Hrethe

It's a glorious spring day and I'm sat on my doorstep peering at my screen because I'm determined to write this outside in the lovely weather but the sun is making that rather difficult. All it needs is a glass of Pimms and it might be June. Ok maybe not June... but the point is that Spring has most definitely sprung. This evening I shall be going to Wuffacynn's Hrethe Blot so i thought I'd find out a little about Hrethe, a goddess I know little about.

It turns out that one of the main reasons I know so little about her is there isn't much to know.

Simek, in his Dictionary of Northern Mythology writes:

"Hrethe or Hretha  (OE 'the famous', 'the victorious'). The eponymous goddess of the OE name of the month Hredemonath (=March) mentioned by Bede in his De Temporibus Ratione. An OHG female personal name Hruada tempted J. Grimm to connect the name with ON hrothr 'fame'; thus the goddess could have a similar meaning to the eponymous Roman god of the same month, Mars."

So as a goddess linked to March she is associated with the burgeoning of fresh growth for modern Heathens and may also have a warrior goddess aspect.

This lack of information is going to make finding good toasts for the sumble difficult!