Note 689 — Chapter VI · LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK

Tiu (Mars), Woden (Mercurius), Thor (Jupiter), Frija (Venus). The special observance of Thursday as a holy day reflects the commanding place occupied by Thor in Germanic paganism. His worship on that day is referred to in documents of the early Middle Ages as a superstition to be eradicated (nullus diem Jovis in otio observet, etc.), but the modern Esthonians still consider Thursday as holier than Sunday and in Sweden, as late as the nineteenth century, the day was generally considered sacred. See J. Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, London, 1882, i, 191; O. Montelius, “The Sun-god’s Axe and Thor’s Hammer,” Folklore, 1910, xxi, 77.