Monday / Monandag
A celebration of the moon that would have been celebrated at every full moon.
Tuesday / Tiwesdag
Tiw, he was the God of courage and war, this day would have been important to a warrior.
The Norse God equivalent is Tyr.
Wednesday / Wodnesdag
Named after Woden the ruling God of Death, Wisdom and Battle.
King’s later put in their lineage as coming from Woden.
In Norse, known as Odin.
Thursday / Thunorsdag
This is known as Thunder today,
Thunor the protector of the Gods against the giants (the personified forces of nature) being very popular with crop farmers,
his weapon was the hammer or the Swastica.
Friday / Frigedag
This is the Goddess Frigg, known as the wife of Woden representing the earth mother,
Saturday / Saternesdag
Saturn was the God of Agriculture, of Innocence and Plenty.
Sunday / Sunnandag
God of the sun
A celebration of the moon that would have been celebrated at every full moon.
Tuesday / Tiwesdag
Tiw, he was the God of courage and war, this day would have been important to a warrior.
The Norse God equivalent is Tyr.
Wednesday / Wodnesdag
Named after Woden the ruling God of Death, Wisdom and Battle.
King’s later put in their lineage as coming from Woden.
In Norse, known as Odin.
Thursday / Thunorsdag
This is known as Thunder today,
Thunor the protector of the Gods against the giants (the personified forces of nature) being very popular with crop farmers,
his weapon was the hammer or the Swastica.
Friday / Frigedag
This is the Goddess Frigg, known as the wife of Woden representing the earth mother,
Saturday / Saternesdag
Saturn was the God of Agriculture, of Innocence and Plenty.
Sunday / Sunnandag
God of the sun
The above is taken from The Benedictional of St. Æthelwold. This is an illuminated manuscript of religious interest and was created by the early Anglo-Saxons. The Bayeux Tapestry was later commissioned by the Normans but designed and crafted by Saxon hands. This counters the general belief that the Saxons were merely only savages!
The Battle of Maldon (991AD) took place on the shores of the River Blackwater in Essex, during the reign of Aethelred the Unready. There was a heroic stand by the Anglo-Saxons against the Viking invasion which ended in utter defeat for Brithnoth and his men. The battle's progress is related in a famous Anglo-Saxon poem, only part of which survives.
Earl Byrhtnoth and his thegns led the English against a Viking invasion. The battle ended in an Anglo-Saxon defeat. After the battleArchbishop Sigeric of Canterbury and the aldermen of the south-western provinces advised King Aethelred to buy off the Vikings rather than continue the armed struggle. The result was a payment of 10,000 Roman pounds(3,300 kg) of silver, the first example of Danegeld in England.
The Battle of Maldon is a story about a battle in Essex in 991 between the Saxons and Vikings; Caedmon's hymn, from the 7th century, is the oldest surviving text in English and Beowulf is another Saxon poem about a heroic prince who kills a man eating monster called Grendel.
Saxons enjoyed to gather in great halls to listen to poetry, sermons and bible translations and these were normally expressed with background music, played on a lyre while all who gathered ate and drank.
The poem as we have it begins with the Anglo-Saxon warriors dismounting to prepare for battle. A Viking messenger offers the Englishealdorman Byrhtnoth peace if he will consent to pay tribute. Byrhtnoth angrily refuses, telling the messenger that he will fight theheathen Vikings in defense of his land, and the land of his king, Æthelred. However, due to his "ofermōde"*, Byrhtnoth allows the Vikings entry to the mainland, giving them room in which to do battle, rather than keeping them penned in on the more easily-defended causeway that links the mainland to the small island where the Vikings have landed.
Individual episodes from the ensuing carnage are described, and the fates of several Anglo-Saxon warriors depicted – notably that of Byrthtnoth himself, who dies urging his soldiers forward and commending his soul to God. Not all the English are portrayed as heroic however: one, Godric the son of Odda (there are two Godrics in the poem), flees the battle with his brothers and, most improperly, does so on Byrhtnoth's horse. Several lines later, the English lord Offa claims that the sight of Byrhtnoth's horse (easily recognisable from its trappings) fleeing, and so Byrhtnoth, as it would appear from a distance, has bred panic in the ranks and left the English army in danger of defeat. There follow several passages in which English warriors voice their defiance and their determination to die with their lord, and descriptions of how they are then killed by the un-personified "sea-wanderers". The poem as it has come down to us ends with another Godric disappearing from view. This time, it is Godric, the son of Æthelgar, advancing into a body of Vikings and being killed.
Earl Byrhtnoth and his thegns led the English against a Viking invasion. The battle ended in an Anglo-Saxon defeat. After the battleArchbishop Sigeric of Canterbury and the aldermen of the south-western provinces advised King Aethelred to buy off the Vikings rather than continue the armed struggle. The result was a payment of 10,000 Roman pounds(3,300 kg) of silver, the first example of Danegeld in England.
The Battle of Maldon is a story about a battle in Essex in 991 between the Saxons and Vikings; Caedmon's hymn, from the 7th century, is the oldest surviving text in English and Beowulf is another Saxon poem about a heroic prince who kills a man eating monster called Grendel.
Saxons enjoyed to gather in great halls to listen to poetry, sermons and bible translations and these were normally expressed with background music, played on a lyre while all who gathered ate and drank.
The poem as we have it begins with the Anglo-Saxon warriors dismounting to prepare for battle. A Viking messenger offers the Englishealdorman Byrhtnoth peace if he will consent to pay tribute. Byrhtnoth angrily refuses, telling the messenger that he will fight theheathen Vikings in defense of his land, and the land of his king, Æthelred. However, due to his "ofermōde"*, Byrhtnoth allows the Vikings entry to the mainland, giving them room in which to do battle, rather than keeping them penned in on the more easily-defended causeway that links the mainland to the small island where the Vikings have landed.
Individual episodes from the ensuing carnage are described, and the fates of several Anglo-Saxon warriors depicted – notably that of Byrthtnoth himself, who dies urging his soldiers forward and commending his soul to God. Not all the English are portrayed as heroic however: one, Godric the son of Odda (there are two Godrics in the poem), flees the battle with his brothers and, most improperly, does so on Byrhtnoth's horse. Several lines later, the English lord Offa claims that the sight of Byrhtnoth's horse (easily recognisable from its trappings) fleeing, and so Byrhtnoth, as it would appear from a distance, has bred panic in the ranks and left the English army in danger of defeat. There follow several passages in which English warriors voice their defiance and their determination to die with their lord, and descriptions of how they are then killed by the un-personified "sea-wanderers". The poem as it has come down to us ends with another Godric disappearing from view. This time, it is Godric, the son of Æthelgar, advancing into a body of Vikings and being killed.
After the battle, Brithnoth's body was taken to Ely in Cambridgeshire, and was buried in the abbey. Brithnoth's widow, Aethelflaed, presented the abbey with "a curtain woven and depicted with the deeds of her husband as a memorial of his virtue", and this may have inspired the idea for the later Bayeux Tapestry commemorating the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
Brithnoth's final resting place is at a cathedral in Ely, in the Cambridgeshire fens - however, although his bones lie here, his head is missing, and no doubt the Vikings did unspeakable things to it at the conclusion of the battle. As the cathedral was built, Brithnoth's remains were moved to their present location.
Brithnoth's final resting place is at a cathedral in Ely, in the Cambridgeshire fens - however, although his bones lie here, his head is missing, and no doubt the Vikings did unspeakable things to it at the conclusion of the battle. As the cathedral was built, Brithnoth's remains were moved to their present location.
Ethelred the Unready: Reigned from 978-1003 and 1014-1016.
"Unready" comes from the Saxon word for bad counsel: Unraed; Ethelred translates as "Noble Counsel". He was heavily criticised for paying Danegold to the Vikings so to stop them attacking and taking land because that kind of option is an open invitation for the benefactors to return and request more funds! This was quite unfair because it was custom for Saxon Kings to use this at the time so his unpopularity may have stemmed from him having a weak character. Negotiations with the Danes became intolerant and he was forced to flee to Normandy and was replaced by Sweyn, who was also King Of Denamrk, but when he died he was requested to return as all would be forgiven! He was the son of King Edgar and Queen Elfthryth.