Christianity had by this time brought about the conversion of the Roman Empire, but it had not penetrated as yet among the forests of the north.

The common God of the English people was Woden, the war-god, the guardian of ways and boundaries, to whom his worshippers attributed the invention of letters, and whom every tribe held to be the first ancestor of its kings.

Our own names for the days of the week still recall to us the gods whom our fathers worshipped in their German homeland.

Wednesday is Woden's-day, as Thursday is the day of Thunder, the god of air and storm and rain.

Friday is Frea's-day, the deity of peace and joy and fruitfulness, whose emblems, borne aloft by dancing maidens, brought increase to every field and stall they visited.