Anglo-Saxon paganism of the days of the week in the English language. What is known about the religion and its accompanying mythology have since influenced both literature and Modern Paganism. The word "pagan" is a Latin term that was used by Christians in Anglo-Saxon England to designate non-Christians. In Old English, the vernacular language of Anglo-Saxon England, the equivalent term was "hæðen" ("heathen"), a word that was cognate to the Old Norse "heiðinn", both of which may derive from a Gothic word, "haiþno". Both "pagan" and "heathen" were terms that carried pejorative overtones, with "hæðen" also being used in Late Anglo-Saxon texts
History of Anglo-Saxon England known as Englishry under Norman rule and through social and cultural integration with Celts, Anglo-Normans and other cultures became the modern English people. Bede completed his book "Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum" (Ecclesiastical History of the English People) in around 731. Thus the term for English people (Latin: "gens Anglorum"; Anglo-Saxon: "Anglecynn") was in use by then to distinguish Germanic groups in Britain from those on the continent (Old Saxony in Northern Germany). The term 'Anglo-Saxon' came in practice in the 8th century (probably by Paul the Deacon) to distinguish English Saxons from continental Saxons (Ealdseaxe, 'old' Saxons). The historian James