372
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book I.
name having left such deep traces as we perceive
in the quotations given above, proves not only the
especial divinity of the person, but perhaps also the
politicalpowerand importance of the worshippers1.
SÆTERE.—Among the Gods invariably men-
tioned as having been worshipped by our forefathers
is one who answered to the Latin Saturnus, at least
in name. From the seventh week-day ʌve may in-
fer that his Anglosaxon name was Sætere, perhaps
the Placer or Pisposer2 ; for Sæteresdæg seems a
more accurate form than Sæternesdæg which we
sometimes find. There are both names of places
and of plants formed upon the name of this god :
as Satterthwaite in Lancashire, Satterleigh in De-
vonshire and Saetcrcsbyrig3 in the same county, of
which there appears to be no modern représenta
tive ; while among plants the GalUcrus, or common
crowfoot, is called in Anglosaxon Satorla⅝e. The
appearance of Saturnus as an interlocutor in such
a dialogue as the Salomon and Saturn4 is a further
evidence of divinity ; so tiɪat, taking all circum-
stances into account, it is probable that when Gre-
gory of Tours, Geoffry of Monmouth and others,
number him among the Teutonic gods, they are
not entirely mistaken. Now there has been a tra-
ɪ See the author’s edition of Beowulf, vol. ii. Postscript to the Pre-
face. Leo's Beowulf, etc. ; and Ettmuller ,s Beuwulf, etc., with the last
of whom, upon the matureβt consideration, I find it impossible to agree.
3 Grimm seems rather to imagine insidiator. Mith. p. 220.
3 Cod. Dipl. No. 813.
* An edition of the Anglosaxon dialogues on this subject has been
put forth by the author for the Ælfric Society. To this reference may
be made for full details respecting Saturnus.
CH. x∏∙]
HEATHENDOM. SÆTERE.
373
dition, in Germany at least, of a god Chrodo, or
Hruodo, whose Latin name was Saturn, and whose
figure is said to have been that of an old man
standing upon a fish, and holding in one hand a
bundle of flowers, while the other grasps a wheel.
Grimm imagines herein some working of Slavonic
traditions1, and following the Slavonic interpreters
connects this Chrodo with Kirt or Sitivrat, and
again with some Sanskrit legend of a Satjavrata2.
But the reasoning seems inconclusive, and hardly
sufficient to justify even the very cautions mode in
which Grimm expresses himself about this Slavo-
Germanic godhead3. More than this we cannot say
of the Anglosaxon Sætere, whose name does not
appear in the royal genealogies ; nevertheless we
cannot doubt the existence of some deity whom our
forefathers recognized under that name.
1 It is with no disrespect to the unrivalled powers of Scott that I
enter my protest here against the false costume of Ivanhoe ; a far more
serious objection no doubt is the way in which his brilliant contrast,
necessary to the success of a romance, has misled the historian. Had
Ivanhoe not appeared, we should not have had the many errors which
disfigure Thierry’s Conquête de l'Angleterre par les Normands. But
when Scott makes Ulrica (Ulrica a Saxon female name !) calling upon
Zernebock, as a god of her forefathers, he makes her talk absolute non-
sense. Some Mecklenburg or Pomeranian Saxons, in the immediate
neighbourhood of Slavonic populations, or mingled with them, may
possibly have heard of their god Czerny Bog, (the black god) contrasted
with Bjala Bog, (the v:hit/; god), but assuredly no Anglosaxon ever
heard the name of any such deity ; nor does the chaunt of the vindictive
lady bear one single trace of Saxon character. In every matter of
detail, the romance is only calculated to mislead ; and this is to be re-
gretted, inasmuch as the beauty of the whole work renders it a certain
vehicle of error;—has rendered it already a snare to one estimable au-
thor. M. Thierry has related the effect produced upon his mind by
Ivanhoe. See his Dix Ans d’Études Historiques : Preface.
2 Deut. Myth. p. 227. 3 See Salomon aud Saturn, p. 129,