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
Anglo-Saxon paganism and aristocracy which was then emphasising Anglo-Saxon culture and defining itself against British culture. If the British Christians were able to convert any of the Anglo-Saxon elite conquerors, it was likely only on a small community scale, with British Christianity having little impact on the later establishment of Anglo-Saxon Christianity in the seventh century. Prior scholarship tended to view Anglo-Saxon paganism as a development from an older Germanic paganism. The scholar Michael Bintley cautioned against this approach, noting that this "'Germanic' paganism" had "never had a single "ur"-form" from which later variants developed. Anglo-Saxon paganism only existed for a relatively