Editing Saxons (section)

====Germanic religion====
{{see also|Continental Germanic mythology}}
Saxon religious practices were closely related to their political practices. The annual councils of the entire tribe began with invocations of the gods. The procedure by which dukes were elected in wartime, by drawing lots, is presumed to have had religious significance, i.e. in giving trust to divine providence{{snd}}it seems{{snd}}to guide the random decision-making.{{Sfn|Goldberg|1995|p=474}} There were also sacred rituals and objects, such as the pillars called [[Irminsul]]; these were believed to connect heaven and earth, as with other examples of trees or ladders to heaven in numerous religions. [[Charlemagne]] had one such pillar chopped down in 772 close to the [[Eresburg]] stronghold.

Early Saxon religious practices in Britain can be gleaned from place names and the [[Germanic calendar]] in use at that time. The Germanic [[gods]] [[Woden]], [[Frigg]], [[Týr|Tiw]] and [[Thunor]], who are attested to in every Germanic tradition, were worshipped in Wessex, Sussex and Essex. They are the only ones directly attested to, though the names of the third and fourth months (March and April) of the [[Month#Old English calendar|Old English calendar]] bear the names {{Lang|ang|Hrēþmōnaþ}} and {{Lang|ang|Ēosturmōnaþ}}, meaning 'month of [[Hretha]]' and 'month of [[Ēostre]]'. It is presumed that these are the names of two goddesses who were worshipped around that season.{{Sfn|Stenton|1971|p=97–98}} The Saxons offered cakes to their gods in February ({{Lang|ang|Solmōnaþ}}). There was a religious festival associated with the harvest, {{Lang|ang|Halegmōnaþ}} ('holy month' or 'month of offerings', September).{{Sfn|Stenton|1971}}{{Page needed|date=June 2024}} The Saxon calendar began on 25 December, and the months of December and January were called [[Yule]] (or {{Lang|ang|Giuli}}). They contained a {{Lang|ang|Modra niht}} or 'night of the mothers', another religious festival of unknown content.

The Saxon freemen and servile class remained faithful to their original beliefs long after their nominal conversion to Christianity. Nursing a hatred of the upper class, which, with Frankish assistance, had marginalised them from political power, the lower classes (the {{Lang|la|plebeium vulgus}} or {{Lang|la|cives}}) were a problem for Christian authorities as late as 836. The {{Lang|la|Translatio S. Liborii}} remarks on their obstinacy in pagan {{Lang|la|ritus et superstitio}} ('usage and superstition').{{Sfn|Goldberg|1995|p=480}}