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The Days of the Week and Dark Age Politics

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The Days of the Week and Dark Age Politics The days of the week and Dark Age politics Rausing, Gad Fornvännen 90:4, 229-239 http://kulturarvsdata.se/raa/fornvannen/html/1995_229 Ingår i: samla.raa.se The days of the week and Dark Age politics By Gad Rausing Rausing, G. 1995. The days of the week and Dark Age politics. Fornvännen 90, Stockholm. It is advocated that by the intermediary of returning soldiers and officials the Ger- mani of the North adopted not only the concept of the seven-day week but also the names of the days of the week from the Romans of the late Empire. They re- named them by association to their own gods. The Romans themselves seem to have introduced the seven-day week during the reign of Augustus although lhe days of the week may not have been named until considerably låter. The setling up of the state cult to Sol Invictus by Aurelian in 274 is considered of crucial im­ portance. This may have been the time when the first day of the week was named alter the chief god of the imperial house. In the Migration Perieid the political di­ vision of Europé is also mirrored in the terminology of the week days. A Gothic, a Frankish and a Northern vexabulary evolved. The Bajuvari and the Alamanni adopted Gothic terms, which were derived from Greek. The Franks borrowed those of their catholic Latin subjects and the Germani of Seandinavia and the North Sea coast translated the Latin terms into their own language. Gad Rausing, Case Postale 22, CH-1820 Terrilet, SwilzerUind. We do not know how our earliest ancestors the whole period has been named the "Roman counted time. Some way of determing the time Iron Age". Many finds testify to the close trade of the year must have been necessary even be­ relations between the Roman Empire and fore the emergence of politically organized so­ Seandinavia in the former's heyday, and we cieties made it so, with their demands for the may also be certain that many Scandinavians various time-related services performed by the visited the Empire and served in the Empire's citizen. Agriculture became possible only when forces. Such contacts have left traces beyond the farmers could defme and determine the the purely material ones. We can see the Ro­ times of the various recurrent activities, even man influence in many fields, such as political the earliest farmers must be able to determine organization, dress, arms and armour, lan­ the proper time for sowing. Dividing the year guage and religion as well as in the names of into limar months did not help, these moving the week's days. These we all know, they have through the solar year. The week as such, the been familiar to us for centuries. Some of us group of seven days, seems originally to have may even recognize Tyr, Oden, Tor and Freja been a Babyionian concept, the number being lin king behind these names, but rather few of decidecl by the sun, the moon and the five us realize that these gods are really Roman planets visible to the naked eye (Hermodsson, ones masquerading as Norse. 1970), one which seems to have been adopted In "De Bello Gallico" Caesar lists a number by the Romans in Augustus' times, although of Celtic gods, describing them by Roman the days of the week may not have been named names as "... Mercury ... Next to him they (the until considerably låter. Celtic tribes of Gallia) reverence Apollo, Mars, During the first four centuries of our era, the Jupiter and Minerva." He also notes that "the material culture of the Scandinavians was so customs of the Germani are different ... They strongly influenced by that of the Romans that recognize as gods ... the Sun, the Mexin and Fornvännen 90 (1995) 230 Gad Rausing Fire ..." Almost certainly the Germani wor- över Europé all had one group of gods in com­ shipped also other gods already i Caesar's mon, and just as all Greeks, from Sicily and day. A century låter Tacitus teils us that Massilia to Bactria, worshipped Zeus, Athena in their ancient songs, their only way of remember- and all the gods of the Olympus. Some of the ing or recording the past, (the Germani) celebrate early Germanic gods mentioned by Tacitus an earth-born god, Tuisco, and his son Mannus ... sank into oblivion, or at least we do not meet To Mannus they assign three sons ... for whom are them in Viking Age tales, whereas others sur­ named the Ingaevones, the Herminones and the Is- taevones ... Hercules once visited them ... Mercury is vived for a long time. Isis and the Twins disap­ the deity whom they chiefly worship and to whom peared without a trace, as did the Bull, whereas they offer human sacrifices on certain days (here not only the Sun but also the Moon retained speaks a civilized Roman, one whose ancestors had their power for several centuries after Taciti not practiced human sacrifice for centuries but one time. who enjoyed seeing men killed in the arena), ... they placate Hercules and Mars with regular sacrifices ... During the first four centuries of our era the Some of the Suevi also sacrifice to Isis ... Ertha or influence of Roman material culture was strong mother-Earth ... the deiues (which) are described in enough in Seandinavia for the perkxi to be Roman language as Castor and Polux ... the name called the "Roman Iron Age", even though no being Alcis ... (Could this be a mistake for "Alces"?) part of Seandinavia was ever occupied or Do the twin axe-men from Stockhult and settled by the Romans. It should be noted that those from Grevensvaenge as well as the figures rather few Roman objects of the types so com­ on the bronze tubes from Fogdarp represent mon in south Seandinavia have been found in these divine twins? Quite evidently the Norse Germania Libera. It seems that, at the time, the pantheon of the time housed also other gods, Germanic nations in direct contact with the Ro­ of whom we know little, among them the Sun mans on the Limes were hostile, whereas the and the Moon, mentioned by Caesar. Romans could maintain contacts with German­ Låter, Mercury was to be identified with ic nations behind their enemies. The lack of Oden, although Tacitus does not refer to Oden Roman artefacts in the western parts of pres- as we know him but to his "predecessor", the ent-day Germany suggests that Germanic war­ old spear-god of the Bronze Age, probably that riors from the nations living there did not en­ same Mercury of the Cimbri to whom the two ter the Roman service. inscriptions south of Miltenberg on the Rhine At the time of the Empire many Germani were dedicated sometime in early imperial served Rome, mostly men from far beyond the times. Tacitus did not mean that the Celts and limes. Many of those who survived their period the Germani worshipped Roman Mercury, of service returned to the "old country", there Hercules and Mars nor Egyptian Isis but gods to be buried with their Roman weapons and of their own, gods whose functions more or less decorations. Such returning soldiers and offici- corresponded to those of the Romans, gods als were well versed in Roman thought and whom he could best describe to this readers by traditiems, probably influendng their country- making them the "barbarian counterparts" of men to a certain extent. Most likely the Ger­ the latter. mani of Seandinavia and adjacent countries im­ The Germanic god whom Cesar called Sol ported not only material but also immaterial was probably the old Germanic sky god, Ull, goods from the Roman province, among these and those gods whom Cesar equated with the concept of the seven-day week and the Moon and with Fire were respectivdy a moon knowledge of the gods to whom the days of the goddess corresponding to Diana or Luna, and Roman week were dedicated. Tor, the god of lightning and of thunder, Who were these gods, whom do we find in probably the one to whom men sacrificed axes our Christian diary? already in neolithie times. Even though there French quite clearly retains the names of lhe were many local gods the main gods were the Roman gods liir whom the days were named, same all över the Germanic world, just as, some whereas the Germani evidently substitutet! centuries earlier, the numerous Celtic tribes all their own gods för those of Rome in these Fornvännen 90(1995) The days of lhe week and Dark Age politics 231 Latin French English Swedish Dies Domini Sol Dimanche Sunday Söndag Dies Lunae Luna Lundi Monday Måndag Dies Martis Mars Mardi Tuesday Tisdag Dies Mercuri Mercury Mercredi Wednesday Onsdag Diesjovis Jove Jeudi Thursday Torsdag Dies Veneris Venus Vendredi Friday Fredag Dies Saturni Saturn Samedi Saturday Lördag names. Rydbeck (Lars Rydbeck, pers. comm. makes it quite clear that Sun was one of the 11/1 1995), suggests that naming the days for chief gods also of the Iron-Age Germani. gods in the Roman pantheon may have been Already at the time of the republic Sol, the connected with the important part played by sun, was one of the most populär and promi­ astrology at this time and låter. Thus "dies So­ nent gods of Rome and even though some of lis" and "dies Lunae" may have been inspired his attributes were låter assigned to Apollo, by not by Sol Invictus and by divine Luna but by the end of the second century the sun, Sol, the the sun and the moon as celestial bodies, just as god who ruled in heaven, became the main the names of the other days of the week may god of the Severan emperors.
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