334
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book I.
the idols1 ; lastly that at the court of Eadwini of
Northumberland there was a chief priest2, and, as
we may naturally infer from this, an organized
heathen hierarchy.
The poenitentials of the church and the acts of
the witena-gemots are full of prohibitions directed
against the open or secret practice of heathendom3;
from them we learn that even till the time of Cnut,
well-worship and tree-worship, the sanctification
of places, spells, philtres and witchcraft, were still
common enough to call for legislative interference ;
and the heavy doom of banishment, proclaimed
against their upholders, proves how deeply rooted
such pagan customs were in the minds of the peo-
ple. Still in the Ecclesiastical History of Beda, in
the various works which in later times were founded
upon it and continued it, in the poenitentials and
confessionals of the church, in the acts of the se-
cular assemblies, we look in vain for the sacred
names in which the fanes were consecrated, or for
even the slightest hint of the attributes of the gods
whose idols or images had been set up. Excepting
the cursory mention of the two female divinities al-
ready noticed, and one or two almost equally rapid
allusions in later chronicles, we are left almost en-
tirely without direct information respecting the
tenants of the Saxon Pantheon. There are however
other authorities, founded on traditions more an-
ɪ H. E. iii. 8. Malmeshurysaystliatlicdestroyedalsotheirchapels,
“ sacella deorum.” De Gest. Keg. lib. i. § 11.
2 H. E. ii. 13.
3 See these collected in the Appendix at the end of this volume.
сн. X∏∙]
HEATHENDOM. WO'DEN.
335
cient than Beda himself, from which we derive more
copious, if not more definite accounts. First among
these are the genealogies of the Anglosaxon kings :
these contain a multitude of the ancient gods, re-
duced indeed into family relations, and entered in
the grades of a pedigree, but still capable of identi-
fication with the deities of the North and of Ger-
many. In this relation we find Woden, Bældæg,
Geat, Wig, and Frea. The days of the week, also de-
dicated to gods, supply us further with the names of
Tiw, Dunor, Fricge and Sætere ; and the names of
places in all parts of England attest the wide di-
spersion of their worship. These, as well as the
names of plants, are the admitted signs by which
we recognize the appellations of the Teutonic gods.
1. W0T)EN, in Old-Horse OpINN, in Old-ger-
man WUOTAN.—The royal family» of every An-
glosaxon kingdom, without exception, traces its
descent from Woden through some one or other of
those heroes or demigods who are familiar to us
in the German and Scandinavian traditions ɪ. But
1 Roger of Wendover appears however to have made a distinction,
which I do not remember to have found in any other author, in the
case of Ælli of Sussex. He says : “ Wodenus igitur ex antiquorum
prosapia Germanorum originem ducens, post mortem inter deostrans-
Iatus est ; quern veteres pro deo colentes, dedicaverunt ei quartam fe-
riam, quam de nomine eius Wodenesday, id est diem Wodeni, nuncu-
parunt. Hic habuit uxorem, nomine Fream, cui similiter veteres
sextam feriam Consecrantes, Freday, id est diem Freæ, appellarunt.
Genuit autem Wodenus ex uxore Frea septem filios inclytos, ex quorum
Successione septem reges traxerunt originem, qui in Britannia potenter,
expulsis Britannis, postea regnaverunt. Ex fiɪio Wodeni primogenito,
nomme Wecta, reges Cantuariorum ; ex secundo, Frehegeath, reges
Merciorum ; ex tertio, Baldao, reges Westsaxonum ; ex quarto, Bel-