Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Venerable Bede appears to have been born near Jarrow about
612. H e himself tells us (Historia Ecclesiastica, Il.xiv) that the first
conversion of Northumbria, by R o m a n missionaries under Paulinus, took
place during the reign of Edwin. According to the most recent investigation
of Northumbrian chronology by Kirby, it would have begun about 619;
however, it seems unlikely that the change to Christianity would have gained
much m o m e n t u m before the conversion of Edwin himself about 627. There
was a pagan reaction in 633 or 634 when Edwin was killed, which lasted until
635 or 636 when his nephew Oswald obtained the help of Aidan as a
missionary from the Scots, so establishing the Irish style of Christianity in
Northumbria for the next generation until the R o m a n triumph in 664 at the
Synod of Whitby.
In spite of the fact that Bede's parents placed him in Benedict
Biscop's monastery at the age of seven, it is likely that he would have learnt
quite a considerable amount about the paganism of the Anglo-Saxons from
his elders, and from oral tradition. It has often been regretted that he did
not pass on to his readers a great deal of what he must have known about
Anglo-Saxon heathenism; and perhaps almost as often it has been retorted
that this was not his concern, and that he would have certainly regarded it as
tending towards evil to describe heathen practices. Nevertheless, what he
does tell us, in his Historia Ecclesiastica, his De Temporum Ratione and his
Vita Cuthberti is consistent with what w e can learn from other sources. In
particular, there are a couple of other references to pagan practices in the
Saints' Lives, written in Latin in Northumbria in the early years of the eighth
century, which amplify slightly what Bede has to say.
All these sources differ from any other writings which w e can use in a
study of Anglo-Saxon heathenism in one important respect: that whereas the
laws, penitentials and ecclesiastical decrees are all directed to the current
situation, against survivals and superstitions, Bede's writing (except where he
is quoting original documents) and the Saints' Lives describe past events, as
they imagine paganism to have been. Since this is so, it seems a useful
exercise to gather these references together, meagre though they m a y be.
In assessing these references to past paganism, w e need to keep two
or three things in mind. One is that Bede and the hagiographers were writing
about beliefs held and practices current within living memory, and therefore,
though they m a y distort them somewhat, they are unlikely to be reporting
anything which is substantially untrue. As John Morris pertinently remarked
in 1967:
If our historical record was entirely oral, if w e lacked history
books and records, a writer or a lecturer might...explain the
Martello Towers of the south coast as defences erected (not
against Napoleon but) against the Spanish Armada, without
meeting protest or denial; but if he congratulated his readers on
2 A.L. Meaney
seasons. A year of 13 lunar months would equal a little more than 383.5
days. By inserting a thirteenth month at intervals, therefore, the lunar and
solar years can be kept in some sort of relationship to each other.
T w o possibilities have been suggested for the Anglo-Saxon pagan
calendar; the eight-year or the nineteen-year cycles. A system which has
three years of thirteen lunar months (usually the third, sixth and eighth) and
five other years of twelve lunar months has just over one and a half days
more then eight solar years. A nineteen-year cycle would be more accurate,
as Harrison explains:
The lunar months in an ordinary year are taken to toe. bi
alternately of 29 days and 30 days...; so in 19 years 114 times 29
= 3306 days and 114 times 30 = 3420 days, in all 6726; then must
be added 4.75 leap year days and 7 embolismic months of 30
days each, making a grand total of 6940.75. But in solar terms
19 Julian years of 365.25 days = 69J9.75. Thus the moon has 613^-75
gained to all appearances exactly one day over the sun. To get
rid of the discrepancy, by a convenient fiction the moon was
supposed to skip a day, the process being called saltus lunae.
This cycle became, eventually, that which formed the basis for calculating
the date of Easter. Harrison has argued that it was the nineteen-year cycle
which was used in pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon England, for some of the early
West Saxon annals appear to be repeated after nineteen years (e.g. the
annals for 495 and 514, and for 508 and 527).10 He suggested that Anglo-
Saxon reckoning may have derived from "principles laid down in Babylonia
and Greece", perhaps reaching northern Europe by overland trade routes
along the rivers between the Black Sea and the Baltic, or by a more westerly
route "identified by the trade in amber".
An intercalation in the busy season of summer would have helped to
keep the celebration of autumn in its place, after the crops had been safely
gathered in. Though w e cannot be certain that Halegmonath refers to a
harvest festival, the fact that an alternative name in Kent was Rugern, "rye
harvest", suggests as much. If w e assume, from what Bede says, that the
winter solstice was regarded as taking place on the night between the first
month of Giuli and the second it would have always have been at the same
phase of the moon but have varied according to the solar calendar by as
much as twenty-five days early, and up to about four days late. But since
observation of the actual solstices and equinoxes would have been very hard
for the pagan Anglo-Saxons, this was probably not very important. For
seasonal activities, as Harrison remarked, the farmer would act according to
the state of the weather, as he does now. Bede does not indicate at what
stage of the moon the months are supposed to begin and end, but it would be
logical to assume that the new month began with the appearance of the new
moon. But if this were so, then winter must have been supposed to begin
halfway through the month Winterfilleth, and end halfway through
Eosturmonath.
Bede and Paganism 5
remarked that Bede preferred to quote the Spanish Orosius about the R o m a n
Walls not ten miles from his cell rather than to state what his o w n eyes
saw; and in some ways Bede's chapter on the months of the English is
reminiscent of Orosius' History Against the Pagans — no such dreadful things
happen in our enlightened times as were c o m m o n among them. In these
circumstances w e might have suspected Bede of distortion or exaggeration,
if his reputation were at all doubtful. But he is universally regarded as one
of the most honest of historians, and the very fact that what he tells us
about the festivals of the heathen English is found unequivocally nowhere
else could be, paradoxically, an indication of its veracity. If he had been
going to make up seasonal festivals for purposes of contrast, it would have
been easy enough to attribute them to the great gods that everyone must
have known about because their names are embedded in the days of the
week. These obscure goddesses Hrethe, Eastre and the Mothers are to m y
mind convincing because of, rather than in spite of, the fact that they are so
unexpected. And, to reiterate, w e must not forget that at the time Bede
was writing there must still have been many still alive who knew a great deal
about the superseded religion, either at first or at good second hand.
Figure 1
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Bede and Paganism 11
was a pit with a cremation burial where later a standing stone had stood
(evidently contemporaneously with the stone circle) which even later had
been removed and a heavy circular wooden post, about 31 c m s in diameter,
erected in its place. This had eventually decayed in situ. Three other posts
were at times also set in the central pit, but later removed. Thirty-one
inhumation graves lay within the area, all but three laid out radially or
tangentially, heads outward, from the centre; some (perhaps the earliest)
seem to be pointing at specific post holes. T w o of the four apparently later
graves, which are all orientated east-west, contained iron knives. Moreover,
all the burials seem to have been laid out with regard to a square wooden
post-setting (inside the removed stone circle), which must have held some
kind of mortuary enclosure, perhaps supporting a roof, perhaps not. It seems
that the burials on the site of the ring-ditch are the oldest of the
inhumations at Yeavering, and the enclosure is among its earliest
rectangular wooden structures (i.e. earlier than about 500 A.D.). They are
certainly older than D 2 and D 3 ; and some time may have elapsed between
the destruction of the mortuary enclosure and the building of D 2 , which
established a new ritual centre in this area.
To the south of the ring ditch building D4(a), orientated E W , was built
during the same overall phase as D2(b); there were other buildings also to the
south-west and to the north; all appear to have been domestic in use.
Other features of the Yeavering site which may have bearing on the
siting of a temple there are, first, the "Great Enclosure" which the
excavators concluded was probably a "communal cattle-corral" and which
c a m e into existence in the earliest phase of post-Roman development (about
the same time as the building of the rectangular wooden mortuary enclosure
mentioned above). The Great Enclosure enclosed a ditched round-barrow in
which was set a free-standing wooden post "which was a fixed point for
ritual observances". The Great Enclosure was in existence during most of
the period of Yeavering's existence as a township, and was much elaborated
just before the first fire.
To the next phase, when D2(a) was built, also belongs, technologically,
the erection of a wooden building like a slice out of a R o m a n amphitheatre,
centred on a free-standing post, in front of which was a platform (for a
throne or a speaker?). The original capacity of this "grandstand" was about
150; it was later enlarged to take about 320. It was set alight but not
destroyed when the rest of the township was burnt down, probably about 632.
After the fire rows of burials, head to toe in E W trenches, were made
on the eastern side of the site, perhaps during the pagan interregnum after
Edwin's death; and from henceforth all burials seem to have taken place in
this area. The burials were all, except one, unfurnished and of people of
small stature — therefore, presumably, native Britons. One was taller and
with poor iron belt fittings and a knife, and was probably Anglo-Saxon. The
Great Enclosure was not rebuilt, and within its area a building which was
14 A.L. Meaney
middle, Wodan and Fricco were on either side. If there was danger of
pestilence or famine, sacrifices were made to Thor; if of war, to Wodan; if
marriage was to be celebrated, to Fricco.34 In 612 A.D. the Saints
Columban and Gall are said to have c o m e upon three bronze-gilt statues
standing against a wall in a chapel at Bregenz on Lake Constance, to which
the people continued to make offerings, neglecting the Christian altars.
The triplex Mother Goddesses may also be relevant here. It has sometimes
been suggested that the three postholes set across the temple at Yeavering
may have held pillars shaped into the likeness of gods; and the fact that they
seem to have been withdrawn before the building was burnt (since there was
no charcoal in their post-holes, which were packed with large stones ) may
give some support to this theory, if, as Hope-Taylor suggests, it was used as
a Christian church after Paulinus' visit.
As already described, outside the southern end of the temple was an
enclosure, apparently not roofed, where four or five heavy posts had stood,
not all at the same time, the last having been removed after the fire.
Outside the north-west corner of the building, however, a deep pit had held a
wooden post about 57 c m s square, which had been allowed to rot in place.
Many thin, pointed stakes had been driven into the ground around the pillar.
If the archaeological evidence would permit it, I would suggest that
this last was a cross shaft — such as the Hodoeporicon of St Willibald says
were customarily erected on estates as a focus for prayer —standing within
sight of the newly converted people feasting in their little huts, for its size
is so much bigger than, and its shape differs markedly from the other
freestanding posts in and to the south of the temple, which were round. Yet
if this theory is correct, the last of those to the south, too, must have been
of Christian rather than pagan import.
Free-standing wooden posts were, however, a feature of Yeavering
from its earliest post-Roman existence (see Figure 2). That placed at the
centre of the western ring ditch has already been mentioned; but it was not
so significant as Post B X which was probably sited on the small mound of a
pre-existing barrow, in the centre of the eastern ring ditch. The first post
here was about 28 c m s diameter, and it had been replaced by a later,
pointed, post whose broken-off foot appeared to have rotted in situ after its
withdrawal.-* In a line with post B X were the axis of buildings A 2 and the
intended axis of building A 4 (the two major halls on the site, successively
belonging to its period of prosperity), and, just outside the east door of
building A 4 , a post-hole A X , which was very deep, and had held a pointed
post which had been withdrawn before the fire. The post-hole appeared to
have been partially packed with fragments of bone when the post was
removed.
When the line from B X through A X and the halls was extended it
passed very close to post E, the focal point of the "theatre", and cut through
D 2 , almost passing through its doors. Posts A X , B X and E were therefore all
A.L. Meaney
16
Figure 2
S
Bede and Paganism 17
datum-points, used in the setting out of the plan of the settlement. Hope-
Taylor comments that these free-standing posts were presumably
emblematic and possibly totemic, and evidently served some "ritual"
purposes both before and during the "Anglo-Saxon" phase of Yeavering's
development. It seems quite possible that the intrusive pagan English
adopted and continued a tradition already established on the site; for within
the Germanic tradition pillars appear to have their own significance.
Tacitus (Germania, ch. 34) records a rumour that there were "pillars of
Hercules", which he appears to assume were human artefacts, somewhere
near the Frisian coast. The most famous Germanic pillar is the Saxon
Irminsul which Charles the Great destroyed in 772, whose name is
interpreted variously but most convincingly as a "universal column, which
supports everything".40 Turville-Petre has convincingly related the Irminsul
to Thurstable, originally (it seems) Thunres stapol, "the pillar of Thunor", the
name of a Hundred in Essex. Turville-Petre goes on: "We may suppose
that, in pagan times, there was a pillar in Thurstable Hundred, dedicated to
the god Thunor, and that this was a meeting place". There are four other
Hundred N a m e s which are named from pillars: Staple in Wiltshire42 and
Sussex, Barstable in Essex 4 4 and Staploe in Cambridgeshire.45 It seems
very probable that Post E at Yeavering was also a "stapol" of this kind.
These pillars, however, seem to be associated particularly with
Thunor; and the names Hercules and Irmin (if this actually refers to a god)
may well have denoted a deity of the same type, if not Thunor himself.
However, there are two problems in equating these pillars with the idols and
images which Bede mentions: one is that Thunor appears in England to be a
specifically Saxon and Kentish god; unlike Woden, there are no place-names
containing his n a m e in any Anglian areas. The second is that these pre-
standing posts or pillars could not have been considered images, simulacra,
unless they had been carved and/or painted, or there were a statue placed on
them. G r i m m cites passages to show the Irminsul itself was described as an
idol, or as having an idol standing on it, and it is no doubt possible that at
least some of the Yeavering posts were, or supported, images in the true
sense of the word; but their wood has long since turned to dust and w e shall
never know exactly what they must have looked like in Edwin's time or
earlier.
Bede also talks of pagan altars, arae, usually reserving altaria for
Christian. When Coifi advised Edwin that the temples and altars should be
destroyed, the word Bede used was altaria; but then the king asked who
would be the first to profane the altars and the temples of the idols (aras et
fana idolorum, HE, 11.13). In his description of the back-sliding of Raedwald
of East Anglia (HE, 11.15) Bede says that:
in eodem fano et altare haberet ad sacrificium Christi et
arulam ad uictimas daemoniorum. Quod uidelicet fanum
rex eiusdem prouinciae Alduulf, qui nostra aetate fuit,
18 A.L. Meaney
its back, inclined towards its left side, in a slightly flexed position, arms
drawn up and head to the west". Over the left foot was a goat's skull, facing
east.
Above the skeleton were the remains of a wooden object with some
cylindrical bronze bindings. The end near the head was featureless, but lying
obliquely below it were very similar remains which were probably a broken-
off part of the same object; in which case it would have been terminated by
an iron spike. Near the other end (which was probably its top) three arms of
equal length were set out from it at right angles; it is reasonably safe to
assume that there had been a fourth. The shaft at this end was terminated
by an inward-pointing iron spike, and "by a broader and thicker feature
(probably also of wood) bounded by a curve of bronze wire". This the
excavator believed to have had a decorative purpose, perhaps being an
animal effigy, "with the eyes formed of inset bronze pellets, and the hooves
possibly cased in the same metal". The conspicuous hook at one end caused
the resemblance to be closest to that of a goat, a sheep, or a crested bird.
The fact that the name Gefrin apparently means, in British, the "Hill of the
52
Goats", may be relevant here.
The object, therefore, appears to be some sort of ceremonial
equipment— a staff or a standard. If a standard, it would seem a poor thing
compared to the sturdy metal object found among the regalia at Sutton Hoo;
but the two objects may have had some similar features. The Sutton Hoo
"standard" had a spike at the bottom which could have been driven into the
ground; also four arms or spokes set at right angles to each other and to the
upright, near its top, though as a part of an elaborate structure with a
horizontal grid and supports; and finally it, too, was adorned with stylised
heads of horned animals, one each at the ends of the arms, and a second set
of four adorning the corners of a small horizontal plate at the top of the
standard. Alternatively (and preferably, to the excavator) the Yeavering
object could have been, or betokened "an instrument akin to the groma used
by R o m a n land-surveyors". The fact that the grave in which it was found
was on the main, east-west alignment of the major buildings on the site is
"suggestive in itself of 'ritual' intention". Hope-Taylor goes on to suggest
that "among vestiges of ancient learning preserved and transmitted by the
earlier local priesthood was some m e m o r y of the geometry of the R o m a n
land-surveyor".
It may be that w e can add to this the intrusive Anglo-Saxon element.
As well as being a survey instrument, might not the decorative element at
the top of the staff represent an effigy, such as a Germanic priest from
Tacitus' time onwards would at times carry? Might not a priest at Yeavering
have combined elements in his priesthood both of the Romano-British past
and the present English dominance? I submit that w e are never likely to find
another burial which has so much claim to be considered that of a pagan
English — or Anglo-Celtic — priest as that of the m a n laid in Grave A X at
Bede and Paganism 21
Yeavering.
G r i m m has pointed out that the priests would have been "the most
cultivated portion of the people, the most capable of comprehending the
Christian doctrine". and perhaps also of divining which way the wind was
blowing, as well as on which side their bread was buttered. This might well
be as true for those standing on the border between Briton and English as for
those facing the introduction of a new religion, which could mean that unless
they themselves took immediate steps, they would lose what power and
influence they had had. Did Edwin, one wonders, bestow more favours and
dignities upon Coifi after and because of his accommodating acceptance of
Christianity, or did he discard him once he had played his vital part? Bede
does not tell us. But if it was Edwin, as Hope-Taylor surmises, who had the
great hall, A 4 , built at Yeavering, it is difficult to imagine that he was
entirely unaware of the "watcher" by the threshold of his Heorot-like
hall.55 Yet no attempt was made to disturb this door-keeper, even after the
nominal Christianization of the site.
Perhaps the South Saxon high priest, if he had survived, might have
blamed his failure partly on the fact that he had to work in the open air. For
Bede tells us that when A^thelberht consented to meet Augustine:
Cauerat enim ne in aliquam d o m u m ad se introirent, uetere
usus augurio, ne superuentu suo, siquid maleficae artis
habuissent, e u m superando deciperent. (HE, 1.25)
H e took care, indeed, that they should not come into any
building to meet him, affected by the old superstition that if
they had anything of black magic, they might deceive him at his
arrival so as to overcome him.
There is a reference in Theodore's Penitential, XV.4, to a canon of the
Council of Ancyra, which refers to "those who bring m e n into their houses, in
seeking for some kind of sorcery";56 and in the long preface to King Alfred's
laws a prohibition from Exodus is expanded into a statement (probably not a
law) that w o m e n who were accustomed to receive enchanters, magicians and
witches should not be allowed to live.57 Perhaps black magic was believed
to be more powerful if physically confined.
There is also a reference to loosing spells (as opposed to binding
spells) in a story which Bede tells of a Northumbrian prisoner whose bonds
were undone whenever his brother, supposing him to be dead, said masses for
his soul. The Mercian who guarded him asked if he had on him any litteras
solutorias, literally, "loosing letters", about which stories were told (HE,
IV.22). Apparently some kind of amulet is envisaged, on which was inscribed
a magic formula to prevent the wearer being tied up. There has been a great
deal of discussion about whether these "loosing letters" were runes or not.
When A^Ilfric wrote his Hortatory Sermon on the Mass he translated this term
as -Surh drycraeft otte %urh runstafum, "by means of wizardry or runes". It
must not be forgotten that AElfric was writing nearly three hundred years
after Bede; nevertheless it is possible that Bede was indeed referring to
22 A.L. Meaney
runes, though most of the written charms which have been preserved use
imitations of Greek letters more often than runes.
Bede also testifies that the pagan Anglo-Saxons used some kinds of
amulets in his description of Cuthbert's attempts to keep the country people
living near his monastery from reverting to heathenism in times of plague:
N a m ... neglectis fidei sacramentis quibus erant inbuti, ad
erratica indolatriae medicamina concurrebant, quasi
missam a Deo Conditore plagem per incantationes uel
fylacteria uel alia quaelibet daemonicae artis cohibere
ualerent.
For, neglecting the sacraments of Christianity, they would
betake themselves to the erroneous remedies of idolatry, as if
they could fend off plague sent by God the Creator by
incantations or phylacteries or any other mysteries of the
devilish art (HE, IV.27). 60
Other newly converted Christians, however, went beyond mere incantations
and amulets in their attempts to stop the onslaught of plague. Bede tells us
that: King Sigehere and most of his East Saxons, both plebeians and
aristocrats, paid attention only to this life, not striving for any future life
and indeed not even believing in one. They began to restore the temples
which were derelict, and to adore images, as if they could by this means save
themselves from death (HE, 111.30). However, they were brought back to
Christianity by Bishop Jaruman, so that they destroyed the temples and
altars which they had erected, preferring to die believing that they would
rise again in Christ than to live on in the filth of falsehood among idols.
This is the second time that Bede claimed that the pagan English had
no concept of an after-life. In his account of Edwin's conversion, one of his
nobles compares the life of m a n on earth with that of a sparrow flying
through the king's hall: while inside, the storms of winter cannot touch it,
but what happens afterwards, and indeed what went before, w e do not know
(HE, 11.13). The pagan English custom of supplying goods — personal effects
and perhaps drink (in containers) and food — with inhumation burials may
imply that they had a belief that the corpse retained life of some kind and
was appreciative of the attentions of the living, though at the other end of
the scale it might mean no more than that the living wished to show respect
to the dead (as w e do with flowers). However, the fact that inhumation
cemeteries were usually sited in open country, well away from settlements,
and that some bodies appear to have been decapitated post mortem may
indicate that the living felt they had something to fear from the inhumed
dead. The alternative rite of cremation, however, which was used in England
particularly by the Angles, was usually believed to release the spirit of the
dead, primarily so that it should not trouble the living. Therefore Bede
was not being strictly correct when he claimed that the pagan had no
concept of an after-life; but no doubt to a Christian with a much more
developed idea of heaven and hell such limited survival as appears to be
envisaged by these burial rites would count for nothing.
Bede and Paganism 23
Conclusion
Bede's picture of the superseded heathenism of the Anglo-Saxons,
whether from his quoted documents, or in his own writing is therefore
consistent with what w e can learn from other contemporary sources. Their
year was punctuated with festivals which must have varied in date
(according to our way of thinking) because celebrated according to a luni-
solar calendar, but which nevertheless were closely related to the seasons—a
harvest festival, a big sacrifice of oxen before the onset of the worst of the
winter, ceremonies honouring the Mothers about the time of the winter
solstice, other ceremonies involving the offering of cakes as the winter
began to ease (perhaps coinciding with the c o m m e n c e m e n t of the ploughing
season), and two celebrations of spring goddesses in succeeding months. 6 9
With such ceremonies the gods were propitiated, and when disasters
such as plague epidemics c a m e upon the people they were the more assiduous
in their attentions, and also the more likely to wear prophylactics. Good
fortune was also attributed to the gods, as Bede indicates when he says that
Edwin gave thanks to them for the birth of his daughter (HE, H.9) — though
here w e cannot entirely dismiss the possibilty that Bede was merely making
an assumption. The heathen festivals, with sacrifices followed by sacred
feasts, took place in temples, which contained altars, and which stood in
their own enclosures. These sanctuaries were presumably places of peace
(later names for centres of superstition include fripgeard70 and fripsplot71,
"yard or patch of peace") since they could be profaned by having arms cast
into them. Similarly, pagan priests were themselves forbidden to bear arms
or to ride any horse but a mare, but they would accompany an army to battle
and help it to victory with spells; in general, however, spells would be more
powerful if worked indoors. The chief among the priests might have been
Bede and Paganism 25
Audrey L. Meaney
School of English and Linguistics
Macquarie University
A.L. Meaney
26
1 See the discussion by C E . Whiting, The Life of the Venerable Bede, in Bede, his
Life, Times and Writings, A. Hamilton Thompson, ed., Oxford, 1935, repr. 1969, 1-
38.
2 Editions used are C. Plummer, ed., Venerabilis Baedae Opera Historica, 2 vols.,
Oxford, 1896 (hereafter, HE); and B. Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors, edd. and trans.,
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Oxford, 1969.
3 D.P. Kirby, Bede and Northumbrian chronology, English Historical Review 78,
1963, 514-27 at 522-3.
4 C.W. Jones, ed., Bedae Opera de Temporibus, Cambridge, Mass., 1943, 173-291.
5 B. Colgrave, ed., Two Lives of Saint Cuthbert, N e w York, repr. 1969, 141-307.
6 J. Morris, The Literary Evidence, in Christianity in Britain, 300-700, M.W. Barley
and R.P.C. Hanson, edd., Leicester, 1968, 55-74, at 63.
7 Jones, Bedae De Temp., 211-3, notes 350-51. Jones' forms of the Old English
names are taken from the earliest manuscripts; since the use of d is archaic I have
silently emended to forms (usually from later manuscripts) more representative of
pronunciation. In Hred-, Lida, the manuscript d clearly stands for the voiced
dental fricative (8) and has here been written th; in Blodmonath the d seems to
represent a t, for the first element is certainly blot, "sacrifice", rather than blod,
"blood".
8 Kenneth Harrison, The Framework of Anglo-Saxon History to A.D. 900,
Cambridge, 1976, 1-13 (hereafter, Framework.
9 Kenneth Harrison, Luni-solar cycles. Their accuracy and Some Types of Usage, in
Saints, SchoUars and Heroes: Studies in Medieval Culture in Honour of Charles W.
Jones, 2 vols., Collegevilee, Minn., 1979, M.H. King and W.M. Stevens, edd., vol. 2,
65-78, at 71.
10 Harrison, Framework, 127-8.
11 Harrison, Framework, 10-11.
12 D. Whitelock, ed., English Historical Documents, vol.1, c.500-1042, 2nd edn.,
London, 1979, 396.
13 W. Bonser, The Medical Background of Anglo-Saxon England, London, 1963, 140,
citing K. Weinhold, Die deutschen Monatnamen, Halle, 1869, 33, 54. For autumn
slaughtering, see also J.D.G. Clark, Prehistoric Europe, London, 1952, 124-6; and
E.S. Higgs and J.P. White, Autumn Killing, Antiquity 37. 1963, 282-3.
14 E.O. James, The Cult of the Mother-Goddess, London, 1959. Some Indian village
goddesses have resemblances to the Germanic and Celtic Matres; see 113-21.
15 J. de Vries, Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte, 2nd edn., 2 vols., Berlin, 1956-7;
vol.2, 288-302.
16 Anne Ross, Pagan Celtic Britain, London, 1967, 204-10; repr., 1974, 265-71.
17 Uuyrdae in Epinal-Erfurt; H. Sweet, The Oldest English Texts, London, 1885, Early
English Text Society 83, pp. 83, 86.
18 H. Sweet, The Epinal Glossary, Latin and Old English, London, 1883, 21, cols.A-B,
line 11. Sweet omitted this gloss from his list of English glosses in The Oldest
English Texts, and may therefore have considered it to be Latin; but there appears
to be no other Latin word it could be except sol, solis = sun, and to try to think up
a connection with this is far harder than to accept Bede's word.
19 J. Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, trans. J.S. Stallybrass from 4th edn., 4 vols., 1880-
Bede and Paganism 27