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Saxon gods

60 second histories

This video covers:  Some of the Anglo Saxon gods that were worshipped before Christianity arrived and the way their names are still used today.

Before the Saxons converted to Christianity, they were pagans, which meant that they worshipped their own gods. You might recognise the names of some of them because there are four days of the week that are named after them. First we have Tiw, Tuesday is named after him, he is the god of Justice. Then there is Woden, chief of the gods, Wednesday is named after him. Thursday or ‘Thors day’ is named after Thor the god of thunder and we mustn’t forget Frigg she is Woden’s wife and the goddess of marriage, Friday is named after her, ‘Frigg’s day’. The other three days of the week are Sunday which is the Suns day, Monday is the Moons day, and Saturday is Saturn’s day after the Roman god Saturn. We use some Roman names for the months of the year as well. Did you know that two of the months are named after Roman Emperors? July is named after Julius Caesar and August after Augustus Caesar. So even after the Saxons became Christians they still continued to use the names of old gods, as you do today.
Eras: 
Anglo Saxon
Topics: 
Religion
Character: 
Saxon thegn
Key words: 
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