Friday :: Germanic Mythology Language Essays

FridayEvery Monday at work, I hear people complaining that they invite it would be Friday already. Everyone waits for this last day of the working week with excitement and eagerness. Friday represents the tip of the week, and at the same time, the beginning of the weekend. The origins of the word Friday take their roots from Scandinavian mythology, when this day signified rejuvenation, and at the same time loss, death or completion. In discordant cultures, this day has numerous meanings and is perceived both positively and with anxiety. The meaning of Friday was preserved through centuries, and today we still use the cultural name of Friday as sanitary as pagan names for former(a) days of the week in the English language. Friday has come a spacious way from the Anglo-Saxon frigedaeg or from the Old High German Freyja, a goddess of go to sleep and fertility. In Germanic mythology Freyja was portrayed as the goddess of youth, beauty, and sexual love. She was unite to Odur, but he left her to travel around the world. Afterward, Freyja was depicted weeping, and her weeping were drops of gold. Freyjas most famous possession was her necklace, Brising (necklace of the dwarfs), given to her by the dwarfs in step in for her having sexual relative with them. Often in myths Freyja is accused of having sexual intercourse with many men and gods. Also Freyja is known as a athletic supporter of married couples and is very fond of love ditties, and all lovers would do well to invoke her, according to the Prose Edda (Mercatante 264). However, besides being the patron of hymeneals and goddess of fertility, Freyja is portrayed as the goddess of battle and death. She claimed half of the dead warriors killed in battles and real them in her realm of Folkvang. Odur, her husband, received the other half of warriors at Valhalla. The event that Friday was held sacred to this goddess of fertility and death signifies that inhabitants of ancient England perceived this day a s the beginning and at the same time as the completion of their hebdomadal activities, or possibly life. Although in various cultures the meaning of Friday differs, there atomic number 18 numerous similarities, which can be traced down to the common source. In Norse mythology, where paganism dominated religious and cultural settings, Friday was considered to be the day of love and a good day to put a beginning to various activities such as farming or a conception of a child.