ABSTRACT
In this tantalising passage Gildas alludes to Romano-British paganism while at the same time refusing to tell us anything about it. Neither he nor his readers were interested. However, the connection implied between natural features and the divine world is certainly authentic. Place-name evidence shows that rivers in particular sometimes received their names before a Celtic language was spoken here; the Thames may have been called the Thames in the Bronze Age or earlier. Religious dedications of the Roman period show that such personified natural features were worshipped; thus Verbeia (whose name means ‘winding river’) is attested as a goddess on a Roman altar at Ilkley in Yorkshire. Apart from such comparatively late evidence, the great number of metal finds of Bronze Age and Iron Age date from the Thames and other rivers and bogs suggests that such places were holy. It may also be noted that the ostentatious disposal of precious objects in dedications to the gods was an ideal way by which men could demonstrate their wealth and so enhance their prestige.2
