Wodens Day

Have you ever wondered why the day we term "Humpday" is spelled Wednesday?  I sure have, and I just recently thought I learned why.  It was so interesting, along with the names of the other six days of the week, that I want to share it with you. 

Now, I cannot claim credit for all this research, because I do have a source and a good one at that; California Technical Institute, (a.k.a. CalTech).  And I could just give you the link to their website and let you look it up for yourself, but I'd rather risk charges of plagiarism and print out the text for you.

I received a message from my nephew, Dan, with the subject line: Wodens Day, and I was at a loss to figure out what that meant, so I asked in my reply.  Here is what I received as his follow up.

Woden was a Germanic god (Saxon, but based on the Norse 'Odin'), from whom the name Wednesday derives...

From the Caltech website:

Origin of the Names of the Days of the Week

• Sunday: Sunnenday (Middle English translation of Greek Hemera heliou): the sun's day,
• Monday: Monan daeg (Anglo Saxon, monan, moon; daeg, Anglo Saxon, day): the moon's day,
• Tuesday: Tiwes daeg (Anglo Saxon Tiw, war god, related to Greek god Zeus): Tiw's day,
• Wednesday: Woensdag (Danish, Woen, Woden, Chief Norse god, Frigga's husband; dag, day): Woden's day,
• Thursday: Thursdaeg (Old English; Thorr, Icelandic, thundergod): Thor's day,
• Friday: Frigedaeg (Anglo Saxon; Frige, Frigga, chief Norse goddess, Woden's wife): Frigga's day,
• Saturday: Saeterdaeg (Anglo Saxon; Saeter, Saturn, Roman god of time): Saturn's day.

(Dan's words) Interestingly, although the names sound entirely different, the gods used on each day correspond to the same roman gods used to name the same days of the week in the Romance Languages, and ALSO correspond to the same 7 moving heavenly bodies known to the Greeks as 'planetas', or 'wanderers' (the Sun and Moon were 2 of the 7 planets because these 7 objects uniquely moved through the fixed stars) - that's why, although your hands have 5 digits, and the natural units with which to count are 5s and 10s, there are 7 days of the week!  In 'calendric' order:  Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn [Uranus and Neptune are too dim to be seen with the unaided eye].

Well, I still don't know why they spell that middle day of the week W-e-d-n-e-s-d-a-y.  Do you?  Does anyone know?