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Early Religion.
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- When the Saxons
first settled in Britain,
they were pagans. This means that they worshiped lots of
different gods. Their religion was called 'paganism'.
- Before and during most of Roman
rule in Britain, the British had been
pagans too. Many of them became Christian though before the Saxons
arrived. The Picts and the Scots
were also pagans at this time.
- Each pagan god controlled a
particular part of everyday life: the home, growing crops, healing,
wisdom, metalworking, love, the weather, the family, war, day
& night and so on.
- There were lots of Saxon
gods.
Germanic people in Europe, like the Vikings, worshipped the same gods. They
sometimes gave
them slightly different names.
- The Chief of the Gods was named
Woden. He also had the nickname of 'Grim'.
- Can you find any places near you
that are named after Woden? Use a map. Look for places beginning
with the words Wednes, Wens or Grim.
- Most of the days of the week are
named after Saxon gods. Can you work out which ones?
- The Saxons worshipped their gods in
wooden temples or sacred woods.
- When the Saxons became
Christians,
they often turned their temples into churches.
- The Pagan Saxons also believed that
the countryside was inhabited by elves, goblins, dwarves and
dragons.
- And that, after death, you had a
long journey ahead of you to an 'after-life'.
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