Dyaus in the Germanic Weekdays

jwr1947

In his book German Mythology (Deutsche Mythologie)1 Jacob Grimm documents the ancient entries for the Germanic days of the week, which had been registered in medieval manuscripts and inscriptions. The weekdays' names are known to document the archaic divine names for some of the mayor pagan deities, which may help us to identify the archaic pronouns for several Germanic dialects. According to Jacob Grimm the Germanic weekdays have been centered around Wednesday, which has been devoted to the principal Germanic deity UUodan2, whose name varied from Odin in North Germanic to Wden in West Germanic and Godan in Lombardic. Wden had been flanked3 by two sons Thyr and Thur, who may be considered as etymological twins. Tyr4 and Thur5 may even have represented the Y- and U-antipodes of the PIE-sky-god Dyeus' yeu-core. Both Tyr and Thor have been correlated to the sky-god Dyaus 6 and all three have been memorized in one of the days of the week: Tuesday: Tr (Old Norse), Tw, Tg (both Old English), Ziu (Old High German), Dis (Dutch). This deity has been from Proto-Germanic *Twaz "God and correlated to Dyaus. The name Dis had been recorded by Julius Caesar, in Commentaries on the Gallic Wars VI:18, where he says that the Gauls all claimed descent from Dis Pater (Proto-IndoEuropean Dyeus Phter)7 Wednesday (In French devoted to Mercury) : Odin: inn (North Germanic), Wden (West Germanic), *Wdanaz (Proto-Germanic) (see List of names of Odin for more)8. In the Swabian altar the principal deity Odin had been placed in the center, flanked by his sons Tyr and Thor. Wdanes dag (Wdan's day) for the fourth day of the week, for in Westphalia it is still called Godenstag, Gonstag, Gaunstag, Gunstag, at Aix Gouesdag, in Lower Rhen. urkunden Gudestag, Gnther, 3, 585. 611 (A.D. 1380-7), Gudenstag, Kindlinger hrigk. p. 577-8 (A.D. 1448).----Thursday: Thor: rr (North Germanic), unor (Old English), Thunaer (Old Saxon), Donar (Southern Germanic areas)

1 Edition Gttingen: Dieterich, 1835 2 Wden in Old English 3 Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie (supplement notes to page 105, Swabian Altar), Chapter VI. Gtter (Gods) p. 127 n. ): On the Roman altar in Swabia, see Stlin, 1, 111. One the circle of planetary gods, Lersch in Jb. d. Rheinlande iv. 183. v. 298-314. The 8 figures on the altar may signify the gods of nundinae. Ther Germ. week has Odin in the middle, his sons Tyr and Thor next to him: Mars, Mercury, Jupiter. 4 Tr (Old Norse), Tw, Tg (Old English), Ziu (Old High German), *Twaz 5 unor (Old English), Thunaer (Old Saxon), Thor (North Germanic), Donar (Southern Germanic areas) 6 See: List of Germanic deities 7 In ancient Roman mythology, Dis Pater ("Father Dis") is the ruler of the underworld and is named as such in the sixth book of Vergil's "Aeneid", one of the principal influences on Dante in his depiction of hell. 8 In Old-Saxon/Westphalia Wdenes Day seems to have been named Godenstag and in the lower Rhine region Gudenstag (which may be correlating to God?)

The derivation of ego-pronouns

Mediterranean ego-pronouns
In the Mediterranean area the days of the week suggest to derive the divine names from the Thursday's names, which result in the following list of vowel sequences as familiar divine names and may have been valid around 100-300 AD9: iaou, jous, Yow, Yaou, a, jeu, joi, Jov, Jou or Jovis, gio, joi, jue, Iau Simultaneously southern-European Ego-pronouns10 seem to consist of genuine concentrated vowelsequences such as11: ieu, iu m, jou, jau, eau, ego, jeg, jag, jk, jak, iak, ich, ick, ek, *ik, ih, ic, i, ik, k, ek, eg, g , eo, je, eu, iu, yo, jo, ja, : (ja), j and Y, I.

Germanic ego-pronouns
For its correlation to the ego-pronouns (in Germanic language mostly Ih, respectively I) the most important Germanic deities are those which are related to Tuesday: Tr, Tiw, Tig and Ziu. This deity mainly is attested in the Poetic Edda, Prose Edda, skaldic poems and Hadrian's Wall altar. In English Wycliffe's ego-pronoun Y may correlate to Old-Frisian Tysdei, Old Norse Tysdagr, Finnish tystai, Old-Saxon dynsdais. The modern ego-pronoun I may correlate to Mid.-Dutch disdag, Dissendag, New Frisian tisdej, Swedish Tisdag,, Swed. Lapp. Tisdag12. Although the divine triad Wden, Tyr and Thur suggest to consider a divine triad-structure the egopronouns do not reveal such an equivalent triad-structure or a bipolar IU-structure. The English ego-pronoun I and Y as well as the old-German ego-pronoun Ih seem to be correlated to Tis respectively Dis. The Germanic ego-pronouns do not match the general Mediterranean triad-structure ieu, a, and jou, which had been encoded in the weekdays devoted to Thursday (respectively Jupiter).

9 10 11 12

The Key Morpheme - analyzing the PIE-concept The personal pronoun for the first person singular The Key Morpheme - analyzing the PIE-concept Appendix: Tuesday in Grimm's German Mythology

Appendix: Tuesday in Grimm's German Mythology

The most important chapter is Chapter. 6 - Gods , from which we retrieve the following entries for Tuesday's names:

German
Old High German: dies Martis, prob. Ziuwes tac (Ziu's day) among Alamanns; in the 11th cent. Cies dac (Cie's, Zie's day), Gl. blas. 76; (22) prob. different among Bavarians and Lombards.-Mid. High German: The former, by a remarkable variation, was in Bavaria named Eritac, Erctac (Tuesday) (the true form not quite certain, eritag in Adelung's vat. hss. 2, 189. ergetag in Berth. 122; see examples collected from urkunden, Schm. 1, 96-7), in Swabia on the contrary Ziestac (Zie's day), for Ziewestac (Ziew's day). Both of these forms, which have nothing to do with each other, live to this day in the speech of the common people: Bav. ierte, Austr. irta, irita, Vicentino-Germ. ert, Alem. ziestag, zinstag, ziestig, zistig, zienstig, zinstag. The insertion of the liquid has corrupted the word, and brought in quite irrelevant notions. In central Germany the form diestag, ticstag (Tie's day?) seems to predominate (diestik in the Rhn), whence our dienstag (less correctly dinstag, there is good reason for the ie); the spelling dingstag (thing's day), as if from ding, thing, judicium, is false; dinstag occurs in Gaupps magdeb. recht p. 272. New High German: Dienstag (Tuesday).

Old Saxon
The third day was probably Tiwesdag (Tiw's day),

Dutch
Mid.: Disendach, Maerl. 2, 140. al. Dicendach, Dissendach, Cannaert strafrecht, pp. 124, 481 apparently corrupted from Tisdach (Ti's day). New Dutch: dingsdag (thing's-day), formerly dinsdag, Dissendag. Old Frisian: Tysdei (Ty's-day). New Frisian: Tyesdey (Ty's-day). North Frisian: Tirsdei (Tir's-day).

Anglo-Saxon
Tiwes dg (Tw's day).

Skandinavian
Old Norse: Tyrsdagr, Tysdagr. Swedish: Tisdag (Ti's-day), whence even Finn. tystai. Danish: Tirsdag (Tir's-day).

Dated

Language Alamannic

Tuesday-Usage Ziuwes Tac, zeistig, zistag, zinstag, ziestig, zistig, zienstig, zeinstig Cies Tac

Ego-pronouns (reconstructed) Iuw, ei, I, ie, ien, ein ie Ie, iew

14

11th Century Swabian 1310 Bavarian Austrian Viventinic German Central Germany Rhn-region Nhd. Mnl. Nnl. Old-Frisian New Frisian Northern Frisian Ags. English Oldenglish Altn. Swedish Finnish Danish Swiss 13061447 Old-Saxon

Ziestac, Ziewestac13 Ierte, Eritac, Erctac, erchtag (1310), erichtag, eretag, Jerta Irta, Irita15, Erta, ort16 Diestag, tiestag diestik Dienstag
17

ie ie ien i i y Ye, ih, i ir ive ue wei Yr, y i y ir i i

Disendach, Dicendach, Dissendach (from Tisdach) Dingsdag (from: Dinsdag, Dissendag), dinxdach, disdag, desdag, disendaighes, disendach, Tysdei Tyesdey, tishdi, tisdej Tirsdei Tives dg Tuesday tweisdaie Trsdagr, Tysdagr Tisdag tystai Tirsdag Cinstag Dinstag (1316), dynsdais (1334), dincedagh (1306), dinstdag (1314, dinscdag (1320), dynstag (1315), dingstdag (1332, dynstag (1315), dincsedag, dinxtdag (1447), dynsthedach, dinschedag, dyngstedag, dincsedagh, dinghestedaghes, dingstedaghes, dynstedagehs, dyngesdaghes, dinxstedages, dingstedag, dingesdag Teisipw (2nd day = second day) tiistai tisdag mangebarg18

Estn. Finnish Swed. Lapp. Norw. Lapp.

ii i

Table 1: Tuesday in Grimm's German Mythology

13 14 15 16 17 18

Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, Chapter VI. Gtter (Gods) Devoted to Er - according to Grimm related to Ares (Mars) and/or Cor Devoted to Ares (Mars) Devoted to Ares (Mars) According to Grimm Dingstag (reference to the root Ding (iudicium) seems to be erroneous. Grimm's Teutonic Mythology (Chapter 6. Supplement)