69. Comp. ‘and habben þa ilke læȝen[;] þe stoden bi heore ældre dæwen,’
L 5960. #hehde# is for hefde: comp. ‘what he i Rome hæhde biwunnen,’ L
10547; ‘enne sune he hehde,’ id. 6958, 30185: for other instances in L
of h substituted for f, see Luhmann, 45: the expression, to hold the
highest law, may well mean, to have the highest authority, for Layamon’s
use of laȝe is very wide and varied. But Brotanek treats #hehde# as
_past_ of heȝen, OE. #hēgan#, to put in force, to establish: this in L
is hæhȝede, heȝede: Logeman suggests hehte (OE. #hatan#), promised.
71. #heom# is written for him, and they did worship to him: the subject
heo is not expressed, because it is contained in heore preceding: see
6/18.
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.