Tuesday

The word "Tuesday" originates from the name of the God of war, sky, and courage known as Tiw who was one of the Anglo-Saxon Gods. There are many different translations of his name, which are Tiwaz, Tyr, Ziu, or Tir (The Nordic Story, p.1). The Germanic translation of Tuesday was Tiwes-daeg or the day of Tiw (Tiwesdaeg, p.1). Tiw was one of the most powerful, original, and oldest gods known to the Anglo-Saxons and Germanic people. Tuesday to us today is the second day of the week. People also celebrate Mardi Gras, which is known as Fat Tuesday in New Orleans. There they celebrate by having a big feast.

Tiw was one of the most powerful gods during the Germanic period but was eventually overthrown by other gods. Even though he was overthrown, he was still a strong symbol to the people. When the people went to war, they had a symbol of him stamped on their weapons representing his strong role as the god of war (Tiw, p.1).

During the Roman period, Tuesday was known as "dies Martis" or the day of Mars (Tiw, p.1). There is also a story about how Tiw (in the Roman times known as Tyr) loses his hand to Fenris the wolf that many of the gods fear (The Nordic story, p.2). The story says that the gods try to tie up Fenris so that he can not hurt anyone, but they had to trick him with a string specially made. They finally get Fenris to allow them to tie him up by betting to see how strong he is. One of them has to put his hand in Fenris's mouth so that he would think they are not tricking him. Since most of the gods fear Fenris, the only god brave enough to put his hand in his mouth is Tyr. When they finally tie up Fenris and he tries to break the string and cannot he goes mad and bites off Tyr's hand (The Nordic story).

Work Cited

English heathenism.homestead.com. Tiw 1 Dec.2003

http://www.englishheatthenism.homestead.com/godandgoddesses.html

Logofiles.com. The Nordic Story of Tiw and Fenris 1 Dec.2003

http://www.logofiles.com/a-s-tiw-fenris.html

Logofiles.com. Tiwesdaeg and Anglo-Saxon name for Tuesday 1 Dec.2003

http://www.logofiles.com/a-s-tiwesdaeg.html

By Terry Tang