Thank god it's Thor's Day!

The origins of the names of the days of the week is something I thought I knew, but did not, at least not entirely. Here is a brief explanation of each name:

Sunday - Sun's Day - named after the Sun, which was worshipped as a god.

Monday - Moon's Day - named after the Moon, which was the wife of the Sun. Good thing they didn't forget the wife! A woman's temper, ya know.

Tuesday - Tyr's Day or Tiw's Day - named after the god of battle, whom the Saxons called Tiw and the Norsemen called Tyr. He was missing a hand, bitten off by Fenrir, a wolf spirit. (The character Fenrir Grayback in the Harry Potter book series is a werewolf and no doubt named for this wolf spirit.)

Wednesday - Woden's Day - named after Woden, the greatest of the Teutonic gods and god of war, death, fertility and wisdom. He lived in a gold and silver palace called Valhalla. He rode an 8-legged horse. He was surrounded by the Valkyries, a group of maidens with helmets and spears who collected the souls of dead warriors and brought them to Valhalla to dine with Woden.

Thursday - Thor's Day - named for Thor, the strongest of the Teutonic gods. He was known to have a quick temper, but he was beloved by humans and he took his temper out mainly on Giants.

Friday - Frigg's Day - named after Frigg, the goddess of love and pleasure, wife of Woden and either mother or stepmother to Thor. They gave her a day to keep her from getting jealous that her son and hubby had a day. A lot of appeasing of women back then. Frigg was often called upon to assist women giving birth. Now I bet a lot of mothers out there screamed out "Frigg!" (or perhaps its less-polite 4-lettered form) while pushing that baby out.

Saturday - Named after the Roman god Saturn. Saturn ate almost all of his children because he thought one of them would overthrow him. When he went to eat Jupiter, the sixth child, his wife gave him a rock wrapped in clothing instead. A hungry man will eat almost anything! Jupiter escaped harm, grew up, and overthrew Saturn to become king of the gods.