Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 / "Brescia" to "Bulgaria"

Of anthropomorphic representations of the gods we have no clear evidence, though we do hear of shrines in sacred enclosures, at which sacrifices were offered. It is clear also that there were persons specially set apart for the priesthood, who were not allowed to bear arms or to ride except on mares. Notices of sacred trees and groves, springs, stones, &c., are much more frequent than those referring to the gods. We hear also a good deal of witches and valkyries, and of charms and magic; as an instance we may cite the fact that certain (Runic) letters were credited, as in the North, with the power of loosening bonds. It is probable also that the belief in the spirit world and in a future life was of a somewhat similar kind to what we find in Scandinavian religion. (See Teutonic Peoples, §6.)

The chief primary authorities are Gildas, De Excidio Britanniae, and Nennius, Historia Britonum (ed. San-Marte, Berlin, 1844); Th. Mommsen in Mon. Germ. Hist., Auct. Antiquiss., tom. xiii. (Berlin, 1898); Bede, Hist. Eccl. (ed. C. Plummer, Oxford, 1896); the Saxon Chronicle (ed. C. Plummer, Oxford, 1892-1899); and the Anglo-Saxon Laws (ed. F. Liebermann, Halle, 1903), and Charters (W. de G. Birch, Cartularium Saxonicum, London, 1885-1893). Modern authorities: Sh. Turner, History of the Anglo-Saxons (London, 1799-1805; 7th ed., 1852); Sir F. Palgrave, Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth (London, 1831-1832); J.M. Kemble, The Saxons in England (London, 1849; 2nd ed., 1876); K. Maurer, Kritische Überschau d. deutschen Gesetzgebung u. Rechtswissenschaft, vols. i.-iii. (Munich, 1853-1855); J.M. Lappenberg, Geschichte von England (Hamburg, 1834); History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings (London, 1845; 2nd ed., 1881); J.R. Green, The Making of England (London, 1881); T. Hodgkin, History of England from the Earliest Times to the Norman Conquest (vol. i. of The Political History of England) (London, 1906); F. Seebohm, The English Village Community (London, 1883); A. Meitzen, Siedelung und Agrarwesen d. Westgermanen, u. Ostgermanen, &c. (Berlin, 1895); Sir F. Pollock and F.W. Maitland, History of English Law (Cambridge, 1895; 2nd ed., 1898); F.W. Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond (Cambridge, 1897); F. Seebohm, Tribal Custom in Anglo-Saxon Law (London, 1903); P. Vinogradoff, The Growth of the Manor (London, 1905); H.M. Chadwick, Studies on Anglo-Saxon Institutions (Cambridge, 1905); The Origin of the English Nation (ib., 1907); M. Heyne, Über die Lage und Construction der Halle Heorot (Paderborn, 1864); R. Henning, Das deutsche Haus (Quellen u. Forschungen, 47) (Strassburg, 1882); M. Heyne, Deutsche Hausaltertümer, i., ii., iii. (Leipzig, 1900-1903); G. Baldwin Brown, The Arts in Early England (London, 1903); C.F. Keary, Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Coins in the British Museum, vol. i. (London, 1887); C. Roach Smith, Collectanea Antiqua (London, 1848-1868); R.C. Neville, Saxon Obsequies (London, 1852); J.Y. Akerman, Remains of Pagan Saxondom (London, 1855); Baron J. de Baye, Industrie anglo-saxonne (Paris, 1889); The Industrial Arts of the Anglo-Saxons (London, 1893); G. Stephens, The Old Northern Runic Monuments (London and Copenhagen, 1866-1901); W. Vietor, Die northumbrischen Runensteine (Marburg, 1895). Reference must also be made to the articles on Anglo-Saxon antiquities in the Victoria County Histories, and to various papers in Archaeologia, the Archaeological Journal, the Journal of the British Archaeological Society, the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, the Associated Architectural Societies' Reports, and other antiquarian journals.

(H. M. C.)