Friday: Named After Frigg or Freya? The Meaning and Origin of the Word

Friday is named after Frigg, Odin's wife – known on the Continent as Frija and in Old English as Frīg – not after Freya. The word comes from Old English frīgedæg, "Frīg's day", a Germanic rendering of the Roman dies Veneris, the day of Venus. German Freitag and Old Norse frjádagr point the same way. Case closed? Not quite. Whether Frigg and Freya were once a single goddess is a question scholars have argued over since Jacob Grimm, and it is still open.

Friday. The day the last slate plaques of the week come off the laser in our workshop in Alsdorf, and the coffee machine works a little harder. Hidden in the word is a goddess most people get wrong. Ask ten friends who Friday is named after and eight will say "Freya". The history of the language says otherwise. And if you look closely, you end up in one of the most stubborn open questions in the study of Germanic religion.

Why is it called Friday? Start with Venus

The seven-day week with planetary names was not a Germanic invention. It grew out of Hellenistic astrology, in which each day was ruled by one of the seven "wandering stars" then known: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. By the first century AD the planetary week had reached everyday life in the Roman Empire; walls in Pompeii, buried in 79 AD, still carry lists of the planetary days.

The sixth day of this week was dies Veneris, the day of Venus. The Romance languages keep it to this day: French vendredi, Italian venerdì, Spanish viernes. The Germanic languages did something else. They swapped Venus for a goddess of their own.

Exactly when that happened, nobody knows. No inscription or charter records the moment. Most historical linguists place the borrowing in late antiquity, roughly the 3rd to 4th century AD, along the Rhine and Danube frontier, where Germanic soldiers, traders and settlers lived with Roman calendars every day. That is a well-founded assumption: the oldest Germanic weekday names we have survive only in early medieval manuscripts.

Interpretatio germanica: translating gods, not words

Scholars call the process interpretatio germanica. It is the mirror image of the interpretatio romana, by which Roman writers explained foreign gods as versions of their own. With the weekdays the traffic ran the other way. The question was not "what is the Germanic word for Venus?" but "which of our gods matches her?"

The answers fit together remarkably well. The day of Mars, the war god, became the day of Tiwaz (Old English Tīw, Norse Týr) – hence Tuesday. The day of Mercury, guide of souls, became Wodan's day – Wednesday. The day of thundering Jupiter became Thunor's or Thor's day – Thursday. And for Venus, Rome's goddess of love, they chose Frija, the wife of Wodan. Linguists reconstruct a West Germanic starting point along the lines of *Frijjōdagaz, "Frijjō's day". We cover the whole week in detail in our article on the Germanic weekday names.

Why Frija and not some other goddess? It was not a random pick. Her name means something like "the beloved"; she was the chief goddess at the side of the chief god, linked to marriage, household and children. A goddess of love in that sense was the obvious equivalent. Yes, the seductive, wilful Venus of Roman poetry looks more like Freya at first glance. The catch: on the Continent, where the weekday names were coined, there is no Freya on record at all.

Friday etymology: frīgedæg, frîatag, frjádagr

This is where the answer becomes surprisingly clear-cut. Look at the oldest forms:

• Old English: frīgedæg – the source of modern English Friday. The goddess's name in Old English is Frīg.
• Old High German: frîatag, also frîjetag – giving Middle High German vrîtac and modern German Freitag.
• Old Frisian: frīadei; Middle Dutch: vrīdach, today Dutch vrijdag.
• Old Norse: frjádagr; Faroese still says fríggjadagur.

Every one of these goes back to Frija/Frigg. A form built on Freya's name – in Old High German it would have to be something like *frouwûntag, from frouwa "lady" – is nowhere attested.

The Old Norse form is especially telling. Had the Norse coined the name themselves, they would have built it on their own form of the goddess's name – something like *Friggjardagr. What we actually find is frjádagr, which does not match Norse Frigg but does match a southern form such as Frîa. Older handbook scholarship (Hermann Paul's Grundriss der germanischen Philologie, 1900) drew the obvious conclusion: the weekday names were borrowed into Scandinavia from Low German. The planetary week came up from the south with trade and mission, names already attached.

So where does Freya come in? There are a few medieval Icelandic spellings such as freyjudagr, for instance in the Breta sögur, the Old Norse adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's history of the British kings. That is a learned scribe linking an odd-sounding day name with a famous goddess – a reinterpretation, not the root of the word.

What Frigg's name means – and why Freya's means something else

The goddess's name goes back to Proto-Germanic *Frijjō. Behind it lies an Indo-European root meaning roughly "one's own, dear, beloved"; Sanskrit priyā́, "beloved, wife", is a distant cousin. The same word family gives us Gothic frijōn "to love", English friend and free, and German Friede "peace". The "free" were originally the members of one's own, beloved kin.

That *Frijjō became Frigg in the North is a regular sound change, known as Verschärfung or Holtzmann's law: a double jj turned into ggj in North Germanic and into ddj in Gothic. Frigg and the continental Frija are the same name in two different sound-shapes. Old English Frīg belongs to the same family – and the poetic Old English noun frīg meant "love".

Freyja, on the other hand, simply means "Lady". It is the feminine counterpart of Proto-Germanic *frawjaz "lord", the word behind the name of her brother Freyr. German keeps it in Frau (Old High German frouwa, "lady, mistress"). So Freyja began as a title rather than a personal name in the strict sense. Nearly all historical linguists treat the two names as etymologically separate; deriving both from one source is a minority view.

Frija on the Continent: a healing charm and the Long-Beards

A weekday name alone does not prove a goddess was worshipped. With Frija we are lucky: two independent continental sources show her as an active goddess.

The first is the Second Merseburg Charm, preserved in a 10th-century manuscript in the cathedral library at Merseburg; the text itself is probably older. It tells how Balder's foal sprains its foot and several goddesses chant over it before Wodan speaks the healing words. In our own rendering:

"Then Sinthgunt charmed it, Sunna her sister; then Frija charmed it, Volla her sister; then Wodan charmed it, as well he knew how."– Second Merseburg Charm, our own translation

The Volla beside Frija is the Fulla of Norse tradition, who in Snorri is Frigg's confidante and keeps her casket and her shoes. An Old High German text and an Icelandic book of the 13th century know the same pair. More on what the charm reveals is in our article on the Merseburg Charms.

The second is the origin legend of the Lombards. It appears in the short Origo gentis Langobardorum of the 7th century and at greater length in Paul the Deacon's History of the Lombards (late 8th century, book I, chapter 8). The Winnili ask Frea for help; their enemies ask Wodan. Frea tells the Winnili women to tie their hair across their faces like beards. When Godan (Wodan) looks out at dawn, he asks: "Who are these long-beards?" Frea answers that whoever gives a name must also give victory. So the Lombards – the "Long-Beards" – get their name and their win. Paul calls it a ridiculous tale of the ancients, yet he preserves a goddess who cleverly steers her husband, exactly as Frigg does in Norse sources. The full story is in our article on the Lombards.

The key point for our question: neither the Merseburg charm nor the Lombard legend nor any other continental source mentions a second goddess called Freya. On the Continent Wodan's wife is Frija or Frea. Whether that reflects thin evidence or a real development in the North is one of the central questions of the debate.

Is Friday Freya's day? Why so many people say so

The mix-up has reasons. First, Freya is simply the more colourful figure. She drives a cart drawn by cats, wears the necklace Brísingamen, owns a feather cloak, chooses half of the slain for her hall Fólkvangr and is mistress of seiðr, Norse magic. Frigg sits in her hall Fensalir, knows everything and says little.

Second, the modern Scandinavian languages tend to read their fredag as "Freyja's day", and it sounds plausible. But behind it stands the borrowed frjádagr.

Third – and this is the interesting part – the confusion may not be as wrong as it first seems. Jacob Grimm already remarked in his Deutsche Mythologie (1835) on the frequent confusion of the two goddesses Freyja and Frigg. The question is whether they were only muddled in later times – or whether they were once the same.

Frigg and Freya: one goddess or two?

Since the 19th century there have been, broadly, two positions, with a wide and cautious middle ground.

The common-origin hypothesis. On this view, early Germanic religion had one great goddess at the chief god's side, combining love, marriage, fertility, fate and magic. In the North she later split into two figures: Frigg, the respectable wife and mother, and Freyja, free, erotic and skilled in sorcery. Versions of this idea have been argued by, among others, Hilda Ellis Davidson (Roles of the Northern Goddess, 1998) and above all the Swedish historian of religion Britt-Mari Näsström. In Freyja – the Great Goddess of the North (Lund 1995) she reads Freyja as the manifestation of an all-embracing goddess with whom Frigg is functionally closely bound.

Two separate goddesses. The other side points to the different names, to their placement in different families of gods, and to how strongly the "Great Goddess" model owes its shape to modern theories of religion. Rudolf Simek, whose Dictionary of Northern Mythology remains a standard reference, is sceptical of such grand constructions. Most historical linguists also reject a shared origin for the names.

The cautious middle. Stephan Grundy, in his essay "Freyja and Frigg" (in The Concept of the Goddess, edited by Sandra Billington and Miranda Green), gathered the arguments on both sides. His verdict is honest: the problem is a difficult one, and the best one can do is survey the case for and against. The root difficulty is the evidence. We know very little about Germanic goddesses before the Viking Age, and nearly everything detailed about Frigg and Freyja comes from 13th-century Icelandic texts written in Christian times. John McKinnell's Both One and Many (1994) has also shown how often Norse myth doubles and mirrors its figures – which could explain the similarities without requiring a single original goddess.

A further complication is whether the strict split into Æsir and Vanir is old at all. In a much-discussed 2010 paper, "The Vanir – An Obituary", Simek questioned whether the Vanir existed as a distinct, clearly defined group of gods in pagan times; much of it, he argued, may go back to Snorri's systematising. That is itself disputed. But it means the argument "Freyja is one of the Vanir, Frigg one of the Æsir, so they must be different" stands on softer ground than it appears. Background in our article on the Æsir and Vanir.

The telltale parallels

Why the common-origin idea refuses to die becomes clear when you line up the motifs the two goddesses share in the sources:

The weightiest parallel is the husbands. Óðinn and Óðr come from the same root, meaning "frenzy, ecstasy, poetic inspiration". Both goddesses are married to a man whose name means "the frenzied one" or simply "frenzy". Freyja's Óðr vanishes and leaves her in tears; Odin, famously, is always on the road. More on this shadowy figure in our article on Óðr, Freyja's vanished husband.

The Lokasenna is revealing too. In this Eddic poem Loki insults the gods one after another at Ægir's feast. When he taunts Frigg with her infidelity, it is Freyja who leaps to her defence and warns him that Frigg knows all fates, even if she does not speak of them (stanza 29, paraphrased). The two stand side by side like sisters. The whole slanging match is told in our article on the Lokasenna.

The case against a single goddess

Tempting as the list is, the counter-arguments carry weight.

The names differ. "The beloved" and "the Lady" are two words from two roots. You can imagine "Lady" starting out as a title of the beloved and then taking on a life of its own. Nobody can prove it.

Snorri keeps them apart. In his catalogue of goddesses in Gylfaginning, Snorri names Frigg as the highest and says Freyja is the most noble alongside Frigg – clearly two figures. In Eddic poetry they often appear together, as in Oddrúnargrátr, where a woman in labour is helped with an invocation of Frigg and Freyja at once.

Cult and place-names are uneven. A handful of place-names in Norway and Sweden are interpreted as referring to Frigg; Denmark has none. More place-names are claimed for Freyja, but many readings are uncertain because Freyr and Freyja are hard to separate in place-names. Freyja looks more firmly rooted in cult, Frigg more a figure of poetry and myth.

The Continent knows only Frija. That cuts both ways. It may point to one goddess from whom a second split off in the North – or simply to how little we know about the Continent.

Our reading of the state of research: the weekday name clearly belongs to Frija/Frigg. Whether one goddess once stood behind both Frigg and Freyja is open – and with the evidence we have, it will probably stay that way. We introduce both goddesses in their own portraits: Frigg, the highest goddess and Freyja, far more than love. The continental side is covered in our article on Frija.

The fasting day: how Iceland took the goddess out of Friday

Christianity gave Friday a second meaning that has nothing to do with love goddesses. As the day of the Crucifixion it became a day of penance and fasting very early. The Didache, an early Christian church manual probably from around 100 AD, tells believers to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. Good Friday is the high point of that tradition, and the meatless Friday – fish on Friday – lasted in Catholic regions into modern times.

In Iceland this led to a small calendar reform. According to his life, the Jóns saga helga, Bishop Jón Ögmundsson of Hólar (bishop 1106–1121) no longer wanted the days named after pagan gods. In place of Týsdagr, Óðinsdagr and Þórsdagr came sober counting names: þriðjudagur ("third day"), miðvikudagur ("mid-week day"), fimmtudagur ("fifth day"). Frjádagr became föstudagur, the "fasting day", and the Saturday was laugardagur, "washing day", a name already in use before.

That it was Bishop Jón's doing alone we know only from his saint's life. What is certain: Icelandic is still the only Scandinavian language whose week carries no gods' names. Danish, Norwegian and Swedish kept fredag; Faroese kept fríggjadagur.

The spinning went on regardless. In Sweden and parts of Germany the three stars of Orion's Belt were called a goddess's distaff – in Swedish sometimes Friggerock, sometimes Frejerock. Even in the night sky, people could not quite agree which of the two was spinning up there.

The other days of the week at a glance

Here is the divine week as a whole:

Two oddities on the German side: Mittwoch ("mid-week", Old High German mittawehha) pushed Wodan out, probably under church influence, while English and Dutch (Wednesday, woensdag) kept him. And German Dienstag is widely traced to Mars Thingsus, a Roman-era title of Tiwaz as protector of the assembly (the thing), known from an inscription on Hadrian's Wall. English, Dutch and Low German, meanwhile, kept one Roman god in the week: Saturday (zaterdag) is still Saturn's day.

Friday the 13th: no Viking roots

That leaves the most famous Friday of all. Online you will read that unlucky Friday goes back to pagan times – that the Church demonised the love goddess's day. There is no source from the Germanic or Viking world for any of it.

Here is what the record shows. The idea that Friday on its own is a bad day to travel or start something appears in the late Middle Ages; in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (late 14th century), the Nun's Priest blames a mishap squarely on its happening on a Friday. The usual explanation is Christian: Friday was the day of the Crucifixion.

Thirteen as an unlucky number is a separate superstition, often linked to the thirteen at the Last Supper. The combination – Friday the 13th as a special day of bad luck – only shows up in the 19th century. In an 1834 French play a character complains of having been born on Friday, 13 December, the source of all his misfortunes. The earliest known English reference is in H. Sutherland Edwards' 1869 biography of Rossini; the composer, as it happens, died on Friday, 13 November 1868. Thomas W. Lawson's 1907 novel Friday, the Thirteenth, about a broker who exploits the superstition to cause a panic on Wall Street, helped make the phrase famous.

Frequently asked questions

Is Friday named after Frigg or Freya? After Frigg, called Frīg in Old English and Frija on the Continent. Old English frīgedæg and Old High German frîatag contain her name; there is no early English or German form based on Freya.

What does the word Friday mean? "Frīg's day". The goddess's name means roughly "the beloved" and is related to friend and free. It replaced the Roman dies Veneris, the day of Venus.

When did Friday get its name? Probably in late antiquity, around the 3rd to 4th century AD, when Germanic peoples adopted the Roman planetary week. No exact date is recorded.

Were Frigg and Freya the same goddess? That is an open question. There are striking parallels, such as their husbands Óðinn and Óðr, but also different names and separate treatment in Snorri.

Why is Friday called föstudagur in Icelandic? Because in the 12th century, according to the Jóns saga helga at the urging of Bishop Jón Ögmundsson, the gods' names were removed from the Icelandic week. Föstudagur means "fasting day".

Does Friday the 13th have Norse or pagan roots? No. Friday as an unlucky day is late medieval and Christian in background; the link with the number 13 is only documented from the 19th century.

For courage. For remembrance. For legends that live on.

Read more with us

Freya – Goddess of Love · Frigg – Lady of Asgard · Frija – the West Germanic goddess · All the Norse goddesses · The Germanic weekdays · Odin · All the gods at a glance.

Sources & literature

• Second Merseburg Charm, 10th-century manuscript, Merseburg Cathedral Library.
• Paul the Deacon, Historia Langobardorum I.8; Origo gentis Langobardorum (7th century).
• Poetic Edda: Lokasenna, Þrymskviða, Völuspá, Oddrúnargrátr; Snorri Sturluson, Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál) and Ynglinga saga.
• Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum, book I.
• Jóns saga helga (life of Bishop Jón Ögmundsson of Hólar).
• Jacob Grimm: Deutsche Mythologie. Göttingen 1835 (English: Teutonic Mythology, trans. J. S. Stallybrass, 1882–88). Online: Projekt Gutenberg.
• Hermann Paul (ed.): Grundriss der germanischen Philologie, vol. 3. Strasbourg 1900.
• Friedrich Kluge: Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, ed. Elmar Seebold (s.v. "Freitag", "frei", "Frau").
• Rudolf Simek: Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Trans. Angela Hall. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer 1993.
• Rudolf Simek: "The Vanir – An Obituary". RMN Newsletter 1 (2010).
• Britt-Mari Näsström: Freyja – the Great Goddess of the North. Lund 1995.
• Stephan Grundy: "Freyja and Frigg". In: Sandra Billington, Miranda Green (eds.): The Concept of the Goddess. London: Routledge.
• John McKinnell: Both One and Many. Essays on Change and Variety in Late Norse Heathenism. Rome 1994.
• Hilda R. Ellis Davidson: Roles of the Northern Goddess. London 1998.
• John Lindow: Norse Mythology. A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs. Oxford 2001.
• H. Sutherland Edwards: The Life of Rossini. London 1869.
• Overviews with references: Friday the 13th (Wikipedia); Frigg and Freyja common origin hypothesis (Wikipedia).

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