Anglo-Saxon religion?

[Asahel24601]

I'm working on a campaign setting with an Anglo-Saxon empire, but I need a new religion besides a Druidic paganism. In the end, the world-spanning religion known as the Way covers most of the world, but I still need a separate religion to be the foundation of their faith/ have . (I have Celtic societies among the lands inside the empire that follow druids, and I don't think two such groups, separated by massive rivers and thousands of miles, would have the same core beliefs)

[Yora]

I think the Druids were actually celtic and long gone by the time the Anglo-Saxons came to England. Not sure if they were already Christians by that time, but when they still lived in Northern Germany, they would have had the same gods as the Danes and Swedes. They may have called him Wotan rather than Odin, but it was still the same guy.

[Asahel24601]

I think the Druids were actually celtic and long gone by the time the Anglo-Saxons came to England. Not sure if they were already Christians by that time, but when they still lived in Northern Germany, they would have had the same gods as the Danes and Swedes. They may have called him Wotan rather than Odin, but it was still the same guy.

My findings said that they were druidic, but I can see that. Perhaps a few name changes, and a belief in Ragnarok just around the corner....

[Morgarion]

Wikipedia knows everything (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_polytheism).

[Sabeki]

Didn't the Isles (or at least Ireland) worship the sun god? I mean, not an actual sun god, but comparisons were made. There was also a love god that had his kisses form hummingbirds around him. There was also a group of ugly giants called Formorians and a focus on the Fairie World, which was essentially the afterlife.
Not much, but I hope that helps!

[johnbragg]

Depends exactly what you mean by Anglo-Saxon. Painting with broad brushes:

1. The pre-Roman Britons were cousins of the Celts.
2. Romans brought their pantheons, plus Mithraism and Christianity as hitchhikers
3. The Angles, Saxons and Jutes show up, carrying the Norse/Germanic Odin/Wotan-Thor crew.

This is reflected in the days of the week: Moonday, Tiwazday, Wotansday, Thorsday, Freyjasday, Saturnday, Sunday. Sun and moon, 4 Norse/German gods and 1 Roman god.

[Morgarion]

Britons were Celts. Celt is a rather general descriptor, Briton is more specific.

[Weltall_BR]

Angle-saxons worshipped the same gods as the germanic tribes, as has been pointed out by Yora: Odin, Thor, Freyr, etc. The names, of course, varied: Odin has like 30 names just in the Poetic Edda...

The celts were a culture which at a certain point in history spread from the Balkans to the British Islands. The Britons were celts in the sense that they worshipped roughly the same deities, had similar crafting styles and social institutions, etc. as other celts. During the period of the fall of the Roman empire the germanic tribes (angles, saxons, jutes, goths, vandals, etc.) migrated from the North and conquered most lands that belonged to the Romans and the celtic tribes bringing their culture (and their religion). They overtook most of the British Islands, except for Wales, the North of Scotland and Ireland (which took a bit longer to be conquered). They adopted christianism circa 100 or 200 hundred years after conquering most of Europe.

[sktarq]

Minor pint- Most of the Germanic tribes that took over the Post Roman Empire nations were Christians BEFORE they attacked the Empire. Furthermore most were Airian Christians. The Franks were an exception as Niacene Christians. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes were actually rather odd as they were pagan when they broke into what are now the Low countries.

OP As a minor note toss in White/Silver dragon Hereldry if you want to match one of the most obvious examples of a symbol of the Anglo-Saxon peoples.

[Gemini Lupus]

My findings said that they were druidic, but I can see that. Perhaps a few name changes, and a belief in Ragnarok just around the corner....

Just out of curiosity, what were your sources?

Also, as has been pointed out before, the Saxons were pagans who followed the same gods as the Danes and Norse, Wotan, Thunor, Loki, Heimr, Eostre, are all the Saxon versions of Odin, Thor, Loki, Heimdall, and Easter, from whom we get many of our modern Easter traditions.

The Celts were an Indo-European people, not unlike the Saxons, but spoke the Celtic language, which the Britons spoke a dialect of, as did/do the Irish, Scots, Bretons (who lived in Brittany), Gauls, Iberians, and Galatians and had a very distinctive, detailed style of artwork. When the Saxons invaded Britain, the Britons were mostly Christian, but after the Romans left, Druidism began to take hold again, only to be extinguished by a combination of Christianity and Saxon invasion.

Anywho, had to throw in my two coppers, since this is sort of my area of specialty.

[Weltall_BR]

Minor pint- Most of the Germanic tribes that took over the Post Roman Empire nations were Christians BEFORE they attacked the Empire. Furthermore most were Airian Christians. The Franks were an exception as Niacene Christians. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes were actually rather odd as they were pagan when they broke into what are now the Low countries.

OP As a minor note toss in White/Silver dragon Hereldry if you want to match one of the most obvious examples of a symbol of the Anglo-Saxon peoples.

Thanks for the corrections, sktarq.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff: Real world religion is an Inappropriate Topic for this forum. You'll have to do this kind of research elsewhere.