Days of the Week: Monday

Monday was the day the Romans devoted to the moon. In modern romance languages, it is rendered lunes/lundi/ lunedì. For the Romans, the moon was associated with goddesses like Diana/Artemis, Selene, and Hecate. Once again, the Vikings saw this the other way. The moon was Máni, Sól’s brother (i.e. Moon Day). Like his sister, the Sun, Máni rode a chariot across the sky and was pursued by wolves. At Ragnarok, Fenrir’s brood is fated to devour the moon. This ominous portent is often mentioned in the Eddic poems.

As with Sól, Máni seems like a personification to explain a natural phenomenon and does not seem to hold much importance in the Viking pantheon – unlike the weighty significance Mediterranean peoples placed on their moon goddesses. These tales of wolves devouring the sun and moon may have been inspired by the terror the ancients felt when viewing an eclipse.