Chapter 6

But it would be no less absurd to attribute the introduction of the week and the names of the days to the Christians. As they came into vogue among the heathen Romans, they could just as well among heathen Gauls and Germans; nay, considering the lively intercourse between the three nations, a rapid diffusion is altogether natural. (27) Christianity had the Jewish week, and it tolerated names which were a frequent offence to it, but were already too deeply rooted, and could only be partially dislodged. Those words of Gregory reveal the utter aversion of the clergy, which comes out still more plainly in the language (publ. in Syntagma de baptismo, p. 190) of an Icelandic bishop in 1107, who actually did away with them in Iceland, and replaced them by mere numeric names. How should the christian teachers ever have suffered hateful names of idols to be handed over to their recent converts for daily use, unless they had already been long established among the people? And in Germany, how should the Latin gods have been allowed to get translated into German ones, as if on purpose to put them within easy reach of the people, had they not already been familiar with them for centuries?

Again, the high antiquity of these translations is fully established by their exact accordance with the terminology used in the first centuries, as soon as people came to turn German gods into Roman. In my opinion, the introduction of the seven days' names amongst us must be placed at latest in the fourth or fifth century; it may not have taken place simultaneously in all parts of Teutondom.

Our forefathers, caught in a natural delusion, began early to ascribe the origin of the seven days' names to the native gods of their fatherland.---William of Malmesbury, relating the arrival of the Saxons in Britian, says of Hengist and Horsa, that they were sprung from the noblest ancestry: Erant enim abnepotes illus antiquissimi Voden, de quo omnium pene barbarum gentium regium genus lineam trahit, quemque gentes Anglorum deum esse delirantes, ei quartum diem septimanae, et sextum uxori ejus Freae perpetua ad hoc tempus consecraverunt sacrilegio (Savile 1601. p. 9).----More circumstantially, Geoffrey of Monmouth (lib. 6. ed. 1587, p. 43) makes Hengist say to Vortigern: Ingressi sumus maria, regnum tuum duce Mercurio petivimus. Ad nomen itaque Mercurii erecto vultu rex inquirit cujusmodi religionem haberent? cui Hengistus: deos patrios Saturnum, atque ceteros, qui mundum gubernant, colimus, maxime Mercurium (as in Tac. 9), quem Woden lingua nostra appellamus. Huic veteres nostri dicaverunt quartam septimanae feriam, quae usque in hodiernum diem nomen Wodenesdai de nomini ipsius sortita est. Post illum colimus deam inter ceteras potentissimam, cui et dicaverunt sextam feriam, quam de nomine ejus Fredai vocamus.----As Matthew of Westminster (Flores, ed. 1601, p. 82) varies in some details, his words may also be inserted here: Cumque tandem in praesentia regis (Vortigerni) essaent constituti, quaesivit ab eis, quam fidem, quam religionem patres eorum coluissent? cui Hengistus: deos patrios, scilicet Saturnum, Jovem atque ceteros, qui mundum gubernant, colimus, maxime autem Mercurium, quem lingua nostra Voden appellamus. Huic patres nostri veteres dedicaverunt quartam feriam septimanae, quae in hunc hodiernum diem Vodenesday appellatur. Post illum colimus deam inter ceteras potentissimam, vocabulo Fream, cujus vocabulo Friday appellamus. Frea ut volunt quidam idem est quod Venus, et dicitur Frea, quasi Froa a frodos [A-frod-ite = from froth?] quod est spuma maris, de qua nata est Venus secundum fabulas, unde idem dies appellatur dies Veneris.----Anglo-Saxon legend then, unconcerned at the jumbling of foreign and homespun fable, has no doubt at all about the high antiquity of the names among its people.

Saxo Grammaticus, more critical, expresses his opinion (p. 103) of the Norse nomenclature, that it is derived from the native gods, but that these are not the same as the Latin. This he proves by Othin and Thor, after whom the fourth and fifth days of the week are named, as in Latin after Mercury and Jupiter. For Thor, being Othin's son, cannot possibly be identified with Jupiter, who is Mercury's father, with the Roman Mercury, who is Jupiter's son. The discrepancy is certainly strong, but all that it can prove is, that at the time when Othin and Mercury was thought of as a Celtic divinity, probably with attributes differing widely from his classical namesake. Saxo is quite right in what he means, and his remark confirms the early heathen origin of these names of days; (28) yet upon occasion, as we saw on p. 122, he lets himself be carried away after all by the overpowering identity of Thor and Jupiter (see Suppl.).

The variations too in the names of the seven days among the various Teutonic races deserve all attention; we perceive that they were not adopted altogether cut-and-dry, nor so retained, but that national ideas still exercised some control over them. The later heathenism of Friesland and Saxony caused the old names of Wednesday and Saturday to live on, while in Upper Germany they soon sank into oblivion. But what is especially significant to us, is the deviation of the Alamanns and Bavarians when we come to the third day; how could it have arisen at a later (christian) time, when the idea of the heathen god that does duty for Mars had already become indistinct? how came the christian clergy, supposing that from them the naming had proceeded, ever to sanction such a divergence?

The nations that lie behind us, the Slavs, the Lithuanians, do not know the planetary names of days, they simply count like the Greeks, (29) not because they were converted later, but because they became acquainted with Latin culture later. The Finns and Lapps do not count, while the Esthonians again mostly do (see Suppl.). Even the christianizing influences of Byzantium decided nothin on this point; Byzantium had no influence over Lithuanians and Finns, and had it over a part only of the Slavs. These in their counting begin with Monday, as the first day after rest., consequently Tuesday is their second, and Thursday their fourth, (30) altogether deviating from the Latin and Icelandic reckoning, which makes Monday second and Thursday fifth. Hence the Slavic piatek (fifth) means Friday, and that Up. Germ. pfinztag (fifth) Thursday. Wednesday they call middle, sreda, sereda, srida (whence Lith. serrada), which may have acted upon our High German nomenclature; the Finns too have keskiwijcko ( half-week, from keski medium). It would be well worth finding out, when and for what reason the High German and the Slav first introduced the abstract names mittewoche [[[midweek]]] and sreda (Boh. streda), while the Low German and the Romance have kept to Woden and Mercury. Alone of the Slavs, the Wends in Lüneburg show a trace of naming after a god; dies Jovis was with them Perendan, from Peren, Perun, thunder-god: apparently a mere imitation of the German, as in all the other days they agree with the rest of the Slavs. (31)

The nett result of these considerations is, that, in Latin records dealing with Germany and her gods, we are warranted in interpreting, with the greatest probability, Mercurius as Wuotan, Jupiter as Donar, and Mars as Ziu. The gods of the days of the week translated into German are an experiment on Tacitus's 'interpretatio Romana'.  



ENDNOTES:

27. Jos. fuchs, gesch. von Mainz 2, 27 seq. (Kupfert 4, no 7) describes a Roman round altar, prob. of the 3rd or 4th century, on which are carved the seven gods of the week (1 Saturn, 2 Apollo, 3 Diana, 4 Mars, 5 Mercury, 6 Jupiter, 7 Venus), and in an 8th place a genius.  (back)

28. Conf. Pet. Er. Müller om Saxo, p. 79.  (back)

29. The Indian nations also name their days of the week after planets; and it seems worth remarking here, that Wednesday is in Sanskrit Budhuvaras, Tamil Budhunküramei, because some have identified Buddha with Woden. In reality Budhas, the ruler of Mercury and son of the moon, is quite distinct from the prophet Buddhas (Schlegel's ind. bibl. 2. 177).  (back)

30. E.g. in Russian: 1, voskresénie, resurrection (but O. Sl. ne-délia, no-doing). 2, po-nedél'nik, day after-no-work. 3, vtórnik, second day. 4, seredá, middle. 5, chetvérg, fourth day. 6, piátnitsa, fifth day. 7, subbóta, sabbath.----Trans.  (back)

31. It is striking, that in O. Bohem. glossaries (Hanka 54. 165) Mercury, Venus and Saturn are quoted in the order of their days of the week; and that any Slav deities that have been identified with Latin ones are almost sure to be of the number of those that preside over the week. And whilst of the Slav gods, Svatovit answers to Mars (Ziu), Radigast to Mercury (Wuotan), Perun to Jupiter (Donar), Lada (golden dame, zolota baba, in Hanusch 241, 35) to Venus (Frîa), and perhaps Sitivrat to Saturn; the names of the planets are construed quite otherwise, Mars by Smrto-nos (letifer), Mercury by Dobro-pan (good lord, or rather bonorum dator), Jupiter by Krale-moc (rex potens), Venus by Ctitel (cupitor? venerandus?), Saturn by Hlado-let (famelicus, or annonae caritatem afferens). Respecting Sitivrat I give details at the end of ch. XII.  (back)