Bede and other early textual evidence

Lacking the technology of script, none of the pre-Christian peoples of Britain left behind continuous verbal records of their history or culture apart from the Romans.¹⁰ The only written accounts we have of Germanic paganism therefore come from outsiders who wrote in Latin.

Chief among these was the Roman author Tacitus, who in his ethnographic account Germania (composed ca. 100 CE) wrote about the Germanic tribes of the Continent with some admiration, yet also with an eye towards cultural criticism of Rome.¹¹ From this work much can be learned about the Germanic tribes who inhabited northern Europe at that time, including their predilection for sacred groves (chs 7, 9, 40), their use of lots and their observance of auspices (ch. 10), their occasional practice of cremating the dead (ch. 27), their forms of sacrifice, including the sacrifice of human beings (chs 9, 39, 40), and their prominent deities. Among the deities mentioned by Tacitus are the founding god Tuisto and the more fully individualized gods “Mercury” (thought to correspond to Woden/Odinn), “Hercules” (thought to correspond to Thurnor/Thor) and “Mars” (thought to correspond to Tiw/Tyr) (chs 2-3, 9). Also mentioned is the goddess “Isis” (thought to correspond to Freyja) (ch. 9) and the goddess Nerthus, or Terra Mater “Mother Earth” (ch. 40). This last figure, unmentioned in other sources, is said by Tacitus to have been worshipped by a number of tribes including the Angli. Among these deities, “Mercury” was “the one they worship most”. Such a statement chimes with later evidence indicating

Here Bede may have been influenced by an indigenous Anglo-Saxon myth of origins, since it is unlikely that two historical brothers were named “stallion” and “horse”, respectively.¹⁸ It is of interest that the founding myth of Rome, too, features a pair of brothers (Romulus and Remus) as well as a prominent animal (a she-wolf).

Elsewhere, in his treatise De temporum ratione (The Reckoning of Time, 15.28- 32) Bede gives the native English names for the months and for some festivals.¹⁹ Thus we learn that in Solmonath (corresponding roughly to our February) cakes were offered to unnamed gods; that in Hredmonath (March) sacrifices were made to the goddess Hred (Hrethd); that in Eosturmonath (April) a feast was celebrated for a goddess named Eostre (cf.

our name “Easter”); and that on or about December 25 was celebrated Modranect “Night of the Mothers”, a possible reference to the three Matres of Celtic/Roman/Germanic belief whose cult is attested in the Rhineland. November was known as Blotmonath (spelled Blodmonath “blood month” in some manuscripts), and Bede glosses this name as mensis immolationum “the month of sacrifices”, explaining that this was the time of year when beasts were offered to the gods. This interesting information is not necessarily reliable in all regards, seeing that the goddesses “Eostre” and “Hretha” are otherwise unknown. What is noteworthy is how little Bede has to say about the actual pre-Christian religion of the English. Perhaps he wished to throw a cloak of silence over those aspects of the past that he found distasteful. This would be in keeping with his aim of celebrating the English as a noble people who eventually brought Christianity to a superior state of fulfilment. In addition, Bede may have been ignorant about many aspects of pre-Christian religion, given his cloistered life and his lifelong devotion to interpreting scripture.

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Source: Bredholt Christensen Lisbeth, Hammer Olav, Warburton David. The Handbook of Religions in Ancient Europe. Acumen,2013. — 456 p.. 2013

Bede and other early textual evidence

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