Four days of the English week are named after gods that the Vikings worshipped. Every time you say Thursday you are saying Thor's day, whether you mean to or not. The full story is a little more tangled than that, because the names reached English through the Anglo-Saxons and were modelled on a Roman original.
The seven days at a glance
| Day | Named after | Norse god | Old Norse name |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday | The sun | Sol, the sun goddess | sunnudagr |
| Monday | The moon | Mani, the moon god | manadagr |
| Tuesday | Tiw | Tyr | tysdagr |
| Wednesday | Woden | Odin | odinsdagr |
| Thursday | Thunor | Thor | thorsdagr |
| Friday | Frig | Frigg | frjadagr |
| Saturday | Saturn, a Roman god | None | laugardagr |
A Roman idea in northern dress
The seven day week came north from the Roman Empire, where each day belonged to one of the seven heavenly bodies known at the time and to the god that went with it. The Germanic peoples adopted the system in the first few centuries AD and swapped each Roman god for the nearest one of their own. Mars, the god of war, became Tiw. Mercury became Woden, Jupiter the thunderer became Thunor, and Venus became Frig.
You can still see the Roman originals in French, where Tuesday to Friday are mardi, mercredi, jeudi and vendredi.
Tuesday, the day of Tyr
Tyr was a god of war and of law, and the bravest of the gods. When the gods needed to bind the monstrous wolf Fenrir, the wolf would only allow it if one of them placed a hand in his mouth as a pledge of good faith. Tyr was the only one willing, and he lost the hand when the wolf found he had been tricked.
Wednesday, the day of Odin
Woden is the Old English form of Odin, and Wednesday is Woden's day worn smooth by centuries of use. Odin was the chief of the gods and the god of wisdom, poetry, war and the dead. He gave an eye in exchange for a drink from the well of wisdom, and he is said to have discovered the runes. The Romans matched him with Mercury, probably because both were wanderers who guided the souls of the dead.
Thursday, the day of Thor
Thor was the god of thunder and the defender of gods and people alike, armed with his hammer Mjolnir. The Old English name for him was Thunor, which is the same word as thunder, and Thursday was originally thunder's day. The modern spelling owes something to the Old Norse form brought over by Viking settlers. In German the day is still Donnerstag, which means thunder day.
Friday, the day of Frigg
Frigg was the wife of Odin and the goddess of marriage and the household, said to know every person's fate without ever revealing it. Her Old English name was Frig, which gives us Friday. Many people link the day to Freya instead, the Norse goddess of love, and the confusion is understandable. The two goddesses have a great deal in common, and some scholars think they began as a single figure.
Saturday, the odd one out
English kept the Roman name for Saturday, the day of Saturn, and nobody is sure why no northern god was put in his place. The Vikings went their own way and called it laugardagr, which means washing day. Saturday was bath day in Scandinavia, and it still is in name, as lördag in Swedish and lørdag in Danish. A later English chronicle grumbled that the Danes combed their hair daily and bathed every Saturday, and that this made them unfairly popular with women.
Sunday and Monday
The sun and moon kept their days in every version of the week. In Norse myth they are a sister and brother, Sol and Mani, who drive chariots across the sky pursued by two wolves. At the end of the world the wolves finally catch them.
Why Iceland is different
Iceland, the most Norse country of all, is the one place where the old gods were removed from the week. A bishop named Jon Ogmundsson campaigned against the pagan names in the early twelfth century, and Icelanders have used plain replacements ever since. Tuesday is the third day, Wednesday is midweek, Thursday is the fifth day and Friday is the fast day. Saturday, pleasingly, is still washing day.
Did the Vikings give us these names
Not quite. The Anglo-Saxons were using these names in England before the first Viking raid in 793. The Anglo-Saxons and the Norse were related peoples who had worshipped the same family of gods, which is why Woden and Odin, or Thunor and Thor, are so clearly the same figures. What the Vikings added, when they settled in England, was a second layer of the same tradition and a push towards some of the spellings we use now.
To meet the whole family, see our guide to the Norse gods and goddesses. For more Norse survivals in everyday English, see our guides to Viking sayings and Viking names.
Common questions
Which days of the week are named after Norse gods?
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. They are named after Tiw, Woden, Thunor and Frig, which are the Old English names for the gods the Vikings called Tyr, Odin, Thor and Frigg.
Is Friday named after Freya or Frigg?
Most scholars say Frigg, the wife of Odin. Her Old English name was Frig, which gives Friday directly. Freya is a separate goddess in Norse myth, although the two are similar and may once have been the same figure.
Why is Saturday not named after a Norse god?
English kept the Roman name, Saturn's day. The Vikings called it laugardagr, which means washing day or bath day, and it is still lördag in Swedish and lørdag in Danish and Norwegian.
Did the Vikings give us the days of the week?
Not directly. The English names were in place before the Viking age, brought by the Anglo-Saxons, who worshipped the same family of gods under slightly different names.
Last reviewed 12 November 2026