Whose day? Tue'sday!
07/12/2014
I was thinking today as I watched people at work putting up Christmas decorations that I would bet most of them wouldn't know the "pagan" origin or meaning of most of the decoration's symbology. Holly, Christmas trees, etc.
(For more on that subject, see my blog entry of 22/12/14: - "The Accoutrements of Xmas") Then I thought, "Just like most people don't even know why there are 60 seconds in a minute, or seven days in a week, or blue for boys. (Odd one that, look it up.) or where the names of the days of the week come from." Then I stopped in the middle of the week and thought, "Wait a minute, where the hell did Tuesday come from?" |
I could rattle off:
As for Tuesday, I couldn't dredge up a single hint of meaning from my poor puzzled grey matter.
It turns out that Tuesday is named after yet another Norse god, Tiw, or Týr.
"The English name is derived from Old English Tiwesdæg and Middle English Tewesday, meaning "Tīw's Day", the day of Tiw or Týr, the god of single combat, and law and justice in Norse mythology." - Wikipedia.
Click here for the full Wikipedia entry for "Tuesday".
From what I can gather, literally, on the web, Týr is sort of a diminished remnant of a once-central god, pushed into the background by newer ones. See Wikipedia's entry on Týr. See also p.s. 18/10/22 below.
Týr is also involved in some trickery with a mythical wolf Fenrir, and loses his hand. (See picture above; his left hand can be seen in the jaws of Fenrir.)
p.s. 18/10/22 I came across a YouTube channel, Crecganford, with "Academic videos discussing Indo-European mythology, history, and culture." I found an episode regarding Týr, "Tyr vs Odin as chief god - Who led the Old Norse Pantheon originally?" which covers him pretty thoroughly.
Interesting to me is the fact that the "Týr" rune (left) is identical to the brand-mark I used to see engraved by the old BPO (British Post Office) on telephone exchange maintenance tools that had been imported to NZ.
- Sunday Sun's day
- Monday Moon's day
- Wednesday Wodan's day
- Thursday Thor's day
- Friday Frigg's day
- Saturday Saturn's day (the only Roman one, the rest are Norse/Germanic)
As for Tuesday, I couldn't dredge up a single hint of meaning from my poor puzzled grey matter.
It turns out that Tuesday is named after yet another Norse god, Tiw, or Týr.
"The English name is derived from Old English Tiwesdæg and Middle English Tewesday, meaning "Tīw's Day", the day of Tiw or Týr, the god of single combat, and law and justice in Norse mythology." - Wikipedia.
Click here for the full Wikipedia entry for "Tuesday".
From what I can gather, literally, on the web, Týr is sort of a diminished remnant of a once-central god, pushed into the background by newer ones. See Wikipedia's entry on Týr. See also p.s. 18/10/22 below.
Týr is also involved in some trickery with a mythical wolf Fenrir, and loses his hand. (See picture above; his left hand can be seen in the jaws of Fenrir.)
p.s. 18/10/22 I came across a YouTube channel, Crecganford, with "Academic videos discussing Indo-European mythology, history, and culture." I found an episode regarding Týr, "Tyr vs Odin as chief god - Who led the Old Norse Pantheon originally?" which covers him pretty thoroughly.
Interesting to me is the fact that the "Týr" rune (left) is identical to the brand-mark I used to see engraved by the old BPO (British Post Office) on telephone exchange maintenance tools that had been imported to NZ.