Boniface, Thor's oak tree, and his mission to Germania

Having long been interested in and studied the Celtic Church, and its heir, the Anglo-Celtic Church—of which Bede [672-735] and Boniface of Crediton [c.675-754] are the best representatives—I have been fascinated to see the recent employment of a striking, flamboyant event early in Bonface’s life as a model to emulate, namely, his destruction of a great oak tree dedicated to the Norse god Thor.