Friday’s Girl

A centuries-old puzzle has crossed my path again…

I said in a recent article that there was a dispute in many academic quarters regarding the genuine Viking deity being honored by the name,’Fridaysaid’ The cold, hard truth is that unless someone unearths a runic stone that confirms the issue — and that is not likely — only a preponderance of circumstantial evidence is going to carry the day in any such debate.

Therefore, while some while away their time considering world peace, I’ve returned to the search for Friday’s inspiration.

If you’ll remember, four of those seven days of the week are named after Norse gods:

– Tuesday is to get Tyr, the god of facts and warfare,

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

– Thursday is for Thor, the god of thunder,

– Friday, nevertheless is hidden in ambiguity.

I’d always heard the day’s name-origin came from Frigg, Odin’s elder spouse — he had over just one — which is supported by the most scholarly of English references, such as the Oxford dictionary. Others say that it was for either Frey or even Freja, who were sister and brother at the Vanir clan. Frey was the god of fertility, so it was believed essential to keep him happy; Freja had been the goddess of love and beauty, so it didn’t hurt to stay on her good side, possibly.

Frigg’s duties must be the goddess of the sky. It was a subtle task, but somebody had to do it.

Turning to cyberspace for settlement, I happened on an Exceptional manual in Norse things, The Viking Answer Lady. She is so meticulous in her material which I felt the possibility of her bringing light into the issue was rather good. So, I contacted . To say she did her study is the understatement. Here’s her reply to me:

“Considering that Western Europe all initially derived from Indo-European tribes, so we discover that there were lots of correspondences between the many branches — maybe not accurate, one-for-one individuality, but concepts are obviously related. So it’s no surprise to discover that the symbolism and pruning of the times of the week, along with the number of times per week, could be fairly much the exact same in all of the descendants of the Indo-Europeans.

“You can see the day-name correspondences in additional languages which descend from Indo-European:

“Ancient Greek contains: 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 dies (Moon-day, Monday), Martis dies (Mars-Day, Tuesday), Mercurii dies (Mercury’s day, Wednesday), Jovis dies (Jove’s afternoon, Thursday), Veneris dies (Venus’ day, Friday), Saturni dies (Saturn’s day, Saturday) or rather Christian Sabbatum or even Sabbati dies (Sabbath day), Solis dies (Sunday)or rather Christian Dominicus dies (Lord’s day)

“Not surprisingly, the love languages clearly derive their afternoon titles from Latin, except for Portugese, that numbers the times:

“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 afternoon, Tuesday); Quarta-Feira (4th afternoon, Wednesday); Quinta-Feira (5th afternoon, Thursday); Sexta-Feira (6th afternoon, Friday); Sbado (Sabbath, Saturday); Domingo (Lord’s Day, Sunday)

“The Celtic languages have obtained and preserved the Latin titles of those times, and borrowed heavily 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 even Di-ciadaoin (day of the initial fast of the week – Friday being the 2nd quickly ); Diardaoin (the day between the 2 fasts of Wednesday and Friday); Di-haoine or even Dia-aoine (day of this rapid ) Di-sathuirn (Saturn day); Di-dmhnuich (Lord’s day)

“Irish: D Luan (moon/Luna day); D Mairt (Mars’ evening ); D Cadaoin (evening of the initial fast of the week); Dardaoin; D h-Aoine (the day between the 2 fasts of Wednesday and Friday); D Sathairn (Saturn’s day); D Domhnaigh (Lord’s day)

“The Germanic languages, nevertheless, can also be related. Ares/Mars was equated with Tr as a warrior god. Zeus/Jupiter was contrasted with Thrr as the god that hurled lightnings. Mercury was contrasted with all inn, because both had a function as psychompomps, the one who leads the dead to their afterlife. Aphrodite/Venus was equated with Frigga and Freyja.

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

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

“Norwegian and Danish: mandag (moon day), tirsdag (Tr’s afternoon ), onsdag (inn’s evening ), torsdag (Thrr’s day), fredag (Freyja’s/Frigga’s day), lrdag (washing afternoon ), sndag (sun day)

“Swedish: mndag (moon day), tisdag (Tr’s afternoon ), onsdag (inn’s evening ), torsdag (Thrr’s afternoon ), fredag (Freyja/Frigga’s afternoon ), lrdag (wash day), sndag (sun day)

“Old English: mondg or monandg (moon day); tiwesdg (Tiw’s day, Tr’s evening ); wodnesdg (Wotan’s/inn’s evening ); thunresdg (Thrr’s evening ); 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 evening ); Trsdei (Thrr’s evening ); Fridei (Frigga’s/ / Freyja’s day); sennin (sun-evening); sennedei (sun day)

“Etymologically, it’s impossible to tell for certain whether the’Friday’ words derive from Frigga or Freyja (at least so I am told, I am not even a philologist or linguistics expert). We could tell from the cognates the name is out of a goddess equated with Venus and Aphrodite.

“We enter further problems because’Freyja’ is derived from origins meaning only’lady’ while’Frigga’ comes from origins related to’beloved.’ There have been many scholars who insist that Frigga and Freyja are only different titles for the same goddess.

“None the less, undoubtedly’Friday’ comes from the name of one of both of these goddeses, rather than from the name of this god Freyr.”

Now, that is the type of researched thoroughness that may achieve Master’s degrees. It is a preponderance of proof that may carry the day in a court of lawenforcement. Even though she just eliminated among the three contenders to the name of Friday’s Namesake, the Viking Answer Lady has gone above and beyond the call of duty to provide me with the information that I asked.

I’m sure glad I didn’t tell her that I was only hoping to win a bar bet.