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Posted by Cassi on January 3rd, 2021

A centuries-old secret has crossed my course again ...

I pointed out in a current article that there was a disagreement in numerous scholastic quarters regarding the actual Viking deity being honored by the name, 'Friday.' The cold, hard fact is that unless somebody unearths a runic stone that confirms the problem-- and that's not likely-- just a prevalence of circumstantial evidence is going to carry the day in any such dispute.

So, while others while away their time contemplating world peace, I've returned to the search for Friday's motivation.

If you'll remember, four of the seven days of the week are called after Norse gods:

-- Tuesday is for Tyr, the god of fact and war,

-- Wednesday is for Odin, the Allfather of Viking gods,

-- Thursday is for Thor, the god of thunder,

-- Friday, however is masked in ambiguity.

I 'd constantly heard the day's name-origin originated from Frigg, Odin's elder better half-- he had more than one-- and this is supported by the most scholarly of English references, such as the Oxford dictionary. Others state it was for either Frey or Freja, who were brother and sister in the Vanir clan. Frey was the god of fertility, so it was thought about important to keep him pleased; Freja was the goddess of love and appeal, so it didn't harmed to keep her good side, either.

Frigg's tasks were to be the goddess of the sky. It was a subtle task, but somebody had to do it.

Turning to cyberspace for resolution, I took place on an excellent guide in Norse matters, The Viking Answer Lady. She is so careful in her material that I felt the possibility of her taking light to the concern was rather great. So, I called her. To state she did her research study is an understatement. Here's her reply to me:

" Since Western Europe all originally originated from Indo-European https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sue93tAHlaM tribes, we discover that there were a great deal of correspondences in between the various branches-- not precise, one-for-one identity, however ideas are clearly associated. It's no genuine surprise to discover that the identifying and importance of the days of the week, and the number of days in a week, may be quite much the very same in all the descendants of the Indo-Europeans.

" You can see the day-name correspondences in other languages that descend from Indo-European:

" Ancient Greek has: hemera selenes (moon day), hemera Areos (Ares' day), hemera Hermu (Hermes' day), hemera Dios (Zeus' day), hemera Aphrodites (Aphrodite's day), hemera Khronu (Chronos' day), hemera heliou (sun day).

" Latin: Lunae passes away (Moon-day, Monday), Martis passes away (Mars-Day, Tuesday), Mercurii passes away (Mercury's day, Wednesday), Jovis passes away (Jove's day, Thursday), Veneris passes away (Venus' day, Friday), Saturni dies (Saturn's day, Saturday) or additionally Christian Sabbatum or Sabbati passes away (Sabbath day), Solis passes away (Sunday) or additionally Christian Dominicus passes away (Lord's day).

" Unsurprisingly, the Romance languages clearly derive their day names from Latin, other than for Portugese, which numbers the days:.

" Italian: lunedi, martedi, mercoledi, giovedi, venerdi, sabato, domenica.

" Spanish: lunes, martes, mircoles, jueves, viernes, sbado, domingo.

" French: lundi, mardi, mercredi, jeudi, vendredi, samedi, dimanche.

" Romanian: luni, marti, miercuri, joi, vineri, smbata, duminica.

" Portugese: Segunda-Feira (2nd day, Monday); Tera-Feira (3rd day, Tuesday); Quarta-Feira (4th day, Wednesday); Quinta-Feira (5th day, Thursday); Sexta-Feira (6th day, Friday); Sbado (Sabbath, Saturday); Domingo (Lord's Day, Sunday).

" The Celtic languages have taken and preserved the Latin names of the days, and likewise obtained greatly from Christian concepts:.

" Welsh: Dydd Llun (moon/Luna day), Dydd Mawrth (Mars' day), Dydd Mercher (Mercury's day), Dydd Iau (Jove's day), Dydd Gwener (Venus's day), Dydd Sadwrn (Saturn's day), Dydd Sul (sun day).

" Gaelic: Di-luain (moon day); Di-mirt (Mars's day); Di-ciaduinn or Di-ciadaoin (day of the very first quick of the week-- Friday being the second fast); Diardaoin (the day between the two fasts of Wednesday and Friday); Di-haoine or Dia-aoine (day of the fast) Di-sathuirn (Saturn day); Di-dmhnuich (Lord's day).

" Irish: D Luan (moon/Luna day); D Mairt (Mars' day); D Cadaoin (day of the first fast of the week); Dardaoin; D h-Aoine (the day between the two fasts of Wednesday and Friday); D Sathairn (Saturn's day); D Domhnaigh (Lord's day).

Ares/Mars was equated with Tr as a warrior god. Zeus/Jupiter was related with Thrr as the god who hurled lightnings.

" German: Montag (moon day), Dienstag (Tr's day), Mittwoch (Mid-week), Donnerstag (Donner's/ Thrr's day), Freitag (Freyja/Frigga's day), Samstag (derived eventually from Latin Sabbatum), Sonntag (sun day).

" Dutch: maandag (moon day), dinsdag, woensdag (Woden's/ inn's day), donderda (Donner's/ Thrr's day), vrijdag (Freyja/Frigga's day), zaterdag (Saturn day), zondag (sun day).

" Norwegian and Danish: mandag (moon day), tirsdag (Tr's day), onsdag (inn's day), torsdag (Thrr's day), fredag (Freyja's/ Frigga's day), lrdag (washing day), sndag (sun day).

" Swedish: mndag (moon day), tisdag (Tr's day), onsdag (inn's day), torsdag (Thrr's day), fredag (Freyja/Frigga's day), lrdag (wash day), sndag (sun day).

" Old English: mondg or monandg (moon day); tiwesdg (Tiw's day, Tr's day); wodnesdg (Wotan's/ inn's day); thunresdg (Thrr's day); frigedg (Frigga's/ Freya's day); sterdg or sternesdg (Saturn's day); sunnandg (sun day).

" Middle English: monday, moneday, or monenday (moon day); tiwesday or tewesday (Tiw's day, Tr's day); wodnesday, wednesday, or wednesdai (Wotan's/ inn's day); thursday or thuresday (Thrr's day); fridai (Frigga's/ Freya's day); saterday (Saturn's day); soneday, sonenday, sunday, sunnenday (sun day).

" North Frisian: monnendei (moon-day); Tirsdei (Tr's- day); Winsdei (Wotan's/ inn's day); Trsdei (Thrr's day); Fridei (Frigga's/ Freyja's day); sennin (sun-evening); sennedei (sun day).

" Etymologically, it's difficult to inform for specific whether the 'Friday' words stem from Frigga or Freyja (at least so I am told, I am not a philologist or linguistics professional). We can inform by the cognates that the name is from a goddess equated with Venus and Aphrodite.

" We get into more issues in that 'Freyja' is stemmed from roots meaning just 'girl' while 'Frigga' originates from roots connected to 'precious.' There have been several scholars who insist that Frigga and Freyja are simply various titles for the very same goddess.

" None the less, undoubtedly 'Friday' comes from the name of among these two goddeses, and not from the name of the god Freyr.".

Now, that's the sort of studied thoroughness that can accomplish Master's degrees. It's a preponderance of proof that can carry the day in a court of law. Despite the fact that she just eliminated among the 3 competitors to the title of Friday's Namesake, the Viking Answer Lady has actually exceeded and beyond the call of task to offer me with the information I requested.

I'm sure delighted I didn't inform her I was just attempting to win a bar bet.

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Cassi

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Cassi
Joined: December 27th, 2020
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