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From: ian@wcwvax.UUCP (Ian Kemmish)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Days of the week
Message-ID: <540@wcwvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 5-Dec-85 05:26:43 EST
Article-I.D.: wcwvax.540
Posted: Thu Dec  5 05:26:43 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 12-Dec-85 06:44:55 EST
Organization: Whitechapel Computer Works, London
Lines: 17

>    Tiw, which is cognate with ju-piter and zeus (IE. dy[eo]us = `day,sky'),
>    was equated with mars; the teutonic king of the gods (weden) was equated
>    with mercury; the god of thunder (thor) with jupiter; and the sly god
>    of fire (loki) with saturn. These equations make no sense whatsoever!
>
>    Can anybody explain this? And why do we call it `saturday' rather than
>    `leyday/lowday', which is what I suspect would be the AngloSaxon 
>    equivalent of Danish `loerdag' if it had survived?

I remember reading (admittedly in a coffee-table book!) a speculation that
Saturday came from an obscure Northern deity called "Surtur" who
*I think* presided over the time leading up to Goetterdaemmerung.
Hence, by association, became the god of "the ends of things" and in
particular the week!   I guess Surtur and Saturn could well be cognate.

I've always liked the idea; now's my chance to ask someone who might
know the answer if there's any grain of truth in it!!