able, with rude benches of oak on each side; the whole effort at
ornamentation being limited to trophies of war and the chase hanging upon
the walls. Such, in brief, was the home life of a great thane.

It will be observed that Wednesfield and Wednesbury at least were founded
by the Saxons in their pagan days; that is before their acceptance of the
White Christ, which was towards the close of the seventh century.
Tradition hath it that at the Anglian advent into this district, the
worship of Woden was first set up in a grove at Wednesfield. Here was
first fixed the Woden Stone, the sacred altar on which human sacrifices
were offered of that dread Teutonic deity, Woden.

It was carved with Runic figures--for was not Woden the inventor of the
Runic characters? In sacrificing, the priest, at the slaying of the
victim, took care to consecrate the offering by pronouncing always the
solemn formula, "I devote thee to Woden!"

Part of the blood was then sprinkled on the worshippers, part on the
sacred grove; the bodies were then either burnt on the altar or suspended
on trees within this mystic grove. Later, when some advance had been
made by the hierarchy, the Woden Stone was removed from the Wednesfield
grove to be erected within the temple of Woden at Wednesbury.

There are other evidences of pagan practices to be discovered in
Staffordshire place-names. Tutbury is said to derive its name from
Tuisto, the Saxon god who gave the name to Tuesday, as Woden lent his to
Wednesday; and Thursfield from Thor, the deity worshipped on Thursday.
There is also Thor's cave, still so-called, in the north of this county
(see "Staffordshire Curiosities," p. 159), and other similar reminders of
Anglo-Saxon paganism.

It is not outside the bounds of possibility that a third local place-name
is traceable to the personality of Woden. Sedgley may be derived from
Sigge's Lea, and Sigge was the real name of the Teutonic conqueror who,
in overrunning north-west Europe, assumed the name of Woden for the sake
of prestige--he was the founder of Sigtuna, otherwise Sigge's town, in
Sweden. In the science of English place-names it is well-known that
while hills and streams and other natural phenomena were allowed to
retain their old British names (as Barr, "a summit," and Tame, "a flood
water"), towns, villages, and other political divisions were very
generally renamed by the Saxon conquerors, the places in many instances
being called after th