Chapter 6

The Indiculus paganiarum reckons up, under 8: De sacris Mercurii vel Jovis (18); under 20: De feriis quae faciunt Jovi vel Mercurio. So that the thunder-god, of whom Tacitus is silent, is in other quarters unforgotten; and now we can understand Wilibald's narrative of the robur Jovis (see p. 72), and in Bonifac. epist. 25 (A.D. 723) the presbyter Jovi mactans (see Suppl.).

In the Additamenta operum Matthaei Paris. ed. W. Watts, Paris 1644, pp. 25-6, there is an old account of some books which are said to have been discovered in laying the foundation of a church at Verlamacestre (St. Albans) in the tenth century, and to have been burnt. One of them contained 'invocationes et ritus idololatrarum civium Varlamacestrensium, in quibus comperit, quod specialiter Phoebum deum solis invocarunt et coluerunt, secundario vero Mercurium, Voden anglice appellatum, deum videlicet mercatorum, quia cives et compatriotae...........fere omnes negotiatores et institores fuerunt.' Evidently the narrator has added somewhat out of his own erudition; the invocations and rites themselves would have given us far more welcome information.

Passages which appear to speak of a German goddess by the name of Diana, will be given later. Neptune is mentioned a few times (supra, p. 110).

Saxo Grammaticus, though he writes in Latin, avoids applying the Roman names of gods, he uses Othinus or Othin, never Mercurius instead; yet once, instead of his usual Thor (pp. 41, 103), he has Jupiter, p. 236, and malleus Jovialis; Mars on p. 36 seems to stand for Othin, not for Tyr, who is never alluded to in Saxo. Ernoldus Nigellus, citing the idols of the Normanni, says 4, 9 (Pertz 2, 501), that for God (the Father) they worshipped Neptune, and for Christ Jupiter; I suppose Neptune must here mean Oðin, and Jupiter Thor; the same names recur 4, 69. 100. 453-5.

Melis-Stoke, as late as the beginning of the 14th century, still remembers that the heathen Frisians worshipped Mercury (1, 16. 17); I cannot indicate the Latin authority from which no doubt he drew this. (19)

If the supposition be allowed, and it seems both a justifiable and almost a necessary one, that, from the first century and during the six or eight succeeding ones, there went on an uninterrupted transfer of the above-mentioned and a few similar Latin names of gods to domestic deities of Gaul and Germany, and was familiar to all the educated; we obtain by this alone the solution of a remarkable phenomenon that has never yet been satisfactorily explained: the early diffusion over half Europe of the heathen nomenclature of the days of the week.

These names are a piece of evidence favourable to German heathenism, and not to be disregarded.

The matter seems to me to stand thus. (20)----From Egypt, through the Alexandrians, the week of seven days (ebdomaj), which in Western Asia was very ancient, came into vogue among the Romans, but he planetary nomenclature of the days of the week apparently not till later. Under Julius Caesar occurs the earliest mention of 'dies Saturni' in connection with the Jewish sabbath, Tibull. 1, 3, 18. Then hliou hmera in Justin Mart. apolog. 1, 67. 'Ermou and Afrodithj hmera in Clem. Alex. strom. 7, 12. The institution fully carried out, not long before Dio Cassius 37, 18, about the close of the 2nd century. (21) The Romans had previously had a week of nine days, nundinae = novendinae. Christianity had adopted from the Jews the hebdomas, and now it could not easily guard the church against the idolatrous names of days either (see Suppl.)

But these names, together with the institution of the week, had passed on from Rome to Gaul and Germany, sooner than the christian religion did. In all the Romance countries the planetary names have lasted to this day (mostly in a very abridged form), except for the first day and the seventh: instead of dies solis they chose dies dominica (Lord's day). It. domenica, Sp. domingo, Fr. dimanche; and for dies Saturni they kept the Jewish sabbatum, It. sabbato, Sp. sabado, Fr. samedi (=sabdedi, sabbati dies). But the heathen names of even these two days continued in popular use long after: Ecce enim dies solis adest, sic enim barbaries vocitare diem dominicum consueta est, Greg. Tur. 3, 15.

Unhappily a knowledge of the Gothic names of days is denied us. The sabbatê dags, sabbatô dags [[[sabbath day, Saturday]]], which alone occurs in Ulphilas, of the remaining six or five days. A sunnôns dags [[[sun's day]]], a mênins dag [[[moon's day]]] may be guessed; the other four, for us the most important, I do not venture to suggest. Their preservation would have been of the very highest value to our inquiry.

Old High Germ.----I. sunnûn dag [[[sun's day]]], O. v. 5, 22. Gl. blas. 76. Lacombl. arch. 1, 6.----II. mânin tac [[[moon's day]]] (without authority, for mânitag, mânotag in Graff 2, 795. 5, 358 have no reference; mânetag in Notker, ps. 47, 1).-----III. dies Martis, prob. Ziuwes tac [[[Ziu's day]]] among Alamanns; in the 11th cent. Cies dac [[[Cie's, Zie's day]]], Gl. blas. 76; (22) prob. different among Bavarians and Lombards.-----IV. dies Mercurii, perhaps still Wuotanes tac [[[Wuotan's day]]]? our abstract term, diu mittawecha [[[the mid-week (i.e. Wednesday)]]] already in N. ps. 93, and mittwocha [[[midweek]]], Gl. blas. 76.----V. dies Jovis, Donares tac [[[Donar's day]]], Toniris tac, N. ps. 80, 1. donrestac [[[Doner's day]]], Gl. blas. 76. Burcard von Worms 195: quintam feriam in honorem Jovis honorati.-----VI. dies Veneris, Fria dag [[[Fria's day]]], O. v. 4, 6. Frije tag, T. 211, 1.----VII. at last, like the Romance and Gothic, avoiding the heathenish dies Saturni, sambaztag [[[sabbath-day (i.e. Saturday)]]], T. 68, 1. N. 91, 1. (23) samiztag, N. 88, 40. sunnûn âband [[[sun's evening (i.e. Saturday)]]], our sonnabend, already in O. v. 4, 9, prob. abbreviation of sunnûndages âband [[[Sunday's evening]]], feria ante dominicam, for vespera solis cannot have been meant [conf. Engl. Whitsun-eve]; and occasionally, corresponding to the Romance dies dominica, frôntag [[[lord's day (i.e. Sunday)]]], N. ps 23.  
 



ENDNOTES:

18. Had these been Roman gods, Jupiter would certainly have been named first, and Mercury after.  (back)

19. Our MHG. poets impart no such information; they only trouble their heads about Saracen gods, among whom it is true Jupiter and Apollo make their appearance too. In Rol. 97, 7 are named Mars, Jovinus, Saturnus.  (back)

20. I can here use only the beginning, not the conclusion, which would be more useful for my investigation, of a learned paper by Julius Hare on the names of the days of the week (Philolog. Mus., Nov. 1831). Conf. Idelers handb. der chronol. 2, 177-180, and Letronne, observations sur les représentations zodiacales, p. 99.  (back)

21. An old hexameter at the end of the editions of Ausonius: Ungues Mercurio, barbam Jove, Cypride crines (nails on Wednesday, beard on Thursday, hair on Friday).  (back)

22. Cies for Zies, as the same glossist 86 writes gicimbere and cinnum.  (back)

23. Sambazolus n. prop. in Karajan.  (back)