# Why didn't the Anglo-Saxons replace Saturday with a Norse god? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 13, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-anglo-saxons-replace-saturday-with-a-norse-god/625066 "2012-06-13T21:27:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-anglo-saxons-replace-saturday-with-a-norse-god/625066/41 "2012-08-28T02:20:58Z")
The Anglo-Saxon word for Saturday was Saeternesdaeg, as attested in (among others) the _Euangelium secundum Iohannem_ (Gospel of St. John in West Saxon). ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-anglo-saxons-replace-saturday-with-a-norse-god/625066/42 "2012-08-28T03:08:35Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > Why that particular order? It doesn’t seem to match the order of the importance, age, or power of the gods; the brightness of the planets; the apparent distance of the planets (based on how fast they move in relation to the stars), etc. What’s the deal? [Planetary hours](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_hours). Every planet had an hour that it “ruled” in the Roman belief system, but there weren’t (obviously) enough planets to fill out the 24-hour day (or even a 12-hour half-day). So they cycled through. Each day is named for the planet that rules its first hour. So the cycle starts with the Sun, so the first day is Sunday. By the time they get through enough iterations of the cycle to get to the 1st hour of the next day, the Moon rules that. Then Mars, then Mercury, then Jupiter, then Venus, then Saturn. And at that point, the whole cycle comes back around to the Sun. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-anglo-saxons-replace-saturday-with-a-norse-god/625066/43 "2012-08-28T04:27:50Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > [Planetary hours](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_hours). Every planet had an hour that it “ruled” in the Roman belief system, but there weren’t (obviously) enough planets to fill out the 24-hour day (or even a 12-hour half-day). So they cycled through. Each day is named for the planet that rules its first hour. So the cycle starts with the Sun, so the first day is Sunday. By the time they get through enough iterations of the cycle to get to the 1st hour of the next day, the Moon rules that. Then Mars, then Mercury, then Jupiter, then Venus, then Saturn. And at that point, the whole cycle comes back around to the Sun. Thanks for the link. Although we Geminis are known for our skepticism of pseudo-science, it still makes for interesting reading. ---
**Author:** ![Hendrik\_Gert\_Strydom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f6c823/32.png) [@Hendrik\_Gert\_Strydom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hendrik_Gert_Strydom)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-anglo-saxons-replace-saturday-with-a-norse-god/625066/44 "2012-08-28T06:25:41Z")
The Babylonians named each of the days after one of the five planetary bodies known to them and after the Sun and the Moon, a custom later adopted by the Romans. For a time the Romans used a period of eight days in civil practice, but in AD 321 Emperor Constantine established the seven-day week in the Roman calendar and designated Sunday as the first day of the week. Subsequent days bore the names Moon’s-day, Mars’s-day, Mercury’s-day, Jupiter’s-day, Venus’-day, and Saturn’s-day. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-anglo-saxons-replace-saturday-with-a-norse-god/625066/45 "2012-08-28T10:30:03Z")
> [@jbaker](#): > > It’s because English is a Germanic language. Our core vocabulary, including the names of the days of the week, derives from earlier Germanic antecedents. My reference to “the Norse” was because of your error; we don’t actually care about the Norse. Indeed. From my understand (and I could be VERY wrong here), what we commonly refer to as the “Norse Gods” were used by many Germanic Pagan people with minor name differences. Regarding the days of the week, a good example of this is Wednesday, which is not based on Odin, the source of “Onsdag” which is used here in Sweden, but instead Woden, an Anglo Saxon God roughly equivalent to Odin. As to why we refer to them as “Norse”, my guess is that as the Nordic region converted to Christianity a lot later than everyone else they held on to them for a lot longer. Thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-anglo-saxons-replace-saturday-with-a-norse-god/625066/46 "2012-08-28T14:33:57Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > The irony is that Saturn is the one planet that was dropped from the weekly lineup in Romance languages; they switched to _sabato_. Sabbath. So it makes a sort of symmetry. If Saturn was dropped by the post-Romans, at least it was adopted by the Teutons. One interesting tidbit in the article linked to above was that when Jews first came to Rome in the 1st c. BCE, the Romans linked the Jewish God to Saturn, so it was appropriate that their holy day should fall on Saturday. ---
**Author:** ![Hendrik\_Gert\_Strydom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f6c823/32.png) [@Hendrik\_Gert\_Strydom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hendrik_Gert_Strydom)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-anglo-saxons-replace-saturday-with-a-norse-god/625066/47 "2012-08-28T17:25:21Z")
In Latin it was Dies Saturni, ‘Day of Saturn’, hence the French samedi. The Spanish and Portuguese Sábado, the Romanian Sâmbătă, and the Italian Sabato come from Sabbata Dies (Day of the Sabbath). ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-anglo-saxons-replace-saturday-with-a-norse-god/625066/48 "2012-08-28T18:01:08Z")
> [@Hendrik\_Gert\_Strydom](#): > > In Latin it was Dies Saturni, ‘Day of Saturn’, hence the French samedi. The Spanish and Portuguese Sábado, the Romanian Sâmbătă, and the Italian Sabato come from Sabbata Dies (Day of the Sabbath). According to wiktionary at least, Samedi comes from dies Sabbati, not dies Saturni. ---
**Author:** ![Hendrik\_Gert\_Strydom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f6c823/32.png) [@Hendrik\_Gert\_Strydom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hendrik_Gert_Strydom)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-anglo-saxons-replace-saturday-with-a-norse-god/625066/49 "2012-08-29T05:20:23Z")
Yes, in Old French samedi was Sambedi, from Vulgar Latin Sambati dies, meaning day of the Sabbath. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-anglo-saxons-replace-saturday-with-a-norse-god/625066/50 "2012-08-29T06:04:46Z")
Only one children’s encyclo I read said Saturday was named after Surtur, the Norse fire god. The rest said it was the latin Saturn. ---
**Author:** ![Hendrik\_Gert\_Strydom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f6c823/32.png) [@Hendrik\_Gert\_Strydom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hendrik_Gert_Strydom)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-anglo-saxons-replace-saturday-with-a-norse-god/625066/51 "2012-08-29T07:25:23Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > One interesting tidbit in the article linked to above was that when Jews first came to Rome in the 1st c. BCE, the Romans linked the Jewish God to Saturn, so it was appropriate that their holy day should fall on Saturday. After thorough consideration and analysis of the myths of the different developed peoples of ancient times, I came to the conclusion that all the religions originated from humanity’s study and attempt to fix time and the seasons. The weal and woe, or the so-called fortune of people, has been determined by the seasons (i.e. the weather) since the earliest times. All the main mythical deities, namely Odin (Old Norse), YHWH (Hebrew), Brahma (Hinduism), Anu (Sumerian), Ptah (Egyptian) and Ollin Tonatiuh “Movement of the Sun” (Aztecs), symbolize the sum-total of the year’s seasons. The stone circles, that were initially meant to divide the year into seasons, were apparently the cradles of the various faiths! ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-anglo-saxons-replace-saturday-with-a-norse-god/625066/52 "2012-08-29T15:03:28Z")
> [@Hendrik\_Gert\_Strydom](#): > > After thorough consideration and analysis of the myths of the different developed peoples of ancient times, I came to the conclusion that all the religions originated from humanity’s study and attempt to fix time and the seasons. The weal and woe, or the so-called fortune of people, has been determined by the seasons (i.e. the weather) since the earliest times. All the main mythical deities, namely Odin (Old Norse), YHWH (Hebrew), Brahma (Hinduism), Anu (Sumerian), Ptah (Egyptian) and Ollin Tonatiuh “Movement of the Sun” (Aztecs), symbolize the sum-total of the year’s seasons. The stone circles, that were initially meant to divide the year into seasons, were apparently the cradles of the various faiths! Congratulations, you have invented a theory of mythology that has been discredited for a century already. Tell the ghost of Max Müller hello for me. ---
**Author:** ![Hendrik\_Gert\_Strydom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f6c823/32.png) [@Hendrik\_Gert\_Strydom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hendrik_Gert_Strydom)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-anglo-saxons-replace-saturday-with-a-norse-god/625066/53 "2012-08-29T16:58:13Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Congratulations, you have invented a theory of mythology that has been discredited for a century already. Tell the ghost of Max Müller hello for me. I prefer Origine de tous les cultes (1795). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-anglo-saxons-replace-saturday-with-a-norse-god/625066.md?page=2)