Hretha

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Old English *Hrēþe.

Proper noun

Hretha

1. An Anglo-Saxon goddess.
   • 1993, C. P. R. Tisdale, Month of Swallows: Northumbria, England, A.D. 626–633, Edinburgh: The Pentland Press Limited, →ISBN, page 137:

     And now I stand before you as a man who would wish to serve you as warrior at the sword-play. For I have no other use. The words of the goddess Hretha I can hear no more.

   • 2009, Marilyn Dunn, The Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons c.597–c.700: Discourses of Life, Death and Afterlife, Continuum, published 2010, →ISBN, page 63:

     Alternatively, this group might consist of the goddess Frig, associated with two other female deities (possibly Eostre and Hretha?) – but we cannot be certain that the Anglo-Saxons worshipped Frig.

   • 2011, Linda Windsor, Thief (The Brides of Alba), Colorado Springs, Colo.: David C Cook, →ISBN, page 27:

     The name and image of the Saxon pagan goddess Hretha on Caden’s own shield had been beaten nearly into oblivion.

   • 2013, Yanina Stachura, “Northern Britain, AD 495”, in The Sword and the Passion, North Charleston, S.C.: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, →ISBN, page 1:

     “We ought to build a shrine to the Goddess Hretha in this place.”

   • 2017, Lucya Starza, editor, Every Day Magic – A Pagan Book of Days: 366 Magical Ways to Observe the Cycle of the Year, Winchester: Moon Books, →ISBN, page 29:

     In De Temporum Ratione, Bede states that March was called Hrethmonath by the Anglo-Saxons because they made sacrifices to the Goddess Hretha then. Hretha means fame or honour, which suggests Hretha was a warrior like Mars, who gives us the modern name March. Hrethmonath marks the end of winter, so Hretha could be seen as the Goddess who battles and defeats winter.

Further reading

• Rheda (mythology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia