Anglo-Saxon deities are in general poorly attested, and much is inferred about the religion of the Anglo-Saxons from what is known of other Germanic peoples' religions. The written record from the period between the Anglo-Saxon invasion of the British Isles to the Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxons is very sparse, and most of what is known comes from later Christian writers such as

Bede Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...

, whose descriptions can be compared to other Germanic mythologies as well as the extant archaeological evidence. The list below is incomplete, but includes brief discussion of the attestation of the deities in question, and should be considered critically.

Major deities

Woden Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Emp ...

, king of the gods and god of wisdom. Cognate to Norse Odin. Source of the word 'Wednesday'. * Tīw, a war god and possibly a sky god. Cognate to Norse Týr, as well as Greek Zeus, Roman Jupiter, Baltic Dievs/Dievas and Hindu Dyaus. Source of the word 'Tuesday'. * Thunor, god of thunder and cognate to Norse Thor and source of the word 'Thursday'. * Frig, the wife of Woden, the goddess of marriage and childbirth and source of the word 'Friday'. *

Ing Ing, ING or ing may refer to: Art and media * '' ...ing'', a 2003 Korean film * i.n.g, a Taiwanese girl group * The Ing, a race of dark creatures in the 2004 video game '' Metroid Prime 2: Echoes'' * "Ing", the first song on The Roches' 199 ...

, possibly another name for the Norse 'Freyr', god of fertility.

Poorly attested deities

Ēostre ''Ēostre'' ()Sievers 1901 p. 98Robert Barnhart, Barnhart, Robert K. ''The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology'' (1995) . is an List of Anglo-Saxon deities, Anglo-Saxon goddess mentioned by Bede in his 8th century work ''The Reckoning of ...

, listed by Bede, and purported source of the word 'Easter'. * Erce/Folde, the 'Mother of Earth' cited in the Æcerbot charm (cf.

Nerthus In Germanic paganism, Nerthus is a goddess associated with a ceremonial wagon procession. Nerthus is attested by first century A.D. Roman historian Tacitus in his ethnographic work ''Germania''. In ''Germania'', Tacitus records that a group of G ...

Fulla Fulla (Old Norse: , possibly 'bountiful') or Volla (Old High German, 'plenitude') is a Ásynjur, goddess in Germanic paganism, Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, Fulla is described as wearing a golden band and as tending to the Fraxinus exce ...

Jörð Jörð (), also named Fjorgyn or Hlodyn, is the personification of earth and a goddess in Norse mythology. She is the mother of the thunder god Thor and a sexual partner of Odin. Jörð is attested in Danish history , composed in the 12th century ...

). * Rheda, also Hrethe or Hrēða, listed by Bede.

Putative deities inferred from other sources

Wyrd Wyrd is a concept in Anglo-Saxon culture roughly corresponding to fate or personal destiny. The word is ancestral to Modern English '' weird'', whose meaning has drifted towards an adjectival use with a more general sense of "supernatural" or ...

, the Anglo-Saxon concept of fate. *

Beowa Beowa, Beaw, Bēow , Beo or Bedwig is a figure in Anglo-Saxon paganism, Anglo-Saxon traditional religion associated with barley and agriculture. The figure is attested in the Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies as they were extended in the Alfred the Gre ...

, a figure associated with barley and possibly conflated with

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...

. The following are cognate to deities known to have been worshipped by other Germanic peoples, and are also related to the sources of names of days of the week: * Siȝel - an Old English term for 'sun', a goddess in related religions, and sister of the moon god. * Mona - the Old English for 'moon', a god in related religions, and brother of the sun goddess. Source for the word 'Monday'.

Putative deities mentioned in king lists

* Bældæġ, son of Woden, mentioned in the king-list of Bernicia, possibly identified with Baldur by Snorri. * Seaxnēat, patron deity of the Saxons. *

Wecta Wecta (Old English: ''Wægdæg'', Old Norse: ''Vegdagr'') is a figure mentioned in the '' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' and the '' Historia Brittonum''. Wecta is considered mythological, though he shows up in the genealogies as a Saxon ancestor of Hen ...

, mentioned in multiple king-lists, possible cognate of Vegdeg, a son of Woden.

Other supernatural figures

Modra Modra (, , Latin: ''Modur'') is a city and municipality in the Bratislava Region in Slovakia. It has a population of 9,201 as of 2013. It nestles in the foothills of the Malé Karpaty (Little Carpathian mountains) and is an excellent centre for ...

, the 'Mothers', whose festival 'Modraniht' is mentioned by Bede. Possibly connected to the

Matres and Matronae The Matres (Latin for "mothers") and Matronae (Latin for "matrons") were female deities venerated in Northwestern Europe, of whom relics are found dating from the first to the fifth century AD. They are depicted on votive offerings and altars th ...

, and the

Norns The Norns ( , plural: ) are a group of deities in Norse mythology responsible for shaping the course of human destinies.''Nordisk familjebok'' (1907) The Norns are often represented as three goddesses known as Urd ( Urðr), Verðandi, and S ...

. * Nicors, water spirits attested in

with apparent cognates in other Germanic languages as well as modern dialectal

knucker Knucker is a dialect word for a sort of Sea serpent, water dragon, living in ''knuckerholes'' in Sussex, England. The word comes from the Old English language, Old English which means "water monster" and is used in the poem ''Beowulf''. It may ...

. * Wælcyrge, cognate with Norse

Valkyries In Norse mythology, a valkyrie ( or ; from ) is one of a host of female figures who guide souls of the dead to the god Odin's hall Valhalla. There, the deceased warriors become ('single fighters' or 'once fighters').Orchard (1997:36) and Li ...

, which may have been imported from Norse mythology.

References

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