This post contains affiliate links. For more information see disclosure at bottom of home page
Today is going to be a slower day of work! Thank goodness for the holiday season because nothing gets done and that is totally fine. There are a few things that I need to do, but for the most part, I am going to relax, blog, maybe make some Pinterest pins, and go workout. I am currently working from home right now so I have extra company, my cat Sirius, but my cat won’t let me work. If you have read any of my blogs, you know that he is a main component of my life. To give some background, my roommate was fostering him (I pretty much took over that job) and I fell in love with him and his brother. They were both the cutest kittens ever and I wanted them both but knew taking care of a cat was a huge responsibility. Luckily Sirius’ brother was adopted which made getting a cat way easier. I adopted him right away after seeing how unhappy he was at the adoption events at PetSmart.
Benefits of my cat
Anyway, Sirius has been a huge part of my life and my mental health and overall an amazing addition to my life. It is always great to come home and hear him meow really loudly because I am back. Definitely a wonderful cat, but he won’t let me work lol! I think all cat owners know of this problem. In times of remote working, our pets are really the ones benefiting from this. They are getting more attention than ever. For me, however, I spend most of my days in my office or my lab. This leaves Sirius alone to roam the apartment.
I understand
I understand that he wants attention. It’s hilarious because he’s super shy unless I am on my computer, then he is right up in my face, hitting all of the keys and scratching at my monitor. It definitely makes it hard getting work done, but you know what, that’s good! It can be annoying when they walk into the camera view while you’re on a zoom call, but that’s hilarious. Sirius made an appearance on my qualifying presentation and it made one of my committee members laugh. It was hilarious.
Yes, I won’t get things done in an extremely quick manner, but that’s fine. I am enjoying my cat’s company, he’s having a good time, and we are bonding. It is well worth it.
Get them toys
But if you are having a hard time getting work done because of your cat, might I suggest investing in more cat toys! That has helped me a lot. When I was doing my qualifying exam and working from home for 2 weeks straight, I got Sirius a few toys to keep him busy. Luckily for cat owners, cat usually sleeps during the day. Sirius was asleep for a decent amount of time but when he was up, he was playing with toys and not bothering me. If you are having trouble with your cat walking all over you every second, I suggest getting them a few toys. This one specifically is Sirius’ favorite. I think it’s because of the catnip lol. I wrote about the different cat toys that you can get them here. Go check it out if you want ideas.
Final Thoughts
I know this was a bit of a random blog post, but sometimes you just need to write something random. Cat owners know that struggle of trying to work from home and having your cat just flop on your keyboard without warning. It’s cute and annoying but I am happy my cat does it. Plus, he keeps me from doing work which is always good and I enjoy life more. If you have a cat, let me know about them. If you have written about them, link to a blog post about them so we can all check it out.
Today has been quite a gloomy one. I woke up to a sick cat and a very overworked and tired girlfriend. Quite a lot was going on and it really didn’t make the morning too fun. One thing that did help was the gloominess of the morning. Today has an 80% chance of rain, throughout the day. It is one of those days where you just want to snuggle under the covers, watch Harry Potter, and eat a ton of candy. Unfortunately, today is a lab day, so I am doing experiments. I need mindfulness.
Walking and Mindfulness
The best part of this morning was the walk to campus. I say it all the time, but one really should walk everywhere, if you are able. This morning was perfect weather to walk to campus. It’s slightly cool, there’s hardly any wind, and it’s extremely overcast. I was considering scooting but figured that a walk would be better. Usually, I will listen to music on my walk, but today, I decided to just walk without the added distraction. It made all the difference.
I have to be honest with all of you, I haven’t been practicing mindfulness as much as I had in the past. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though. I was primarily using mindfulness to calm my very anxious mind. In the past year, I have gotten to a point where I don’t have panic attacks often, I don’t have ruminating thoughts, and my depression has basically disappeared. I believe that it all comes down to my mindfulness practice and living in the moment. Because I wasn’t actively trying to prevent anxiety and depression, my mindfulness practices have lessened. Today, I decided to just try and be in the moment on my walk to campus.
Mindfulness
This mindfulness practice involves just walking and paying attention to the sights, sounds, and smells that surround you. On rainy days, you really get to experience quite a few different sights, sounds and smells. It was very calm at the time that I left, so the sounds were mostly cars. Every once in a while, I would hear the squirrels or birds in the trees, which made for a nice transition from the sounds of motorized vehicles passing. Now the sights and smells were better than just the sounds. When it’s rainy, everything is a bit more gloomy so you get to experience familiar things in an unfamiliar manner. Most days are sunny, so I am used to experiencing those things in the sun, but on rainy days, they look way different.
Smells
The smells, oh the smells, were quite intense. Not anything bad, though, just more potent. Apparently from this article, “When it rains, spores produced by the actinomycetes are pushed up into the air, releasing the geosmin and creating that fresh, distinctive scent, according to Smithsonian.” Thanks, spores, you made my walk quite good-smelling lol.
I was at Peace
Focusing on all three of these senses really brought me more in touch with my mindfulness practices. For 30 minutes, I was living in the moment, not worrying about the work I had to do, the troubles of the day, or thoughts about the future. I was in the “now”. I almost forgot how amazing this feeling was and how peaceful I became during the walk. The whole rainy day vibes really made me peaceful as well. It would definitely be nice to have a few more of these days in the near future.
I highly encourage you to just go for a 30-minute walk and focus on the sights, sounds and smells that you experience during the walk. Don’t listen to music, don’t look at your phone, and most importantly, don’t think. Just tune in to your surroundings and be in the moment. If any thought pops into your head, acknowledge it and let it pass. I guarantee that you will have an amazing experience.
Challenge
I want to challenge you to take a 30-minute walk sometime today or this week and just observe everything around you. Go outside, if it’s not too cold, and just live in the moment. focus on the different sounds, smells, and try and pay attention to details of things around you. Look at a tree and focus on what the bark looks like. Things like that. But please, please, please stay off your phone. 30 minutes without looking at your phone is a long time, I know, but it is worth it. I hope you accept this challenge and try mindfulness out for yourself. I guarantee it is worth it.
Final Thoughts
Today didn’t start off as planned but most of my days don’t start that way. Walking in the rain helped to ground myself and find peace in this world, even for a short amount of time. I highly recommend walking in stormy weather. There is an odd sense of peace unless it’s a hurricane. Then maybe stay inside lol. I hope you all have a wonderful day. I will be in my lab for a long time today, doing experiments. Let me know in the comments of mindfulness techniques that you use. I am sure we can all gain something from those.
Posted 3h ago3 hours ago, updated 2h ago2 hours ago
Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, is one of many to have massive stone sculptures. Exactly when these islands were settled is still being solved.(
Getty Images: David Madison
The vast ocean voyages of the first people to set foot on Polynesian islands have been teased out of present-day genomes, not only showing where those founder groups travelled, but when they set sail, too.
Key points:
Timings and routes of initial Polynesian settlement are under debate
Researchers identified rare genetic traits in present-day Polynesian people to trace ancestry and migration routes
Some conclusions, such as the timing of settlement of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, are not in line with previous studies
A study published in Nature also found the groups of people who produced intricately carved, massive stone sculptures, located on Polynesian islands some thousands of kilometres apart, were closely genetically related.
Alexander Ioannidis, a computational geneticist at Stanford University and co-author of the study, said the analysis reinforced the theory that a group left Samoa for the largest of the Cook Islands, Rarotonga, around the year 830.
There they stayed for more than 200 years before groups set sail eastwards, and in just a few centuries, island-hopped across the Pacific to eventually reach Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, some 5,000 kilometres away.
Studying present-day genomes, Dr Ioannidis says, can complement geological and archaeological evidence, and help fill in gaps in the region’s history.
“One of the limitations of the archaeological record is that if you’re trying to date when an island was settled, you need to find the oldest site and the oldest artifact, and there’s no guarantee that you’ve found it,” he said.
“If you’re looking at genomes of islanders themselves, those genomes pass through their entire history.”
But while some of the genetic results were consistent with previous studies, others were at odds.
How to extract history from biology
Polynesia comprises islands scattered across the Pacific Ocean in a rough triangle, with Hawai’i, Rapa Nui and Aotearoa, or New Zealand, as the points.
Some island groups are hundreds of kilometres from their nearest neighbours, but historians and oral traditions tell of Polynesian people traversing these vast distances, often in family groups of 30 to 200, in double-hulled canoes like this vessel unearthed on the New Zealand coast.
Polynesia comprises more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean.(
Getty Images: PeterHermesFurian
)
To do this required incredibly good navigation skills, using celestial cues such as the stars, and currents and swell patterns, to guide canoes across vast tracts of ocean.
Navigation was also at the core of Polynesian spirituality, said Ian Goodwin, an adjunct climate researcher at the University of Western Australia and Macquarie University, who wasn’t involved in the study.
“The head navigator was considered to be a priest,” he said.
As people progressively sailed to new islands and made them home, they left clues in archaeological remains, such as tools and sculptures.
What they didn’t leave much of was DNA — heat and humidity help break DNA apart, and sandy islands don’t preserve remains too well either.
Searching for rare traits
Dr Ioannidis and his colleagues wondered if they could tap into present-day genomes and trace when and where the first Polynesian settlers arrived at each island.
“With modern samples, if you have the right computational techniques, you can extract ancestry of interest, and then you suddenly have this huge extra power of having lots of samples,” Dr Ioannidis said.
“It lets us do really interesting historical work without needing ancient genomes.”
Their idea was to use ancestry algorithms to search for rare traits hidden in the genome of Polynesian people living today.
It’s a computational technique based on the idea of “genetic bottlenecking”. If a small group of people set sail and settled on a new island, any rare genetic traits they had — say, one that caused their fingernails to grow faster — were passed onto the next generation.
Then, if another group split off from that first group to settle yet another island, they would take that fast-growing fingernail trait with them, as well as other unique traits.
The island of Raivavae, in central Polynesia, was settled fairly late in the game, around the year 1360, according to Dr Ioannidis (pictured).(
Suppled: Alexander Ioannidis
)
Dr Ioannidis and his colleagues hoped to trace those earliest migration routes by mapping rare traits in present-day Polynesian people, such as those that increase risk of developing certain conditions and diseases.
They recruited 430 volunteers from 21 Pacific Island populations, and their genome — that is, their complete set of genetic information or DNA — was sequenced.
After stripping away sections of DNA from, for instance, European colonisation, Dr Ioannidis and his crew examined 600,000 individual sites in each genome and looked for rare traits encoded in the DNA.
“From that, we can tell how long ago those [people currently living on] two islands … were the same population living on the same island, before one population left and went and settled a new island,” he explained.
Polynesian voyages between islands
Dr Ioannidis and his fellow researchers found migration didn’t kick off from Rarotonga, the largest of the Cook Islands, until the year 1050 — more than 200 years after the first populations arrived from Samoa.
From there, it was a pretty rapid expansion to Tahiti and the rest of the Tōtaiete mā (Society Islands), the Tuhaʻa Pae (Austral Islands) to the south and the Te Henua ʻEnana (Marquesas) to the north, all the way to Rapa Nui in the east.
One way to explain this flurry of migration, Dr Ioannidis said, was a slight drop in sea level.
Some Polynesian islands are towering volcanoes, while others look more like Fakarava atoll, located in the Tuāmotus.(
Getty Images: Mlenny
)
Many Polynesian islands, such as some of the Tuāmotu Islands, are coral atolls — very low islands, essentially sand bars on coral reefs, that peek above the waves.
As sea level drops, it exposes some of these atolls.
“The Tuāmotu Islands are believed to have arisen around 950 AD,” Dr Ioannidis said.
“If you imagine that it took a while for vegetation to solidify on these new islands, the migrations happened right about the time that they became inhabitable.
“And it’s not just the Tuāmotus — all of these low-lying atolls, and there’s several intermediate islands in their path.”
Towards the end of these initial migrations, islands known for their stone statues were settled: Nuku Hiva and Fatu Hiva in the North and South Marquesas, Rapa Nui and Raivavae, which is part of the Tuhaʻa Pae (Austral Islands).
“The four island groups that have these megalithic statues are all also most closely genetically related … even though they’re really in different geographical locations,” Dr Ioannidis said.
Conclusions have ‘some inconsistencies’
Some of the study’s conclusions are in line with previous work on reconstructing Polynesian migration history, Patrick Kirch, an anthropologist at the University of Hawai’i, wrote in an accompanying News and Views article.
But Professor Kirch noted “there are some inconsistencies” between the new study and others, such as those that trace how languages diverged and different dialects emerged as populations settled on different islands.
These studies suggest there was quite a bit of contact between islands during those eastward migrations, whereas the migration sequence proposed by the new study suggests there was very little inter-island contact.
These carvings are found on the island of Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas, almost 4,000 kilometres away from the famous Rapa Nui sculptures.(
Getty Images: Jake Wyman
)
Another inconsistency concerns when the island of Rapa Nui was settled.
Through genome research, Dr Ioannidis and his colleagues dated Rapa Nui’s settlement in the year 1210.
But this is somewhat later than dates suggested by archaeological and geological evidence.
“The geological evidence [for settlement] from sediments on Rapa Nui is earlier than 1210,” Dr Goodwin said.
“Much of it most closely aligns with the late 1000s and early 1100s.”
An earlier arrival to Rapa Nui and some of the other outermost Polynesian islands is also consistent with wind patterns of the time.
In a 2014 study, Dr Goodwin and colleagues found the Pacific winds that blow to the west today actually shifted in the other direction around the year 1100.
Polynesian canoes couldn’t sail against the wind. But a wind shift from 1100 allowed groups to set sail eastwards and, carried downwind, they could reach distant islands within a couple of weeks.
Those shifting winds also likely gave early Polynesian people a very good reason to set sail: to find fresh water, Dr Goodwin said.
Winds blowing to the east meant there were fewer cyclones, which made sailing in the open ocean safer, but it also meant less rainfall.
Less rain meant more drought, forcing groups to go looking for new islands to inhabit.
“You have to ask, why would a group of humans decide to voyage into the unknown?” Dr Goodwin said.
“That’s why understanding the climate is so important — they were looking for more reliable water on lots of these islands.”
Around the early to mid 1100s, Dr Goodwin said, “they’d gone as far east as they could go and then the weather changed, and there were really strong trade winds [pushing west again]”.
That’s when Hawai’i and Aotearoa (New Zealand) were settled, between the years 1140 and 1290.
“By the early- to mid-1100s, the climate window for eastward voyaging shuts, and they start exploring back in the other direction,” Dr Goodwin said.
“That’s when we see all the action heading towards New Zealand.”
Tracing traits could improve medical care
Despite these discrepancies in migration patterns, ancestry algorithms do have another use.
“If you want to be able to provide useful personalised genetic health results to people on those islands, it’s not good enough just to say, ‘are you a Pacific Islander?'” he said.
“This is not a uniform population. And if you really want to do good, personalized health, you need to zoom into each island.”
During the first 80 years of white settlement, from 1788 to 1868, 165,000 convicts were transported from England to Australia.
Sketch & description of the settlement at Sydney Cove Port Jackson in the County of Cumberland,
Transportation wasn’t limited to Australia – it was a method various governments had been using for dealing with convicted criminals. The most common reason for transportation was theft – this included pickpocketing, shoplifting, stealing horses and sheep, highway robbery, housebreaking and receiving stolen goods. In some cases, the theft was associated with violence.
You didn’t have to steal much to be exiled– even pinching a handkerchief was deemed a transportable offence.
Less common reasons for being transported were the crimes of rape, manslaughter, murder, forgery and even bigamy.
Convict labour
Governor Phillip often employed convicts according to their skills; they may have been carpenters, servants, cooks, farmers or shepherds before they were transported.
Convicts were a source of labour to build roads, bridges, courthouses, hospitals and other public buildings, or to work on government farms, while educated convicts may have been given jobs such as record-keeping for the government administration. Female convicts, on the other hand, were generally employed as domestic servants to the officers.
Views in New South Wales and Van Diemens Land: Australian scrap book 1830 – Government jail gang, London : J. Cross, 1830
Crime and punishment
Convict discipline was invariably harsh and often quite arbitrary. One of the main forms of punishment was a thrashing with the cat o’ nine tails, a multi-tailed whip that often also contained lead weights. Fifty lashes were a standard punishment, which was enough to strip the skin from someone’s back, but this could be increased to more than 100.
Just as dreadful as the cat o’ nine tails was a long stint on a chain gang, where convicts were employed to build roads in the colony. The work was backbreaking and was made difficult and painful as convicts were shackled together around their ankles with irons or chains weighing 4.5kg or more.
During the day, the prisoners were supervised by a military guard assisted by brutal convict overseers, convicts who were given the task of disciplining their fellows.
At night, they were locked up in small wooden huts behind stockades. Worse than the cat or chain gangs was transportation to harsher and more remote penal settlements in Norfolk Island, Port Macquarie and Moreton Bay.
Image 1 of 2
Robert Jones – ‘Recollections of 13 years Residence in Norfolk Island and Van Diemans land
1823
Image 2 of 2
Robert Jones – ‘Recollections of 13 years Residence in Norfolk Island and Van Diemans land
1823-1838
That’s the ticket
In the first 50 years of white settlement, society was changing rapidly. Free settlers were moving to Australia, and convicts were increasingly employed to work for them. As convicts either finished their sentence, or were pardoned, they were able to earn a living and sustain themselves through jobs and land grants. By the mid-1830s, most convicts were assigned to private employment.
The easiest way for a convict to reduce their sentence was to work hard and stay out of trouble. They could then be given a ticket-of-leave or pardon.
Ticket-of-leave holders were allowed to work for themselves, and to acquire property, on the condition that they live within a specified district and report regularly to a magistrate. Any misbehaviour at all could result in the ticket being taken away from them.
There were two types of pardon available – a conditional pardon was granted by the governor on the condition that the former convict stayed in the colony. An absolute pardon gave a convict unconditional freedom to travel wherever they liked in the world. Convicts who didn’t qualify for either a ticket-of-leave or pardon were given a certificate of freedom once their sentence had been served.
Image 1 of 2
William Anson – ticket of leave, 16 May 1828
16 May 1828
Image 2 of 2
Absolute pardon for Hannah Dodd alias Foster,1827
1802-1858
Convict clothing
Until 1810, the government handed out civilian clothes or ‘slops’ to convicts – there was no need for a uniform because nearly everyone in the colony was a convict. However, as more free settlers moved to Australia, and convicts finished their sentences, it was necessary to be able to easily distinguish the convicts.
The new uniform consisted of a coarse woollen jacket, a yellow or grey waistcoat, a pair of trousers and long socks, shoes, two cotton or linen shirts, a neckerchief and hat.
Image 1 of 4
Convict caps
pre 1849
Image 2 of 4
AA Co. [convict button]
1830
Image 3 of 4
Convict jacket, ca. 1840
1840
Image 4 of 4
Leg Irons, before 1849
Dixson, William, Sir, 1870-1952
The convict experience
In nineteenth century England, the sentence for a variety of crimes was transportation to Australia, a harsh punishment with many convicts never seeing their homeland again.
Don McLean wrote the song “American Pie” in 1971. What do the Lyrics mean?
Verse 1
A long, long time ago... American Pie was written in 1971 and the time McLean is going to talk about is the 1950’s. This seems like a long time ago ’cause of all the turmoil that occurred in the 60’s.
I can still remember how that music used to make me smile. McLean’s favorite music was that of the 50’s.
And I knew if I had my chance, that I could make those people dance, and maybe they’d be happy for a while. In the 50’s, the major purpose of music was for dancing (sock hops). He wanted to play rock & roll so people could have a good time.
But February made me shiver Buddy Holly died on February 3, 1959 in a plane crash in Iowa. He was McLean’s hero.
With every paper I’d deliver Donny boy’s only other job besides songwriting was a paper boy.
Bad news on the doorstep, I couldn’t take one more step This story was obviously on the frickn’ front page and made McLean freeze in his tracks.
I can’t remember if I cried He can’t remember if he cried.
When I read about his widowed bride Holly’s wife was pregnant when the accident occurred and soon after had a miscarriage.
But something touched me deep inside I don’t even wanna know!
The day the music died. The crash took the lives of three current rock legends: Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper, so now Feb. 3, 1959 is called “The day the music died.” The music that died is considered the standard rock & roll songs. The crash was the final blow («–keyword) to this music ’cause these three were that only major artists left. Elvis was drafted, Little Richard (or “Little Dick”) turned gospel, and Chuck Berry was arrested for screwin’ a prostitute.
Verse 2
Did you write the book of love? “The Book of Love” was a hit in 1968 by the Monotones.
And do you have faith in God above, if the Bible tells you so? In 1955, Don Cornell wrote “The Bible Tells Me So” and there is a Sunday School song “Jesus Loves Me,” with the line “For the Bible tells me so.”
Now do you believe in rock & roll? This is from the great song “Do You Believe in Magic?” by the Lovin’ Spoonful, written by John Sebastin in 1965. One of the lines is like trying to teach a stranger ’bout rock & roll,” and another is “the magic’s in the music and the music’s in me.” The “magic” this Johnny was talking about is the ability of a song to stick in your head. Often times songs bring back memories of the past, this is what the magic is. This magic is especially in rock & roll, ’cause you experience it without thinking about it or trying to analyze the bloody lyrics (like some asshole is right now). Another lyric is “so just blow your mind.” (Don’t think about it).
Can music save your mortal soul? Given all that, can music help you get though life? I’m sorry I can’t answer that. All of these questions ask about life and if God exists.
And, can you teach me how to dance real slow? Dancing in the 50’s wasn’t like it is today. If you danced with someone, you then were committed to them.
Now I know that you’re in love with him, ’cause I saw you dancing in the gym. Like I said, dancing was serious shit. McLean caught his love cheating on him.
You both kicked off your shoes Reference to a “sock hop.”
Man, I dig those rhythm and blues He’s depressed, and you listen to that kinda of music. There’s a style of music for every feeling.
I was a lonely teenage broncin’ buck ummmm…..yeah, so was I……
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck A pickup truck was a symbol of sexual freedom (and it rhymes with “buck” and “luck”), and Marty Robbins had a hit with “A White sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation) in 1957.
But I knew I was out of luck, the day the music died. These old crazy things that worked in the fifty’s no longer work, ’cause the 60’s brought a new social revolution. Peace Out!
Verse 3
Now for ten years we’ve been on our own
The music died 1959, McLean more than likely started writing this song around 1969.
And moss grows fat on a rolling stone The great Bob Dylan wrote “Like a Rolling Stone” in 1965. This was his first MAJOR change from folk music. In late 1966, Dylan was involved in a motorcycle accident, and hid in his house in Woodstock, NY for a good year, hence the “fat,” and the moss shows the time change. Dylan didn’t really get his muse back till 1975.
but that’s not how it used to be. McLean liked Dylan as a folk singer in the early sixties more than his folk-rock style in the mid sixties. (I wonder what he thinks of Dylan’s religious phase!)
When the jester sang for the king and queen Ok, the jester’s Bob Dylan. The king is Peter Seger and the queen is Joan Baez. These were the two big names in folk at the time early ’60’s). During the Newport Folk Festival in 1963, Dylan was honored to play his own set and then combine with these two legends to sing his song “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
In a coat he borrowed from James Dean In the Dean movie “Rebel Without A Cause,” he wears a red windbreaker. On the cover of the Dylan’s “Freewheelin’,” he is seen also in a red windbreaker. This cover also resembles a famous picture of Dean. This ties in with the previous line ’cause this album is were Dylan really took off, with such songs as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.”
And a voice that came from you and me. This means two things. 1. Dylan was the spokesman for the 60’s (and he was) and 2. He didn’t have the best singing voice in the world, and even you and me could sing like him (but you could write like him if Shakespeare «he’s in the alley» himself told you what to say!)
Oh, and while the king was looking down This could mean two things; Pete Seger remained a traditional folk singer, while Dylan was constantly reinvented himself and therefore became unbelievably popular. This could also be a reference to Elvis (the King of rock and roll), because he joined the U.S. Army and reportedly dropped his soap everyday in the shower.
The jester stole his thorny crown While Elvis was in the army, Dylan took his spotlight and changed the whole music business. The thorny crown is the price of fame, and is referenced with Jesus’s thorny crown before he was murdered.
The courtroom was adjourned, no verdict was returned This deals with the Kennedy assassination. Lee Harvey Oswald was never convicted because he was murdered.
And while Lennon read a book of Marx This is about the Beatles music becoming political. Songs like “Revolution” (1968) (which actually mentions Chairman Mao) were much different then “Love Me Do” (1963). Many American adults thought the Beatles were bad for the American youth, especially after Lennon’s remark in 1966 about Christianity. He said “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first: rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity.” This started anti-Beatles burnings and such.
The quartet practiced in the park The quartet was the Beatles (there were four, not including if Paul McCartney is really dead!) and the park thing is Candlestick Park, the place of their last concert. It was practicing ’cause their music would grow after they stopped touring (their first project after this was “Sgt. Pepper” which is considered the best album of all time).
And we sang dirges in the dark, the day the music died. A dirge is a funeral song. These songs were for the Kennedy’s (John and Robert) and Martin Luther King, all who died in the mid 60’s. And remember- “Dark” rhythms with “Park”
Verse 4
Helter Skelter in a summer swelter Charles Manson is one of the most dangerous cereal killers ever (his favorite was coco-puffs). In the summer of 1968, he massacred an entire family ’cause of the Beatles song “Helter Skelter,” which appeared on the white album. He thought that the Beatles were warning America about the racial conflict and it was “coming down fast.” He thought the Beatles were the four angels mentioned in the Book of Revelation in the Bible. Manson wrote the title of the song on the wall in blood after committing the murders. Also, he thought in “Revolution 9” that Lennon was saying “rise” instead of “right,” thought the line “They need a damn good wacking” from “Piggies” was telling him to kill people and the “Hollywood Song” in “Honey Pie” was about him ’cause he lived near Hollywood. He was dropping too much acid and thought the Beatles were talking directly to him and told him to kill those people.
The Byrd flew off with to a fallout shelter The Byrd’s were a popular folk-rock group, with the huge cover of Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man,” in 1965. One of the members was arrested for possession of marijuana and a fallout shelter was another name for a rehab program. A strange note is that Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” appeared on his “Bringing It All Back Home” record, and on the lower left corner of the cover is a fallout shelter sign.
Eight miles high and falling fast. “Eight Miles High” was the first ever psychedelic song (it was written while high on speed, and the sound of the guitar was supposed to sound like a saxophone). The falling fast part is probably about the fact that the Byrd’s abandoned folk-rock for country music with the album “Sweetheart of the Rodeo,” in 1967
Then landed in the foul grass Foul grass meaning marijuana.
The players tried for a forward pass Here the football metaphor starts. The players are the protesters in the 60’s. The forward pass was their movement to change the situation they were in, full of government corruption.
With the jester, on the sidelines in a cast. emember jester=Dylan. In late 1966, while riding near his house in Woodstock, NY, he briefly glanced into the sun and lost control of his bike. When he went to brake, they locked up on him and sent him flying off the motorcycle. It took him about 9 months to recover (or was he just pregnant and trying to hide it from the world????), in which time he very rarely left the house, hence the cast.
Now the half time air was sweet perfume Flower Power, groovy baby! Drugs, man, drugs.
While sergeants played a marching tune Sgt. Pepper, Beatles, 1967, recently named the most influencal album of all time. First ever concept album. First to have lyrics printed on the back. First to have a design on the protector of the record. Included an elaborate cover design and cut-outs. As far as the music goes, it had drug references in Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, sitars, animal sounds and studio trickery. In the song “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” at one point in the sound the engineer was instructed to cut the tape into small pieces, scatter them around, then tape them back together. In “A Day in the Life” (which was banned from the radio ’cause of the drug reference line “I’d Love to Turn You On”), after the piano cords die out, there is a minute of silence, followed by a high pitched sound (by the request of John Lennon, especially to annoy the family dog), then a loop of Beatles gibberish to make the owners of the LP think that the needle had stuck! What was I talking about again?
We all got up to dance, but we never got the chance Oh yeah, American Pie!! That’s a good song…anyway, the Beatles helped to start a new kind of music that was meant to be listened and not danced to (how do you dance to “Within You and Without You”?).
‘Cause the players tried to take the field Players=Protesters. In 1968, at the Chicago Democratic convention, protesters rioted, and some were beaten by the police. It is now known as the days of rage. Also in 1970, at Kent State University, four students were killed by the National Guard in response to their anti-Vietnam protests, which inspired the song “Ohio” by CSN & Neil Young.
The marching band refused to yield The Beatles had some anti-violence songs that made protesters think twice about the way they were acting. “All You Need is Love” (1967) says there is a better way then violence, and in “Revolution” (1968) one of the lines is “But when you talk about destruction, don’t you know that you can count me out.” The beatles were in no way pro-government (as seen in 1968’s “Piggies,” which is about Congressmen), but they were against violence.
Do you recall what was revealed, the day the music died. So what was revealed? …well look at today, the president gets more ass then a toilet seat. As Dr. Evil says in Austin Powers, “Face it, freedom failed” or more accurately, the protests failed. The government is more corrupt now then ever before. McLean wasn’t a big 60’s fan and here is putting down the efforts of the failed generation.
Verse 5
And then we were all in one place Woodstock Performing Arts Festival took place in August in 1969. 400,000 of McLean’s generation were there. It took place at Woodstock (actually Bethel) because that’s were Dylan was hiding, and they were hoping he would come out and play. Unfortunately he turned it down for the “Isle of Wright” concert.
A generation lost in space The moon landing was of course in 1969, David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” was released (which was about ‘major Tom’ who got lost in space), there was a TV show called “Lost in Space” and this is a drug reference, the 60’s are generalized by saying everyone in the entire world was on acid.
With no time left to start again It took them a whole decade to get to this point, the generation’s time was quickly fading. McLean thinks they wasted most of there time on drugs.
So come on Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack flash sat on a candlestick “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” was a hit for the Rolling Stones. In this song, McJagger compares himself with Jesus. This line comes from the nursery rhyme that has the line “Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jumps over a candlestick.”
’cause fire is the devil’s only friend. The Stones sold out to the devil. Their only comeback to the Beatles “Sgt. Pepper” was their album “Their Satanic Majesties Request.” Seeing that you’ve probably never heard of this, you can imagine that it pretty much sucks. Also, their song “Sympathy for the Devil,” proves that they were desperate to sell their records (the Beatles were SOOOOO much better!). Was it really worth celebrating the devil?
Oh, and as I watched him on the stage No, it wasn’t. In December of 1969, the Stones attempted another Woodstock, this time at Altamont Speedway. This time it was a free concert, with the Hell’s Angel’s handling the security. The biggest mistake was paying them in advance, but instead of money, with beer and handfuls of acid. While the stones were singing “Sympathy for the Devil,” a black man was beaten and stabbed to death by the Hell’s Angels. They soon began beating everyone, include a member of the Jefferson Airplane.
My hands were clenched in fists of rage He was pissed.
No angel born in hell could brake that Satan’s spell “angels born in hell” a.k.a. the “Hell’s Angels!” When you have sympathy for the devil, you’re asking for trouble.
As the flames climbed high into the night, to light the sacrificial rite The stones were helicoptered out of there it became so crazy, hence the “climbed high.” It’s like the Stones started the living hell, and left in the middle of it…what’s up with that? The sacrifice to the devil was the man’s life.
I saw Satan laughing with delight, the day the music died. This was the definitive ending of the sixties. The generation that was lost in space was now lost on earth. Before the only violence was between the hippies and the police, now it was amongst themselves. Satan had won, in one final blow.
Verse 6
I met a girl who sang the blues and I asked her for some happy news, but she just smiled and turned away. Janis Joplin is most the girl who sang the blues. Her big hits were “Piece of My Heart” and “Me and Bobby McGee.” She died of an accidental heroin overdose on October 4, 1970. McLean is still trying to find happiness like in the beginning of the song “Maybe they’d be happy for a while,” “That music used to make me smile.” (Note the tone of the song is very similar in these to verses) But this time the smile isn’t for happiness but regret.
I went down to the sacred store Here he’s talking about record stores that sold 50’s albums.
Where I heard the music years before, but the man said the music wouldn’t play By the 70’s, the 50’s music was almost ignored by everyone. Hundreds of great albums were released in the 60’s, and it seems that everyone has forgot about the 50’s.
And in the streets the children screamed
The youth of America were beaten in the streets especially at the end of the decade. (Like I said earlier, the Kent State murders and the Chicago Democratic Convention)
The lovers cried and the poets dreamed In Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” he says: “I met one man he was wounded in love, I met another man he was wounded in hatred,” showing that love hurts sometimes as much as hate.
But not a word was spoken. The church bells all were broken. Again in “A Hard Rain…,” the line is “I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken.” Simon and Garfunkel had a hit with “Sound of Silence.” The church bells all were broken shows that people have forgotten God. All things are are so sacred are gone, love, faith, happiness, peace. In Dylan’s “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),” one verse goes: Disillusioned words like bullets bark . As human gods aim for their mark . Made everything from toy guns that spark . To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark . It’s easy to see without looking too far. That not much Is really sacred. McLean isn’t the only one that feels this way. He was obviously a religious man, and is very disappointed that they have abandoned God.
And the three men I admire most, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost The trinity of God, McLean was Catholic.
They caught the last train for the coast. God has left. Time magazine even featured a cover story “Is God Dead?” The generation has failed, and “with no time left to start again.” It was now up to the next generation to put things right (and they did a terrible job might I add).
The day the music died. And we were singing…. This last verse is the hardest to explain…Remember, McLean never would talk about what what the lyrics definitely mean, so it’s not perfectly clear. Some people believe there were more references to the Kennedy’s (him being the king and his wife the queen), but I feel his presence is felt though the songs from the 60’s better. Ps, this took me forever.
Refrain
So bye, bye Miss American Pie Pimp Daddy McLean was dating one of the Miss America contestants during one of the pageants. Also the “American Pie” part is a symbol of the American Dream (at least of the 50’s), it was also the name of the plane that crashed and killed Holly (or so goes the rumor).
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry The American automobile was the Chevy. The levee business shows that America wasn’t fertile anymore (at least in the sense of music). “Chevy” rhymes with “levee.”
And them good old boys were drinking whiskey and rye singing “This will be the day that I die, this will be the day that I die.” The traditional Americans are depressed with the current lifestyle (60’s). The song comes from Buddy Holly’s “That’ll be the day,” that eventually says “that I die.”
Another interesting note brought to my attention by Scott Tilles, is that the Levee was a bar in Purchase, NY near McLean’s hometown. There is also a Levee, NY which is about 15 minutes from the school he attended.
This is something that I thought I would never do. But one day I arrived in Norseman with my partner Betty. I needed a job badly, we had just crossed the Nullarbor Plains, our car needed repair and we were running out of money. So I went to the Mine Office and applied for a job. To my surprise I was hired on the spot and told that I was to start the next morning at 8am. But I was told to be there at 7.30am at the latest.
The Fellow then ask me if I had any Boots with a Steel toe caps, which I said that I hadn’t. After getting my size he got me a new pair of boots and told me that the money for them would be taken out of my first pay. I thanked him and drove home all excited. My Partner and I had rented a small Cottage not far from the Mine.
Next morning I drove out to the Mine and was told to see the Foreman by the name of Jack Hindmarsh. When I found him I saw that he was a giant of a man, big but no fat on his body about 40 years of age. Naturally he was called “Big Jack”.
After the introduction Jack took me to an adjoining building which was the Shower and Change Room. He showed me how everybody would come in here and get undressed and putting their clothes on a hook which had your number on it. This hook was on a rope which ran through a pulley at the ceiling and you would pull your cloth up and thus have them hanging from the ceiling. Next you walk naked past the showers into an identical room where you had your work cloth hanging. Jack explained to me that when you finished work, you came in here took off your dirty and most of the time wet clothing and hung them up to dry.
Then you went for a shower and then fresh and clean you got into your everyday cloth and go home. I told him that I thought that this was a terrific idea. He smiled at me and said “Yeah, it also stops most people from smuggling Gold.” This I had to find out for myself later on.
Next Jack took me again to his Office and handed me a Timecard also called a ”Plod.” I clocked myself in and went with Jack to the “Lamp room” where I was issued with a Belt and a Headlamp and Battery. Jack explained that I would keep the Belt throughout my employment, but the Lamp and Battery were handed in when I had finished work so that they could be recharged for use the next morning. The Lamp and Battery were also yours until the end of your Employment.
Also Jack handed me a Safety Helmet which had a small bracket on the front of it where you put your Head Lamp. Lastly he handed me over to a man named Bob Morten who was my “Shift Boss”. Shift Bosses are responsible for a certain amount of man working down underground in the Mine. Twice a Day they walk through the Mine checking on these men.
Not to see if they are working, but to make sure that there had been no Accident, or if the men need anything. Lot of the times I found these Shift Bosses at one of the many Tables, sitting and reading a Book. Anyway next it was off to the Mineshaft which went 4000’ feet at a 42° angle into the Gold-Mine. The Shift Boss introduced me to a fellow named George, who was going to teach me to be a Scraper Driver. This I looked forward to with great anticipation.
Next I heard a noise coming from the Shaft, it was our transportation down into the Mine, and it was called a “Skip.” It carried about 12 People sitting next to and above each other. When all the men had been taken down then the Skip operators would take the seats out and take down gear for the miners. It usually consisted of, Pneumatic Drills and Accessories, also Explosives, like Gelignite and Anfo which was made up of Ammonium Nitrate (Fertiliser) and Diesel.
While George and I were talking, the Skip had come up again and now it was our turn to go down. I have to be honest, I was shitting myself. The Bell rang twice and the Skip started moving. I found out that every time a new Person had started at the Mine they would give him Shit by telling loud Stories about the last time the Rope broke and the Skip went tumbling down the Mineshaft and more. Of course these Stories never happen, but later after I had worked in the Mine for a while, I found that some of the new People had actually gone up again and quit their Job.
Author with Pneumatic Drill
Anyway George and I got off at the 24 Level which is 2400’ feet deep. Here on the Platform it is very noisy from Air rushing out through the big wooden Door that shut us of from the rest of the Mine. I had to laugh, somebody had used a thick texture Pen and drawn a Cartoon Figure on the Door surface and written below it “Foo, was here!” It made me relax a bit.
George grabbed what seem to be a heavy Carton and ask me to open the Door. I said “No worries!” and went to open the Door, but to my surprise I had to push as hard as I could to open it. When asking George what made it so hard, he told me that it was the Air from inside the mine pushing against it. Also as we entered through the Door I found we were in absolute Darkness and we had to turn on our Headlamps to see what we were doing.
When I turned mine on it seemed like that I had a flat Battery and so I ask George to check it for me. He took one look, turned a little Knob on the Lap and it was bright like everyone else’s. George smiled and said to me “You Dummy! You have to check that it is on high beam.” And then showed me how. I thought that George was a nice Guy, about 56 years old, and he walked with a slight limp.
We walked another 10 meters into the Mine and came to a Tunnel that went in both directions. George told me that a horizontal Tunnel was called a “Drive”. It had small Railway lines running in both directions and I could see that there were a few Men standing around. It looked like they were waiting for someone.
George was behind me carrying a big Box which he put up against the white Wall. George told me that the white rock was pure Quartz but there was also grey rock which was Granite. Next I could hear a rumbling in the distance and to my surprise it was an electric Locomotive with several flat Wagons. As it pulled up the men grabbed their Gear and loaded onto the Wagons.
George ask me to sit our Box onto an empty flat Wagon. Everybody sat down on the Wagons with their Gear and George and I sat with our Box. One of the Men went to the Loco and climbed on, right away we took off. Every so often he would stop to let one of the Men off with their Gear. It wasn’t long and we got off too. When the Loco took off again I could see a Ladder that went up to a large Hole.
George told me to climb up and that there was a Rope that I should throw one end down so I could pull up the Box. When I got to the top I threw one end down and George tied the Box to it. When I ask him what was in it, he told me it was “Gelignite” and so I thought to myself “Shit!” I started to pull up the Box of Gelignite when suddenly the Box got hung up on one of the rungs in the Ladder. I pulled a bit harder and the Box fell back down towards George.
What happen next was happen in less than a second. I didn’t know that Gelignite wouldn’t explode when it was dropped and so thinking that the whole box of Gelignite would explode, I threw myself flat on the ground behind me, right into a large puddle of water. Next I heard George singing out “Alright, try it now, but slowly.” I did and the Box came up to my delight.
When George came up to where I was, he ask me how come that I was all wet. When I told him what had happen and what I did, he laughed so much that I thought that he would never stop or do himself a injury. First he told me that the big Cave looking place we were in was called a “Stope” He said that the Machine-Miners would work in here first.
They would drill deep holes into the Rock Walls, to a certain pattern and in the Afternoon they would fill these Holes with Explosives called “Anfo”. Then at 2-30pm they would light the Fuses to the Explosives, after they would quickly depart from the Stope and then listen out to the amount of Explosions that could be heard.
Every Miner knows how many of these holes he had drilled, filled with Explosives and then lit. If one or more charges had not exploded he had to notify his shift-boss, so that no one was allowed to enter that Stope until it was made Safe. Next he showed me the Rock-Wall where the Miner had drilled the Rock-Wall, which was called a “Face”
After this he took me over to explain the “Scraper” to me. What I could see was a winch like looking machine, except instead of having one drum to hold the Cable it had two. Both cables ran out to the Back-Wall, where at a certain spot a short hole had been drilled. In to it an Iron Pin with a ring had been solidly wedged into the Hole. Next you would place a Pulley onto the Pin and the feed one of the cables through it.
Author operating a Scraper
The end of this cable would then be attached to the back of a Scraper- blade and the other cable-end to the front of the Scraper-Blade. By then pressing down on one of the drum brakes, you then can move the scraper-blade forward to fill it with ore or back to start a new run. In front of the Scraper is a big hole in the ground, which is the Ore-Pass.
You scrape all your small ore down into here. The Ore-Pass goes all the way down onto the next Level, where a Train will pick up the Ore. George then explained to me, that when I had scraped out all the Ore that I could get, I would have to move the Pulley over a bit. He was going to show me how to drill a small hole into the Ore-Face.
First he brought up a Air-Hose next a Water-Hose, then he brought up a Pneumatic Drill, he connected an Air-Hose to the Drill. He also connected what he called an Air-Leg, which looked like a hydraulic ram. To this he connected the Air-Hose. Now by turning on the Air, not only could he use the Drill, but also use the Air-Leg to support the Drill and apply pressure to it.
Next he put a Drill-Bit into the Drill. All Drill-Bits were hollow so that water could run through them whiles he was drilling. This was to stop him from making Dust by drilling. In the old Days the Miners had to use Drills without Water and so they were making lots of Dust. Because the Miners breathed in this fine Dust they slowly destroyed their Lunges and died.
Thus the Drills of old were called “Widowmakers”. George then put a short Drill-Bit into the Drill and proceeded to drill a Hole into the Rock-Face. It didn’t seem that long, but next it was Lunchtime and we climbed down from our Stope to the Drive where not far from us was a Table with Benches. Some of the Men were already sitting there, George introduced me all around and then told everyone the Story about me and the Gelignite.
Of course everybody laughed and I could feel my Face going Red. But they were a good Bunch and soon everybody was telling their Stories of doing something funny when they first went underground. Here I also learned that the Table was called a “Crib-Table” and your Lunch tin the Miners carry was called a Crib-Tin.
George told me that if I saw the Blacksmith on the Surface, he would for a small Fee, make me a Crib-Tin. All I could think of, was that there was still so much I had to learn. When we got back to our place of work George showed me a couple of large Rocks and he told me that we had to break them up so that they could fit through the “Grisly” I have to ask George later what a “Grisly” is, as I was sure that it was not a Bear.
When I ask George how the Hell were we going to break-up a Rock that size, as it seem to be pure Granit. He told me this is where the Gelignite came in. He continued to tell me that you would then drill a Hole into the Rock and place some Gelignite in it and thus blowing it up. The other way we could do it and we will, is by placing a Stick of Gelignite with Fuse on the Rock and then cover it up with wet Dirt.
He told me that the wet Dirt on it would make the force of the Blast go down and thus break the Rock in many smaller pieces. Once he had that done, he lit the Fuse with a special Fuselighter and told me to quickly follow him. He didn’t have to tell me twice. I ran after him and we waited just around the corner. He lit a Cigarette and we waited for the Blast which happen after we had been around the Corner for only a few seconds.
George finished his Cigarette and we had a look at what damage the Blast had made. The Rock was split in many small pieces except for two, which George said we had to break-up with the Spoiler. I wondered if they brought out a Dictionary just for Miners. Naturally George showed me what a Spoiler was he came back with this giant Sledgehammer and told me that it was a Spoiler.
He then proceeded to hit the Rock till it broke up into more pieces and told me that I could break-up the other one. After about 8 hits I could feel myself getting a Blister on my Hand, but I didn’t dare to say anything. Just after 2pm George started to pack our Gear away and we went back to the Crib-Table. We sat down and he told me that we were finish for the Day but the Skip wouldn’t come until after 3pm to pick us up of the Platform.
After a while we walked out to the Platform where already some of the Miners were sitting or lying about. There were 2 Fellows that had a lot of Gear like Chainblocks and Steel Slings. George told me that these men were Underground-Riggers and that they would go up before anybody else as they had to clean and store their Equipment. Eventfully the Skip took us to the Surface where I saw the Forman standing by the Door to his Office.
When he saw me he ask me how did I like my first Day Underground. I just grinned and told him that I would see him tomorrow. Well that was my first day. I still worked with George for the next Week, but after that I was put on my own. Several month later Jack ask me if I would like to try something else.
Author (second from left) with mates at the crib table
I couldn’t see any reason why I shouldn’t and so Jack put me with Bluey, who was the Rigger. All I could think of was that this Job could be interesting, especially since I had worked in Queensland as a Rigger on high Buildings. I soon found out that this was nothing like it. Bluey was an easy-going old Fellow, he wasn’t far of retiring Jack told me they were looking for a suitable replacement.
Somebody told me that he was called “Two-way Bluey” as his Light would shine one way and he would walk the other way. There were many of these stories about Bluey but that is for later. I also found out that the Riggers main work was to shift things, like a Scraper from one Stope to another. Later in my Career I even had to shift a large Loco from the Surface to the 25 Level. Bluey and I were always going down on the last Skip and most of the Time we came up at about 2-30 pm.
I as the Offsider was supposedly stay down in the Mine and come up with the rest of the Miners. Bluey had told Jack that he needed me with him on the Surface. Jack knew that this was Bullshit, but he wasn’t all that worried as long as we got the Job done. After about 3 Month working with Bluey, Jack told me that I would have to work from now on without Bluey as he last night had a Stroke and would not be coming back. The first thing that I did was order some more Equipment.
What I ordered was; Chain-Blocks, D-Shackles, Slings, Chain and most importantly a 5ton Tirfor. Nobody knew what a Tirfor was and so I had to explain that it was similar to an Endless Chain. You could get different length of Steel-Rope for it, up to 100’ feet long. The main body was flat about 3’ inches thick 2’ long and 12” high, it had a lever on top with a separate Handle for it.
The Steel-Cable you would feed through it attach the back End of the Tirfor to something solid and then pull the Cable through until you reach the Item that you want to move. Attach the Hook of the Rope to what you want to move, the Handle to the Tirfor. Move the Handle to and fro and you will move your Item towards you.
Mostly the Tirfor is use with SUVs as Recovery Gear. On my first Day as a Rigger I had to go down to the 32 Level to move one of the big Sullivan Scrapers. With me I took Chain Blocks and Slings mainly also I had a large Canvas Shoulder bag in which I carried several different Spanners, some Pins and a Hammer, which is called a “Gympie” I don’t know where they get all these Names from. By the time that I got to the Stope that the Scraper was situated in I was wet right through from Sweat.
It wasn’t the Heat, but the Humidity that was so bad down here. When I got to the Scraper I saw that somebody else had already taken of the Blade which meant less work for me. So I sat down on the ground and undid the 6 Nuts of the Bolts that were holding the Scraper to a wooden Bed. Only Scrapers that are going to be there for a while have a wooden Bed. Having the Nuts undone, I was lucky to discover a Drill Hole right above the Scraper.
With a narrow Wedge I hammered the Pin into the Hole and attached a Chain-Block to it. Next I put some Slings onto the Scraper and then connected them to the Chain Block. By now it was time for me to sit down and have a “Smoke.” I found out early in the Game that you have to take it easy. Nearly all Accidents are caused by your on neglect. I got up and started to pull on the Chain, but no matter how hard I pulled the Scraper would not move.
I walked around the scraper but could not find anything. What I needed was a big Steel Bar to try to loosen the Scraper, but as I didn’t have one with me I had to find other means. The only thing that I could think of was to use Hammer and Chisel. I found both in my Bag and so proceeded to try under one corner first. After a few hits I found that I was in Luck and so again I worked the Chain-Block. I found that still it was not lifting but just taking up the slack.
I kept on hitting that chisel till it disappeared, still pulling up more slack I moved the Chisel to the opposite corner. There after a few hits the Scraper was free and I was able to lift it of the Bed. Next I looked in the direction that I had to drag the Scraper. By doing this I could roughly guess where I had to put the next Pin for the Chain-Block.
I was in Luck and found a Pin-Hole right where I had wanted it. Old Bluey must have had them put there to bring the Scraper in. So from here on it got better. It was still hard going, pull it forward, shift the Chain-Block, then forward again and so on. After a while I had to take a break again and just as I sat down Jack came to find me.
He greeted me and then sat down too. He then ask me if I could leave this Job for now and go to where Colin was working on the 22 Level. Apparently his Scraper Blade had fallen down the Ore-Pass as it had snapped one of the Ropes. I ask Jack if Colin hadn’t tried to pull it up with the other rope. Jack smiled and told me that Colin had tried but broke the other Rope too.
I put my Tools into my Bag, slung a Chain-Block over my Shoulder and walked out to the Shaft to catch the Skip up to the 22 Level. Jack came out with me and so it was him that rang the Bell to get the Skip down to us. As soon as he rang, the Phone rang and the Skip Operator (Skippy) as why did we want the Skip. When he found out that it was Jack that had rung he brought the Skip down to us. I loaded my Gear and we went up to the 22 Level.
Once we got there I grabbed one of the Locos that was sitting there and drove to the Stope where Colin was working. Just to make things clear, after a while at the mine everybody knows where everybody else is working. When I got into the Stope Colin was waiting for me. He was happy to see me and so ask how I was going to get his Scraper-Blade out of the Ore-Pass.
The Ore-Pass is fairly deep as it reaches right down to the next Level where the Trains pull the Ore out to take it to the Grisly. I leaned carefully over the edge of the Ore-Pass and I could see the Scraper-Blade right at the bottom. I was glad that I had brought with me my climbing Rope. I attached on end to the Scraper as I knew that this was solid.
By now a couple more men had arrived, I think mostly to watch. I told Colin that I was going to climb down on my Rope and then try to reattach the Steel-Rope to the Blade. The men that were standing around us told me that I was Mad. I think to do this Job one has to be Mad. Colin’s and my main worries were that there was about half a ton of Ore hanging up above the Blade.
He told me that he had tried to dislodge it with no Luck. I just told him not to worry and started to climb down. As I got level with the Ore that was hung up I started to worry a bit, but then I thought “What the Hell” and kept climbing down. Once at the bottom of the Ore-Pass with the Scraper-Blade I carefully tied the Steel-Rope to the back of the Blade.
This way the Blade shouldn’t catch on anything and go up without any problems. One thing, I was going to make sure that I was out of that Hole before they brought up that Scraper-Blade. Here I nearly didn’t make it, as I got near the Top of the Ore-Pass. With all the Perspiration I had on my Hands, I lost my grip on the Rope and slid back down, with the Rope cutting deep into the Flesh of my Arm. Now forty Years later, one can still see the Marks from the Rope on my right Arm. Lots more funny things happen down here, but I will leave that for another time.
Western Australian Parliamentary Papers 1Reports on Rottnest Island Aboriginal Prisoners 2 Report on Rottnest Island for the Year 1885 3Nominal Return of the Aboriginal Prisioners who died during 1885 Munderberry; 2. 5.1885; Fraser Range; Accidentally drowned when bathing Thally Bygalgoo; 16.10.1885; Upper Murchison; Old age 4 Report on Rottnest Island for the Year 1887 5Nominal Return of Aboriginal Prisioners who died during 1887
Anglo-Saxon paganism, sometimes termed Anglo-Saxon heathenism (hǣþendōm, “heathen practice or belief, heathenism”, although not used as a self-denomination by adherents), Anglo-Saxon pre-Christian religion, or Anglo-Saxon traditional religion, refers to the religious beliefs and practices followed by the Anglo-Saxons between the 5th and 8th centuries AD, during the initial period of Early Medieval England. A variant of Germanic paganism found across much of north-western Europe, it encompassed a heterogeneous variety of beliefs and cultic practices, with much regional variation.
Developing from the earlier Iron Age religion of continental northern Europe, it was introduced to Britain following the Anglo-Saxon migration in the mid 5th century, and remained the dominant belief system in England until the Christianisation of its kingdoms between the 7th and 8th centuries, with some aspects gradually blending into folklore. The pejorative terms paganism and heathenism were first applied to this religion by Christian Anglo-Saxons, and it does not appear that these pagans had a name for their religion themselves; there has therefore been debate among contemporary scholars as to the appropriateness of continuing to describe these belief systems using this Christian terminology. Contemporary knowledge of Anglo-Saxon paganism derives largely from three sources: textual evidence produced by Christian Anglo-Saxons like Bede and Aldhelm, place-name evidence, and archaeological evidence of cultic practices. Further suggestions regarding the nature of Anglo-Saxon paganism have been developed through comparisons with the better-attested pre-Christian belief systems of neighbouring peoples such as the Norse.
Anglo-Saxon paganism was a polytheistic belief system, focused around a belief in deities known as the ése (singular ós). The most prominent of these deities was probably Woden; other prominent gods included Thunor and Tiw. There was also a belief in a variety of other supernatural entities which inhabited the landscape, including elves, nicor, and dragons. Cultic practice largely revolved around demonstrations of devotion, including sacrifice of inanimate objects and animals, to these deities, particularly at certain religious festivals during the year. There is some evidence for the existence of timber temples, although other cultic spaces might have been open-air, and would have included cultic trees and megaliths. Little is known about pagan conceptions of an afterlife, although such beliefs likely influenced funerary practices, in which the dead were either inhumed or cremated, typically with a selection of grave goods. The belief system also likely included ideas about magic and witchcraft, and elements that could be classified as a form of shamanism.
The deities of this religion provided the basis for the names of the days of the week in the English language. What is known about the religion and its accompanying mythology have since influenced both literature and Modern Paganism.
Definition
A political map of Britain c. 650 (the names are in modern English)
The word pagan is a Latin term that was used by Christians in Anglo-Saxon England to designate non-Christians. In Old English, the vernacular language of Anglo-Saxon England, the equivalent term was hæðen (“heathen”), a word that was cognate to the Old Norse[GR1]heiðinn, both of which may derive from a Gothic word, haiþno. Both pagan and heathen were terms that carried pejorative overtones, with hæðen also being used in Late Anglo-Saxon texts to refer to criminals and others deemed to have not behaved according to Christian teachings. The term “paganism” was one used by Christians as a form of othering, and as the archaeologist Neil Price[GR2] put it, in the Anglo-Saxon context, “paganism” is “largely an empty concept defined by what it is not (Christianity)”.
There is no evidence that anyone living in Anglo-Saxon England ever described themselves as a “pagan” or understood there to be a singular religion, “paganism”, that stood as a monolithic alternative to Christianity. These pagan belief systems would have been inseparable from other aspects of daily life. According to the archaeologists Martin Carver[GR3] , Alex Sanmark, and Sarah Semple, Anglo-Saxon paganism was “not a religion with supraregional rules and institutions but a loose term for a variety of local intellectual world views.” Carver stressed that, in Anglo-Saxon England, neither paganism nor Christianity represented “homogenous intellectual positions or canons and practice”; instead, there was “considerable interdigitation” between the two. As a phenomenon, this belief system lacked any apparent rules or consistency, and exhibited both regional and chronological variation. The archaeologist Aleks Pluskowski suggested that it is possible to talk of “multiple Anglo-Saxon ‘paganisms'”.
Adopting the terminology of the sociologist of religionMax Weber, the historian Marilyn Dunn described Anglo-Saxon paganism as a “world accepting” religion, one which was “concerned with the here and now” and in particular with issues surrounding the safety of the family, prosperity, and the avoidance of drought or famine. Also adopting the categories of Gustav Mensching, she described Anglo-Saxon paganism as a “folk religion“, in that its adherents concentrated on survival and prosperity in this world.
Using the expressions “paganism” or “heathenism” when discussing pre-Christian belief systems in Anglo-Saxon England is problematic. Historically, many early scholars of the Anglo-Saxon period used these terms to describe the religious beliefs in England before its conversion to Christianity in the 7th century. Several later scholars criticised this approach; as the historian Ian N. Wood stated, using the term “pagan” when discussing the Anglo-Saxons forces the scholar to adopt “the cultural constructs and value judgements of the early medieval [Christian] missionaries” and thus obscures scholarly understandings of the so-called pagans’ own perspectives. At present, while some Anglo-Saxonists have ceased using the terms “paganism” or “pagan” when discussing the early Anglo-Saxon period, others have continued to do so, viewing these terms as a useful means of designating something that is not Christian yet which is still identifiably religious. The historian John Hines proposed “traditional religion” as a better alternative, although Carver cautioned against this, noting that Britain in the 5th to the 8th century was replete with new ideas and thus belief systems of that period were not particularly “traditional”. The term “pre-Christian” religion has also been used; this avoids the judgemental connotations of “paganism” and “heathenism” but is not always chronologically accurate.
Evidence
An early 20th century depiction of Bede, who provides much of the textual information on Anglo-Saxon paganism. Painting by James Doyle Penrose.[GR4]
The pre-Christian society of Anglo-Saxon England was illiterate. Thus there is no contemporary written evidence produced by Anglo-Saxon pagans themselves. Instead, our primary textual source material derives from later authors, such as Bede and the anonymous author of the Life of St Wilfrid, who wrote in Latin rather than in Old English. These writers were not interested in providing a full portrait of the Anglo-Saxons’ pre-Christian belief systems, and thus our textual portrayal of these religious beliefs is fragmentary and incidental. Also perhaps useful are the writings of those Christian Anglo-Saxon missionaries who were active in converting the pagan societies of continental Europe, namely Willibrord and Boniface, as well as the writings of the 1st century AD Roman writer Tacitus, who commented upon the pagan religions of the Anglo-Saxons’ ancestors in continental Europe. The historian Frank Stenton commented that the available texts only provide us with “a dim impression” of pagan religion in Anglo-Saxon England, while similarly, the archaeologist David Wilson commented that written sources “should be treated with caution and viewed as suggestive rather than in any way definitive”.
Far fewer textual records discuss Anglo-Saxon paganism than the pre-Christian belief systems found in nearby Ireland, Francia, or Scandinavia. There is no neat, formalized account of Anglo-Saxon pagan beliefs as there is for instance for Classical mythology and Norse mythology. Although many scholars have used Norse mythology as a guide to understanding the beliefs of pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon England, caution has been expressed as to the utility of this approach. Stenton assumes that the connection between Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian paganism occurred “in a past which was already remote” at the time of the Anglo-Saxon migration to Britain, and claims that there was clear diversity among the pre-Christian belief systems of Scandinavia itself, further complicating the use of Scandinavian material to understand that of England. Conversely, the historian Brian Branston argued for the use of Old Norse sources to better understand Anglo-Saxon pagan beliefs, recognising mythological commonalities between the two rooted in their common ancestry.
Old English place-names also provide some insight into the pre-Christian beliefs and practices of Anglo-Saxon England. Some of these place-names reference the names of particular deities, while others use terms that refer to cultic practices that took place there. In England, these two categories remain separate, unlike in Scandinavia, where certain place-names exhibit both features. Those place-names which carry possible pagan associations are centred primarily in the centre and south-east of England, while no obvious examples are known from Northumbria or East Anglia. It is not clear why such names are rarer or non-existent in certain parts of the country; it may be due to changes in nomenclature brought about by Scandinavian settlement in the Late Anglo-Saxon period or because of evangelizing efforts by later Christian authorities. In 1941, Stenton suggested that “between fifty and sixty sites of heathen worship” could by identified through the place-name evidence, although in 1961 the place-name scholar Margaret Gelling cautioned that only forty-five of these appeared reliable. The literature specialist Philip A. Shaw has however warned that many of these sites might not have been named by pagans but by later Christian Anglo-Saxons, reflecting spaces that were perceived to be heathen from a Christian perspective.
“Although our understanding of Anglo-Saxon pre-Christian religion from written sources and from place names is partial and far from complete, archaeology is beginning to reveal more.”
— Archaeologist Martin Welch, 2011.
According to Wilson, the archaeological evidence is “prolific and hence is potentially the most useful in the study of paganism” in Anglo-Saxon England. Archaeologically, the realms of religion, ritual, and magic can only be identified if they affected material culture. As such, scholarly understandings of pre-Christian religion in Anglo-Saxon England are reliant largely on rich burials and monumental buildings, which exert as much of a political purpose as a religious one. Metalwork items discovered by metal detectorists have also contributed to the interpretation of Anglo-Saxon paganism. The world-views of the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons would have impinged on all aspects of everyday life, making it particularly difficult for modern scholars to separate Anglo-Saxon ritual activities as something distinct from other areas of daily life. Much of this archaeological material comes from the period in which pagan beliefs were being supplanted by Christianity, and thus an understanding of Anglo-Saxon paganism must be seen in tandem with the archaeology of the conversion.
Based on the evidence available, the historian John Blair[GR5] stated that the pre-Christian religion of Anglo-Saxon England largely resembled “that of the pagan Britons under Roman rule… at least in its outward forms”. However, the archaeologist Audrey Meaney[GR6] concluded that there exists “very little undoubted evidence for Anglo-Saxon paganism, and we remain ignorant of many of its essential features of organisation and philosophy”. Similarly, the Old English specialist Roy Page expressed the view that the surviving evidence was “too sparse and too scattered” to permit a good understanding of Anglo-Saxon paganism.
Historical development
Arrival and establishment
During most of the fourth century, the majority of Britain had been part of the Roman Empire, which—starting in 380 AD with the Edict of Thessalonica—had Christianity as its official religion. However, in Britain, Christianity was probably still a minority religion, restricted largely to the urban centres and their hinterlands. While it did have some impact in the countryside, here it appears that indigenous Late Iron Age polytheistic belief systems continued to be widely practised. Some areas, such as the Welsh Marches, the majority of Wales (excepting Gwent), Lancashire, and the south-western peninsula, are totally lacking evidence for Christianity in this period.
Britons who found themselves in the areas now dominated by Anglo-Saxon elites possibly embraced the Anglo-Saxons’ pagan religion in order to aid their own self-advancement, just as they adopted other trappings of Anglo-Saxon culture. This would have been easier for those Britons who, rather than being Christian, continued to practice indigenous polytheistic belief systems, and in areas this Late Iron Age polytheism could have syncretically mixed with the incoming Anglo-Saxon religion. Conversely, there is weak possible evidence for limited survival of Roman Christianity into the Anglo-Saxon period, such as the place-name ecclēs, meaning ‘church’, at two locations in Norfolk and Eccles in Kent. However, Blair suggested that Roman Christianity would not have experienced more than a “ghost-life” in Anglo-Saxon areas. Those Britons who continued to practice Christianity were probably perceived as second-class citizens and were unlikely to have had much of an impact on the pagan kings and aristocracy which was then emphasizing Anglo-Saxon culture and defining itself against British culture. If the British Christians were able to convert any of the Anglo-Saxon elite conquerors, it was likely only on a small community scale, with British Christianity having little impact on the later establishment of Anglo-Saxon Christianity in the seventh century.
Prior scholarship tended to view Anglo-Saxon paganism as a development from an older Germanic paganism. The scholar Michael Bintley cautioned against this approach, noting that this “‘Germanic’ paganism” had “never had a single ur-form” from which later variants developed.
The conversion to Christianity
Anglo-Saxon paganism only existed for a relatively short time-span, from the fifth to the eighth centuries. Our knowledge of the Christianisation process derives from Christian textual sources, as the pagans were illiterate. Both Latin and ogham inscriptions and the Ruin of Britain by Gildas suggest that the leading families of Dumnonia and other Brittonic kingdoms had already adopted Christianity in the 6th century. In 596, Pope Gregory I ordered a Gregorian mission to be launched in order to convert the Anglo-Saxons to the Roman Catholic Church. The leader of this mission, Augustine, probably landed in Thanet, then part of the Kingdom of Kent, in the summer of 597. While Christianity was initially restricted to Kent, it saw “major and sustained expansion” in the period from c. 625 to 642, when the Kentish king Eadbald sponsored a mission to the Northumbrians led by Paulinus, the Northumbrian king Oswald invited a Christian mission from Irish monks to establish themselves, and the courts of the East Anglicans and the Gewisse were converted by continental missionaries Felix the Burgundian and Birinus the Italian. The next phase of the conversion took place between c.653 and 664, and entailed the Northumbrian sponsored conversion of the rulers of the East Saxons, Middle Anglicans, and Mercians. In the final phase of the conversion, which took place during the 670s and 680s, the final two Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to be led by pagan rulers — in Sussex and the Isle of Wight — saw their leaders baptized.
As with other areas of Europe, the conversion to Christianity was facilitated by the aristocracy. These rulers may have felt themselves to be members of a pagan backwater in contrast to the Christian kingdoms in continental Europe. The pace of Christian conversion varied across Anglo-Saxon England, with it taking almost 90 years for the official conversion to succeed. Most of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms returned to paganism for a time after the death of their first converted king. However, by the end of the 680s, all of the Anglo-Saxon peoples were at least nominally Christian. Blair noted that for most Anglo-Saxons, the “moral and practical imperatives” of following one’s lord by converting to Christianity were a “powerful stimulus”.
It remains difficult to determine the extent to which pre-Christian beliefs retained their popularity among the Anglo-Saxon populace from the seventh century onward. Theodore’s Penitential and the Laws of Wihtred of Kent[GR7] issued in 695 imposed penalties on those who provided offerings to “demons”. However, by two or three decades later, Bede could write as if paganism had died out in Anglo-Saxon England. Condemnations of pagan cults also do not appear in other canons from this later period, again suggesting that ecclesiastical figures no longer considered persisting paganism to be a problem.
Scandinavian incursions
In the latter decades of the ninth century during the Late Anglo-Saxon period, Scandinavian settlers arrived in Britain, bringing with them their own, kindred pre-Christian beliefs. No cultic sites used by Scandinavian pagans have been archaeologically identified, although place names suggest some possible examples. For instance, Roseberry Topping in North Yorkshire was known as Othensberg in the twelfth century, a name which derived from the Old NorseÓðinsberg, or ‘Hill of Óðin’. A number of place-names also contain Old Norse references to mythological entities, such as alfr, skratii, and troll. A number of pendants representing Mjolnir, the hammer of the god Thor, have also been found in England, reflecting the probability that he was worshipped among the Anglo-Scandinavian population. Jesch argued that, given that there was only evidence for the worship of Odin and Thor in Anglo-Scandinavian England, these might have been the only deities to have been actively venerated by the Scandinavian settlers, even if they were aware of the mythological stories surrounding other Norse gods and goddesses. North however argued that one passage in the Old English rune poem, written in the eighth or ninth century, may reflect knowledge of the Scandinavian god Týr.
Archaeologically, the introduction of Norse paganism to Britain in this period is mostly visited in the mortuary evidence. A number of Scandinavian furnished burial styles were also introduced that differed from the Christian churchyard burials then dominant in Late Anglo-Saxon England. Whether these represent clear pagan identity or not is however debated among archaeologists. Norse mythological scenes have also been identified on a number of stone carvings from the period, such as the Gosforth Cross, which included images of .
The English church found itself in need of conducting a new conversion process to Christianize this incoming population. It is not well understood how the Christian institutions converted these Scandinavian settlers, in part due to a lack of textual descriptions of this conversion process equivalent to Bede’s description of the earlier Anglo-Saxon conversion. However, it appears that the Scandinavian migrants had converted to Christianity within the first few decades of their arrival.
The historian Judith Jesch suggested that these beliefs survived throughout Late Anglo-Saxon England not in the form of an active non-Christian religion, but as “cultural paganism”, the acceptance of references to pre-Christian myths in particular cultural contexts within an officially Christian society. Such “cultural paganism” could represent a reference to the cultural heritage of the Scandinavian population rather than their religious heritage. For instance, many Norse mythological themes and motifs are present in the poetry composed for the court of Cnut the Great, an eleventh-century Anglo-Scandinavian king who had been baptized into Christianity and who otherwise emphasized his identity as a Christian monarch.
Post-Christianization folklore
“The pagan hierarchical structure disintegrated rapidly in the seventh century in the face of Christianity’s systematic organization. But folk practices were all-pervasive in everyday life. The animistic character of Germanic belief prior to Christianization, with its emphasis on nature, holistic cures, and worship at wells, trees, and stones, meant that it was hard to counteract on an institutional level of organized religion… The synthesis of Christian and Germanic ideas gradually transformed these practices, undoubtedly at the local level… In this way Christianity ultimately penetrated the homes and daily lives of the various Germanic peoples in the centuries after the arrival of the first missionaries.”
— Historian Karen Louise Jolly, 1996.
Although Christianity had been adopted across Anglo-Saxon England by the late seventh century, many pre-Christian customs continued to be practiced. Bintley argued that aspects of Anglo-Saxon paganism served as the foundations for parts of Anglo-Saxon Christianity. Pre-Christian beliefs affected the folklore of the Anglo-Saxon period, and through this continued to exert an influence on popular religion within the late Anglo-Saxon period. The conversion did not result in the obliteration of pre-Christian traditions, but in various ways created a synthesis of traditions, as exhibited for instance by the Franks Casket, an artwork depicting both the pre-Christian myth of Weland the Smith and the Christian myth of the Adoration of the Magi. Blair noted that even in the late eleventh century, “important aspects of lay Christianity were still influenced by traditional indigenous practices”.
Both secular and church authorities issued condemnations of alleged non-Christian pagan practices, such as the veneration of wells, trees, and stones, right through to the eleventh century and into the High Middle Ages. However, most of the penitentials condemning such practices – notably that attributed to Ecgbert of York – were largely produced around the year 1000, which may suggest that their prohibitions against non-Christian cultic behaviour may be a response to Norse pagan beliefs brought in by Scandinavian settlers rather than a reference to older Anglo-Saxon practices. Various scholars, among them historical geographer Della Hooke and Price, have contrastingly believed that these reflected the continuing practice of veneration at wells and trees at a popular level long after the official Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon society.
Various elements of English folklore from the Medieval period onwards have been interpreted as being survivals from Anglo-Saxon paganism. For instance, writing in the 1720s, Henry Bourne stated his belief that the winter custom of the Yule log was a leftover from Anglo-Saxon paganism, however this is an idea that has been disputed by some subsequent research by the likes of historian Ronald Hutton[GR8] , who believe that it was only introduced into England in the seventeenth century by immigrants arriving from Flanders. The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, which is performed annually in the village of Abbots Bromley in Staffordshire, has also been claimed, by some, to be a remnant of Anglo-Saxon paganism. The antlers used in the dance belonged to reindeer and have been carbon dated to the eleventh century, and it is therefore believed that they originated in Norway and were brought to England some time in the late Mediaeval period, as by that time reindeer were extinct in Britain.
Mythology
Cosmology
Little is known about the cosmological beliefs of Anglo-Saxon paganism. Carver, Sanmark, and Semple suggested that every community within Anglo-Saxon England likely had “its own take on cosmology”, although suggested that there might have been “an underlying system” that was widely shared. The later Anglo-Saxon Nine Herbs Charm mentions seven worlds, which may be a reference to an earlier pagan cosmological belief. Similarly, Bede claimed that the Christian king Oswald of Northumbriadefeated a pagan rival at a sacred plain or meadow called Heavenfield (Hefenfelth), which may be a reference to a pagan belief in a heavenly plain. The Anglo-Saxon concept corresponding to fate was wyrd, although the “pagan” nature of this conception is subject to some debate; Dorothy Whitelock suggested that it was a belief held only after Christianisation, while Branston maintained that wyrd had been an important concept for the pagan Anglo-Saxons. He suggested that it was cognate to the Icelandic term Urdr and thus was connected to the concept of three sisters, the Nornir, who oversee fate in recorded Norse mythology. It is possible that the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons held a belief in an apocalypse that bore similarities with the later Norse myth of Ragnarök.
Although we have no evidence directly testifying to the existence of such a belief, the possibility that the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons believed in a cosmological world tree has also been considered. It has been suggested that the idea of a world tree can be discerned through certain references in the Dream of the Rood poem. This idea may be bolstered if it is the case, as some scholars have argued, that their concept of a world tree may be derived from a purported common Indo-European root. The historian Clive Tolley has cautioned that any Anglo-Saxon world tree would likely not be directly comparable to that referenced in Norse textual sources.
“The world of the Anglo-Saxon gods will forever remain a mystery to us, existing just beyond the reach of written history. This pagan world sits in an enigmatic realm that is in many respects prehistoric, an alien headspace far removed from our own intellectual universe. Situated within a polytheistic cosmos, clouded from us by centuries of Christian theology and Enlightenment rationalism, we can discern the existence of a handful of potential deities, who though long deceased have perhaps left their mark in place-names, royal genealogies, and the accounts of proselytizing monks. Such sources have led scholars to put together a pantheon for early medieval England, populated by such murky figures as Woden, Þunor, Tiw, and Frig.”
— Historian Ethan Doyle White, 2014
Anglo-Saxon paganism was a polytheistic belief system, with its practitioners believing in many deities. However, most Christian Anglo-Saxon writers had little or no interest in the pagan gods, and thus did not discuss them in their texts. The Old English words for a god were ēs and ōs, and they may be reflected in such place-names as Easole (“God’s Ridge”) in Kent and Eisey (“God’s Island”) in Wiltshire.
The deity for whom we have most evidence is Woden, as “traces of his cult are scattered more widely over the rolling English countryside than those of any other heathen deity”. Place names containing Wodnes- or Wednes- as their first element have been interpreted as references to Woden, and as a result his name is often seen as the basis for such place names as Woodnesborough (“Woden’s Barrow”) in Kent, Wansdyke (“Woden’s Dyke”) in Wiltshire, and Wensley (“Woden’s Woodland Clearing” or “Woden’s Wood”) in Derbyshire. The name Woden also appears as an ancestor of the royal genealogies of Kent, Wessex, East Anglia and Mercia, resulting in suggestions that after losing his status as a god during the Christianisation process he was euhemerised as a royal ancestor. Woden also appears as the leader of the Wild Hunt, and he is referred to as a magical healer in the Nine Herbs Charm, directly paralleling the role of his continental German counterpart Wodan in the Merseburg Incantations. He is also often interpreted as being cognate with the Norse god Óðinn and the Old High German Uuodan. Additionally, he appears in the Old English ancestor of Wednesday, Ƿōdenesdæġ ( a calque from its Latin equivalent, as are the rest of the days of the week).
It has been suggested that Woden was also known as Grim – a name which appears in such English place-names as Grimspound in Dartmoor, Grimes Graves in Norfolk and Grimsby (“Grim’s Village”) in Lincolnshire – because in recorded Norse mythology, the god Óðinn is also known as Grímnir+. Highlighting that there are around twice as many Grim place-names in England as Woden place-names, the place-name scholar Margaret Gelling[GR9] cautioned against the view that Grim was always associated with Woden in Anglo-Saxon England.
The second most widespread deity from Anglo-Saxon England appears to be the god Thunor. It has been suggested that the hammer and the swastika were the god’s symbols, representing thunderbolts, and both of these symbols have been found in Anglo-Saxon graves, the latter being common on cremation urns. A large number of Thunor place-names feature the Old English word lēah (“wood”, or “clearing in a wood”), among them Thunderley and Thundersley in Essex. The deity’s name also appears in other compounds too, as with Thunderfield (“Thunor’s Open Land”) in Surrey and Thunores hlaew (“Thunor’s Mound”) in Kent.
A third Anglo-Saxon god that is attested is Tiw. In the Anglo-Saxon rune poem, Tir is identified with the star Polaris rather than with a deity, although it has been suggested that Tiw was probably a war deity. Dunn has suggested that Tiw might have been a supreme creator deity who was nevertheless deemed distant. The name Tiw has been identified in such place-names as Tuesley (“Tiw’s Wood or Clearing”) in Surrey, Tysoe (“Tiw’s Hill-Spur”) in Warwickshire, and Tyesmere (“Tiw’s Pool”) in Worcestershire. It has been suggested that the “T”-rune which appears on some weapons and crematory urns from the Anglo-Saxon period may be references to Tiw. Also, there is Tīƿesdæġ, which in Modern English has become “Tuesday.”
“A worm came creeping, he tore a man in two, then Woden took nine Glory-Twigs, then struck the adder, that it flew apart into nine [bits] … [Woden] established [the nine herbs] and sent [them] into the seven worlds, for the poor and the rich, a remedy for all, it stands against pain, it fights against poison, it avails against three and against thirty, against foe’s hand and against noble scheming, against enchantment of vile creatures.”
Perhaps the most prominent female deity in Anglo-Saxon paganism was Frig; however, there is still very little evidence for her worship, although it has been speculated that she was “a goddess of love or festivity”. Her name has been suggested as a component of the place-names Frethern in Gloucestershire, and Freefolk, Frobury, and Froyle in Hampshire.
The East Saxon royalty claimed lineage from someone known as Seaxnēat, who might have been a god, in part because an Old Saxon baptismal vow calls on the Christian to renounce “Thunaer, Woden and Saxnot”. A runic poem mentions a god known as Ingwine and the writer Asser[GR10] mentioned a god known as Gēat. The Christian monk known as the Venerable Bede also mentioned two further goddesses in his written works: Eostre, who was celebrated at a spring festival, and Hretha, whose name meant “glory”.
References to idols can be found in Anglo-Saxon texts. No wooden carvings of anthropomorphic figures have been found in the area that once encompassed Anglo-Saxon England that are comparable to those found in Scandinavia or continental Europe. It may be that such sculptures were typically made out of wood, which has not survived in the archaeological record. Several anthropomorphic images have been found, mostly in Kent and dated to the first half of the seventh century; however, identifying these with any particular deity has not proven possible. A seated male figure appears on a cremation urn’s lid discovered at Spong Hill in Norfolk, which was interpreted as a possible depiction of Woden on a throne. Also found on many crematory urns are a variety of symbols; of these, the swastikas have sometimes been interpreted as symbols associated with Thunor.
Wights
Many Anglo-Saxonists have also assumed that Anglo-Saxon paganism was animistic in basis, believing in a landscape populated by different spirits and other non-human entities, such as elves, dwarves, and dragons. The English literature scholar Richard North for instance described it as a “natural religion based on animism”. Dunn suggested that for Anglo-Saxon pagans, most everyday interactions would not have been with major deities but with such “lesser supernatural beings”. She also suggested that these entities might have exhibited similarities with later English beliefs in fairies
. Later Anglo-Saxon texts refer to beliefs in ælfe (elves), who are depicted as male but who exhibit gender-transgressing and effeminate traits; these ælfe may have been a part of older pagan beliefs. Elves seem to have had some place in earlier pre-Christian beliefs, as evidenced by the presence of the Anglo-Saxon language prefix ælf in early given names, such as Ælfsige (elf victory), Ælfwynn (elf friend), Ælfgar (elf spear), Ælfgifu (elf gift), Ælfric (elf power) and Ælfred (modern “Alfred”, meaning “elf counsel”), amongst others. Various Old English place names reference thrys (giants) and draca (dragons). However, such names did not necessarily emerge during the pagan period of early Anglo-Saxon England, but could have developed at a later date.
A 1908 depiction of Beowulf fighting the dragon, by J. R. Skelton.
In pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon England, legends and other stories were transmitted orally instead of being written down; it is for this reason that very few survive today.
In both Beowulf and Deor’s Lament[GR11] there are references to the mythological smith Weyland, and this figure also makes an appearance on the Franks Casket. There are moreover two place-names recorded in tenth century charters that include Weyland’s name. This entity’s mythological stories are better fleshed out in Norse stories.
The only surviving Anglo-Saxon epic poem is the story of Beowulf, known only from a surviving manuscript that was written down by the Christian monk Sepa sometime between the eighth and eleventh centuries AD. The story it tells is set not in England but in Scandinavia, and revolves around a Geatish warrior named Beowulf who travels to Denmark to defeat a monster known as Grendel, who is terrorizing the kingdom of Hrothgar, and later, Grendel’s Mother as well. Following this, he later becomes the king of Geatland before finally dying in battle with a dragon. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it was commonly believed that Beowulf was not an Anglo-Saxon pagan tale, but a Scandinavian Christian one; it was not until the influential critical essay Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics by J. R. R. Tolkien, delivered in 1936, that Beowulf was established as a quintessentially English poem that, while Christian, looked back on a living memory of paganism. The poem refers to pagan practices such as cremation burials, but also contains repeated mentions of the Christian God and references to tales from Biblical mythology, such as that of Cain and Abel. Given the restricted nature of literacy in Anglo-Saxon England, it is likely that the author of the poem was a cleric or an associate of the clergy.
Nonetheless, some academics still hold reservations about accepting it as containing information pertaining to Anglo-Saxon paganism, with Patrick Wormald[GR12] noting that “vast reserves of intellectual energy have been devoted to threshing this poem for grains of authentic pagan belief, but it must be admitted that the harvest has been meagre. The poet may have known that his heroes were pagans, but he did not know much about paganism.” Similarly, Christine Fell declared that when it came to paganism, the poet who authored Beowulf had “little more than a vague awareness of what was done ‘in those days’.” Conversely, North argued that the poet knew more about paganism that he revealed in the poem, suggesting that this could be seen in some of the language and references.
Cultic practice
As archaeologist Sarah Semple noted, “the rituals [of the early Anglo-Saxons] involved the full pre-Christian repertoire: votive deposits, furnished burial, monumental mounds, sacred natural phenomenon and eventually constructed pillars, shrines and temples”, thereby having many commonalities with other pre-Christian religions in Europe.
Places of worship
Place-name evidence
The Neolithic long barrow of Wayland’s Smithy may have had cultic symbolism for the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons
Place-name evidence may indicate some locations which were used as places of worship by the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons. However, no unambiguous archaeological evidence currently supports the interpretation of these sites as places of cultic practice. Two words that appear repeatedly in Old English place names hearg and wēoh, have been interpreted as being references to cult spaces, however it is likely that the two terms had distinctive meanings. These hearg locations were all found on high ground, with Wilson suggesting that these represented a communal place of worship for a specific group, such as the tribe, at a specific time of year. The archaeologist Sarah Semple also examined a number of such sites, noting that while they all reflected activity throughout later prehistory and the Romano-British period, they had little evidence from the sixth and seventh centuries CE. She suggested that rather than referring to specifically Anglo-Saxon cultic sites, hearg was instead used in reference to “something British in tradition and usage.”
Highlighting that while wēoh sites vary in their location, some being on high ground and others on low ground, Wilson noted that the majority were very close to ancient routeways. Accordingly, he suggested that the term wēoh denoted a “small, wayside shrine, accessible to the traveler”. Given that some wēoh-sites were connected to the name of an individual, Wilson suggested that such individuals may have been the owner or guardian of the shrine.
A number of place-names including reference to pre-Christian deities compound these names with the Old English word lēah (“wood”, or “clearing in a wood”), and this may have attested to a sacred grove at which cultic practice took place. A number of other place-names associate the deity’s name with a high point in the landscape, such as dūn or hōh, which might represent that such spots were considered particularly appropriate for cultic practice. In six examples, the deity’s name is associated with feld (“open land”), in which case these might have been sanctuaries located to specifically benefit the agricultural actions of the community.
Some Old English place names make reference to an animal’s head, among them Gateshead (“Goat’s Head”) in Tyne and Wear and Worms Heath (“Snake’s Head”) in Surrey. It is possible that some of these names had pagan religious origins, perhaps referring to a sacrificed animal’s head that was erected on a pole, or a carved representation of one; equally some or all of these place-names may have been descriptive metaphors for local landscape features.
Built structures
“The idol temples of that race [the English] should by no means be destroyed, but only the idols in them. Take holy water and sprinkle it in these shrines, build altars and place relics in them. For if the shrines are well built, it is essential that they should be changed from the worship of devils to the service of the true God. When the people see that their shrines are not destroyed they will be able to banish error from their hearts and be more ready to come to the places they are familiar with, but now recognizing and worshipping the true God.”
— Pope Gregory’s letter to Mellitus.
No cultic building has survived from the early Anglo-Saxon period, and nor do we have a contemporary illustration or even a clear description of such a structure. However, there are four references to pre-Christian cultic structures that appear in Anglo-Saxon literary sources. Three of these can be found in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History. One is a quotation from a letter written in 601 by Pope Gregory the Great to the Abbott Mellitus, in which he stated that Christian missionaries need not destroy “the temples of the idols” but that they should be sprinkled with holy water and converted into churches. A second reference to cultic spaces found in Bede appears in his discussion of Coifi, an influential English pagan priest for King Edwin of Northumbria, who – after converting to Christianity – cast a spear into the temple at Goodmanham and then burned it to the ground. The third account was a reference to a temple in which King Rædwald of East Anglia kept an altar to both the Christian God and another to “demons”. Bede referred to these spaces using the Latin term fanum; he did not mention whether they were roofed or not, although he chose to use fanum over the Latin term templum, which would more clearly describe a roofed temple building. However, Bede probably never saw a pagan cultic space first hand, and was thus relying on literary sources for his understanding of what they looked like.
Summarizing the archaeological evidence, C. J. Arnold concluded that “the existence and nature of possible shrines remain intangible at present”. The best known archaeological candidate for a building used in pre-Christian cultic practice is Building D2 at the Yeavering complex in Northumberland. Inside the east door of the building was a pit filled with ox skulls, which have been interpreted as sacrificial deposits, while two post-holes inside the building have been interpreted as evidence for holding statues of the deities, and the building also showed no evidence of domestic usage, suggesting some special function. Blair suggested that the development of temple buildings in the late sixth and seventh centuries reflects the assimilation of Christian ideas.
“Bede’s evidence and archaeology show that sanctuaries associated with royal estates at the end of the pagan period are likely to have been enclosures containing buildings of organic materials, with images of the gods inside. Earlier, in the countryside, the sanctuaries were probably open air sites, on hills or in forest groves, with some kind of central feature. Ceremonies which took place at these sites included at least one annually (probably around November) which involved a large sacrifice of cattle.”
— Audrey Meaney, 1995.
Other possible temples or shrine buildings have been identified by archaeological investigation as existing within such Anglo-Saxon cemeteries as Lyminge in Kent and Bishopstone in Sussex. Although Pope Gregory referred to the conversion of pagan cult spaces into churches, no archaeological investigation has yet found any firm evidence of churches being built on top of earlier pagan temples in England. It may be that Gregory’s advice was never taken by the Anglo-Saxon Christians, although it is possible that the construction of crypts and the rebuilding of churches have destroyed earlier pagan foundations.
Blair highlighted evidence for the existence of square enclosures dating from the early Anglo-Saxon period which often included standing posts and which were often superimposed on earlier prehistoric monuments, most notably Bronze Age barrows. He argued that these were cultic spaces, and that – rather than being based on a tradition from continental Europe – they were based on a tradition of square enclosure building that dated back to the Pre-Roman Iron Age in Britain, thus reflecting the adoption of indigenous British ideas into early Anglo-Saxon cult. Building on Blair’s argument, the archaeologist Sarah Semple suggested that in Early Anglo-Saxon England such barrows might have been understood as “the home of spirits, ancestors or gods” and accordingly used as cultic places. According to Semple “ancient remains in the landscape held a significant place in the Anglo-Saxon mind as part of a wider, numinous, spiritual and resonant landscape”.
Blair suggested that the scant archaeological evidence for built cultic structures may be because many cultic spaces in early Anglo-Saxon England did not involve buildings. Supporting this, he highlighted ethnographically recorded examples from elsewhere in Northern Europe, such as among the Mansi, in which shrines are located away from the main area of settlement, and are demarcated by logs, ropes, fabrics, and images, none of which would leave an archaeological trace. Arnold suggested that it may be mistaken to assume that the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons carried out ritual activity at specific sites, instead suggesting that such practices occurred within the domestic area. As evidence, he pointed to certain deposits that have been excavated in Anglo-Saxon settlements, such as the deposition of an adult cow above a pit of clay and cobbles which had been placed at Cowdery’s Down. The deposition of human and animal bone in settlement sites has parallels both with continental practices and with Iron Age and Romano-British practices in Britain.
Cultic trees and megaliths
“Let us raise a hymn, especially because He who thrust into Tartarus of terrible torture the ghastly three-tongued serpent who vomits torrents of rank and virulent poisons through the ages deigned in like measure to send to earth the offspring begotten of holy parturition… and because where once the crude pillars of the same foul snake and the stag were worshipped with coarse stupidity in profane shrines, in their place dwelling for students, not to mention holy houses of prayer, are constructed skilfully by the talents of the architect.”
— Aldhelm’s letter to Heahfrith, 680s.
Although there are virtually no references to pre-Christian sacred trees in Old English literature, there are condemnations of tree veneration as well as the veneration of stones and wells in several later Anglo-Saxon penitentials. In the 680s, the Christian writer Aldhelmreferred to the pagan use of pillars associated with the “foul snake and stag”, praising the fact that many had been converted into sites for Christian worship. Aldhelm had used the Latin terms ermula cruda (“crude pillars”), although it was unclear what exactly he was referring to; possibly examples include something akin to a wooden totem pole or a re-used Neolithic menhir. Meaney suggested that Aldhelm’s reference to the snake and stag might be describing a representation of an animal’s head atop a pole, in which case it would be related to the animal-head place-names. North also believed that this snake and stag were animals with pagan religious associations.
It remains difficult to determine the location of any pre-Christian holy trees. However, there are cases where sacred trees and groves may be referenced in place-names. Blair suggested that the use of the Old English word bēam (“tree”) in Anglo-Saxon place-names may be a reference to a special tree. He also suggested that the place-names containing stapol (“post” or “pillar”) might have represented trees that had been venerated when alive and which were transformed into carved pillars after their death. For instance, both Thurstable Hundred in Essex and Thurstaple in Kent appear to have derived from the Old English Þunres-stapol, meaning ‘Pillar of Þunor’. Archaeologically, a large post was discovered at Yeavering which has been interpreted as having a religious function. The purpose of such poles remains debatable, however; some might have represented grave markers, others might have signalized group or kin identities, or marked territory, assembly places, or sacred spaces. Such wooden pillars would have been easy to convert into large crucifixes following the conversion to Christianity, and thus a number of these sacred sites may have survived as cultic spaces within a Christian context. It has also been suggested that the vinescroll patterns that decorated a number of Late Anglo-Saxon stone crosses, such as the Ruthwell Cross, may have been a form of inculturation harking back to pre-Christian tree veneration. As Bintley commented, the impact of pre-Christian beliefs about sacred trees on Anglo-Saxon Christian beliefs should be interpreted “not as pagan survivals, but as a fully integrated aspect of early English Christianity”.
Sacrifice
Christian sources regularly complained that the pagans of Anglo-Saxon England practiced animal sacrifice. In the seventh century, the first laws against pagan sacrifices appeared, while in the Paenitentiale Theodori one to ten years’ penance was allotted for making sacrifices or for eating sacrificed meat. Archaeological evidence reveals that meat was often used as a funerary offering and in many cases whole animal carcasses were placed in burials. Commenting on this archaeological evidence, Pluskowski expressed the view that this reflected “a regular and well-established practice in early Anglo-Saxon society.” It appears that they emphasized the killing of oxen over other species, as suggested by both written and archaeological evidence. The Old English Martyrology records that November (Old English Blótmónaþ “the month of sacrifice”) was particularly associated with sacrificial practices:
Old English
Translation
Se mónaþ is nemned Novembris on Léden, and on úre geþeóde “blótmónaþ”, forðon úre yldran, ðá hý hǽðene wǽron, on ðam mónþe hý bleóton á, ðæt is, ðæt hý betǽhton and benémdon hyra deófolgyldum ða neát ða ðe hý woldon syllan.
“The month is called Novembris in Latin, and in our language ‘bloodmonth’, because our elders when they had been heathens, always in this month sacrificed, that is, that they took and devoted to their idols the cattle which they wished to offer.”
There are several cases where animal remains were buried in what appears to be ritualistic conditions, for instance at Frilford, Berkshire, a pig or boar’s head was buried with six flat stones and two Roman-era tiles then placed on top, while at an Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Soham, Cambridgeshire, an ox’s head was buried with the muzzle facing down. Archaeologist David Wilson stated that these may be “evidence of sacrifices to a pagan god”. The folklorist Jacqueline Simpson[GR13] has suggested that some English folk customs recorded in the late medieval and early modern periods involving the display of a decapitated animal’s head on a pole may derive their origins from pre-Christian sacrificial practices.
Unlike some other areas of Germanic Europe, there is no written evidence for human sacrifice being practiced in Anglo-Saxon England. Dunn suggested that had Christian writers believed that such practices were being carried out then they would have strongly condemned them. Nevertheless, the historian Hilda Ellis Davidson expressed the view that “undoubtedly human sacrifice must have been known to the Anglo-Saxons, even if it played no great part in their lives”. She suggested that those who were used as victims included slaves, criminals, or prisoners of war, and that such sacrifices were only resorted to in times of crisis, such as plagues, famine, or attack. There has however been speculation that 23 of the corpses at the Sutton Hoo+ burial site were sacrificial victims clustered around a sacred tree from which they had been hanged. Alongside this, some have suggested that the corpse of an Anglo-Saxon woman found at Sewerby on the Yorkshire Wolds suggested that she had been buried alive alongside a nobleman, possibly as a sacrifice, or to accompany him to the afterlife.
Weapons, among them spears, swords, seaxes, and shield fittings have been found from English rivers, such as the River Thames, although no large-scale weapon deposits have been discovered that are akin to those found elsewhere in Europe.
Priests and kings
Wilson stated that “virtually nothing” was known of the pre-Christian priesthood in Anglo-Saxon England, although there are two references to Anglo-Saxon pagan priests in the surviving textual sources. One is that provided by Bede, which refers to Coifi of Northumbria. North has backed Chaney’s view that kings mediated between the gods and the people on the basis of a lack of any obvious priesthood.
One of the inhumation burials excavated at Yeavering, classified as Grave AX, has been interpreted as being that of a pre-Christian priest; although the body was not able to be sexed or aged by osteoarcheologist’s, it was found with a goat’s skull buried by its feet and a long wooden staff with metal fittings beside it. There have also been suggestions that individuals who were biologically male but who were buried in female costume may have represented a form of magico-religious specialists in Anglo-Saxon England. It has been suggested that these individuals were analogous to the Seiðmenn recorded in Old Norse sources. This possibility is linked to an account provided by Tacitus in his Germania in which he refers to a male pagan priest who wore female clothing.
Campbell suggested that it might have been priestly authorities who organised the imposition of physical penalties in early Anglo-Saxon England, with secular authorities only taking on this role during the conversion to Christianity. The concept of ‘sacral kingship’ no longer has much credibility within scholarship.
Germanic pagan society was structured hierarchically, under a tribal chieftain or cyning (“king”) who at the same time acted as military leader, high judge and high priest. The tribe was bound together by a code of customary proper behaviour or sidu regulating the contracts (ǽ) and conflicts between the individual families or sibbs within the tribe. The aristocratic society arrayed below the king included the ranks of ealdorman, thegn, heah-gerefa and gerefa.
Offices at the court included that of the thyle and the scop. The title of hlaford (“lord“) denoted the head of any household in origin and expressed the relation to allegiance between a follower and his leader. Early Anglo-Saxon warfare had many aspects of endemic warfare typical of tribal warrior societies. It was based on retainers bound by oath to fight for their lords who in turn were obliged to show generosity to their followers.
The pagan Anglo-Saxons inherited the common Germanic institution of sacral kingship+. A king (cyning) was elected from among eligible members of a royal family or cynn by the witena gemōt, an assembly of an elite that replaced the earlier folkmoot, which was the equivalent of the Germanic thing, the assembly of all free men. The person elected was usually the son of the last king. Tribal kingship came to an end in the 9th century with the hegemony of Wessex culminating in a unified kingdom of England by the 10th century. The cult of kingship was central to pagan Anglo-Saxon society. The king was equivalent to the position of high priest. By his divine descent he represented or indeed was the “luck” of the people. The central importance of the institution of kingship is illustrated by the twenty-six synonyms for “king” employed by the Beowulf poet.
The title of Bretwalda appears to have conveyed the status of some sort of formal or ceremonial overlordship over Britain, but it is uncertain whether it predates the 9th century, and if it does, what, if any, prerogatives it carried. Patrick Wormald interprets it as “less an objectively realized office than a subjectively perceived status” and emphasizes the partiality of its usage in favour of Southumbrian kings.
Cemeteries are the most widely excavated aspect of Anglo-Saxon archaeology and thus much information about the funerary aspects of Anglo-Saxon pagan religion has been obtained.
One of the aspects of Anglo-Saxon paganism that we know most about is their burial customs, which we have discovered from archaeological excavations at various sites, including Sutton Hoo, Spong Hill, Prittlewell, Snape and Walkington Wold, and we today know of the existence of around 1200 Anglo-Saxon pagan cemeteries. There was no set form of burial among the pagan Anglo-Saxons, with cremation being preferred among the Angles in the north and burial among the Saxons in the south, although both forms were found throughout England, sometimes in the same cemeteries. When cremation did take place, the ashes were usually placed within an urn and then buried, sometimes along with grave goods. According to archaeologist Dave Wilson, “the usual orientation for an inhumation in a pagan Anglo-Saxon cemetery was west-east, with the head to the west, although there were often deviations from this.” Indicating a possible religious belief, grave goods were common among inhumation burials as well as cremations; free Anglo-Saxon men were buried with at least one weapon in the pagan tradition, often a seax, but sometimes also with a spear, sword or shield, or a combination of these. There are also a number of recorded cases of parts of non-human animals being buried within such graves. Most common among these was body parts belonging to either goats or sheep, although parts of oxen were also relatively common, and there are also isolated cases of goose, crab apples, duck eggs and hazelnuts being buried in graves. It is widely thought therefore that such items constituted a food source for the deceased. In some cases, animal skulls, particularly oxen but also pig, were buried in human graves, a practice that was also found in earlier Roman Britain.
Certain Anglo-Saxon burials appeared to have ritualistic elements to them, implying that a religious rite was performed over them during the funeral. While there are many multiple burials, where more than one corpse was found in a single grave, that date from the Anglo-Saxon period, there is “a small group of such burials where an interpretation involving ritual practices may be possible”. For instance, at Welbeck Hill in Lincolnshire, the corpse of a decapitated woman was placed in reverse on top of the body of an old man, while in a number of other similar examples, female bodies were again placed above those of men. This has led some archaeologists to suspect a form of suttee, where the female was the spouse of the male, and was killed to accompany him upon death. Other theories hold that the females were slaves who were viewed as the property of the men, and who were again killed to accompany their master. Similarly, four Anglo-Saxon burials have been excavated where it appears that the individual was buried while still alive, which could imply that this was a part of either a religious rite or as a form of punishment. There are also many cases where corpses have been found decapitated, for instance, at a mass grave in Thetford, Norfolk, fifty beheaded individuals were discovered, their heads possibly having been taken as trophies of war. In other cases of decapitation it seems possible that it was evidence of religious ritual (presumably human sacrifice) or execution.
One of the burial mounds at Sutton Hoo
Archaeological investigation has displayed that structures or buildings were built inside a number of pagan cemeteries, and as David Wilson noted, “The evidence, then, from cemetery excavations is suggestive of small structures and features, some of which may perhaps be interpreted as shrines or sacred areas”. In some cases, there is evidence of far smaller structures being built around or alongside individual graves, implying possible small shrines to the dead individual or individuals buried there.
Eventually, in the sixth and seventh centuries, the idea of burial mounds began to appear in Anglo-Saxon England, and in certain cases earlier burial mounds from the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Romano-British periods were simply reused by the Anglo-Saxons. It is not known why they adopted this practice, but it may be from the practices of the native Britons. Burial mounds remained objects of veneration in early Anglo-Saxon Christianity, and numerous churches were built next to tumuli. Another form of burial was that of ship burials, which were practiced by many of the Germanic peoples across northern Europe. In many cases it seems that the corpse was placed in a ship that was either sent out to sea or left on land, but in both cases burned. In Suffolk however, ships were not burned, but buried, as is the case at Sutton Hoo, which it is believed, was the resting place of the king of the East Angles, Raedwald. Both ship and tumulus burials were described in the Beowulf poem, through the funerals of Scyld Scefing[GR14] and Beowulf respectively.
It has been considered largely impossible to distinguish a pagan grave from a Christian one in the Anglo-Saxon context after the latter had spread throughout England.
Festivals
“These few remarks by Bede show us a people who of necessity fitted closely into the pattern of the changing year, who were of the earth and what grows in it, who breathed the farmy exhalations of cattle and sheep, who marked the passage of time according to the life-cycle of their stock and the growth of their plants or by the appropriate period for offerings to the gods”.
— Historian Brian Branston, 1957.
Everything that we know about the religious festivals of the pagan Anglo-Saxons comes from a book written by Bede, titled De temporum ratione (“The Reckoning of Time”), in which he described the calendar of the year. However, its purpose was not to describe the pagan sacred year, and little information within it can be corroborated from other sources. Bede provided explanations for the names of the various pre-Christian festivals that he described, however these etymologies are questionable; it is unknown if these etymologies were based on his pre-existing knowledge or whether they represented his own theories. Casting further doubt over some of his festival etymologies is the fact that some of the place-name etymologies that Bede provides in his writings are demonstrably wrong.
The pagan Anglo-Saxons followed a calendar with twelve lunar months, with the occasional year having thirteen months so that the lunar and solar alignment could be corrected. Bede claimed that the greatest pagan festival was Modraniht (meaning Mothers’ Night), which was situated at the Winter solstice, which marked the start of the Anglo-Saxon year.
Following this festival, in the month of Solmonað (February), Bede claims that the pagans offered cakes to their deities. Then, in Eostur-monath Aprilis (April), a spring festival was celebrated, dedicated to the goddess Eostre, and the later Christian festival of Easter took its name from this month and its goddess. The month of September was known as Halegmonath, meaning Holy Month, which may indicate that it had special religious significance. The month of November was known as Blod-Monath, meaning Blood Month, and was commemorated with animal sacrifice, both in offering to the gods, and probably also to gather a source of food to be stored over the winter.
Remarking on Bede’s account of the Anglo-Saxon year, the historian Brian Branston noted that they “show us a people who of necessity fitted closely into the pattern of the changing year, who were of the earth and what grows in it” and that they were “in fact, a people who were in a symbiotic relationship with mother earth and father sky”. Stenton thought that Bede’s account reveals “that there was a strong element of heathen festivity” at the heart of the early Anglo-Saxon calendar. The historian James Campbell described this as a “complicated calendar”, and expressed the view that it would have required “an organised and recognised priesthood” to plan the observation of it.
Symbolism
Various recurring symbols appear on certain pagan Anglo-Saxon artefacts, in particular on grave goods. Most notable among these was the swastika, which was widely inscribed on crematory urns and also on various brooches and other forms of jewellery as well as on certain pieces of ceremonial weaponry. The archaeologist David Wilson remarked that this “undoubtedly had special importance for the Anglo-Saxons, either magical or religious, or both. It seems very likely that it was the symbol of the thunder god Thunor, and when found on weapons or military gear its purpose would be to provide protection and success in battle”. He also noted however that its widespread usage might have led to it becoming “a purely decorative device with no real symbolic importance”. Another symbol that has appeared on several pagan artefacts from this period, including a number of swords, was the rune ᛏ, which represented the letter T and may be associated with the god Tiw.
In the later sixth and seventh centuries, a trend emerged in Anglo-Saxon England entailing the symbolism of a horn-helmeted man. The archaeologist Tim Pestell stated that these represented “one of the clearest examples of objects with primarily cultic or religious connotations”. This iconography is not unique to England and can be found in Scandinavia and continental Germanic Europe too. The inclusion of this image on helmets and pendants suggests that it may have had apotropaic or amuletic associations. This figure has often been interpreted as a depiction of Woden, although there is no firm evidence to support this conclusion.
In 2011, Pluskowski noted that the term “shamanism” was increasingly being used by scholars of Anglo-Saxon paganism. Glosecki argued that evidence for shamanic beliefs were visible in later Anglo-Saxon literature. Williams also argued that paganism had had a shamanic component through his analysis of early funerary rites. Summarizing this evidence, Blair noted that it was “hard to doubt that something like shamanism lies ultimately in the background” of early Anglo-Saxon religion. He nevertheless highlighted problems with the use of “shamanism” in this context, noting that any such Anglo-Saxon practices would have been different from the shamanism of Siberia. Conversely, Noël Adams expressed the view that “at present there is no clear evidence of shamanistic beliefs” in Anglo-Saxon England.
Anglo-Saxon pagans believed in magic and witchcraft+. There are various Old English terms for “witch”, including hægtesse “witch, fury”, whence Modern English hag, wicca, gealdricge, scinlæce and hellrúne. The belief in witchcraft was suppressed in the 9th to 10th century as is evident e.g. from the Laws of Ælfred (ca. 890). It is possible that the Anglo-Saxons drew no distinction between magic and ritual in the same manner as modern Western society does.
The Christian authorities attempted to stamp out a belief and practice in witchcraft, with the Paenitentiale Theodori attributed to Theodore of Tarsus condemning “those that consult divinations and use them in the pagan manner, or that permit people of that kind into their houses to seek some knowledge”. Similarly, the U version of the Paenitentiale Theodori condemns those “who observe auguries, omens or dreams or any other prophecies after the manner of the pagans”.
The word wiccan “witches” is associated with animistic healing rites in the Paenitentiale Halitgari where it is stated that:
Some men are so blind that they bring their offering to earth-fast stone and also to trees and to wellsprings, as the witches teach, and are unwilling to understand how stupidly they do or how that dead stone or that dumb tree might help them or give forth health when they themselves are never able to stir from their place.
The pagan Anglo-Saxons also appeared to wear amulets, and there are many cases where corpses were buried with them. As David Wilson noted, “To the early [Anglo-]Saxons, they were part and parcel of the supernatural that made up their world of ‘belief’, although occupying the shadowy dividing area between superstition and religion, if indeed such a division actually existed.” One of the most notable amulets found in Anglo-Saxon graves is the cowrie shell, which has been often interpreted by modern academics as having been a fertility symbol due to its physical resemblance to the vagina and the fact that it was most commonly found in female graves. Not being native to British seas, the cowrie shells had to have been brought to England by traders who had come all the way from the Red Sea in the Middle East. Animal teeth were also used as amulets by the pagan Anglo-Saxons, and many examples have been found that had formerly belonged to boar, beaver, and in some cases even humans. Other amulets included items such as amethyst and amber beads, pieces of quartz or iron pyrite, worked and unworked flint, pre-Anglo-Saxon coinage and fossils, and from their distribution in graves, it has been stated that in Anglo-Saxon pagan society, “amulets [were] very much more the preserve of women than men”.
Reception and legacy
Days of the week
Four of the modern English days of the week derive their names from Anglo-Saxon deities. These names have their origins in the Latin system of week-day names, which had been translated into Old English.
The Anglo-Saxons, like other Germanic peoples, adapted the week-day names introduced by their interaction with the Roman Empire but glossed their indigenous gods over the Roman deities (with the exception of Saturday) in a process known as Interpretatio germanica:
“Previous understanding of the topic, well rooted in the ideas of its time, regarded the English as adherents of two consecutive religions: paganism governed the settlers of the 4th-6th century, but was superseded in the 7th-10th century by Christianity. Of the two, Christianity, a religion of the book, documented itself thoroughly, while in failing to do so paganism laid itself open to centuries of abuse, conjecture or mindless admiration.”
— Archaeologists Martin Carver, Alex Sanmark, and Sarah Semple, 2010.
While historical investigation into Germanic paganism and its mythology began in the seventeenth century with Peder Resen’s Edda Islandorum (1665), this largely focused only upon Norse mythology, much of which was preserved in Old Icelandic sources. In the eighteenth century, English Romanticism developed a strong enthusiasm for Iceland and Nordic culture, expressed in original English poems extolling Viking virtues, such as Thomas Warton’s “Runic Odes” of 1748. With nascent nationalism in early nineteenth-century Europe, by the 1830s both Nordic and German philology had produced “national mythologies” in N. F. S. Grundtvig‘s Nordens Mytologi and Jacob Grimm‘sDeutsche Mythologie, respectively. British Romanticism at the same time had at its disposal both a Celtic and a Viking revival, but nothing focusing on the Anglo-Saxons because there was very little evidence of their pagan mythology still surviving. Indeed, so scant was evidence of paganism in Anglo-Saxon England that some scholars came to assume that the Anglo-Saxons had been Christianized essentially from the moment of their arrival in Britain.
The study of Anglo-Saxon paganism began only in the mid nineteenth century, when John Kemble published The Saxons in England Volume I (1849), in which he discussed the usefulness of examining place-names to find out about the religion. This was followed by the publication of John Yonge Akerman‘s Remains of Pagan Saxondom (1855). Akerman defended his chosen subject in the introduction by pointing out the archaeological evidence of a “Pagan Saxon mode of sepulture” on English soil lasting from the “middle of the fifth to the middle or perhaps the end of the seventh century”. From this point onward, more academic research into the Anglo-Saxons’ pagan religion appeared. This led to further books on the subject, such as those primarily about the Anglo-Saxon gods, such as Brian Branston’s The Lost Gods of England (1957), and Kathy Herbert’s Looking for the Lost Gods of England (1994). Others emphasised archaeological evidence, such as David Wilson’s Anglo-Saxon Paganism (1992) and the edited anthology Signals of Belief in Early England: Anglo-Saxon Paganism Revisited (2010).
Modern paganism
The deities of pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon religion have been adopted by practitioners of various forms of modern Paganism, specifically those belonging to the new religious movement of Heathenry+. The Anglo-Saxon gods have also been adopted in forms of the modern Pagan religion of Wicca, particularly the denomination of Seax-Wicca, founded by Raymond Buckland[GR15] in the 1970s, which combined Anglo-Saxon deity names with the Wiccan theological structure. Such belief systems often attribute Norse beliefs to pagan Anglo-Saxons.
The Proto-Norse language developed into Old Norse by the 8th century, and Old Norse began to develop into the modern North Germanic languages in the mid-to-late 14th century, ending the language phase known as Old Norse. These dates, however, are not absolute, since written Old Norse is found well into the 15th century.
[GR2]Neil Stuppel Price is an English archaeologist specialising in the study of Viking Age-Scandinavia and the archaeology of shamanism. He is currently a professor in the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at Uppsala University, Sweden.
Born in south-west London, Price went on to gain a BA in Archaeology at the University of London, before writing his first book, The Vikings in Brittany, which was published in 1989. He undertook his doctoral research from 1988 through to 1992 at the University of York, before moving to Sweden, where he completed his PhD at the University of Uppsala in 2002. In 2001, he edited an anthology entitled The Archaeology of Shamanism for Routledge, and the following year published and defended his doctoral thesis, The Viking Way. The Viking Way would be critically appraised as one of the most important studies of the Viking Age and pre-Christian religion by other archaeologists like Matthew Townend and Martin Carver. In 2017 Price was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (CorrFRSE)
[GR3]Carver practised as a free-lance archaeologist (1973-1986), setting up the Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit (BUFAU), later called Birmingham Archaeology at the University of Birmingham to carry out archaeological contract work. He chairs Field Archaeology Specialists Ltd (FAS), now FAS Heritage, that was created in 1992. FAS Heritage is currently based in York and carries out archaeological research and heritage work in England and Scotland. Carver was the first secretary of the Institute of Field Archaeology, now Institute for Archaeologists. He has developed a number of procedures for archaeological investigation and analytical methods for writing up excavations, and has championed evaluation and project design as key elements in “value-led” archaeology.
In 1986 he was appointed Professor of Archaeology at the University of York (Head of Department 1986-1996; Emeritus 2008-). At York he introduced courses on World Archaeology and Field Archaeology, conducted research investigations at Sutton Hoo and Portmahomack, and researched Early Medieval Britain (5-11th century), publishing a comprehensive synthesis of his findings in 2019 as Formative Britain. He has served on UK, British, Irish, Danish and European research councils.
Since becoming emeritus he has been researching in early medieval Sicily with Alessandra Molinari (University of Rome Tor Vergata) and Girolamo Fiorentino (University of Lecce)
Martin Carver was editor of the world archaeology journal Antiquity from 2002-2012, personally editing some 800 articles.
He is a director of The Sutton Hoo Ship’s Company, which aims to be build a full-size and seaworthy replica of the Anglo-Saxon ship found in Mound 1 at Sutton Hoo
Penrose left Ireland with his father and family about 1890 to settle in Hertfordshire near London. He exhibited his work regularly at the Royal Academy of Arts in London from the 1890s until 1927. He also travelled extensively in Canada.
He married Elizabeth Josephine Peckover, a daughter of Alexander Peckover, 1st Baron Peckover, a wealthy Quaker banker. They had four sons: Alexander Peckover Doyle Penrose, Lionel Sharples Penrose, Sir Roland Penrose, CBE, and Lt Commander Bernard “Beakus” Penrose, RNR.
They had a strict upbringing at Oxhey Grange, Watford. James Doyle Penrose owned the wider Oxhey Grange Estate. In its development of Watford Heath, he included the Rose Tea Cottage and Gardens, in an attempt to attract the local workforce away from the nearby public houses.
His wife Elizabeth aged 72 died in July 1930 at Watford. He died in Bognor Regis on Saturday 2 January 1932
[GR5]Blair was born on 4 March 1955 in Woking, Surrey, England. His father was Claude Blair, a museum curator and “one of the foremost authorities on historic European metalwork, especially arms and armour”, and his mother was Joan Mary Greville Blair (née Drinkwater).
[GR6]Meaney was born in England on 19 March 1931,[1] and took a BA in English at Oxford. In 1955, she was appointed Carlisle Research Student at Girton College, Cambridge, to undertake her PhD in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic (completed in 1959), entitled A Correlation of Literary and Archaeological Evidence for Anglo-Saxon Heathenism. This established Meaney’s interdisciplinary approach to early medieval history, which is noteworthy for its combination of archaeological and textual sources.
On finishing her PhD, Meaney moved to Australia, to the English Department at the University of New England; ‘in the interests of her marriage’ she moved to Sydney, taking temporary academic positions there until, in 1968, she was appointed to the recently formed Macquarie University, where she taught until her retirement in 1989, balancing the requirements of work with those of motherhood. In 1984, she became the first Macquarie academic to be elected as a Fellow to the Australian Academy of the Humanities. According to Di Yerbury:
Her contribution to Macquarie University extended deep into its fabric and well-being. She was very influential in the early development of the new University’s teaching programs. She was active in several committees, and took on the responsibilities of Acting Head of the School of English and Linguistics. She quietly but persistently promoted the role of women and women’s studies. Indeed, her interest in the role of women has been a dominant theme in her research into Anglo-Saxon culture, removing yet another layer of invisibility over women’s place in history.
Meaney took a leading role in founding the Sydney Medieval and Renaissance Group and the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. On her retirement, she moved to Cambridge.
Meaney produced A Gazetteer of Early Anglo-Saxon Burial Sites, published by George Allen & Unwin in 1964. Asserting that it was “in intention exhaustive up to the end of 1960”, she noted that she had not included later discoveries due to her residence in Sydney. While teaching in Australia, Meaney returned frequently to the UK to undertake excavations and 1970 saw her publication, jointly with Sonia Hawkes, of the excavation report for Two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries at Winnall, Winchester, Hampshire. The 1980s saw Meaney shifting her focus from archaeology to written texts, developing her work on amulets in an influential series of articles on Anglo-Saxon medicine which have made her one of the most important commentators on the history of early medieval Western medicine.
A detailed list of Meaney’s publications up to around 1992 was provided by Spinks.
[GR7]Wihtred (Latin: Wihtredus) (c. 670 – 23 April 725) was king of Kent from about 690 or 691 until his death. He was a son of Ecgberht I and a brother of Eadric. Wihtred ascended to the throne after a confused period in the 680s, which included a brief conquest of Kent by Cædwalla of Wessex, and subsequent dynastic conflicts. His immediate predecessor was Oswine, who was probably descended from Eadbald, though not through the same line as Wihtred. Shortly after the start of his reign, Wihtred issued a code of laws—the Law of Wihtred—that has been preserved in a manuscript known as the Textus Roffensis. The laws pay a great deal of attention to the rights of the Church (of the time period), including punishment for irregular marriages and for pagan worship. Wihtred’s long reign had few incidents recorded in the annals of the day. He was succeeded in 725 by his sons, Æthelberht II, Eadberht I, and Alric.
Born in Ootacamund, India, his family returned to England, and he attended a school in Ilford and became particularly interested in archaeology. He volunteered in a number of excavations until 1976 and visited the country’s chambered tombs. He studied history at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and then Magdalen College, Oxford, before he read history at the University of Bristol in 1981. Specialising in Early Modern Britain, he wrote three books on the subject: The Royalist War Effort (1981), The Restoration (1985) and Charles the Second (1990).
In the 1990s, he wrote books about historical paganism, folklore and Contemporary Paganism in Britain; The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles (1991), The Rise and Fall of Merry England (1994), The Stations of the Sun (1996) and The Triumph of the Moon (1999), the latter of which would come to be praised as a seminal text in the discipline of Pagan studies. In the following decade, he wrote on other topics: a book about Siberian shamanism in the western imagination, Shamans (2001), a collection of essays on folklore and Paganism, Witches, Druids and King Arthur (2003) and then two books on the role of the Druids in the British imagination, The Druids (2007) and Blood and Mistletoe (2009)
Born in Manchester and raised in Kent, she studied at St Hilda’s College, becoming involved in socialist activism. She proceeded to work for the English Place-Name Society from 1946 to 1953, focusing her research on the place-names of Oxfordshire and Berkshire. Marrying archaeologist Peter Gelling of the University of Birmingham in 1952, she moved to Harborne in Birmingham while undertaking her PhD research into the place-names of West Berkshire. Lecturing on the subject across the Midlands, she published her research in a series of books, achieving prominence within academia for her 1978 work Signposts to the Past: The Geographical Roots of Britain’s Place-names. In the coming decades she focused on researching the place-names of Shropshire, resulting in a multi-volume publication, earning a number of awards and prominent appointments for her life’s work.
Gelling’s work focused on establishing the Old English origins of English place-names in the Midlands, and her approach sought to connect toponyms to geographical features in the landscape.
[GR10]Asser (Welsh pronunciation: [asɛr]; died c. 909) was a Welshmonk from St David’s, Dyfed, who became Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s. About 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great to leave St David’s and join the circle of learned men whom Alfred was recruiting for his court. After spending a year at Caerwent because of illness, Asser accepted.
In 893, Asser wrote a biography of Alfred, called the Life of King Alfred. The manuscript survived to modern times in only one copy, which was part of the Cotton library. That copy was destroyed in a fire in 1731, but transcriptions that had been made earlier, together with material from Asser’s work which was included by other early writers, have enabled the work to be reconstructed. The biography is the main source of information about Alfred’s life and provides far more information about Alfred than is known about any other early English ruler. Asser assisted Alfred in his translation of Gregory the Great‘s Pastoral Care, and possibly with other works.
Asser is sometimes cited as a source for the legend about Alfred’s having founded the University of Oxford, which is now known to be false. A short passage making this claim was interpolated by William Camden into his 1603 edition of Asser’s Life. Doubts have also been raised periodically about whether the entire Life is a forgery, written by a slightly later writer, but it is now almost universally accepted as genuine.
Weland, the strong man, had experience of persecution; he suffered a lot. Sorrow and longing were his companions, along with exile in the cold winter; he experienced misfortunes after Nithad laid constraints upon him, supple bonds of sinew on a better man.
That went away, this also may.
In Beadohild’s mind her brothers’ death was not as grieving as her own situation, when she realized she was pregnant; she couldn’t fathom the outcome.
That went away, this also may.
Many of us have heard that the Geat’s love for Maethild passed all bounds, that his love robbed him of his sleep.
That went away, this also may.
For thirty years, Theodric ruled the stronghold of the Maerings; which has become common knowledge.
That went away, this also may.
We have learned of Eormanric’s ferocious disposition; a cruel man, he held dominion in the kingdom of the Goths. Many men sat, full of sorrow, anticipating trouble and constantly praying for the fall of his country.
That went away, this also may.
If a man sits in despair, deprived of joy, with gloomy thoughts in his heart; it seems to him that there is no end to his suffering. Then he should remember that the wise Lord follows different courses throughout the earth; to many he grants glory, certainty, yet, misery to some. I will say this about myself, once I was a minstrel of the Heodeningas, my Lord’s favourite. My name was Deor. For many years I had an excellent office and a gracious Lord, until now Heorrenda, a skillful man, has inherited the land once given to me by the protector of warriors.
That went away, this also may.
[GR12]Charles Patrick Wormald (9 July 1947 – 29 September 2004) was a British historian born in Neston, Cheshire, son of historian Brian Wormald.
He attended Eton College as a King’s Scholar. From 1966 to 1969 he read modern history at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was tutored by Maurice Keen and farmed out for tutorials with Michael Wallace-Hadrill (at that time a Senior Research Fellow at Merton College, Oxford) and Peter Brown (at that time a research fellow at All Souls College, Oxford). Wormald’s potential was subsequently recognised by both Merton and All Souls when those colleges awarded him, respectively, the Harmsworth Senior Scholarship and a seven-year Prize Fellowship.
Wormald taught early medieval history at the University of Glasgow from 1974 to 1988, where his lectures drew huge enthusiasm from students.[1] There he also met fellow-historian Jenny Brown, whom he married in 1980. They had two sons, but divorced in 2001. While at Glasgow, he became a participant in the Bucknell Group of early medievalists, hosted by Wendy Davies – the group taking its name from a village on the Welsh-English border where it often met. He delivered the Jarrow Lecture in 1984.
Following a British Academy Research Readership (1987–89), Wormald returned to Oxford in 1989 as a college lecturer at Christ Church, where he was then appointed a fellow and university lecturer from 1990, tutoring students in medieval history. He delivered the Deerhurst Lecture in 1991 and the British Academy’s Raleigh Lecture in History in 1995. In 1996 he gave the inaugural Richard Rawlinson Center Congress Lecture at the 31st International Congress on Medieval Studies in Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. His greatest work, which took many years to produce, was The Making of English Law, the first volume of which was published in 1999. Volume II was unfinished at the time of his death, although his extensive preparatory papers for the book have now been published online. Following his early retirement from Christ Church in 2001, he was re-engaged as a lecturer by the History Faculty at Oxford, and entered Wolfson College, Oxford. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2003, and that year also delivered the Brixworth Lecture.
[GR13]Simpson studied English Literature and Medieval Icelandic at Bedford College, University of London. She has been, at various times, Editor, Secretary, and President of the Folklore Society. She was awarded the Society’s Coote Lake Research Medal in 2008. In 2010 she was appointed Visiting Professor of Folklore at the Sussex Centre of Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy at the University of Chichester, West Sussex. She has a particular interest in local legends (as opposed to international fairy tales), and has published collections of this genre from Iceland, Scandinavia in general, and England (the latter in collaboration with the late Jennifer Westwood). She has also written on the folklore of various English regions, and was co-author with Steve Roud of the Penguin Dictionary of English Folklore.
She has been a point of reference for Terry Pratchett since he met her at a book signing in 1997. Pratchett, who was then researching his novel Carpe Jugulum, was asking everyone in the queue how many “magpie” rhymes they knew; and while most people gave one answer – the theme from the TV series Magpie – Simpson was able to supply considerably more. According to Pratchett’s version of their conversation, there were “about nineteen”, but she suspects this is creative embroidery. Their encounter eventually led to collaboration
In the Skjöldunga saga and the Ynglinga saga, Odin came from Asia (Scythia) and conquered Northern Europe. He gave Sweden to his son Yngvi and Denmark to his son Skjöldr. Since then the kings of Sweden were called Ynglings and those of Denmark Skjöldungs.
Scyld Scefing is the legendary ancestor of the Danish royal lineage known as the Scyldings. He is the counterpart of the Skioldus or Skjöldr of Danish and Icelandic sources.
He appears in the opening lines of Beowulf, where he is referred to as Scyld Scefing, implying he is a descendant of Sceafa, Scyld son of Scef, or Scyld of the Sheaf. The Beowulf poet places him in a boat which is seen in other stories about Scef as a child in a boat:
Scyld the Sheaf-Child from scourging foemen, From raiders a-many their mead-halls wrested. He lives to be feared, the first has a waif, Puny and frail he was found on the shore. He grew to be great, and was girt with power Till the border-tribes all obeyed his rule, And sea-folk hardy that sit by the whale-path Gave him tribute, a good king was he.
After relating in general terms the glories of Scyld’s reign, the poet describes Scyld’s funeral, his body was laid in a ship surrounded by treasures:
They decked his body no less bountifully with offerings than those first ones did who cast him away when he was a child and launched him alone out over the waves.
In Beowulf 33, Scyld’s ship is called is īsig, literally, “icy.” The meaning of this epithet has been discussed many times. Anatoly Liberman gives a full survey of the literature and suggests that the word meant “shining.”
William of Malmesbury‘s 12th century Chronicle tells the story of Sceafa as a sleeping child in a boat without oars with a sheaf of corn at his head.
Olrik (1910) suggested Peko, a parallel “barley-figure” in Finnish, in turn connected by Fulk (1989) with Eddaic Bergelmir.
[GR15]Raymond Buckland (31 August 1934 – 27 September 2017) whose craft name was Robat, was an English writer on the subject of Wicca and the occult, and a significant figure in the history of Wicca, of which he was a high priest in both the Gardnerian and Seax-Wica traditions.
According to his written works, primarily Witchcraft from the Inside, published in 1971, he was the first person in the United States to openly admit to being a practitioner of Wicca, and he introduced the lineage of Gardnerian Wicca to the United States in 1964, after having been initiated by Gerald Gardner‘s then-high priestess Monique Wilson in Britain the previous year. He later formed his own tradition dubbed Seax-Wica which focuses on the symbolism of Anglo-Saxon paganism
Rottnest Island Deaths Group Aboriginal Corporation (RIDGAC) formed in 1993 with a powerful purpose. Its members planned to protect and preserve the burial grounds and spirits of their ancestors. To that end it compiles and shares the devastating history of Aboriginal imprisonment on the island. The corporation has opened and sustained the debate on how we should treat the unidentified bodies of the Wadjemup prisoners and remember their experience. The last day of May 2018 is a major milestone for RIDGAC and all Western Australian Aboriginal people, but there’s a way to go before its duty to the ancestors is done.
Contrasting perspectives
The cultural significance of Rottnest Island varies dramatically depending on your perspective and era. Noongar people call it Wadjemup, meaning place of spirits. It’s a sacred place where forever, ancestral spirits dwell. But Wadjemup is also where, from 1838 to 1904, as colonists settled further and further north from Perth, thousands of Aboriginal men from all over Western Australia were taken, in chains, to be incarcerated in terrible conditions—and where hundreds died and remain buried in unmarked shallow graves.
Nine Aboriginal prisoners (outside Roebourne jail) with neck collars and heavy chains, guarded by three armed white men. State Library of Western Australia BA1713/2
As if that contrast was not enough, from 1907, three years after the prison closed, the island was promoted to non-Indigenous Australians as a tourist destination—and today, it’s a cherished place for recreation. Can those contrasting associations peacefully co-exist? How can those who suffered and died be properly commemorated on an island that half a million tourists visit each year?
Deaths in custody
When it formed 25 years ago, RIDGAC’s first goal was to halt all development on the burial ground, and to lobby for removal of the roads, buildings and campground that were just four feet above the human remains. But exactly where all the graves are remains unclear. Results of the ground-penetrating radar—used to identify disturbance in the earth that is consistent with grave sites, rather than bones themselves—were inconclusive. The alternative—digging up the graves—is also untenable.
Signage at the burial ground previously acknowledged that the extent of the cemetery is unknown
In 1994 RIDGAC orchestrated a meeting of Aboriginal people from all over Western Australia. Two or three hundred people travelled to the island to take part in a ceremony to rebury the bones of the prisoner that had been accidentally dug up—including senior elders from Noongar country as well as the Goldfields, Western Desert, Pilbara and the Kimberley. Premier Richard Court also attended, and by all accounts it was a powerful meeting. The premier publicly acknowledged Rottnest as Australia’s biggest deaths-in-custody site, and RIDGAC presented him with its proposal for the future of Wadjemup.
Twenty-two years later WA lottery funding was secured for part of a project to restore the area known for certain to be a burial ground. Rottnest Island Authority (RIA), the statutory body established to look after the island, intends to create a respectful, contemplative public space there. But for RIDGAC, the works that have been carried out on that site, and the further proposed works, are premature and contentious. The corporation has consistently urged successive governments and RIA to conduct further exploration to identify additional burial sites, before any further development takes place. And last month historians found a map that identifies cemeteries not previously known to RIA. Without question, there are unmarked graves beyond the bounds of the known burial ground.
Surveyor’s map, c1908, showing the location of two cemeteries separate from the main Aboriginal prisoners’ burial grounds
Penal servitude
The second strategic goal for RIDGAC was to raise awareness of what those Aboriginal prisoners and their communities experienced. In this, their work is focused on the prison building known as the Quod.
Group of prisoners arranged for a photograph in The Quod, 1893. State Library of Western Australia 5478B/20. (For many years prior, the prisoners had no warm clothing; only a thin blanket.)
The Quod was a panopticon-style prison of small cells (3 x 1.7m), each of which held up to seven people with no windows, no beds, no bucket for a toilet. The people it would incarcerate were forced to build it in 1863, and it was a hellish prison for thousands of men—and boys as young as eight. Disease was rampant, and the longstanding superintendent, Henry Vincent, is notorious for his cruelty.
Left: The floor plan for The Quod in its original form, annotated by Michael Sinclair-Jones. Right: Its refurbishment as holiday units did not erase all signs of the former prison
Of the 3700 men and boys incarcerated at Wadjemup, an estimated 364 died there. Most others never returned to their home communities. The prison allegedly closed in 1904 but prisoners continued to languish and labour there until 1931.
From 1911, walls between some of the cells were removed to form larger units. Since the 1930s the prison cells have accommodated holiday-makers insensitive to the gruesome history of their sleeping quarters. To this day, Quod rooms are rented as part of a commercial hotel venture.
On 31 May 2018, the last commercial lease for The Quod expires; tourists will sleep there no more. Rottnest Island Deaths Group Aboriginal Corporation sees the handback of The Quod to the Rottnest Island Authority as a long-overdue opportunity to enact plans to properly honour and commemorate the men who died, and to enable visitors to gain a broader and deeper understanding of the significance of the site.
The corporation also remains adamant that the story of Wadjemup should be told from an Aboriginal perspective, in an Aboriginal way. It stands by an earlier press statement (written by former chair of the corporation, Albert Corunna), which states:
Rottnest Island is a death island of Aboriginal people sentenced there, many to die through sickness, coldness, hunger, harsh work, beatings, neglect and most of all, being away from their family structure on the mainland. The Spirit People are still there, the sufferers of Rottnest Island.
The whole of the Quod where they were imprisoned, suffered and many died has to be handed back to their relations, the Aboriginal elders state-wide.
Before Wadjemup was commandeered as a prison, Aboriginal men, boys, women and girls were incarcerated—and some executed—at the Round House in Fremantle, which was the first public building in Western Australia. Like the Quod, it was built in the style of the ‘panopticon’, which was designed to instil in its occupants a sense of being under surveillance at all times—to mentally enslave them.
A story of Australia
For RIDGAC and many others who know what happened, the systematic dislocation of Aboriginal people and communities was essential to the northward progress of the Western Australian colonial frontier. Chair of the corporation’s board of directors, Iva Hayward-Jackson, says:
The story of the prison at Wadjemup is not just a local story. Aboriginal men were brought here from all over the state. Many were taken for killing cattle—food for their families. They were chained at the neck, wrists and ankles. And they were crammed into small, cold, cells. All of them suffered terribly, and a lot of them died. For those men personally it was agony, and for their families and communities, it was devastating. But for the colony of Western Australia, it was useful to have those men removed. Some of them were just boys but many of them were senior law men defending their land and their lives. And as much as it damaged Aboriginal communities, their removal supported colonial expansion.
If the corporation has its way, visitors to Wadjemup will be invited to own all that as part of our shared Australian history. In other words, the island has the potential to become a vital site for reconciliation. But it can’t happen without due process, Mr Hayward-Jackson says:
Reconciliation is about owning history, not being in denial. All Australians but especially people who visit Wadjemup need to wake up to what happened there. That’s the only way they can have a genuine experience of the place. It doesn’t mean you can’t go and have a nice holiday. It means you can have an authentic physical, mental and spiritual encounter with history. That’s what reconciliation is; that’s what we want. But it can’t happen until we settle what should happen there. And that starts with the elders of our mobs getting together, on Wadjemup.
At the time of writing, directors of RIDGAC are out visiting communities from Alice Springs to the Kimberley, talking and listening and planning a return to Wadjemup, for their first big meeting in 24 years.
Glen Cooke, director, on the road with Iva Hayward-Jackson
The future of Wadjemup
This year’s National Reconciliation Week will include the last day the former prison will be available for commercial accommodation. What happens next—and where all the bodies are—remains unclear.
There are signs that RIA has taken the corporation’s views on board. Its cultural landscape management plan includes a detailed, scathing historical account of the prison and its role in Aboriginal dispossession, and agrees that the island is critical to the nation’s history:
Wadjemup has the potential to become one of the most important focal points for reconciliation and healing between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people not just in Western Australia but for Australia as a nation. For this to occur, the pain and shame of the past needs to be acknowledged, and the untold history of the Island needs to be brought into the open in a much more conspicuous and inclusive way.
For 25 years, Rottnest Island Deaths Group Aboriginal Corporation has raised awareness of Aboriginal–Western Australian history, and sustained the conversation about an appropriate commemoration of the prisoners. And now they’re gathering forces for another big meeting at Wadjemup. It’s a good opportunity for us all to listen, so we’ll give chairman Hayward-Jackson the last word:
We’re relieved that the Quod will no longer be tourist accommodation. But we want some assurance that the future of it and the burial ground is Aboriginal community-controlled. It’s not enough for a memorial and interpretive site to exist. To properly honour and respect our ancestors and Aboriginal people today, it needs to be done in an Aboriginal way. It needs to be governed and run by Aboriginal people.
The meeting in September will be senior lawmakers from a lot of Aboriginal communities in Western Australia. We’re the elders in those communities; and those men taken as prisoners were our elders. So we’ll be at Wadjemup all together, and let’s see what comes of it.
The following is an article By Serge Trifkovic and we reprint it here with his permission.
The husband routinely beat his 26-year-old German-born wife, mother of their two young children, and threatened to kill her when the court ordered him to move out of their apartment in Hamburg. The police were called repeatedly to intervene. The wife wanted a quick divorce – without waiting a year after separation, as mandated by German law – arguing that that the abuse and death threats she suffered easily fulfilled the “hardship” criteria required for an accelerated decree absolute. The judge – a woman by the name of Christa Datz-Winter – refused, however, arguing that the Kuran allows the husband to beat his wife and that the couple’s Moroccan origin must be taken into account in the case. They both come from a cultural milieu, Her Honor wrote, in which it is common for husbands to beat their wives – and the Kuran sanctions such treatment. “The [husband’s] exercise of the right to castigate does not fulfill the hardship criteria as defined by Paragraph 1565” of German federal law, the judge’s letter said. [emphasis added] The judge further suggested that the wife’s Western lifestyle would give her husband grounds to claim his honor had been compromised.
The reports in German and English do not state this, but Turkish papers have reported that the judge made specific reference to Sura 4, which contains the infamous Verse 34: Men have the authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because God has guarded them. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them. The wife’s lawyer, Barbara Becker-Rojczyk, could not believe her eyes: a German judge was invoking Kuran in a German legal case to assert the husband’s “right to castigate” his wife. The meaning was clear: “the husband can beat his wife,” Becker-Rojczyk commented. She decided to go public with the case last Tuesday because the judge was still on the bench, two months after the controversial verdict was handed down.
The judge was subsequently removed from the case, but not from the bench. A spokesman for the court, Bernhard Olp, said the judge did not intend to suggest that violence in a marriage is acceptable, or that the Kuran supersedes German law. “The ruling is not justifiable, but the judge herself cannot explain it at this moment,” he said. But according to Spiegel Online this was not the first time that German courts have used “cultural background” to inform their verdicts. Christa Stolle of the women’s rights organization Terre des Femmes said that in cases of marital violence there have been a number of cases where the perpetrator’s culture of origin has been considered as a mitigating circumstance.
Of some 25 million Muslims in Western Europe, the majority already consider themselves autonomous, a community justifiably opposed to the decadent host society of infidels. They already demand the adoption of sharia within segregated Muslim communities, which but one step that leads to the imposition of sharia on the society as a whole. Swedish courts are already introducing sharia principles into civil cases. An Iranian-born man divorcing his Iranian-born wife was ordered by the high court in the city of Halmestad to pay Mahr, Islamic dowry ordained by the Kuran as part of the Islamic marriage contract. As Chronicles readers may recall, Europe’s elite class is ready for further surrenders. Dutch Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner—a Christian Democrat—sees the demand for Sharia as perfectly legitimate, and argues that it could be introduced “by democratic means.” Muslims have a right to follow the commands of their religion, he says, even if the exercise of that right included some “dissenting rules of behavior”: “It is a sure certainty for me: if two thirds of all Netherlanders tomorrow would want to introduce Sharia, then this possibility must exist. Could you block this legally? It would also be a scandal to say ‘this isn’t allowed’! The majority counts. That is the essence of democracy.” The same “essence” was reiterated in similar terms last July by Jens Orback, the Swedish Integration [sic] Minister, who declared in a radio debate on Channel P1, “We must be open and tolerant towards Islam and Muslims because when we become a minority, they will be so towards us.”
To all forward-looking Europeans it must be a welcome sign that continental courts are catching up with the leader in Sharia compliance, Great Britain. A key tenet of Sharia is that non-Muslims cannot try Muslims. Peter Beaumont, QC, senior circuit judge at London’s Central Criminal Court, the Old Bailey, accepts the commandment not only in civil, but also in criminal cases. He banned Jews and Hindus—and anyone married to one—from serving on the jury in the trial of Abdullah el-Faisal, accused of soliciting the murder of “unbelievers.” “For obvious reasons,” he said, “members of the jury of the Jewish or Hindu faith should reveal themselves, even if they are married to Jewish or Hindu women, because they are not fit to arbitrate in this case.” One can only speculate what the reaction would be if equally “obvious reasons” were invoked in an attempt to exclude Muslims from a trial of an alleged “Islamophobe.”
Here at home, The New York Times had a bone to pick with the German judge mainly because of her suggestion that Islam justified violence against women. It stated matter-of-factly, “While the verse cited by Judge Datz-Winter does say husbands may beat their wives for being disobedient — an interpretation embraced by fundamentalists— mainstream Muslims have long rejected wife-beating as a medieval relic.”
In reality “mainstream Muslims” do nothing of the sort. New York Times’ claim notwithstanding, the original sources for “true” Islam—the Kuran and Hadith—provide ample and detailed evidence on Islamic theory and the sources of Shari’a practice that remains in force all over the Islamic world today.
According to orthodox Islamic tradition, the verse invoked by the German judge (4:34) was revealed in connection with a woman who complained to Mohammad that her husband had hit her on the face, which was still bruised. At first he told her to get even with him, but then added, “Wait until I think about it.” The revelation duly followed, after which he said: “We wanted one thing but Allah wanted another, and what Allah wanted is best.” Qatari Sheikh Walid bin Hadi explains that every man is his own judge when using violence: “The Prophet said: Do not ask a husband why he beats his wife.”
The scholars at the most respected institution of Islamic learning, Cairo’s Azhar University, further explain: “If admonishing and sexual desertion fail to bring forth results and the woman is of a cold and stubborn type, the Qur’an bestows on man the right to straighten her out by way of punishment and beating, provided he does not break her bones nor shed blood. Many a wife belongs to this querulous type and requires this sort of punishment to bring her to her senses!”
Physical violence against one’s wife, far from being Haram, remains divinely ordained and practically advised in modern Islam. “Take in thine hand a branch and smite therewith and break not thine oath,” the Kuran commands. Muslim propagators in the West “explain” that the Islamic teaching and practice is in line with the latest achievements of clinical psychology: it is not only correct, but positively beneficial to them because “women’s rebelliousness (nushuz) is a medical condition” based either on her masochistic delight in being beaten and tortured, or sadistic desire to hurt and dominate her husband. Either way,
Such a woman has no remedy except removing her spikes and destroying her weapon by which she dominates. This weapon of the woman is her femininity. But the other woman who delights in submission and being beaten, then beating is her remedy. So the Qur’anic command: ‘banish them to their couches, and beat them’ agrees with the latest psychological findings in understanding the rebellious woman. This is one of the scientific miracles of the Qur’an, because it sums up volumes of the science of psychology about rebellious women.
According to Allah’s commandment to men (Kuran 2:223), “Your wives are as a soil to be cultivated unto you; so approach your tilth when or how ye will.” Therefore “the righteous women are devoutly obedient.” Those that are not inhabit the nether regions of hell. Muhammad has stated that most of those who enter hell are women, not men. Contemporary Azhar scholars of Egypt agree: “Oh, assembly of women, give charity, even from your jewelry, for you (comprise) the majority of the inhabitants of hell in the day of resurrection.”
In the same spirit, courts in Muslim countries, to mention a particularly egregious legal practice, routinely sentence raped women to death for “adultery,” usually by stoning, because they follow the Sharia that mandates this punishment. To the outright divine command of every wife’s obedience to her husband, Muhammad has added a few comments of his own. When asked who among women is the best, he replied: “She who gives pleasure to him (husband) when he looks, obeys him when he bids, and who does not oppose him regarding herself and her riches fearing his displeasure.” Even in basic necessities the needs of the husband take precedence: “You shall give her food when you have taken your food, you shall clothe her when you have clothed yourself, you shall not slap her on the face, nor revile (her), nor leave (her) alone, except within the house.” The husband’s sexual needs have to be satisfied immediately: “When a man calls his wife to his bed, and she does not respond, the One Who is in the heaven is displeased with her until he is pleased with her.”
Such treatment of women might be expected to make Islam abhorrent within the cultural milieu epitomized by the equal-rights obsessed European Union and the neofeminist New York Times, but this has not happened. There is a reason for this. It is the refusal of Islam to accept the wife as her husband’s closest and inseparable loving partner and companion. Islam therefore challenges Christian marriage in principle and in practice. Muslim teaching on marriage and the family, though “conservative” about “patriarchy,” denies the traditional Christian concept of matrimony. Islam is therefore an “objective” ally of postmodernity, a few beatings here and a few rapes there notwithstanding.
Munderberry; 2. 5.1885; Fraser Range; Accidentally drowned when bathing Thally Bygalgoo; 16.10.1885; Upper Murchison; Old age 
_____________________________________________________________________________________ 
place-name evidence, and 
belief system, focused around a belief in deities known as the ése (singular 
. The belief system also likely included ideas about 
, the historian Marilyn Dunn described Anglo-Saxon paganism as a “world accepting” religion, one which was “concerned with the here and now” and in particular with issues surrounding the safety of the family, prosperity, and the avoidance of drought or famine. Also adopting the categories of 
who wrote in 
as well as the writings of the 1st century AD Roman writer 
commented that the available texts only provide us with “a dim impression” of pagan religion in Anglo-Saxon England, while similarly, the archaeologist David Wilson commented that written sources “should be treated with caution and viewed as suggestive rather than in any way definitive”.
. Although many scholars have used Norse mythology as a guide to understanding the beliefs of pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon England, caution has been expressed as to the utility of this approach. Stenton assumes that the connection between Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian paganism occurred “in a past which was already remote” at the time of the Anglo-Saxon migration to Britain, and claims that there was clear diversity among the pre-Christian belief systems of Scandinavia itself, further complicating the use of Scandinavian material to understand that of England. Conversely, the historian Brian Branston argued for the use of Old Norse sources to better understand Anglo-Saxon pagan beliefs, recognising mythological commonalities between the two rooted in their common ancestry.
cautioned that only forty-five of these appeared reliable. The literature specialist Philip A. Shaw has however warned that many of these sites might not have been named by pagans but by later Christian Anglo-Saxons, reflecting spaces that were perceived to be heathen from a Christian perspective.
As such, scholarly understandings of pre-Christian religion in Anglo-Saxon England are reliant largely on rich burials and monumental buildings, which exert as much of a political purpose as a religious one. Metalwork items discovered by 
ordered a 
and 
The next phase of the conversion took place between c.653 and 664, and entailed the Northumbrian sponsored conversion of the rulers of the East Saxons, Middle Anglicans, and Mercians. In the final phase of the conversion, which took place during the 670s and 680s, the final two Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to be led by pagan rulers — in Sussex and the Isle of Wight — saw their leaders baptized.
.
, an eleventh-century Anglo-Scandinavian king who had been baptized into Christianity and who otherwise emphasized his identity as a Christian monarch.
. Blair noted that even in the late eleventh century, “important aspects of lay Christianity were still influenced by traditional indigenous practices”.
was a leftover from Anglo-Saxon paganism, however this is an idea that has been disputed by some subsequent research by the likes of historian 
which is performed annually in the village of 
in 
defeated a pagan rival at a sacred plain or meadow called 
, who oversee fate in recorded Norse mythology. It is possible that the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons held a belief in an apocalypse that bore similarities with the later Norse myth of 
root. The historian Clive Tolley has cautioned that any Anglo-Saxon world tree would likely not be directly comparable to that referenced in Norse textual sources.
and 
were the god’s symbols, representing thunderbolts, and both of these symbols have been found in Anglo-Saxon graves, the latter being common on cremation urns. A large number of Thunor place-names feature the Old English word lēah (“wood”, or “clearing in a wood”), among them 
also mentioned two further goddesses in his written works: 
, who was celebrated at a spring festival, and 
. There are moreover two place-names recorded in tenth century charters that include Weyland’s name. This entity’s mythological stories are better fleshed out in Norse stories.
warrior named 
who is terrorizing the kingdom of 
, such as that of 
. Given the restricted nature of literacy in Anglo-Saxon England, it is likely that the author of the poem was a cleric or an associate of the clergy.
may have had cultic symbolism for the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons
to the Abbott 
, who – after converting to Christianity – cast a spear into the temple at 
complex in 
and the rebuilding of churches have destroyed earlier pagan foundations.
, in which shrines are located away from the main area of settlement, and are demarcated by logs, ropes, fabrics, and images, none of which would leave an archaeological trace. Arnold suggested that it may be mistaken to assume that the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons carried out ritual activity at specific sites, instead suggesting that such practices occurred within the domestic area. As evidence, he pointed to certain deposits that have been excavated in Anglo-Saxon settlements, such as the deposition of an adult cow above a pit of clay and cobbles which had been placed at 
referred to the pagan use of pillars associated with the “foul snake and stag”, praising the fact that many had been converted into sites for Christian worship. Aldhelm had used the Latin terms ermula cruda (“crude pillars”), although it was unclear what exactly he was referring to; possibly examples include something akin to a wooden 
following the conversion to Christianity, and thus a number of these sacred sites may have survived as cultic spaces within a Christian context. It has also been suggested that the vinescroll patterns that decorated a number of Late Anglo-Saxon stone crosses, such as the 
being practiced in Anglo-Saxon England. Dunn suggested that had Christian writers believed that such practices were being carried out then they would have strongly condemned them. Nevertheless, the historian 
expressed the view that “undoubtedly human sacrifice must have been known to the Anglo-Saxons, even if it played no great part in their lives”. She suggested that those who were used as victims included slaves, criminals, or prisoners of war, and that such sacrifices were only resorted to in times of crisis, such as plagues, famine, or attack. There has however been speculation that 23 of the corpses at the 
typical of tribal 
appears to have conveyed the status of some sort of formal or ceremonial overlordship over Britain, but it is uncertain whether it predates the 9th century, and if it does, what, if any, prerogatives it carried. 
but sometimes also with a 
, where the female was the spouse of the male, and was killed to accompany him upon death. Other theories hold that the females were slaves who were viewed as the property of the men, and who were again killed to accompany their master. Similarly, four Anglo-Saxon burials have been excavated where it appears that the individual was buried while still alive, which could imply that this was a part of either a religious rite or as a form of punishment. There are also many cases where corpses have been found 
, for instance, at a mass grave in 
) or execution.
began to appear in Anglo-Saxon England, and in certain cases earlier burial mounds from the 
, which were practiced by many of the Germanic peoples across northern Europe. In many cases it seems that the corpse was placed in a ship that was either sent out to sea or left on land, but in both cases burned. In 
, which marked the start of the Anglo-Saxon year.
, 
, but nothing focusing on the Anglo-Saxons because there was very little evidence of their pagan mythology still surviving. Indeed, so scant was evidence of paganism in Anglo-Saxon England that some scholars came to assume that the Anglo-Saxons had been Christianized essentially from the moment of their arrival in Britain.
(2010).
which contains the infamous Verse 34: Men have the authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because God has guarded them. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them. The wife’s lawyer, Barbara Becker-Rojczyk, could not believe her eyes: a German judge was invoking Kuran in a German legal case to assert the husband’s “right to castigate” his wife. The meaning was clear: “the husband can beat his wife,” Becker-Rojczyk commented. She decided to go public with the case last Tuesday because the judge was still on the bench, two months after the controversial verdict was handed down.
“Your wives are as a soil to be cultivated unto you; so approach your tilth when or how ye will.” Therefore “the righteous women are devoutly obedient.” Those that are not inhabit the nether regions of hell. Muhammad has stated that most of those who enter hell are women, not men. Contemporary Azhar scholars of Egypt agree: “Oh, assembly of women, give charity, even from your jewelry, for you (comprise) the majority of the inhabitants of hell in the day of resurrection.”
This is Australia 
