DAYS DAZE

The Romans named the seven days of the week for the seven major objects in the sky. This is why the French names are Lundi (luna = Moon), Mardi (Mars), Mercredi (Mercury), Jeudi (Jupiter), Vendredi (Venus), Samedi (Saturn) and Dimanche (Sun). These names came to England with the Romans, and when they left the Anglo-Saxons took over. Sunday and Moonday (Monday) they liked as pagans, and they also rather liked the grumpy Saturn too. To the other days they gave names of their own gods and goddesses, which are covered here.

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Tiw (Tuesday): God of justice. When the Gods had to overcome a ravenous wolf, Tiw agreed to act as bait. The wolf was duly dispatched, but unfortunately not before it had bitten off Tiw's hand!

Odin/Wodin (Wednesday): King of the Gods. Owned an eight-legged flying horse (why eight?), a magic spear and a bow that could fire ten arrows at once. He did a deal to make himself cleverer which involved giving up one of his eyes; presumably he wasn't smart enough beforehand to see this might not be a good deal? Most Anglo-Saxon monarchies traced their ancestries back to Odin.

Thor (Thursday): God of Thunder, War and Farming. Owned a magic hammer which always returned when thrown.

Frigg/Freya (Friday): Goddess of Love and Marriage. Owned a chariot pulled by cats, and a feathered coat that enabled her to fly. Lost her son Baldeor when, fearing he would be killed, she tried to make every living thing on Earth promise not to harm him. Loki, god of tricksters, overheard her saying that she had left out only the mistletoe plant, so he made a spear of of that, and tricked the god Hod into throwing it at Baldeor, who was killed.

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