~ 111 ~
taken over untranslated[1]; while among the Scandinavians both the pagan and Christian names are absent, and we have nothing but a word, which in its various forms means 'washing-day,' or, as a middle-class Englishman of the last generation might have said, 'Tub-night.'[2] Now it is true that we first find these names in later Christian writers speaking of the heathen whom they had converted or with whom they came in contact, but it is obvious that they represent or are the equivalents of the Roman planetary week-names and almost equally
- ↑ Earlier authorities (e.g. the art. on 'Calendar' in the Enc. Brit.) postulated a Teutonic deity Seterne, but this seems to be pure invention.
- ↑ Danish Loverdag; v. Appendix, p. 117. Professor Chadwick has pointed out to me an interesting illustration of this. The chronicler John of Wallingford (died 1214), in describing the massacre of the Danes by Ethelred, says that 'the Danes had occupied the best parts of East Anglia and that it was their custom to comb their hair every day, to change their clothes frequently and bathe on Saturdays (sabbatis balneare) and improve their outward appearance by many such frivolities. Hence they were a snare to the chastity of the English matrons and had many daughters of nobles for their concubines.' Ethelred was thus induced to consent to the fatal massacre of St Brice's day, Nov. 13th, 1002, and for this, according to John, Saturday, as their bathing day, was chosen.
Freeman, Norman Conquest, I, p. 65, commenting on this story, says that though John does not mention St Brice's day, that day did fall on Saturday in 1002. But he is mistaken in this: it was actually Friday, and as there appears to be no question as to the accuracy of the date, this part of John's story must be untrue. I leave to experts to consider how far this invalidates the earlier part.
