Days of the Week Part I

OK, yes, today everyone is all about St. Patrick Martin Luther King, Jr. and how he led the snakes Civil Rights movement from in Ireland America and I have no beef with that at all, it’s huge, but I actually would rather discuss the days of the week… I’m also interested in dicussing the calendar. I recognize that this is strange.

I was going to rant about ‘emo,’ and I will, but not today.

As I was going to St. Ives, I met a men with seven wives, seven wives had—seven wives had… no, wait, seven days of the week.

There are seven days in a week. For those of you under the age of 5, they are Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Sunday and Monday are flagrantly in Germanic and Romance tonguages, Sun Day and Moon Day… it’s obvious, really, when you actually sit down and think about it.

Tuesday which comes to us via Old English “Tiwsdag” or “Tiw’s Day.” Tiw was Ye Olde English Godde of war and law. I know how that sounds, but they really do go together… or, at least, are supposed to. Anyway, that comes to us by way of the Norse/Scandinavian Tyr, god of combat. As an aside, I think it’s interesting that there are separate gods in Norse myth for fighting and for warfare. If you’re going to get into a fight, you pray to Tyr. If you’re going to war, you pray to Odin. But, back to Tuesday: so, that’s where we get Tuesday in English. Not too terribly hard to follow. What is starting to fascinate me is the link with Classical mythology. See, what’s Tuesday in French? Mardi. In Spanish it’s, what? Marte? Both from Mars. Mars is also Ares from Hercules: the Legendary Journeys. And Ares, god of Mars, holds dominion over battle. The name Mars is, in fact, where we get words like “martial.” So, that’s a neat overlap.

This gets followed up with Wednesday which used to be Odinsdaeg but through complex linguistic evolution involving things like elision and metathesis became Wednesday and it means “Odin’s Day” or, if you like Wagner, “Wotan’s Tag.” Odin, the all father, the wise, the wanderer, Gandlyr, Grimm, Gallow’s God, Glad-of-War, Grayhame… he has a lot of names. He’s also the god for lots of stuff, so, that all makes sense. What’s germaine here is that Odin is also the God of cunning, of magic, of guile, and of words. You know how Jesus was supposedly crucified for three days and then ascended to Heaven? Well, Odin was crucified for nine days. Upside down. And he lived because he is hard-fucking-core. So, instead of ascending to Heaven, for which the all father is too cool, he unlocked the secrets of magic, writing, and the runes. Woot. Cakes. And, while I could go on, this is probably a good time for me to move on to the Romantic side and talk about Mercredi, Miercoles, and Mercoledi (that’s Odin’s Day in French, Spanish, and Italian) which take their appellations from the Latin Dies Mercurii translating neatly to “the Day of Mercury.” Mercury is the classical god of commerce, communication, and magic. It’s the communication and magic part that’s actually important here, though. Same day. Different name.

This continues, by the way, even if I do not.

…meaning that I’m going to stop for now.

Thanks. The middle.