Allen, Grant, 1848-1899 / 2008-09-26 00:00:00


In creed, the English were pagans, having a religion of beliefs rather
than of rites. Their chief deity, perhaps, was a form of the old Aryan
Sky-god, who took with them the guise of Thunor or Thunder (in
Scandinavian, Thor), an angry warrior hurling his hammer, the
thunder-bolt, from the stormy clouds. These thunder-bolts were often
found buried in the earth; and being really the polished stone-axes of
the earlier inhabitants, they do actually resemble a hammer in shape.
But Woden, the special god of the Teutonic race, had practically usurped
the highest place in their mythology: he is represented as the leader of
the Germans in their exodus from Asia to north-western Europe, and since
all the pedigrees of their chieftains were traced back to Woden, it is
not improbable that he may have been really a deified ancestor of the
principal Germanic families. The popular creed, however, was mainly one
of lesser gods, such as elves, ogres, giants, and monsters, inhabitants
of the mark and fen, stories of whom still survive in English villages
as folk-lore or fairy tales. A few legends of the pagan time are
preserved for us in Christian books. _Beowulf_ is rich in allusions to
these ancient superstitions. If we may build upon the slender materials
which alone are available, it would seem that the dead chieftains were
buried in barrows, and ghost-worship was practised at their tombs.
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