Study › Runes & Norse › The Days of the Week
Four days of the English week are named after the Norse gods: Tuesday for Tyr, Wednesday for Odin (Woden), Thursday for Thor and Friday for Frigg.
Which days are named after Norse gods?
Four days of the English week are named after the gods of the North, whose names came into English through the Anglo-Saxons, who shared much of the old Germanic faith.
Tuesday is Tyr's day, from the Old English Tiwesdæg. Wednesday is Woden's day, Wodnesdæg — Woden being the Anglo-Saxon name for Odin. Thursday is the day of Thunor, the English Thor. And Friday is the day of Frigg, Frigedæg, the wife of Odin.
Why the days have these names
The names came from the Roman week. The Romans named their days after their gods and the planets, and the Germanic peoples swapped in their own gods for the Roman ones: Tyr, god of war, for Mars; Woden, the wanderer and guide of souls, for Mercury; Thunor, the thunderer, for Jupiter; and Frigg for Venus. Saturday kept its Roman name, for Saturn, and Sunday and Monday belong to the Sun and the Moon — in the North, Sol and Mani. The same gods name the days in Dutch and the Scandinavian languages, and most of them in German, where Wednesday became plain 'mid-week', Mittwoch.
Read about Tyr, Odin, Thor and Frigg, and Sol and Mani for Sunday and Monday.
Questions
Which day is named after Odin?
Wednesday, Woden's day.
Is Saturday named after a Norse god?
No. It kept its Roman name, for Saturn.