The Angles, Saxons and Jutes were pagans when they came to Britain. In time, they converted to Christianity. Many of the customs we have in England today date from before the conversion to Christianity. Some Christian festivals such as Easter and Christmas (Yule) were also pagan in origin.
The Angles and Saxons worshipped lots of different gods. Each god controlled a particular aspect of life, such as the family, growing crops, love, healing, wisdom, metalworking, the weather, war, day & night and so on.
Among the ancient gods were:
Balder – God of Immortality
Eostre – God of Birth
Frigg – God of Love
Hel – God of Death
Saxnot – God of the Family
Thunor – God of Thunder
Tiw – God of War
Wade – God of the Sea
Wayland – God of Metalworking
Woden – Chief God
The Anglo-Saxon Legacy
The Angles and Saxons gave us many things of lasting value. One of these was their Anglo-Saxon language which was the foundation of today’s English. It gave rise to a somewhat artificial lingua franca which grew out of West Saxon, being increasingly mixed with Anglian elements to create what is now referred to as Old English (Englisc). Although the dialect spoken by the West Saxons (West Seaxe) was the official language of the kingdom before the Norman Conquest in A.D. 1066, it did not develop into modern English, which had its origins in the language of the Middle Angles (Middel Engle). The Low German language of the Old Saxons on mainland Europe developed alongside modern Dutch, and German. It influenced the language chosen by Martin Luther for the protestant Bible, and which became the official language of Germany.
In England , our county boundaries were first drawn up under the West Saxon kings when they divided their kingdom into shires, i.e., “shares”. The shires took their names either from earlier tribes, or, later, from important towns. Counties originating in tribal areas are Essex (Est Sexe), Sussex (Suth Seaxe), Suffolk, Norfolk, Dorset, Somerset, Devon, Cornwall (Cornu-Wales), and Kent. All of these are in the South Country and formed part of the kingdom unified early by the West Saxon dynasty.
Later names tended to have had “shire” added to the name of the county town. Thus Gloucestershire takes its name from Gloucester; Worcestershire takes its name from Worcester; Warwickshire takes its name from Warwick. (These three counties shared much of the territory of the Wicce, a Saxon tribe.); Hampshire takes its name from Southampton; Yorkshire takes its name from York, and so on. Most of these shires were constituted in territory formerly occupied by the Danelaw.
Further north, nearer to the Scottish border, territorial or tribal names occur. So, Northumberland (whose southern border in earlier time was the Humber); Cumberland (the land of the Cymry, also known as North Wales); Westmorland (a geographical description).
Two counties date from after the Norman Conquest. County Durham was carved out of Northumberland as a palatinate ruled over by the Bishop of Durham, and Lancashire was created by putting together the northern half of Cheshire and the westernmost part of Yorkshire. Both counties seem to have something lacking, even now.
Saxon Place Names
The Saxon word its meaning modern form Place name
Burh a fortified place Burgh, Brough Burgh Castle (suffolk)
Ceaster,Caester Old Roman Fort Chester, caster Manchester, Lancaster
Ford Water Crossing ford Stratford, Stretford
Ham a homestead ham Oldham, Birmingham
Ingas tribe or kinsfolk ing, ings Reading, Hastings
Leah a clearing leigh , ley Leigh, Burnley
Stow a place,often religious stow, stowe Felixstow, Stow-on-the-Wold
Ton a homestead ton Bolton, Luton