| NORSE MYTHOLOGY AND THE DAYS OF THE WEEK: |
Not many people realize that the names we currently use for the days of the week were actually inspired by Norse Mythology. Here is an overview:
|
Sunday |
This was the day sacred to the sun among old Teutonic peoples, and its name means day of the sun. |
| Monday | The word comes from the Anglo-Saxon monandaeg, which means the moon's day. In ancient [Teutonic] times each of the seven days was dedicated to a god or goddess. Monday was sacred to the goddess of the moon. |
| Tuesday | Tuesday comes from the Anglo-Saxon Tiudaeg. Tiu, or Tiw, was the Anglo-Saxon form of Tyr, the name of the Norse god of war. |
| Wednesday | The name comes from "Woden" for Woden's day or "ODIN", the chief god in Norse Mythology, to whom it was considered sacred. Woden is Old English and Wodin is Germanic for Odin. So when they modernized the word, they changed the "o" to an "e", switched the "e" with the "n" and left out the apostrophe...and just that simply Woden's day became Wednesday. |
| Thursday | Thursday means Thor's day, and was considered by ancient Norsemen to be sacred to the Teutonic god of thunder and agriculture, son of Odin & Jord (mother earth) and champion of the Aesir. |
| Friday | Friday comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Frigedaeg, which means Freya's day. |
| Saturday | Saturday, called Saeter-daeg by the Anglo-Saxons, is named for the Roman god Saturn. It is the only day of the week not named for a Norse god. |