72-76. The Romans adopted the week of seven days, with their allotment to the heavenly bodies, from the Chaldaeans. They were already well acquainted with it in the first century A.D., and it was in regular use in the third. Owing to their many points of contact with the barbarians, it spread rapidly everywhere among the northern nations, each of which adapted it by substitution of their own equivalent deities in the names of the days, Saturn alone proving intractable (see Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, 1. 122 ff; Müllenhoff, iv. 644 ff.). The North German invaders were already in possession of the system when they settled in England: comp. Byrhtferth’s Handboc, Anglia, viii. 321/4-17. 72. #to wurðscipe#, in his honour. #wendesdei# O, for Wednesdei, is representative of *Wēdnes-, Wǣdnes-dæg, out of Wōdines. (Holthausen, Anglia, Beiblatt, iii. 39.) 73. #þunres dæi#, day of Thunor: #þorisdai# O is Scandinavian: ODanish þūr (Björkman, 181): OE. #þūres dæg#. Comp. 85/99. 74. #fridæi#: OE. #frige-dæg#, the day of Freya, identified with Venus. 75. #sætterdæi# corresponds to OFrisian saterdei, OE. #Sæterdei#: #sateresdei# O to OE. #sæteresdæg#. The fullest form is #Sæternes dæg# = Sāturni dies (? Sǣ; see Anglia, Beiblatt, xx. 194). #þene# should be #þere#. #sonedæi#: OE. #sunnan-dæg#; perhaps OWScand. sunnudagr has influenced the ME. form. 76. #monedæi#: OFrisian mōnedei. #tisdæi#: OWScand. týsdagr: OE. #tīwes-dæg#. #Tidea# is said in the glossary to Specimens to be a Latinized form of Tiw in the _dat._ case, without support from any parallel and without explanation of _d_: probably it is a mistake for Tiwe, and as O has Tydea, the mistake would be derived from an earlier MS. common to both. 81. #wurse#, the evil one, the devil; comp. 110/291; ‘þat he wið þene wurse spæc,’ L 2841 where O has ‘feonde.’ 82. #nohtes#, of a worthless kind: a descriptive genitive used predicatively: comp. ‘eower godas ne synd nahtes,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 182/205; ‘ne beoð ha riht nohtes,’ SJ 22/10: it is in principle the same as ‘ðæt fleax ðæt bið hwites hiewes,’ Cura Past. 86/19. 83. ‘Mult volanters vous retanrai,’ W 6957. 84. #ohte#, doughty: OE. #āht#, shortened from #āwiht#: so the root sense is ‘anything, good for anything, worth something.’ Comp. ‘ahte cniht wes Auelin,’ L 8141. 86. #scome . . . grome#: see 96/57 note, and for the corresponding verbs comp. ‘þerfore him ofte scomede[;] ⁊ his heorte gromede,’ L 13763. 94. #dringches#, warriors: OWScand. drengr, young man: the change of e to i is normal; see Björkman, 292. 95. #hændest# is taken by the editors generally as, nearest (to him), but everywhere else in L it means, courteous, or the like: comp. 98/77: perhaps him should be omitted. 97. #him to#, to Vortigern, but #senden# is corrupt; reading, seoððen siȝen him to, the meaning would be, next the Saxon knights followed after them; comp. ‘þe eorles heom siȝen to[;] mid fele heore cnihtes,’ L 9996.