The Gesta Herewardi Saxonis, the early 12th century translation of an older (and lost) Old English text on the English outlaw Hereward the Wake contains within a denoscription of a pagan practise, normally performed by women, called ‘wylle-weorðung’ or well-weirding, also recorded as ‘waking the well’. The ritual involved asking the spirit or guardian of a sacred well or spring questions to which the spirit would provide the answer.

...In the middle of the night Hereward saw them go out in silence to a spring; of water that flowed to- wards the east near the garden of the house, so he followed them immediately, and heard them at a distance conversing, questioning, and getting replies from some unknown guardian of the spring...

The only planet in our solar system with a Germanic name is Earth. The name is rooted in the Proto- Germanic *erþō and is cognate with another Proto-Germanic word *erwô, itself perhaps cognate with Celtic terms for Earth such as the Welsh erw (field). This name seems to be for the physical earth – the soil and land, fields and ground.

The much debated name Erce is one many English heathens use for Mother Earth or Mother of Earth. The line ‘Erce Erce Erce’ from the Æcerbot field-remedy charm seems to have its parallel in the Latin prayer ‘sanctus, sanctus, sanctus’ (sacred, sacred, sacred). The name Erce possibly comes from the root eorcnan meaning holy.

If the English had a separate name for Earth Mother in her harvest aspect, this might have been a name formed from the verbs gifan, to give, or gifian, to bestow gifts, such as Giefu, grace, favour; Gifole, generous, bountiful; Gifiende, bestowing gifts. Such a name would be related to the Norse Gefn, giver, a by-name of Freya and to Gefjon, the giving one.

- Kathleen Herbert 'Looking for the Lost gods of England'

Artwork 'gyfu rune' by Brian Partridge

Swa þes middangeard
ealra dogra gehwam dreoseð ond fealleð;
forþon ne mæg weorþan wis wer ær he age
wintra dæl in woruldrice. Wita sceal geþyldig,
ne sceal no to hatheort, ne to hrædwyrde,
ne to wac wiga, ne to wanhydig,
ne to forht ne to fægen, ne to feohgifre,
ne næfre gielpes to georn ær he geare cunne.

So this earth declines and falls, every single day;
And so a man cannot become wise
before he has his share of winters in the world. A wise person should be patient,
should not be too hot-hearted, nor too hasty with words,
neither too weak a warrior, nor too reckless,
neither too fearful, nor too quick to rejoice, nor too greedy,
nor ever too eager to boast before he knows for sure.

- The Wanderer

Woodcut by W. G. Collingwood (1908) depicting Svipdagr listening to his deceased mother and völva, Gróa who shares with him Galdor that will protect him when he goes to charm the goddess Menglöð.

An Iron Age eagle brooch from Lejre, Denmark, with a bearded Odin mask on its leg and a serpent in its beak.
The serpent and eagle could represent the forms Odin takes to recover the Mead of Poetry, or be an apotropaic motif, the serpent representing chaos, subdued by Odin. ᚨ

The mask of Odin -here- appears in the place as the mask of Woden from the Sutton Hoo raven -here-.

Verse from the Old English poem ‘The Fortunes of Men’ from the Exeter Book.

Sum sceal on geapum galgan ridan,
seomian æt swylte, oþþæt sawlhord,
bancofa blodig, abrocen weorþeð.
þær him hrefn nimeþ heafodsyne,
sliteð salwigpad sawelleasne;
noþer he þy facne mæg folmum biwergan,
laþum lyftsceaþan, biþ his lif scæcen,
ond he feleleas, feores orwena,
blac on beame bideð wyrde,
bewegen wælmiste. Bið him werig noma!

'One (man) must ride the gaping gallows,
hang to death, until his soul-hoard,
his bloody bone-coffer, becomes broken.
There (on the gallows) the raven takes his eye,
the dark-cloaked one tears at the soulless;
nor is he able to ward off that evil,
that loathsome thief of the air,
with his hands-- his life is fled,
and he, senseless, without hope of living,
pale on the tree, awaits his fate,
covered by the mists of slaughter. His name is cursed!'

The hamlet of Taston (from Thor’s Stan) in Oxfordshire is named after Thor’s Stone (stan being OE for stone) which can be seen in the picture above. The stone was said to be a thunderbolt from the thunder god himself and that an image of a thunderbolt can be found on it. The surrounding area in also sacred to Thunor as not too far from the stone is a spring called Thorsbrook (Thor’s stream).

One of the oldest surviving uses of the Anglo Saxon Gar (spear) rune is on the 8th Century Ruthwell Cross, where it takes the place of Gyfu in galgu (OE: gallows) on the east face…perhaps a nod to Woden, when the memory of His worship was fresh in the minds of the Anglo Saxons. ᚸ

Many English places named after a god included the suffix -leah, (-ley in modern English), meaning a woodland clearing or open land. This suggests the common folk prayed to the gods outdoors (or privately at home), whilst the two largest heathen temples we know of at Yeavering and Rendlesham were both associated with royalty.

photo - Thursley (Thunor's clearing) common.

This three inch knife blade was found near Odense on the island of Funen and contains one of Denmark’s oldest rune innoscriptions. The runes read ᚺᛁᚱᛁᛚᚨ (hirila), a name that is believed to be derived from the word *ᚺᛖᚱᚢᛉ ‘heruʀ, sword’ with the suffix‎ -ᛁᛚᚨ ‘-ila’, some suggesting this knife was called ‘little sword’.

The Old English Rune Poem (OERP) stops with the Ear rune. In the book Eagle’s Mead, author Eirik Westcoat pens another four verses for the runes cweorð, calc, stān and gār, sometimes referred to as the ‘grail’ runes.

Cweorð byþ cweorna sum and se cwica fýres;
bēam hēo byrneð, bǣr-fǣġne þeġn;
sāwle hēo lȳseð, þe sēċoð rodor.

Querth is a sort of quern and the quickener of fire. It burns a tree, a thane doomed to the bier. It releases a soul, which seeks the heavens.

Calc byþ cūþ wel – cēnum wōðborum
swā se hālga horn, hefiģ mid lēoðum,
nýdfull æt symble; þes naca dweorga,
weģ-winn Wōdnes, byþ wynsum grāl.

Cup is known well by keen bearers of inspiration and madness as the holy horn, heavy with poems and necessary at sumbel. This boat of dwarves, a journey-gain of Woden, is a winsome grail.

Stān byþ strangest - swā stede-bletsung
ģif ģehālgod write, hǣðenum rūnum:
hearga ǣċe; þēos heorte eotenes
līf-ģifende tācn, byþ langsum grāl.

Stone is strongest as a blessing for a place if hallowed with writing, with heathen runes: an eternal altar. This heart of the etin, a life-giving sign, is an enduring grail.

Gār byþ gum-dōm, gūðwuda drȳ-wiga:
wyrde hē wealdeð, wæl hē ćēoseð,
blōd hē bēodeð; þes brand Wōdnes,
unģemetum ēaċen, byþ æðele grāl.

Spear is man’s sovereignty and a sorcerous hero of battle-woods. It rules over wyrd, it chooses the slain, it summons blood. This fiery brand of Woden, immeasurably powerful, is a noble grail.

Tapestry from c.1385 depicting king Arthur wearing a coat-of-arms with three golden crowns, representing the kingdoms of Logres, Cambria and Alba. The same heraldic emblem is also associated with the kings of Anglia, notably Edmund the Martyr, a Wuffinga king. The Wuffingas are believed to be from the Wulfingas who originated in southern Sweden, where the national coat-of-arms is called the Tre Kronor or Three Crowns.

It’s the full moon tonight (just after 10pm over England). For our Norse friends it’s a Yule moon, for our Gaelic friends today is Imbolc. As usual my family-hearth will honour our gods and ancestors with a symbel and libation. Wesaþ hála!

Photo credit Brett Sayles

The name Wusc-frea which appears in the Deira royal lineage means ‘wish-lord’, Wusc being cognate with the German Wunsch and Norse Óski – a byname of Woden in his role as wish-lord. Writing in 1849, John Mitchell Kemble suggested Óski may also be cognate with Oisc (also recorded as Ésk) the founder of the Kentish line of kings, and perhaps a Jutish name for Wóden.