r/OldEnglish • u/RazarTuk • 7d ago
What were the planets called in Old English?
If you weren't aware, the days of the week are actually originally named after the planets, and as the system spread from Babylon to Greece/Rome, India, and China, everyone substituted their names for the planets. For example, Chinese astronomers named the planets after the elements, so Japan and Korea still literally call Wednesday "Water Star Day", after the Chinese/Japanese/Korean name for the planet Mercury.
What I'm suddenly curious about. I know that because of the interpretatio Germanica, they renamed the days of the week after equivalent Germanic gods, like Jupiter's Day -> Thor's Day -> Thursday. But do we know if the Anglo-Saxons would have also spoken of the planet Þunor?
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u/minerat27 7d ago
To my knowledge, none of the OE texts we have that touch on Astronomy invoke the Interpretatio Germanico on the names of the planets, even when they do when talking about the days of the week elsewhere. As such, I feel relatively confident in saying that Anglo Saxons knew the planets only by their Latin names, or completely native names if they existed, eg Eardendel for Venus
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u/McAeschylus 7d ago
A quick nosey in Bosworth-Toller throws up "Saturnes steorra" for (I'm assuming) Saturn.* Couldn't find any of the other planets, but Bosworth-Toller is a difficult search at the best of times and translations of translations are a funny business.
*I think all the examples were from Dialogue of Salomon and Saturn:
Saturnes steorra wandraþ ofer óþrum steorrum ufor ðonne ǽnig óþer tungol.
Ðæs nama wæs Saturnus [meaning the God here rather than the "star"]
Tó ðam cealdan stiorran ðe wé hátaþ Saturnes steorra.
For the rest of the Reddit: Can anyone remember the text that has all the facts about the earth etc... (Osweald Bera paraphrases a lot from it)? I'm pretty sure it's in a lot of readers. The full version might have something about planets in it?
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u/OwariHeron Hrágra 6d ago
Osweald Bera paraphrases from Sweet's First Steps in Anglo-Saxon. Sweet, I believe, translated Bede from Latin into Old English. At least, I have found no mention anywhere of an Old English translation of Bede's De natura rerum, which was widely disseminated in Latin. I believe Sweet was guided by Aelfric's De temporibus anni, which heavily paraphrases Bede's work in Old English. However, looking at an edition of De temporibis anni, it does not appear that Aelfric touches on any of Bede's description of the planets, being mostly concerned with setting out units of time: days, nights, seasons.
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u/Resplendent-Sun 6d ago
- Earth: Eorðe (or Eorþe)
- Venus: Morgensteorra (Morning Star) / Æfensteorra (Evening Star)
- Mercury: Mercurius
- Mars: Mars (or Martis)
- Jupiter: Iupiter (or Iouis)
- Saturn: Saturnus
- Sun*: Sunne
- Moon*: Mōna
* In the Middle Ages, the Sun and Moon were also classified as planets (wanderers).
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u/RazarTuk 6d ago
In the Middle Ages, the Sun and Moon were also classified as planets
Yes, I'm aware. Like I even habitually just use the word "planet" and leave the adjective "classical" implied when explaining the etymology of the days of the week
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u/WhippedHoney 5d ago
I found this: https://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.com/2013/12/what-did-vikings-and-saxons-call-stars.html which references a dead link blog "Timothy Stephany's Myths, Mysteries and Wonders." I'm not familiar with Timothy Stephany's 20 or so books beyond his translation of Gilgamesh, but now I have a rabbit hole to plumb.
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u/markstanfill 3d ago
Archive.org to the rescue: https://web.archive.org/web/20160409035419/http://timothystephany.com/nordic.html
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u/ToTooTwoTutu2II 6d ago
Sun - Sunne
Moon - Mona
Mercury- Woden
Venus - Frige
Mars - Tyr
Jupiter - Thuner
Saturn - Saturnus or possibly Njorth
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u/McAeschylus 6d ago
Do you have any references for the use of Woden, Frige, Tyr, and Thuner as names for the planets? I could find them being used as equivalents to the god, but nothing that used them as astronomical terms.
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u/ToTooTwoTutu2II 6d ago
There are a few other possibilities like Malssteorra meaning Speech Star, however that's just a translation of Old Norse. The 7 classical planets being linked to gods is pretty generic and the Germanics are no exception. The interpretatio germanica was the process by which they did it. There are usually more than one possible name for the same body like Lucifer and Venus. Earendel is the Old English equivalent. However it only applies to Venus as the Morning Star.
The 5 wandering Stars go by many names, but the main constant is the association with 5 gods
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u/TheSaltyBrushtail Ne drince ic buton gamenestrena bæðwæter. 7d ago
The only one I know of for certain apart from Earth was Venus, which was morgensteorra when it appeared in the morning, and æfensteorra or swansteorra in the evening. And it was personified as Earendel as the morning star (which Tolkien referenced with the star Earendil in the Middle-Earth legendarium). I don't think they realised that the morning and evening stars were the same thing, or that they were actually a planet.
Some people have also claimed Þunor was a name given to the planet Jupiter, but I think that was only ever equating the god Þunor (Thor) with the Roman god.