Suppressed Rites: Folk Paganism in the Early Middle Ages

Saxony, Germania, late 8th Century CE.

The grey sky darkened with the approach of clouds, heralding the imminent arrival of much hoped for rain as the farm family neared completion of the vital task of sowing the spring barley crop. Aelfwald, a hefty man of thirty five winters, with shaggy, graying dark hair and beard, paced across the field, casting grain from the rough hemp cloth satchel that was slung over his shoulder, timing each cast with a step in a measured rhythm learned from long experience, bare feet sinking a bit into the loamy seedbed as the scent of worked earth rose to his nostrils, blended with the malty scent of the cast seed. His sons, followed behind the sowing, Arnwulf driving a team of oxen who were pulling a heavy harrow made from stout oak beams with iron spikes driven in at regular intervals, covering the seed with a layer of earth, while Wiglaf walking along side, gave encouragement to the straining animals.

At last, after the sowing of the grain was complete a…