TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

GODS. 129
Saxo Grammaticus, more critical, expresses his opinion (p. 103)
of the Norse nomenclature, that it is derived from the native gods,
but that these are not the same as the Latin. This he proves by
Othin and Thor, after whom the fourth and fifth days of the week
are named, as in Latin after Mercury and Jupiter. For Thor,
being Othin s son, cannot possibly be identified with Jupiter, who
is Mercury s father; consequently, neither can the Norse Othin,
Thor s father, with the Eoman Mercury, who is Jupiter s son. The
discrepancy is certainly strong, but all that it can prove is, that at
the time when Othin and Mercury began to be placed on the same
pedestal, Mercury was thought of as a Celtic divinity, probably
with attributes differing widely from his classical namesake. Saxo
is quite right in what he means, and his remark confirms the early
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heathen origin of these names of days ; yet upon occasion, as we
saw on p. 122, he lets himself be carried away after all by the over
powering identity of Thor and Jupiter (see SuppL).
The variations too in the names of the seven days among the
various Teutonic races deserve all attention ; we perceive that they
were not adopted altogether cut-and-dry, nor so retained, but that
national ideas still exercised some control over them. The later
heathenism of Friesland and Saxony caused the- old names of
Wednesday and Saturday to live on, while in Upper Germany they
soon sank into oblivion. But what is especially significant to us,
is the deviation of the Alamanns and Bavarians when we come to
the third day ; how could it have arisen at a later (Christian) time,
when the idea of the heathen god that does duty for Mars had
already become indistinct ? how came the Christian clergy, supposing
that from them the naming had proceeded, ever to sanction such a
divergence ?
The nations that lie behind us, the Slavs, the Lithuanians, do
not know the planetary names of days, they simply count like the
Greeks, 2 not because they were converted later, but because they
became acquainted with Latin culture later. The Finns and Lapps
1 Conf. Pet. Er. Muller om Saxo, p. 79.
2 The Indian nations also name their days of the week after planets ; and
it seems worth remarking here, that Wednesday is in Sanskrit Budhuvaras,
Tamil Budhunkiiramei, because some have identified Buddha with Woden. In
distinct from
reality Budhas, the ruler of Mercury and son of the moon, is quite
the prophet Buddhas (Schlegel s ind. bibl. 2. 177).
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