ENGLAND. (ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.) 



by the Saxon and Danish priests were tlirce to wor- 

 ship the gods to do no wrong and to fight bravely 

 in battle. They occasionally recommended many 

 other virtues : and it will not be easy to find among 

 compositions, merely human, a more beautiful collec- 

 tion of prudential and moral maxims, than in the 

 Hovamaai, or sublime discourses ascribed to Odin, 

 the cliief deity of the ancient Danes and Saxons. 

 To this Odin, his warlike and deluded votaries 

 ascribed all the attributes which belong only to the 

 true God ; to him they built magnificent temples, 

 offered many sacrifices, and consecrated the fourth 

 day of the week, which is still so called among us to 

 this very time, Frea, or Frigga, wife of Odin, was, 

 next to her husband, the most revered deity among 

 the heathen Saxons, Danes, and other northern 

 nations. She was esteemed the goddess of love and 

 pleasure, bestowing on her votaries a variety of 

 delights, particularly happy marriages and easy child- 

 births. The sixth day of the week was consecrated 

 to her, and still bears her name. Thor, the eldest 

 and bravest of the sons of Odin and Frea, was, after 

 his parents, the most revered object of superstitious 

 adoration, by the Danes and Saxons, while in their 

 pagan condition. He was believed to reign over all 

 the aerial regions,which composed his immense palace, 

 consisting of 540 halls, to launch the flaming bolt, 

 point the lightning, and direct the meteors, winds, 

 and storms. To him they prayed for favourable 

 winds, refreshing rains, and fruitful seasons. To 

 him the fifth day of the week was consecrated, and 

 still bears his name. Besides these three, a prodi- 

 gious number of inferior divinities, male and female, 

 were adored by the Anglo-Saxons and Danes. 



The acts of worship paid to their gods, were these : 

 songs of praise and gratitude, prayers and supplica- 

 tions offerings and sacrifices incantation and divin- 

 ing rites, in order to express their admiration of their 

 perfections, and gratitude for their benefits to ob- 

 tain those blessings from them which they deserved, 

 to appease their vengeful displeasure, and gain their 

 love, and to penetrate into their designs. The songs 

 of praise composed in honour of Odin, and sung at 

 the solemnities of his worship, were almost innu- 

 merable ; and, in those songs, no fewer than 126 

 honourable epithets were bestowed on that god. All 

 the other gods and goddesses had many songs 

 composed and sung in their praise, with epithets pro- 

 portioned to the power they supposed them to possess, 

 and the degrees of veneration in which they were 

 held by the worshippers. 



As prayers constituted a very considerable part of 

 their pagan worship, they were instructed by their 

 priests in the powers and properties of their several 

 gods and goddesses, and the prayers which they were 

 to make to them, proportioned to their respective 

 powers. They boasted greatly of their exact know- 

 ledge of the attributes and functions of the several 

 gods, and of the prayers that were to be put up to 

 t-ach of them ; and to this they ascribed their pros- 

 perity and success in their enterprises. But, if a 

 favourable return to their supplication was not made, 

 they did not hesitate to testify their displeasure 

 against their gods, by shooting their arrows and 

 throwing their darts towards heaven. 



The Danes and Saxons were not sparing of their 

 offerings and sacrifices, to gain the favour and ap- 

 pease the anger of their vengeful and offended divini- 

 ties ; and they were accordingly instructed by their 

 prit sts as to what kind of oblations were most accept- 

 able to these gods. To Odin they were directed to 

 offer horses, dogs, and falcons, and sometimes cocks, 

 and a fat fowl, by way of sacrifice. To Frigga, the 

 largest hogs; and to Thor, fat oxen and horses. 

 These victims were skin before the altar, their blood 



received into a vessel prepared for the purpose, and 

 some part of it sprinkled on the assembly ; the 

 entrails were afterwards inspected by the priests, to 

 discover the will of the gods from their appearance. 

 Some of the flesh was burnt upon the altar, and on 

 the rest the priests and people feasted. At these 

 feasts, their favourite beer and ale were not forgot- 

 ten, of which they drank deep and frequent draughts, 

 in honour of their gods, putting up some prayer or 

 wish at every draught. In famines, or other national 

 calamities, or at the eve of some dangerous war, 

 human victims were offered up at the altars of their 

 gods, by our pagan Anglo-Saxon and Danish ances- 

 tors, believing them to oe more acceptable than any 

 other. These unhappy beings were commonly 

 chosen from among criminals, captives, or slaves ; 

 but, on some pressing occasions, persons of the 

 highest dignity were not spared. 



None were more addicted to divination, or made 

 greater efforts to penetrate into futurity and discover 

 the counsels of heaven, than the ancient Danes and 

 Saxons. Besides those arts of divining practised by 

 their priests, in common with those of other nations, 

 they had many peculiar to themselves. They gave 

 great credit to the predictions of old women, who 

 pretended to consult the dead, to converse witJi 

 familiar spirits, and to have many other ways of dis- 

 covering the will of the gods, and the issue of impor- 

 tant undertakings. Some of these women became so 

 famous for their responses, that they were consulted 

 by the greatest states as infallible oracles, and even 

 revered as goddesses ; who, if they had lived a few 

 ages later, would have been burned for witches. In 

 very ancient times, the Danes and Saxons, like the 

 Britons, had no covered temples, but worshipped 

 their gods in sacred groves, and circles of rude 

 stones. Gradually, however, they began to build 

 temples, and at length erected some of incredible 

 grandeur and magnificence. In each of these was a 

 sacellum, or chapel, esteemed the most holy place, 

 where the images of the gods were set upon a kind of 

 altar, before which stood another altar, plated with 

 iron, for the holy fire, which was kept continually 

 burning ; and near it a vase for receiving the blood 

 of the victims, and a brush for sprinkling it upon the 

 people. They also began to set up the images of 

 their gods in these temples. Odin's image was 

 crowned, and completely armed ; that of Frigga was 

 a hermaphrodite, a bow in one hand, and a sword in 

 the other ; that of Thor was crowned with stars, and 

 armed with a ponderous club ; and those of the other 

 gods had emblems suited to their respective attributes. 

 There were many of such temples adorned with idols, 

 in different parts of England, while the Anglo-Saxons 

 continued pagans, but (as we are informed by Bede) 

 they were all destroyed at their conversion to Chris- 

 tianity. Though the sacred fires were kept always 

 burning, and though frequent, perhaps daily, sacrifices 

 were offered in the temples of their gods, yet they 

 also celebrated certain great festivals with peculiar 

 solemnity. One of the greatest of these was cele- 

 brated at the winter "solstice, called the mother night ; 

 both on account of this festival, and of its being the 

 beginning of the Anglo-Saxon year. This feast was 

 also called Jule, a name by which the festival of 

 Christmas is still known, in many parts of Scotland, 

 (Yule,) and in some parts of England. The heathen 

 Jule was observed in honour of the god Thor, not 

 only with sacrifices, but with feasting, drinking, 

 dancing, and every possible demonstration of mirth 

 and joy. The second great festival was kept during 

 the second moon of the year, in honour of the god- 

 dess Frea, much in the same manner as the former. 

 The third and greatest festival was celebrated in 

 honour of Odin, in the beginning of the spring, 



