trace of _Retmonat_; and their _ôstarmânoth_, which remains as a German
name for April (Ostermonat) to the present day, is found as early as
Eginhard, the biographer of Charlemagne. But of the deities there is no
information anywhere but in Beda. The name of Easter appears related to
"East" and the growing strength of the sun. In the Edda a male being, a
spirit of light, bears the name of _Austri_: the German and Saxon tribes
seem to have known only a female divinity in this sense. A being with
attributes taken from the Dawn and from the Spring of the year, so full
of promise and of blessing, might well be tenaciously remembered and
retained for Christian use.

We will now proceed to notice the sources which preserve some relics of
the old heathenism.


THE GENEALOGIES

bear the greatest testimony to the former dignity of Woden's name. The
royal houses of Kent, Essex, Deira, Bernicia, Wessex, East Anglia,
Mercia,--all trace up to Woden. Some go up far above Woden, who has a
series of mythological progenitors, the oldest of whom appears to be
Scyld, the name which forms the starting-point of the "Beowulf."


THE LAWS.

In the Kentish code of Wihtræd (d. 725) there are penalties set down for
those who sacrifice to devils, meaning heathen gods.

But, on the whole, it is remarkable how little is found on this subject