At these last-named moots the kings were elected; and though the selection was practically confined to men of royal kin, the king nevertheless represented the free choice of the tribe.

Before the conversion to Christianity, the royal families all traced their origin to Woden.

Thus the pedigree of Ida, King of Northumbria, runs as follows:--"Ida was Eopping, Eoppa was Esing, Esa was Inguing, Ingui Angenwiting, Angenwit Alocing, Aloc Benocing, Benoc Branding, Brand Baldaeging, Baeldaeg Wodening." But in later Christian times the chroniclers felt the necessity of reconciling these heathen genealogies with the Scriptural account in Genesis; so they affiliated Woden himself upon the Hebrew patriarchs.

Thus the pedigree of the West Saxon kings, inserted in the Chronicle under the year 855, after conveying back the genealogy of AEthelwulf to Woden, continues to say, "Woden was Frealafing, Frealaf Finning," and so on till it reaches "Sceafing, _id est filius Noe_; he was born in Noe's Ark.

Lamech, Mathusalem, Enoc, Jared, Malalehel, Camon, Enos, Seth, Adam, _primus homo et pater noster_." The Anglo-Saxons, when they settled in Eastern and Southern Britain, were a horde of barbarous heathen pirates.