Wednesday? You've Gotta Be Crazy

It’s Wednesday, Woden’s Day in Old English. He was the chief Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic god and leader of the Wild Hunt. Name comes from “wod” (“violently insane”) and “en” (“headship”).

He’s the Norse god of magic, battle fury, protection, inspiration, shaman ecstacy, consciousness and communication. Woden is also revered as the father and ruler of the gods and mortals, the god of war, of learning and poetry, of the dead.

Another explanation tells us this story: Woden was the god that controlled all the other gods. His number one mission was to gain all knowledge and wisdom. He visited all four corners of the world to gather information. Nothing could be hidden from him. In fact, he even wore out one of his eyes by seeing so much wisdom. To cover the rather messy dead eye, he wore a large floppy hat. To compensate for his missing eye, he carried a blackbird on each shoulder. These birds were his extra eyes and could fly off to spy on people, and then report back to Woden. In this way, Woden knew everything that was going on and people had to be very careful how they behaved in case Woden was watching. After all, as king of all gods, he could wreak havoc on dissenters in any way he chose.

Don’t worry about people who mis-spell it. Wodnesdaeg is related to Wonsdei or Wensdei. There are more than thirty spelling variations in the evolution of the term. Some include the “d” from Woden's name (Weodnesdei) and some do not (Wennessday). What happened to the sound of the first “d” in “Wednesday”? It’s called d-dropping and it’s quite alright.