The withdrawal of the Roman legions in the early 5th century did not extinguish the magical flame of London; it merely plunged it into darkness. The ordered, cosmopolitan world of Roman Londinium crumbled, and the city entered a long, shadowy period of decline. But the magical engine built upon the Thames did not fall silent. A new force arrived from across the sea: the Anglo-Saxons, bringing with them their own pantheon of grim gods, their own runic magic, and a warrior ethos that would reshape the city's occult landscape.
Runes And Wyrd
The Abandoned Temple
For a time, London itself was largely abandoned. The great Roman buildings fell into ruin, the forum became a wasteland, and the once-bustling streets grew silent. But the city's magical infrastructure remained. The sacred mounds, the ley lines, the deep, primal energy of the land – these things endured. The city became a ghost temple, a place of immense, untapped power, waiting for a new master.
The Saxons, initially, avoided the city itself. They were a rural people, suspicious of the crumbling stone edifices of the Romans. They established their own settlements outside the old Roman walls, in places like Covent Garden (then Lundenwic). But they could not ignore the immense power emanating from the abandoned city. They knew it was a place of spirits, a place of ancient power, and they treated it with a mixture of fear and reverence.
The Magic of the North: Runes and Wyrd
The Saxons brought with them a different kind of magic, a magic rooted in the harsh landscapes of Northern Europe. Theirs was not the ordered, ceremonial magic of the Romans, but a more personal, fatalistic, and martial form of sorcery.
The Runic Alphabet (the Futhorc): The runes were not just letters; they were magical symbols, each representing a fundamental force of the cosmos. A skilled runemaster could use them for divination, for casting spells of protection or destruction, and for communicating with the gods. The very act of carving a rune was a magical act, a way of shaping reality through the power of the written symbol.
The Concept of Wyrd: The Saxons believed in a powerful, inexorable force called Wyrd, which we might translate as fate or destiny. But Wyrd was not a passive force; it was a dynamic web of cause and effect, and a skilled magician could learn to read its threads and, to some extent, influence them. This fatalistic worldview bred a grim, stoic courage, a willingness to face one's destiny, however dark.
The Gods of War and Magic: The Saxon pantheon was dominated by figures like Woden (the All-Father, a god of wisdom, magic, and war, who sacrificed an eye for knowledge) and Thunor (the thunder god, a powerful protector). These were not benevolent deities; they were harsh, demanding gods who respected strength and courage above all else.
The Reoccupation of the Temple
As the Saxons grew more powerful and established their kingdoms, they inevitably turned their attention back to the abandoned city of London. Under Alfred the Great in the 9th century, the city was reoccupied and refortified. This was not just a strategic move; it was a magical one. Alfred and his successors understood that to rule the land, they had to control its most powerful magical centre.
They did not, however, simply restore the Roman city. They built upon it, adding their own layer of magic to the existing structure. They established new churches on ancient pagan sites, continuing the Roman practice of syncretism. They incorporated the old Roman walls into their own defences, harnessing the protective magic of their predecessors. They brought their own dark gods and powerful runes into the heart of the city, mingling their own brand of Northern European sorcery with the Celtic and Roman magic that already saturated the land.
London was becoming a palimpsest, a magical manuscript written and rewritten by successive waves of conquerors, each adding their own script, their own spells, their own gods to the ever-thickening layers of occult power.
The Dark Ages were not a time of magical decline for London; they were a time of transformation. The city was being reforged in the fires of Saxon sorcery, its magical identity becoming darker, more martial, and more deeply intertwined with the grim fatalism of the North.
In our next post, we will explore the arrival of the Vikings, who brought with them their own brand of berserker fury and shamanic magic, and the final wave of conquest by the Normans, who would begin the process of organising London's disparate magical traditions into a coherent, hierarchical system.
The darkness holds its own power. Follow the Secret City series.
Join us as we continue to uncover the secrets of the Secret City.
Solomon Jones (Author/Researcher)
Saxon Sorcery and the Dark Age Revival (Sources)
•Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - Various manuscripts, 9th-12th centuries
•Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, 731 CE
•Beowulf - Anglo-Saxon epic poem
•Wilson, David. The Anglo-Saxons. British Museum Press, 1981
•Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles. Blackwell, 1991
•Flint, Valerie. The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe. Princeton University Press, 1991
•Vince, Alan. Saxon London: An Archaeological Investigation. Seaby, 1990
•Museum of London - Saxon period collections
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