or was the fierce god of thunder, who hurled
lightning at the giants. Freya was a beautiful goddess who wore a
magic necklace which had the power to make men love. We might then
guess from the way in which our old English forefathers named the days
of the week what sort of gods they worshipped, and what kind of men
they were--great fighters, admiring courage and strength above all
things, but poetical, too, loving grace and beauty.

But, as everybody knows, the English people soon changed their
religion and became Christians; and any student of the English
language would soon guess this, even if he knew nothing of English
history. He would be able to guess, too, that the English got their
Christianity from a people who spoke Latin, for so many of the English
words connected with religion come from the Latin language. It was, of
course, the Roman monk St. Augustine who brought the Christian
religion to the English. Latin was the language of the Romans. The
word _religion_ itself is a Latin word meaning reverence for the gods;
and _Mass_, the name given to the chief service of the Catholic
religion, comes from the Latin _missa_, taken from the words, _Ite
missa est_ ("Go; the Mass is ended"), with which the priest finishes
the Mass. _Missa_ is only a part of the verb _mittere_, "to finish."

The words _priest_, _bishop_, _monk_, _altar_, _vestment_, and many
others, came into the English language from the Latin with the
Christian religion.

Even, again, if a student of the English language knew nothing about
the invasions of England by the fierce Danes, he might guess something
about them from the fact that there are many Danish words in the
English language, and especially the names of places. Such common
words as _husband_, _knife_, _root_, _skin_, came into English from
the Danish.

But many more words were added to the English language through the
Norman Conquest. It is quite easy to see, from the great number of
French words in the English language, that France and England must at
one time have had a great deal to do with each other. But it was the
English who used French words, and not the French who used English.
This was quite natural when a Norman, or North French, duke became
king of England, and Norman nobles came in great numbers to live in
England and help to rule her.

Sir Walter Scott, in his great book "Ivanhoe," makes one man say that
all the names of living animals are English, like _ox_, _sheep_,