appeared in other forms of Germanic

mythology. An image of Weyland adorns the Franks Casket, an Anglo-Saxon royal hoard box and was

meant there to refer to wealth and partnership.[30]

 

The only surviving Anglo-Saxon epic poem  is the story of  Beowulf , known only from a surviving

manuscript that was written down by a Christian monk sometime between the eighth and eleventh

centuries AD. The story it tells is set not in England but in Scandinavia, and revolves around a Geatish 

warrior named Beowulf   who travels to Denmark to defeat a monster known as Grendel  who is

terrorising the kingdom of  Hrothgar, and later, Grendel's Mother  as well. Following this, he later

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becomes the king of Geatland before finally dying in battle with a dragon. In the eighteenth and early

nineteenth centuries, it was commonly believed that Beowulf was not an Anglo-Saxon pagan tale, but

a Scandinavian Christian one; it was not until the influential critical essay  Beowulf: The Monsters and 

the Critics  by  J.R.R. Tolkien, delivered in 1936, that Beowulf  was established as a quintessentially

English poem that, while Christian, looked back on a living memory of paganism. Nonetheless, some

academics still hold reservations about accepting it as containing information pertaining to Anglo-Saxon paganism, with Patrick Wormald  noting that "vast reserves of intellectual energy have been

devoted to threshing this poem for grains of authentic pagan belief, but it must be admitted that the

harvest has been meagre. The poet may have known that his heroes were pagans, but he did not

know much about paganism."[31]

 

[edit] Cultic practice

As archaeologist Sarah Semple noted, "the rituals [of the early Anglo-Saxons] involved the full pre-

Christian repertoire: votive deposits, furnished burial, monumental mounds, sacred natural

phenomenon and eventually constructed pillars, shrines and temples", thereby having many

commonalities with other pre-Christian religions in Europe.[32]

 

[edit] Places of worship

The pagan Anglo-Saxons worshipped at a variety of different sites across their landscape, some of which were apparently specially built  temples  and others that were natural geographical features

such as sacred trees, hilltops or wells. According to place name evidence, these sites of worship were

known alternately as either hearg or as wēoh, and it was widely assumed by nineteenth and early

twentieth century scholars that these two terms were synonyms that could be used

interchangeably.[33]

 However, in the latter part of the twentieth century, some etymologists began to

theorise that the two words actually had different meanings. Archaeologist David Wilson stated that

hearg "may" refer to "a special type of religious site, one that occupied a prominent position on high

land and was a communal place of worship for a specific group of people, a tribe or folk group,

perhaps at particular times of the year" whilst wēoh sites, the majority of which appeared to be

"situated very close to ancient route ways", were instead more "likely... small, wayside shrine[s],

accessible to the traveller."[34]

 

Each of these hearg may have been devoted to a specific deity, for instance, in several cases, a grove

of trees was devoted to just one god, as can be seen from the town of  Thundersley (from Thunor's

Grove), which was devoted to the god Thunor. Popular historian Thor Ewing suggested that some of 

these sites were not dedicated to a well known deity, but simply to a local animistic one, who was

believed to inhabit that very spot.[35]

 

The pagan Anglo-Saxons built temples to worship their gods, which were "wooden-framed" and

contained "an altar and a likeness of one or more gods".[36]

  Some have suggested that sometimes

these temples were built alongside pre-existing sacred sites in the landscape,[36]

 and indeed, "ancient

remains in the landscape held a significant place in the Anglo-Saxon mind as part of a wider,

numinous, spiritual and resonant landscape".[37]

 These temples are mentioned in various later Anglo-

Saxon texts, most of which discuss them in reference to their Christianization. Pope Gregory the

Great, who was head of the Roman Catholic Church during much of the Christianization of England,

variously suggested both that the temples should be sprinkled with  holy water and converted into

churches, or that they should be destroyed.[38]

 According to Bede, it was this latter advice that was

taken up by Coifi, an influential English pagan priest for King Edwin of Northumbria, who after being

converted to Christianity, cast a spear into the temple at  Goodmanham and then burned it to the

ground.[39]

  These occasional literary references to Anglo-Saxon temples are accompanied by some

limited archaeological evidence. The best known example of this is a room, known by excavators as

D2, which was a part of the royal complex at Yeavering  in Northumberland, and which has been

widely interpreted as a temple room, for it contained buried oxen skulls, two postholes that have

been interpreted as holding idols, and no evidence of domestic usage.[40][41]

 Other possible temples

or shrine buildings have been identified by archaeological investigation as existing within such Anglo-

Saxon cemeteries as Lyminge  in Kent  and Bishopstone  in Sussex.[42]  Although Pope Gregory had

promoted the idea, as of yet, no archaeological investigation has found any firm evidence of 

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churches being built on top of earlier pagan temples in England. Nonetheless, as archaeologist  David

Wilson noted, this is "hardly surprising" due to "the making of   crypts and the general rebuilding of 

churches over the centuries," which would likely destroy any earlier pagan foundations.[43]

 

[edit] Sacrifice

The pagan Anglo-Saxons performed animal sacrifice  in honour of the gods. It appears that they

emphasised the killing of  oxen over other species, as suggested by both written and archaeologicalevidence.

[44]  Sacrifice itself was not only found in Anglo-Saxon paganism, but was also common in

other Germanic pagan religions, for instance the Norse practised a blood sacrifice known as Blót . The

Christian monk Bede records that November (Old English Blótmónaþ "the month of sacrifice") was

particularly associated with sacrificial practices:

Bede's original Old English:

Se mónaþ is nemned on Léden Novembris, and 

on úre geþeóde blótmónaþ, forðon úre yldran,

ðá hý hǽðene wǽron, on ðam mónþe hý 

bleóton á, ðæt is, ðæt hý betǽhton and 

benémdon hyra deófolgyldum ða neát ða ðe

hý woldon syllan. 

Modern English translation:

"This month is called Novembris in Latin, and in

our language the month of sacrifice, because

our forefathers, when they were heathens,

always sacrificed in this month, that is, that they

took and devoted to their idols the cattle which

they wished to offer."[45]

 There are several cases where animal remains were buried in what appears to be ritualistic

conditions, for instance at Frilford, Berkshire, a pig or boar's head was buried with six flat stones and

two Roman-era tiles then placed on top, whilst at an Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Soham,

Cambridgeshire, an oxe's head was buried with the muzzle facing down. Archaeologist David Wilson 

stated that these may be "evidence of sacrifices to a pagan god."[46]

 

Many Germanic peoples are recorded as conducting human sacrifice, yet there is no firm evidence

the Anglo-Saxons had such a practice, though there is speculation that twenty three of the bodies at

the Sutton Hoo burial site were sacrificial victims clustered around a sacred tree from which they had

been hanged.[47]

  Alongside this, some have suggested that the corpse of an Anglo-Saxon woman

found at  Sewerby  on the Yorkshire Wolds  suggested that she had been buried alive alongside a

nobleman, possibly as a sacrifice, or to accompany him to the afterlife.[48]

 [edit] Funerary rites

Main article: Early Anglo-Saxon burial  

One of the aspects of Anglo-Saxon paganism that we know most about is their burial customs, which

we have discovered from archaeological excavations at various sites, including  Sutton Hoo,  Spong

Hill, Prittlewell,  Snape and  Walkington Wold, and we today know of the existence of around 1200

Anglo-Saxon pagan cemeteries. There was no set form of burial amongst the pagan Anglo-Saxons,

with cremation being preferred amongst the Angles in the north and inhumation amongst the Saxons 

in the south, although both forms were found throughout England, sometimes in the same

cemeteries. When cremation did take place, the ashes were usually placed within an urn and then

buried, sometimes along with grave goods.[48]

  According to archaeologist Dave Wilson, "the usual

orientation for an inhumation in a pagan Anglo-Saxon cemetery was west-east, with the head to thewest, although there were often deviations from this."

[49] Indicating a possible religious belief, grave

goods were common amongst inhumation burials as well as cremations; free Anglo-Saxon men were

buried with at least one weapon in the pagan tradition, often a  seax, but sometimes also with a

spear, sword or shield, or a combination of these.[48]

 There are also a number of recorded cases of 

parts of non-human animals being buried within such graves. Most common amongst these was

body parts belonging to either goats or sheep, although parts of  oxen were also relatively common,

and there are also isolated cases of  goose,  crab apples, duck eggs and hazelnuts  being buried in

graves. It is widely thought therefore that such items constituted a food source for the deceased.[50]

 

In some cases, animal skulls, particularly oxen but also pig, were buried in human graves, a practice

that was also found in earlier Roman Britain.[48]

 

Certain Anglo-Saxon burials appeared to have ritualistic elements to them, implying that a religiousrite was performed over them during the funeral. Whilst there are many multiple burials, where

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more than one corpse was found in a single grave, that date from the Anglo-Saxon period, there is "a

small group of such burials where an interpretation involving ritual practices may be possible". For

instance, at Welbeck Hill in Lincolnshire, the corpse of a decapitated woman was placed in reverse on

top of the body of an old man, whilst in a number of other similar examples, female bodies were

again placed above those of men. This has led some archaeologists to suspect a form of  suttee, 

where the female was the spouse of the male, and was killed to accompany him upon death. Othertheories hold that the females were slaves who were viewed as the property of the men, and who

were again killed to accompany their master.[51]

  Similarly, four Anglo-Saxon burials have been

excavated where it appears that the individual was buried whilst still alive, which could imply that

this was a part of either a religious rite or as a form of punishment .[52]

  There are also many cases

where corpses have been found decapitated, for instance, at a mass grave in Thetford, Norfolk, fifty

beheaded individuals were discovered, their heads possibly having been taken as trophies of war. In

other cases of decapitation it seems possible that it was evidence of religious ritual (presumably

human sacrifice) or execution.[53][54]

 

Archaeological investigation has displayed that structures or buildings were built inside a number of 

pagan cemeteries, and as David Wilson noted, "The evidence, then, from cemetery excavations is

suggestive of small structures and features, some of which may perhaps be interpreted as shrines orsacred areas".[55]

  In some cases, there is evidence of far smaller structures being built around or

alongside individual graves, implying possible small shrines to the dead individual or individuals

buried there.[56]

 

Eventually, in the sixth and seventh centuries, the idea of  burial mounds began to appear in Anglo-

Saxon England, and in certain cases earlier burial mounds from the Neolithic, Bronze Age,  Iron Age 

and Romano-British  periods were simply reused by the Anglo-Saxons. It is not known why they

adopted this practice, but it may be from the practices of the native Britons .[57]

  Burial mounds

remained objects of veneration in early Anglo-Saxon Christianity, and numerous churches were built

next to tumuli. Another form of burial was that of  ship burials, which were practiced by many of the

Germanic peoples across northern Europe. In many cases it seems that the corpse was placed in a

ship that was either sent out to sea or left on land, but in both cases burned. In  Suffolk  however,

ships were not burned, but buried, as is the case at Sutton Hoo, which it is believed, was the resting

place of the king of the East Angles, Raedwald.[57]

 Both ship and tumulus burials were described in

the Beowulf poem, through the funerals of  Scyld Scefing and Beowulf  respectively.

[edit] Festivals

Everything that we know about the religious festivals of the pagan Anglo-Saxons comes from a book

written by the Christian monk, the Venerable Bede, entitled De temporum ratione, meaning The

Reckoning of Time,[58]

  in which he described the calendar of the year. The pagan Anglo-Saxons

followed a calendar with twelve lunar months, with the occasional year having thirteen months so

that the lunar and solar alignment could be corrected. Bede claimed that the greatest pagan festival

was Modraniht  (meaning Mother Night ), which was situated at the Winter solstice, which marked the

start of the Anglo-Saxon year.[16][59]

 

Following this festival, in the month of  Solmonað  (February), Bede claims that the pagans offered

cakes to their deities.[59]

  Then, in Eostur-monath Aprilis  (April), a spring festival was celebrated,

dedicated to the goddess Eostre,[16]

 and the later Christian festival of  Easter took its name from this

month and its goddess. The month of September was known as Halegmonath, meaning Holy Month,

which may indicate that it had special religious significance.[16]

 The month of November was known

as Blod-Monath, meaning Blood Month, and was commemorated with animal sacrifice, both in

offering to the gods, and also likely to gather a source of food to be stored over the winter.[16]

 

Remarking on Bede's account of the Anglo-Saxon year, the historian Brian Branston noted that they

"show us a people who of necessity fitted closely into the pattern of the changing year, who were of 

the earth and what grows in it" and that they were "in fact, a people who were in a symbiotic

relationship with mother earth and father sky".[60]

 

[edit] Ritual drinking

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In Anglo-Saxon England, a feudal lord would organise a banquet known as a symbel  for his retainers,

whether they be Christian or pagan. Paul C. Bauschatz, in 1976, suggested that the term reflects a

specifically pagan ritual that had a "great religious significance in the culture of the early Germanic

people."[61]

  Bauschatz' lead is followed only sporadically in contemporary scholarship, but his

interpretation has inspired drinking-rituals in Germanic neopaganism. 

Regardless of its possible religious connotations, the  symbel  had a central function in maintaininghierarchy and allegiance in Anglo-Saxon  warrior society. The symbel takes place in the chieftain's

mead hall. It involved drinking ale  or mead  from a drinking horn, speech making (which often

included formulaic boasting and oaths), and gift-giving. Eating and feasting were specifically excluded

from symbel, and no alcohol was set aside for the gods or other deities in the form of a sacrifice.[62]

 

[edit] Symbolism

Various recurring symbols appear on certain pagan Anglo-Saxon artefacts, in particular on grave

goods. Most notable amongst these was the swastika, which was widely inscribed on crematory urns

and also on various brooches and other forms of (often female) jewellery as well as on certain pieces

of ceremonial weaponry. The archaeologist David Wilson remarked that this "undoubtedly had

special importance for the Anglo-Saxons, either magical or religious, or both. It seems very likely that

it was the symbol of the thunder god Thunor, and when found on weapons or military gear itspurpose would be to provide protection and success in battle." He also noted however that its

widespread usage might have led to it becoming "a purely decorative device with no real symbolic

importance."[63]

 Another symbol that has appeared on several pagan artefacts from this period was

the rune ᛏ, which represented the letter T and is associated with the god Tiw.[64]

 

[edit] Magic and witchcraft

Main article: Magic in Anglo-Saxon England  

Anglo-Saxon pagans believed in magic  and witchcraft. There are various Old English terms for

"witch", including hægtesse "witch, fury", whence Modern English hag, wicca, gealdricge,  scinlæce 

and hellrúne. The belief in witchcraft was suppressed in the 9th to 10th century as is evident e.g.

from the Laws of   Ælfred  (ca. 890).

The Christian authorities attempted to stamp out a belief and practice in witchcraft, withTheodore's[disambiguation needed  ]

 Penitential condemning "those that consult divinations and use them

in the pagan manner, or that permit people of that kind into their houses to seek some

knowledge".[65]

  Similarly, in the Disciplus Umbrensium, it condemns those "who observe auguries,

omens or dreams or any other prophecies after the manner of the pagans".[65]

 

The word wiccan "witches" is associated with animistic healing rites in  Halitgar's  Latin Penitential 

where it is stated that:

Some men are so blind that they bring their offering to earth-fast stone and also to trees and to

wellsprings, as the witches teach, and are unwilling to understand how stupidly they do or how that

dead stone or that dumb tree might help them or give forth health when they themselves are never

able to stir from their place.

The phrase swa wiccan tæcaþ ("as the witches teach") seems to be an addition to Halitgar's original,added by an eleventh century Old English translator.[66]

 

The pagan Anglo-Saxons also appeared to wear  amulets, and there are many cases where corpses

were buried with them. As David Wilson  noted, "To the early [Anglo-]Saxons, they were part and

parcel of the supernatural  that made up their world of 'belief', although occupying the shadowy

dividing area between superstition and religion, if indeed such a division actually existed."[67]

 One of 

the most notable amulets found in Anglo-Saxon graves is the cowrie shell, which has been often

interpreted by modern academics as having been a fertility symbol due to its physical resemblance to

the  vagina  and the fact that it was most commonly found in female graves. Not being native to

British seas, the cowrie shells had to have been brought to England by traders who had come all the

way from the Red Sea in the Middle East.[68]

 Animal teeth were also used as amulets by the pagan

Anglo-Saxons, and many examples have been found that had formerly belonged to boar, beaver, and

in some cases even humans.[69]

  Other amulets included items such as  amethyst  and  amber  beads,

pieces of  quartz or iron pyrite, worked and unworked flint, pre-Anglo-Saxon coinage and fossils, and

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from their distribution in graves, it has been stated that in Anglo-Saxon pagan society, "amulets

[were] very much more the preserve of women than men".[70]

 

[edit] Pagan society

Germanic pagan society was structured hierarchically, under a tribal chieftain or cyning ("king") who

at the same time acted as military leader, high judge and high priest. The tribe was bound together

by a code of customary proper behaviour or sidu regulating the contracts (ǽ) and conflicts betweenthe individual families or sibbs  within the tribe. The aristocratic society arrayed below the king

included the ranks of  ealdorman,  thegn, heah-gerefa  and gerefa.[71]

 An eorl  was a man of rank, as

opposed to the ordinary freeman, known as ceorl . Free men were also a part of a hierarchy, with at

least three different ranks (reflected in different amounts of  weregild due for individuals of different

ranks), although all free men had the right to participate in things  (folkmoots). Germanic pagan

society practiced slavery, and such slaves or unfree serfs were known as esne, and later also as

theow s.

Offices at the court included that of the thyle and the scop. The title of hlaford ("lord") denoted the

head of any household in origin and expressed the relation to allegiance between a follower and his

leader. Early Anglo-Saxon warfare  had many aspects of  endemic warfare  typical of tribal warrior

societies. It was based on retainers bound by oath to fight for their lords who in turn were obliged toshow generosity to their followers.[72]

 

[edit] Kingship

Further information: Germanic king , Dryhten , and   Anglo-Saxon monarchs 

The pagan Anglo-Saxons inherited the common Germanic institution of  sacral kingship. A king

(cyning) was elected from among eligible members of a royal family or cynn by the witena gemōt , an

assembly of an elite that replaced the earlier  folkmoot, which was the equivalent of the  Germanic

thing, the assembly of all free men. Tribal kingship came to an end in the 9th century with the

hegemony of  Wessex culminating in a unified kingdom of England by the 10th century. The cult of 

kingship was central to pagan Anglo-Saxon society. The king was equivalent to the position of high

priest. By his divine descent he represented or indeed was the "luck" of the   people.[73]

 The central

importance of the institution of kingship is illustrated by the twenty-six synonyms for "king"

employed by the Beowulf poet.[74]

 

The title of  Bretwalda  appears to have conveyed the status of some sort of formal or ceremonial

overlordship over Britain, but it is uncertain whether it predates the 9th century, and if it does, what,

if any, prerogatives it carried. Patrick Wormald interprets it as "less an objectively realized office than

a subjectively perceived status" and emphasizes the partiality of its usage in favour of Southumbrian

kings.[75]

 

Many Anglo-Saxon pagan kings made the claim that they were the semi-divine descendants of 

Woden, an idea that was transformed after Christianisation into the idea of the Divine Right  of 

Christian monarchs ruling By the Grace of God (Dei Gratia).

[edit] Law

Main articles:  Anglo-Saxon law  and  Doom book  

Records of Anglo-Saxon law codes dating to the 7th century have survived, the first being the  Law of 

 Æthelberht, attributed to  Æthelberht of Kent (c. 602 AD), then later codes by Hlothhære and Eadric 

of Kent, and by Ine of Wessex (c. 694 AD). Other codes survive from the 8th to 9th centuries, notably

the Laws of  Alfred the Great, dating to the 890s.

These law codes contain laws particular to the Church, including the churchfrith offering protection

to a wanted criminal within a church building.[76]

 The secular portions of the laws nevertheless clearly

record tribal laws  of the pagan period.[77]

  Characteristic are its prescriptions of compensation

payments or bot s, including a weregild  to be paid in the case of manslaughter, as opposed to

corporeal punishments. The relative amounts of the fines allow an insight into the value system in

Anglo-Saxon society. The highest fines in Æthelberht's law code are for the killing of people under the

direct protection of the king, and equal fines are paid for adultery with an unmarried woman of the

king's household. Alfred has a special law against drawing a weapon in the king's hall. Alfred does

prescribe corporeal punishments, such as the cutting out of the tongue, which may however be

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averted by paying a weregild. Alfred also sets down rules on how to lawfully fight out   feuds. Such

fights are considered orwige, meaning that deaths resulting from them do not fall under

manslaughter. An enemy caught within his home may be besieged for seven days but not attacked

unless he tries to escape. If he surrenders, he must be kept safe for thirty days to allow him to call for

help from his kinsmen and friends, or beg aid from an ealdorman or from the king. A follower may

fight orwige if his lord is attacked. In the same way, a lord may fight for his follower, or any man mayfight orwige with his born kinsman excepting against his lord. A man may also fight orwige against

another man caught committing adultery with his wife, sister, daughter or mother.

References to ordeals  and capital punishment  appear in 10th century codes only. Strangely, the

wager of battle  does not appear to figure in Anglo-Saxon law in spite of being a Germanic pagan

custom in origin, but is introduced in England only under Norman rule.

[edit] Legacy

[edit] Place names

Further information: List of places named after Odin and  English toponymy  

Many place names in England are named after various things to do with Anglo-Saxon paganism. A

number of towns and villages, such as Weedon, Wyville and Harrowden have terms like ealh, weoh 

and hearh incorporated into them, indicating that they were places used for worship by the paganAnglo-Saxons, and from using this toponymy, sixty sites of pagan worship have been identified across

the country.[78]

 Other sites are named after specific Anglo-Saxon deities, for instance, Frigedene and

Freefolk are named after Frige, Thundersley after Thunor, and Woodway House, Woodnesborough 

and Wansdyke named after Woden.[79]

 

[edit] Days of the week

Further information: Week-day names 

The Anglo-Saxons, like other Germanic peoples, adapted the Week-day names  introduced by their

interaction with the Roman Empire but glossed their indigenous gods over the Roman deities (with

the exception of Saturday) in a process known as Interpretatio germanica: 

Modern

English dayname

Old English day

name English day name meaning

Glossed from

Latin dayname

Latin day name

meaning

Monday Mōnandæg 

"Moon's day", personified in

related Norse mythology as

the god Máni 

Dies Lunae 

"Day of the Luna", the

personified moon in

Roman mythology

Tuesday Tiwesdæg  "Tiw's day" Dies Martis "Day of  Mars" 

Wednesday Wōdnesdæg  "Woden's day" Dies Mercurii  "Day of  Mercury" 

Thursday Þūnresdæg  "Thunor's day" Dies Iovis "Day of  Jupiter" 

Friday Frigedæg  "*Frija's day" Dies Veneris "Day of  Venus" 

Saturday Sæturnesdæg  "Saturn's day" Dies Saturni  "Day of Saturn"

Sunday Sunnandæg 

"Sun's day", personified asthe goddess Sól/Sunna 

among other Germanic

peoples

Dies Solis 

"Day of the Sun", the

sun is personified as Sol 

in Roman mythology

[edit] Folkloric survivals

Various elements of English folklore  from the Mediaeval period onwards have been interpreted as

being survivals from Anglo-Saxon paganism. For instance, writing in the 1720s, Henry Bourne stated

his belief that the winter custom of the Yule log was a leftover from Anglo-Saxon paganism, however

this is an idea that has been disputed by some subsequent research by the likes of historian Ronald

Hutton, who believe that it was only introduced into England in the seventeenth century by

immigrants arriving from Flanders.[80]

 

The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, which is performed annually in the village of  Abbots Bromley  in

Staffordshire, has also been claimed, by some, to be a remnant of Anglo-Saxon paganism. The antlers

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used in the dance belonged to reindeer and have been carbon dated to the eleventh century, and it

is therefore believed that they originated in Norway and were brought to England some time in the

late Mediaeval period, as by that time reindeer were extinct in Britain.[81]

 

Some claim that notions of the Man in the Moon are a survival of the masculine anthropomorphic

figure of the moon in Germanic myths.

[edit] HistoriographyWhilst historical investigation into Germanic paganism and its mythology began in the seventeenth

century with Peder Resen's Edda Islandorum (1665), this largely focused only upon Norse mythology, 

much of which was preserved in Old Icelandic  sources. In the eighteenth century, English

Romanticism  developed a strong enthusiasm for Iceland and Nordic culture, expressed in original

English poems extolling Viking virtues, such as Thomas Warton's "Runic Odes" of 1748. In the

nineteenth century this developed into two movements within the British educated elite, one of 

which was composed of  Scandophiles and the other of  Germanophiles, who associated the English

with either the Scandinavians or the Germans, respectively.[82]

  With nascent nationalism  in early

nineteenth-century Europe, by the 1830s both Nordic and German philology had produced "national

mythologies" in Nikolai Grundtvig's Nordens Mytologi  and Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, 

respectively. British Romanticism at the same time had at its disposal both a Celtic  and a  Vikingrevival, but nothing focusing on the Anglo-Saxons because there was very little evidence of their

pagan mythology still surviving. Indeed, so scant was evidence of paganism in Anglo-Saxon England

that some scholars came to assume that the Anglo-Saxons had been Christianized essentially from

the moment of their arrival in Britain.[83]

 

The study of Anglo-Saxon paganism began only in the mid nineteenth century, when John Kemble

published The Saxons in England Volume I (1849), in which he discussed the usefulness of examining

place-names to find out about the religion.[84]

  This was followed by the publication of   John Yonge

Akerman's Remains of Pagan Saxondom (1855). Akerman defended his chosen subject in the

introduction by pointing out the archaeological evidence of a "Pagan Saxon mode of sepulture" on

English soil lasting from the "middle of the fifth to the middle or perhaps the end of the seventh

century".[85]

 From this point onward, more academic research into the Anglo-Saxons' pagan religion

appeared. This led to further books on the subject, such as those primarily about the Anglo-Saxon

gods, such as Brian Branston's The Lost Gods of England (1957), and Kathy Herbert's Looking for the

Lost Gods of England  (1994). Others emphasised archaeological evidence, such as David Wilson's

 Anglo-Saxon Paganism (1992) and the edited anthology Signals of Belief in Early England: Anglo-

Saxon Paganism Revisited (2010).

[edit] Contemporary Paganism

In the 1930s Alexander Rud Mills established in Australia "The Anglecyn Church of Odin", a

thoroughly pagan religion but with rituals influenced by the literary style of Anglicanism. The

Anglecyn Church went underground as a result of political persecution in 1942, but was revived in

1972 in Melbourne, Australia. [86]

 

A later reconstructed form of Anglo-Saxon paganism arose in the 1970s as a subset of   Germanic

neopaganism, in the form of  Theodism. It was founded by Garman Lord, who had originally been a

Wiccan  in the Gardnerian tradition. In 1971, Lord formed a Wiccan coven  that emphasized the

iconography of Anglo-Saxon paganism, named The Coven Witan of Anglo-Saxon Wicca. However,

Lord later abandoned any use of Wiccan teachings, instead focusing entirely upon the resurrection of 

the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon religion in 1976 after supposedly having a vision of the deities Woden 

and Frige.[87]

 

Similarly, the Wiccan who introduced the Gardnerian tradition to the United States, Raymond

Buckland, later wrote a book in 1973 entitled The Tree in which he outlined the creation of a tradition

known as Seax-Wica, which uses the symbolism and iconography of Anglo-Saxon paganism, but in a

"traditional" Wiccan framework.