By Stephen Pollington

Stephen Pollington is a freelance researcher, tutor, presenter and author specialising in the Old English language and the history of Anglo-Saxon England.

From the earliest Germanic presence in Britain of which we have any evidence – inscriptions from the area of Hadrian’s Wall from the late 1^st c. AD – to the completion of the conversion of the Anglo-Saxon kings in the later 600s, Britain had a heathen Germanic culture in some areas for around six centuries. Add in the new wave of heathen impetus from the later Scandinavian invasions (8^th-11^th centuries), and the span approaches a thousand years. During this time, beliefs and ideas about the supernatural and the gods were constantly evolving along with the societies that worshipped them.

The evidence for the ancient gods is not as sparse as some modern writers maintain, but it is difficult to evaluate. Some pre-Christian tradition comes down through Old English literature – which is transmitted through Christian literacy – or otherwise through archaeological finds which don’t have any labels to assist with identification.

As a starting point, we could do worse than take the days of the week, the names of which go back to pre-Christian times. Sunday and Monday (the days of sun and moon) are the obvious starting points for heavenly bodies but these were probably not regarded as supernatural beings in the period.

Tuesday is the day named for the god Tiw. Almost nothing is recorded about him in Old English outside a few place-names, but Scandinavian tradition knows him as Tyr – one of the major gods who is associated with justice and honest relations among men. He must once have been the foremost of the gods (his name is cognate with Greek Zeus and Roman Jove or Ju(piter)) but he had faded into the background by the time the Anglo-Saxon came to Britain. The Norse god is involved in a story of the binding of the cosmic wolf Fenrir, and it may be that some representations of a man between wolves show the same tale – such images appear in the purse-lid from Sutton Hoo Mound 1. In this story, Tyr lost one of his hands.

Wednesday is named for Woden, the foremost of the gods and the one about whom we know most because a handful of narrative sources survive. He is associated with kings and wisdom, with writing, medicine and commerce, with warfare and with the soul’s passage to the afterlife. His name is found at the head of many lists of kings – East Anglia, Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria all believed that their royal line(s) started with the god. Occasional references to him in the poetry and the medical literature indicate that he was considered wise, courageous, cunning, powerful, tricky and determined – all qualities associated with Anglo-Saxon kings. His weapon was the spear – the badge of a freeman and a lord alike. The Norse tales have Odin (Woden) trading one of his eyes for a drink of mead which conferred wisdom; while this story is not written down in England, there are many echoes of the story’s details in the royal regalia of the East Anglian kings.

Thursday takes its name from Thor, or Thunor (thunder) as the Anglo-Saxon called him. His realm was the world of hard work, farming, fishing, hunting, smithing. His weapon was a hammer (the thunderbolt) which protected men’s dwellings from the hostile forces of nature. Hammer amulets were worn in Viking times, but the Anglo-Saxons were wearing them centuries before that and they are sometimes found in graves.

Frige, the ‘beloved lady’, gave her name to Friday. Again, little is written about her in English but her Scandinavian counterparts (Freyja and Frigg) are both powerful female leaders who command respect. Frigg is a matronly, regal lady of the meadhall who uses guile to dupe her husband Odin into doing her will. Freyja on the other hand is associated with sexuality, magic and violent death.

Saturday is named for the Roman god Saturn: he was never worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons but when they adopted the seven-day week from the Romans they used the equivalent names of deities (dies Iovis = Tiwesdæg) but had no corresponding god for Saturn.

There are a handful of other gods in the literary sources – Bældæg appears in a king-list and is probably equivalent to the Norse Baldur, the beautiful but tragic son of Odin. The kings of the East Saxons in Essex did not look to Woden for the ancestry, but to their own god Seaxneat (sword-companion) who was also worshipped in the Saxon lands in Germany. Bede, writing in the 8^th century, says that ‘Eastermonth’ is named after an old goddess of the Angles called Eostre whom they worshipped at the coming of spring.

Just as important as the gods and goddesses were the supernatural beings that inhabited hills and meadows, trees and stones; they could be good friends if they were respected but would take vengeance if they were not. These beings include elves, shucks, hags, ents and many others.

To find out more

Stephen Pollington has written a book called The Elder Gods: The Otherworld of Early England (available from Anglo Saxon Books and other booksellers) which brings together a range of evidence for pre-Christian beliefs and attitudes to the Otherworld drawn from archaeology, linguistics, literary studies and comparative mythology.

There was an interesting article in Wiþowinde 147 from Eadmund (Malcolm) Dunstall bewailing the fact that incorrect information is often repeated and that on the periphery of Anglo Saxon studies there is one particular area where this ersatz information is particularly rife, and that is the area of Englisc Paganism. 

 As a modern day Heathen/Pagan I could not agree more!  Whilst Saxons living alongside Heathen Norsemen in the Danelaw area may have been influenced to return to their religious roots, I deplore the way in which it is presumed by so many that Anglo Saxon Paganism was the same as Scandinavian, except for some slight name changes: Odinn to Woden, Forr to Funor, Tyr to Tiw etc.

(In fact, as someone with an interest in Norse Paganism as well,  I will observe that it was not very  consistent from one village to the next, let alone across several different countries!)  Let’s not fall into the archaeologist trap: lf we can’t explain if, it must have ritual purpose…” So much is unknown, uncertain, and down to individual interpretation.

A lot of emphasis has been placed upon the writings of the Venerable Bede, possibly England’s first historian, writing in Jarrow after the Christianisation of England. While he does provide excellent evidence regarding some Anglo Saxon Heathen practices such as mentioning the obscure Heathen deities Eostre, Hreþa (month names) & Sætere, one must remember that he was a Christian monk with a political viewpoint, especially as regarding the lineage and legitimacy of his current royal dynasty and culture.  That makes it all the more surprising that he should remind us that the

Heathen feast of Modra necht is arguably on 26 December and that Solmonaþ(February) is a feast of cakes, while September is named as Halegmonaþ (Holy Month) and November as Blotmonaþ (from its animal sacrifices). Why would a Christian cleric want to make these up?

We have a far wider range of powerful literature, in the form of texts that can be analysed for clues to our Heathen past: Heroic poetry such as Beowulf and the Battle of Maldon, material from leech books and verse charms (such as the Nine Herbs Charm), laws, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, letters, and the Anglo Saxon Rune Poem.  I would argue that you cannot get into the early Anglo Saxon mind set without understanding something of the Paganism of that period, even when it had officially ceased to exist.

According to the 6th century writer Gildas, the first of the heathen Saxon newcomers in the 5th century were allegedly Hengest and Horsa, two warrior leaders brought in by the Celt Vortigern to evict the Picts between about 449-456. After completing this mercenary task, they decided to stay on, against his wishes.  At a battle near Aylesford in Kent, Horsa was killed, and the still visible White Horse Stone (or possibly its replacement) is said to be where he is buried, and is thus an important place to modern heathens as a memorial to one of the two human sources of English Heathenism.  It lies off the A229 Maidstone-Chatham road, near to where the Pilgrims Way and the more modern Channel Tunnel link cross it.  lt can be found via a footpath near to a garage.

Consider briefly the names though:  Vortigen is less a name than a title, which has been interpreted as “King of Kings.” Horsa means “horse” and Hengest either “stallion” – or alternatively the almost-exact opposite, “gelding.” (How etymologists justify their art as a science sometimes eludes me!) How likely is it, for two sons to be both named in equine fashion?  I wonder whether these were titles, rather than names, in the same way that Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was known as the “Lion of Judah”?

LAWS

While I will accept that some laws are copied from one king to another, the successive laws against Paganism  seem to subtly change focus in each new generation: presumably to combat whatever was the “latest fad”.  The Saxon kings and the Church give us evidence of what was going on in England by what they forbade. For example, The Laws of King Alfred include:

30. The women (faamnan) who are accustomed to harbour enchanters (onfon gealdor-crasftiganJ and wizards (scin-læcan) and witches (wiccan) * do not allow them to live.

32. And he that sacrifices to idols (god-geldum onsaeoge), rather than to God alone, let him suffer

death. (Griffiths, 2006: 50)

Hence we know that people in the 880s were acting as enchanters, wizards and witches, as well as sacrificing to idols. It is unlikely that a law would be passed against something that did not exist. Prior to that in AD666, the biographer of St. Wilfriþ tells how a priest of the South Saxons cursed Wilfriþ and his companions as they were cast ashore in a storm.

The Council of Clofeshoh (747) condemned those who practiced divinations, auguries, incantations and the like.  The Dialogue of Archbishop Egbert named those who worshipped idols or gave themselves to the devil through others who took auspices or practiced astrology or enchantment as men who should never be appointed to the priesthood. (Blair, PH L997:LL7) – Though one might think they were already part of a rival priesthood, and would not therefore be interested in the one being denied them!

Between 1009 and 1016, King Æþelræd published his laws which included Renounce all Pagan Customs (Griffiths, 2006:84) demonstrating this was still a problem within an Anglo Saxon culture that had supposedly been converted to Christianity nearly four centuries previously (Pagan practices were specifically banned under Archbishop Theodore’s 7th century Penitential, which included penances for sacrificing to devils, foretelling the future and burning grain in a house after the death of a man – the last being the only reference I know of that particular Pagan practice).

The popular image of Christian conversion across Europe is not supported by the evidence, with some countries vacillating between various religions depending on their current rulers, invaders and even who they wanted as their allies or trading partners. Why, for instance, was the supposedly  Christian King Aþelhere of the East Angles named by Bede as being within the ill-fated 30 legions of the fervently Heathen King Penda’s AD654 expedition against Oswiu? (Stenton, 1971:83) Was it purely politics? Or had East Anglia reverted to Paganism once more? Prudence Jones & Nigel Pennick provide a detailed analysis of this type of process in A History of Pagan Europe (1995).

Earlier, East Anglian King Redwald had been baptised in Kent, but merely erected a crucifix in his Heathen temple and had a massive treasure burial – hardly the actions expected of a Christian. Maybe, like Prince Charles, he wanted to be “Defender of the Faiths” to his multi-faith society.  The Prittlewell treasure grave has proved this type of ostentatious funeral wasn’t unique in this period.  Wulfstan, ,Ælric and King Cnut (AD995) collectively ban animal guising, saluting the moon, making offerings at waterfalls and trees, making oaths to Heathen gods etc., in edicts years apart – which

suggest these things were still continuing. King Edgar had already forbidden well worship, divination, and practices around trees and wells in about AD970 – only 25 years before Cnut.   It would seem unlikely that laws would be repeatedly passed against some action that no longer happened.  Of course these accounts do all give us a very clear idea of what we should do as modern Heathens if we wish to worship in the way our ancestors did.

RITUALS & MAGIC

If one examines Anglo Saxon charms such as the one to make a field fruitful (Erce, Erce, Erce) it is hard to deny that there are some very magical acts going on alongside the instruction to say the Lords Prayer (cutting turf, and putting herbs and grain into the soil, etc.).   The period may officially be Christian, but it seems a lot of the old ways lingered, in a form semi- acceptable to the new religion.

When King Æþelberht met with Augustine and some 40 Christian missionaries, around 597 at Thanet in Kent, he insisted that it was in the open air, because he was suspicious of their magic. Does that mean then, at that place and time, people believed magic could only take place indoors?

CULT CENTRES

While there will always be linguistic and etymological arguments around place names, some of them

Wansdyke, Wednesbury (- Woden’s Barrow) Wednesfield, Thundersley (þunor’s grove), Tysoe (Tiw’s

Hill Spur) etc.- do seem to give evidence of centres of religious cults, Thurstable (Funor’s Pillar)    suggests a link with the sacred lrminsul pillars on the continent destroyed by Charlemagne, but St Anselm commenting on Heathen temples in Wessex mentions also crude pillars (ermula) of the same foul snake and the stag were worshipped with coarse stupidity in profane shrines… (Thompson, 2004:19). It was, of course, a stag that surmounted the whetstone sceptre of Sutton

Hoo, despite the wolf element to the Wuffing dynasty’s clan name,

Place names with an original element of hearg (hill sanctuary) in them such as Harrow Hill, likely indicate an outdoor altar site. Weoh = idol, allegedly, and this forms a Pagan element in place names such as Wayland Wood. What is much more controversial is the use of the Grimr nickname for Woden as part of place names. Whilst Grimsby might have been a centre for his worship, some places such as Grimsdyke, Grimspound, Grimes Graves etc, may have been named by later generations after a being that had by then gained ‘bogeyman’ status. What has not had much attention given it in recent years is the idea of areas named after their original tribes, who in turn were ruled by people who could only do so by claiming direct lineage back to a Pagan deity such as Woden or Seaxnot. A study of Frank Stenton (1971) will still repay the effort.

TEMPLES

According to Bede, the Heathen priest Coifi was asked by King Edwin of Northumbria to persuade the people to convert to Christianity in 627, by setting an example. He carried a spear on a stallion and threw it into the temple (ealh) at Goodmanham in the East Riding of Yorkshire – all taboo acts for an Anglo Saxon Heathen priest. (Blair, P. L977:121).  In contrast, at least one Icelandic priest owned a stallion and none seemed barred from carrying arms. Though they did share the custom of not taking weapons into the temple.

Certainly there must have been some well-constructed Heathen temples in England. Why else would Pope Gregory write to Abbot Mellitus a letter dated 17 June 601 (quoted by Bede) instructing him:  

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   advantage of well built temples by purifying them from devil worship… (Branston, 8., L974:53-54)

Those English Heathen temples must have flourished well into the era of Christian conversion, since

elsewhere Bede mentions an unbroken tradition of at least one heathen temple seen by King Aldwulf of East Anglia ‘who lived into our own times’ and who testified ‘that this temple was still standing in his day, and that he had seen if when a boy.'(Branston, B. 1974:54) The temple in question had belonged to Aldwulf’s predecessor King Rædwald, who died in about 625, and is believed to be the main burial at Sutton Hoo, His temple was probably where Rendlesham church now stands in Suffolk.   If the life of Aldwulf (Eadwulf) is taken as 664-7L3 (Pollington, 2005:120) and if he saw it when he was six years old (the earliest he is likely to have been able to recollect) then the temple was there in 670 – fofty-five years after the death of Rædwald and the supposed end of Heathen practice. Bede also writes about King Sighere of the East Saxons rebuilding ruined temples and restoring Heathen worship after a serious plague in 665.

DANCE

A plate on the side of the Sutton Hoo helmet shows what appear to be two figures, each dancing with two spears and a sword, across two crossed spears on the ground. They have elaborate helmets on that appear to be crested with large bird-headed horns. There is a similar figure shown on the Finglesham belt buckle from Kent, and they have close parallels with panels from Torslunda, Sweden. It appears that ritual dancing is going on, and Ormsgard Dark Ages Theatre was

trying to do some experimental archaeology around that at Sutton Hoo during 2008. While one may argue about what sort of ritual dance it is, it would be hard to put it into a Christian context.

Two of the figures from the Torslunda plates have helmets with boars on them, and at least two similar helmets have been found in England: at Benty Grange, Derbyshire and fragments at Woolaston, Northants and Guilden Morden, Cambs.   Whilst they could simply be decoration, are they evidence of a boar cult an animal sacred to the god Frey? As I indicated at the start of this article it is all down to interpretation.