asing conflict between the
beneficent forces of sun and summer and the evil powers of the long,
dark northern winters. Closely intertwined with Nature worship we find
the later Christian rites and ceremonies. For the new teaching did not
oust the old, and for many centuries the mind of the average man
halted half-way between the two faiths. If he accepted Christ he did
not cease to fear the great hierarchy of unseen powers of Nature, the
worship of which was bred in his very bone. The ancient festivals of
Yule and Eostra continued under another guise and polytheism still
held its sway. The devil became one with the gloomy and terrible in
Nature, with the malignant elves and dwarfs. Even with the warfare
between the beneficent powers of sun and the fertility of Nature and
the malignant powers of winter, the devil became associated. Nor did
men cease to believe in the Wyrd, that dark, ultimate fate goddess
who, though obscure, lies at the back of all Saxon belief. It was in
vain that the Church preached against superstitions. Egbert,
Archbishop of York, in his Penitential, strictly forbade the gathering
of herbs with incantations and enjoined the use of Christian rites,
but it is probable that even when these manuscripts were written, the
majority at least of the common folk in these islands, though
nominally Christian, had not deserted their ancient ways of
thought.[35] When the Saxon peasant went to gather his healing herbs
he may have used Christian prayers[36] and ceremonies, but he did not
forget the goddess of the dawn. It is noteworthy how frequently we
find the injunction that the herbs must be picked at sunrise or when
day and night divide, how often stress is laid upon looking towards
the east, and turning "as the sun goeth from east to south and west."
In many there is the instruction that the herb is to be gathered
"without use of iron" or "with gold and with hart's horn" (emblems of
the sun's rays). It is curious how little there is of moon lore. In
some cases the herbs are to be gathered in silence, in others the man
who gathers them is not to look behind him--a prohibition which occurs
frequently in ancient superstitions. The ceremonies are all mysterious
and suggestive, but behind them always lies the ancient ineradicable
worship of Nature. To what dim past does that cry, "Erce, Erce, Erce,
Mother of Earth" carry us?

"Erce, Erce, Erce, Mother of Earth!
May the All-Wielder, Ever Lord gra