As
Webster points out so well below, the name 'Wednesday' comes from
Woden - also known as
Odin. Yet, the name for
Wednesday in the romantic languages is Mercredi (
French) from
Mercury. This causes people to wonder - one a nice "one to one" mapping for the rest of the days of the week, why is such an apparent break with Wednesday?
French Day | planet | Norse Deity | English Day
Lundie | Moon | | Monday (moon day)
Mardi | Mars | Tyr | Tuesday
Mercredi | Mercury | Woden | Wednesday
Jeudi | Jupiter | Thor | Thursday
Vendredi | Venus | Freya | Friday
Samedi | Saturn | Loki (?) | Saturday
Dimanche | Sun | | Sunday (sun's day)
Some of these take a bit a bit of twisting to get to but make sense after
a bit.
- Tyr is the god of war - just as is Mars.
- Thor and Jupiter are both thunder gods.
- Freya is a fertility goddess, and Frey is a fertility god, and Frigg was the goddess of marriage - wife of Odin. Choose your F'ing god(dess) that matches with Venus.
- Loki was called Sataere (realize there is a bit of debate on this
topic) - the thief in ambush and as a god of agriculture.
So, now back to the Wednesday Woden/Mercury issue. While some would associate Mercury (Roman) or Hermes (Greek) more with Loki as the trickster and patron to rogues, Mercury has another aspect to him - that of the god of travelers, heralds and some aspects of wisdom and the god who lead the dead to the realm of Hades. Odin is seen as the god of travelers and bards, of poetry and of wisdom - and of death. His halls are that of Valhalla, where the slain warriors go. Among the names for Odin was that of All Father, Ygg, and Bolverk - the last meaning Evil Doer.
Woden and Mercury wern't that far apart.
http://webexhibits.org/calendars/week.html
http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~cherryne/mythology.html