Quizzes & Puzzles17 mins ago
days of the week
Two questions for the price of one!! was thinking about the names of the days of the week. I know all apart from saturday are of norse origin,but my queastions are 1. which god is tuesday named after,'cos i can't remember,and 2. when did it change from roman names to norse. and why is saturday still called so? was there a norse version? hang on,that's 4 questions.what a bargain!!
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The system of naming days after heavenly bodies, as the Babylonians did earlier, was adopted by the Romans and the Emperor Constantine declared Sunday as the first day. The other days became known as the day of the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn.
The names of Sunday, Monday and Saturday were retained for the corresponding days of the week in Old English. The other four weekday names in English are derived from Anglo-Saxon words for the gods of Teutonic - to as large an extent as Norse - mythology. Tuesday comes from Tiw/Tiu, the Old English name for Tyr, the Norse god of war. However, Tiw and Tyr were themselves both just versions of the Teutonic god's name, Zio. Similarly, Odin, the Norse god's name, was simply their version of Woden, the supreme Teutonic deity whose name gave us Wednesday. Thursday originates from Thor's-day, named in honour of Thor, the Norse god of thunder. Again, though, in Latin, this was Jupiter's day, he being the supreme god of the heavens whose weapon was the thunderbolt. So, the thunder-god is really of Roman origin rather than Norse, although it is the Norse name we now use. Friday was derived from Frigg's-day, named after the wife of Odin and representing love and beauty, in Norse mythology. This lady, too, however, was predated by the fact that Friday was called Venus's day in Latin and she too symbolised love and beauty. In addition, the very name 'Frigg' is based on an Old Teutonic word 'frijo' which meant 'loving'!
In the end, only the sounds of the names of Thursday and Friday are specifically Norse, though neither of these deities was truly originally Norse in concept. As to when the Norse-connected names came into use, each first appeared "in writing" in English in such Anglo-Saxon texts as 'The Lindisfarne Gospels' around 1000 AD.
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