A number of Woden’s Burgs can be found across England including Wednesbury in Essex. A church now sits on the highest point and probably replaced a Weoh dedicated to Woden. This church uses the Three Seaxes of Essex as an emblem and boasts a ‘Woden window’. Another church which unconsciously continues to hold the spirit of Woden is at Woodnesborough, once spelt Wodnesbeorge. The current church replaces the far older Saxon one – however a local legend has it somewhere either in or under the church a Golden image of Woden still remains.

Adam’s Grave was a Neolithic long barrow which was once known as Wodnesbeorh, as recorded in an Anglo-Saxon charter. Two battles were fought there (or nearby at Wanborough) in 592 and 715 - Her micel wælfill wæs æt Woddes beorge, 7 Ceawlin wæs ut adrifen. (There was great slaughter at Woden's hill, and Ceawlin was driven out.) It is also believed that one of the hills had a chalk figure of Woden carved into it.

Image- Wodnesbeorh barrow by Hedley Thorne

Nature knows no political frontiers. She begins by establishing life on this earth and then watches the free play of forces. Those who show the greatest courage and industry are the children nearest to her heart, and they will be granted the sovereign right of existence.

Ut Ut Ut! This was once the battle-cry of the English when facing foreign invaders, like those they faced at Senlac Hill. Out Out Out!

Attested in Old English is a form of chant once known as Sygegealdor or Sige-galdor, a magical chant used to gain Victory. We still occasionally use a victory galdor during our rites, Sige Tîr! The chant invokes the 'one who brings victory' or Siggautr, a kenning for Odin. In OE the name appears in the kingslist as Sigegeat, perhaps a byname of Woden.

For the Anglo-Saxons, the wild boar was a symbol of strength, courage, ferocity, and virility. Because boars are notoriously fierce when threatened, the Anglo-Saxons, along with other Germanic warriors, wore boar-crested helmets, possibly in the hope of a little spiritual protection and good fortune on the battlefield. I hope you will take inspiration from them and use the boar as a symbol of your good physical health and fitness, ready for battle.

Eofor-līc scionom, ofer hlēor-bergan: gehroden golde, fāh ond fýr-heard, ferh wearde hēold: gūþ-mōd grummon.

Boar-shapes shone over the cheek-guards adorned with gold, gleaming and fire-hard; keeping guard of life, raging with warlike spirit. - from the poem Beowulf.

Pictured here is the style of hammer I wear (I also wear a copy of the Blakeney Woden head pendant).

The 6th-century hammer was discovered in 1760 by Bryan Faussett who was excavating a cremation burial at Guilton (historically spelt Gilton) Kent, which is believed to predate Viking influence in England, showing the Anglo Saxons in England also wore hammers in honour of Thunor. Amongst the same finds were Spear pendants, dedicated to Woden and pendants which bear the shape of a distaff, perhaps in honour of Frig.

You’ll often read that the only references to this hammer are from the book Inventorium Sepulchrale however the original hammer is kept at the Liverpool World Museum, unfortunately it’s not on public display.

A photo of the Norfolk Boar Standard, found alongside the near-complete Norfolk Carnyx. We know that as well as the Celts, the Germanic peoples also used the Boar head banner, a reference to which can be found in Beowulf as the eoforheafodsegn or boar head sign or standard.

Beowulf ordered the boar’s-head-standard
to be brought in, the battle-lofty helmet,
the hoary byrnie, the elaborate war-blade,
and afterwards related this account..

...Of lending money on interest and increasing it by compound interest they [the Germanics] know nothing, - a more effectual safeguard than if it were prohibited.

-Tacitus, Germania. Ch. 26

What did the English call Mjollnir? The name comes from *meldunjaʀ meaning lightning however there’s an interesting English alternative. The long handled hammers resembling the sledgehammer are sometimes called Þunressleġe or Þunorslecg (both names reconstructed) meaning Thunor’s Sledge(hammer). The word Sledge meaning ‘to strike / the blow of a hammer’ shares its root with the word Slay ‘to strike a blow or kill’. A very similar term that is attested and shares the same origin is þunorslege meaning Thunderclap. The name literally means Thunder-stroke or Thunder-blow.

​True unity does not demand the erasure of the self; it is the conscious choice of free minds to row in the same direction.

"I am not maintaining that this forest-worship exhausts all the conceptions our ancestors had formed of deity and its dwelling place; it was only the principal one. Here and there a god may haunt a mountain-top, a cave of the rock, a river; but the grand general worship of the people has its seat in the grove; and nowhere could it have found a worthier home." - from 'Teutonic Mythology' (Deutsche Mythologie) by Jacob Grimm

Our Germanic ancestors felt closest to the divine when they were in nature, especially in forests and woods. They did not need buildings, nature was their church.

Painting: 'Playing in the beech wood' by Edmund George Warren, 1876.

They do not think it consistent with the greatness of celestial beings to confine the gods within walls, or to liken them to the form of any human face. They consecrate woods and groves, and apply the names of gods to that hidden presence which they see only with the eye of reverence. - Tacitus from his book Germania.

Bynames for Frēo (Freya)

Sýr means sow, an animal sacred to Frēo whilst the boar is sacred to her brother Frēa.

Gef or Gefn means ‘she who gives’, linking her with the goddess Gefjon. An English cognate found in Beowulf is Geofon. Gefjon is connected the plough, the sea and rivers.

Hörn is also used as a name for Frīg. Hörn is thought to come from hǫrr / hörr meaning flax and both goddesses are associated with flax and weaving. Hörr is cognate with the word har – becoming harl (flax) in modern English.

Liða (Liþa or Litha) was an OE word for summer, Ærra Liða being the name for the month which fell around our June, Æftera Liða was the name for July, the two months which fall around the sunstead (this coming Sunday).

Liþa is connected with the OE word Liþe which meant ‘calm’, and this is how Bede described the English summer - ‘Litha is called calm or navigable, that is in both the month and the pleasant serenity of the breezes and is usual to navigate the sea's surface'. It is interesting that he also associated the month with navigation (sailing) as the OE verb líðian meat to sail or travel. We find the same concept with the rune name Sigel (the sun) and the phonetically similar ‘segl’ meaning to sail.

Oaths seem to hold such little value today, but in Anglo-Saxon society, oath-breaking was considered one of the gravest moral offences. An oath or āþ made to your kinsfolk was regarding as an oath witnessed by the gods. Those who broke such oaths were called wǣrloga ‘truth deceivers’.

For centuries the heads of mullein plants were dipped in bees wax to produce a natural candle. This gave the plant its OE name Candel-wyrt. Burning these candles has become a sunstead tradition. Not everyone had access to bees wax so tallow was also used, giving the plant its other name of Hedge-Taper.

My family and I are travelling up to join friends to celebrate the sunstede this weekend. We'll be honouring the gods and ancestors, our folk and land. Being a lone-wolf is one thing, but its better to be amongst like-minded folk who share the same values and vision for the future.

Glæd Sunstede!

Stonehenge photo by Paul Reiffer.