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The Wolves Pursuing Sol and Mani

Sol, the sun goddess, and Mani, the moon god, being chased across the sky by wolves as illustrated in the book Myths of the Norseman by H. A. Guerber.

When Odin (god of Norse paganism) asks Vafþrúðnir about the origins of the Sun and Moon during a battle of wits, he’s told, ‘they pass through the heavens to count the years for mankind, but are pursued by the likes of two wolves, called Sköll and Hati .’ Then, during the final destiny of gods, known as Ragnarök, Sol and Mani are eventually caught and swallowed, which causes the world to fall dark and cold again.

So it’s actually thanks to Sol and Mani, who were personified in Norse mythology, that we have the terms \Sun and Moon\ and the names for Sunday and Monday (aka. Sol’s day and Mani’s day).\ The names for all the planets and days of the week, in fact, except perhaps for the planet Earth, can be traced back to the Norse, Romans and Greeks.

Mars – god of war – was readopted from Tyr /Tyr’s day/ and became Tuesday. Mercury’s name went from Woden/Woden’s day/to Wednesday. Jupiter, the mighty god of sky and thunder, came from Thor/Thor’s day/or Thursday – and so on: Venus is derived from Freyja, Friday, Saturn from Saturnus, Saturday, Uranus from Ouranos, and Neptune, himself, had been the great god of sea and water.

Illustration directly above is by Willy Pogany, from a chapter in Children of Odin.

How very beautiful!

:-)

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