Sunday
Sunday, being the day of the Sun, as the name of the first day of the week, is derived from Hellenistic astrology, where the seven planets, known in English as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon, each had an hour of the day assigned to them, and the planet which was regent during the first hour of any day of the week gave its name to that day.
During the 1st and 2nd century, the week of seven days was introduced into Rome from Egypt, and the Roman names of the planets were given to each successive day. Germanic peoples seem to have adopted the week as a division of time from the Romans, but they changed the Roman names into those of corresponding Teutonic deities. Hence, the dies Solis became Sunday (German, Sonntag).
The Germanic term is a Germanic interpretation of Latin dies solis (“day of the sun”), which is a translation of the Ancient Greek heméra helíou. The p-Celtic Welsh language also translates the Latin “day of the sun” as dydd Sul.
In most Indian languages, the word for Sunday is Ravivāra or Adityavāra or its derived forms — vāra meaning day, Aditya and Ravi both being a style (manner of address) for Surya, the chief solar deity and one of the Adityas. Ravivāra is first day cited in Jyotish, which provides logical reason for giving the name of each week day. In the Thai solar calendar of Thailand, the name (“Waan Arthit”) is derived from Aditya, and the associated color is red.
Sunday was the day set aside in the Mithra (Roman) cult as its official day to assemble together to worship its Sun-deity. Roman Emperor Constantine legislated Sun-day as a day of rest dedicated to the Greek and Roman Sun-god, Helios. Constantine worshipped “Christos Helios” which means “Christ-The-True-Sun.” The Roman Catholic Church venerates Sun-day as its Sabbath even today, and has handed it down to Christianity.
In Russian the word for Sunday is Voskreseniye (“Resurrection”). The Modern Greek word for Sunday is derived from Lord also, due to its liturgical significance as the day commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, i.e. The Lord’s Day.
Monday
Monday is the day of the week between Sunday and Tuesday. According to the traditional Christian, Islamic and Hebrew calendars, it is the second day of the week, and according to international standard it is the first day of the week. In the West, it is the first day of the work week, whereas in most Muslim countries and Israel, it is the second day of the work week.
The usual English proper name for Earth’s natural satellite is “the Moon”. The noun moon is derived from moone (around 1380), which developed from mone (1135), which is derived from Old English mōna (dating from before 725), which ultimately stems from Proto-Germanic *mǣnōn, like all Germanic language cognates.
The name of Monday is derived from Old English Mōnandæg and Middle English Monenday, which means “moonday”. The English noun Monday derived sometime before 1200 from monedæi, which itself developed from Old English (around 1000) mōnandæg and mōndæg (literally meaning “moon’s day”), which has cognates in other Germanic languages.
In many Slavic languages the name of the day eschews pagan tradition and translates as “after Sunday/holiday”. In Turkish it is called pazartesi, which also means “after Sunday”. Japanese and Korean share the same ancient Chinese words for Monday which means “day of the moon”.
In many languages of India, the word for Monday is derived from Sanskrit Somavāra; Soma is another name of the Moon god in Hinduism. In some languages of India, it is also called Chandravāra; Chandra in Sanskrit means “moon”. In Thailand, the day is called Wan Jan, meaning “the day of the Moon god Chandra”.
The sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System and is by far the most important source of energy for life on Earth. The enormous effect of the Sun on Earth has been recognized since prehistoric times, and the Sun has been regarded by some cultures as a deity. Earth’s movement around the Sun is the basis of the solar calendar, which is the predominant calendar in use today.
The English proper noun Sun developed from Old English sunne and may be related to south. Cognates to Englishsun appear in other Germanic languages, including Old Frisian sunne, sonne, Old Saxon sunna, Middle Dutch sonne, modern Dutch zon, Old High German sunna, modern German Sonne, Old Norse sunna, and Gothic sunnō. All Germanic terms for the Sun stem from Proto-Germanic *sunnōn.
The English weekday name Sunday stems from Old English (Sunnandæg; “Sun’s day”, from before 700) and is ultimately a result of a Germanic interpretation of Latin dies solis, itself a translation of the Greek hēméra hēlíou. The Latin name for the Sun, Sol, is not common in general English language use; the adjectival form is the related word solar.
The term sol is also used by planetary astronomers to refer to the duration of a solar day on another planet, such as Mars. A mean Earth solar day is approximately 24 hours, whereas a mean Martian ‘sol’ is 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35.244 seconds.
Solar deities and Sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms, including the Egyptian Ra, the Hindu Surya, the Japanese Amaterasu, the Germanic Sól, and the Aztec Tonatiuh, among others.
From at least the 4th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the Sun was worshipped as the god Ra, portrayed as a falcon-headed divinity surmounted by the solar disk, and surrounded by a serpent. In the New Empire period, the Sun became identified with the dung beetle, whose spherical ball of dung was identified with the Sun. In the form of the Sun disc Aten, the Sun had a brief resurgence during the Amarna Period when it again became the preeminent, if not only, divinity for the Pharaoh Akhenaton.
The Sun is viewed as a goddess in Germanic paganism, Sól/Sunna. Scholars theorize that the Sun, as a Germanic goddess, may represent an extension of an earlier Proto-Indo-European Sun deity because of Indo-European linguistic connections between Old Norse Sól, Sanskrit Surya, Gaulish Sulis, Lithuanian Saulė, and Slavic Solntse.
In ancient Roman culture, Sunday was the day of the Sun god. It was adopted as the Sabbath day by Christians who did not have a Jewish background. The symbol of light was a pagan device adopted by Christians, and perhaps the most important one that did not come from Jewish traditions.
In paganism, the Sun was a source of life, giving warmth and illumination to mankind. It was the center of a popular cult among Romans, who would stand at dawn to catch the first rays of sunshine as they prayed. The celebration of the winter solstice (which influenced Christmas) was part of the Roman cult of the unconquered Sun (Sol Invictus). Christian churches were built with an orientation so that the congregation faced toward the sunrise in the East.
Scholars have proposed that Sól, as a goddess, may represent an extension of an earlier Proto-Indo-European deity due to Indo-European linguistic connections between Norse Sól, Sanskrit Surya, Common Brittonic Sulis, Lithuanian Saulė, Latin Sol, and Slavic Tsar Solnitse.
Regarding Sól’s attested personifications in Norse mythology, John Lindow states that “even kennings like ‘hall of the sun’ for sky may not suggest personification, given the rules of kenning formation”; that in poetry only stanzas associated with Sól in the poem Vafþrúðnismál are certain in their personification of the goddess; and “that Sól is female and Máni male probably has to do with the grammatical gender of the nouns: Sól is feminine and Máni is masculine.”
*Sowilō or *sæwelō is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the s-rune, meaning “sun”. The name is attested for the same rune in all three rune poems. It appears as Old Norse sól, Old English sigel, and Gothic sugil.
The Germanic words for “Sun” have the peculiarity of alternating between -l- and -n- stems, Proto-Germanic *sunnon (Old English sunne, Old Norse, Old Saxon and Old High German sunna) vs. *sôwilô or *saewelô (Old Norse sól, Gothic sauil, also Old High German forms such as suhil).
This continues a Proto-Indo-European alternation *suwen- vs. *sewol- (Avestan xweng vs. Latin sōl, Greek helios, Sanskrit surya, Welsh haul, Breton heol, Old Irishsuil “eye”), a remnant of an archaic, so-called “heteroclitic”, declension pattern that remained productive only in the Anatolian languages.
The Old English name of the rune, written sigel is most often explained as a remnant of an otherwise extinct l-stem variant of the word for “Sun” (meaning that the spelling with g is unetymological), but alternative suggestions have been put forward.
The Elder Futhark s rune (reconstructed name *Sowilo) is attested in two variants, a Σ shape (four strokes), more prevalent in earlier (3rd to 5th century) inscriptions (e.g. Kylver stone), and an S shape (three strokes), more prevalent in later (5th to 7th century) inscriptions.
Coincidentally, the Phoenician letter šin from which the Old Italic s letter ancestral to the rune was derived was itself named after the Sun, shamash, based on the Egyptian uraeus hieroglyph. The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Sigma, which in turn gave Latin S and Cyrillic С, and the letter Sha in the Glagolitic and Cyrillic scripts. The South Arabian and Ethiopian letter Śawt is also cognate.
Moon
The Moon is Earth’s only natural satellite. It is one of the largest natural satellites in the Solar System, and the largest among planetary satellites relative to the size of the planet that it orbits (its primary). It is the second-densest satellite among those whose densities are known (after Jupiter’s satellite Io).
The Moon is thought to have formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago, not long after Earth. There are several hypotheses for its origin; the most widely accepted explanation is that the Moon formed from the debris left over after a giant impact between Earth and a Mars-sized body called Theia.
The Moon is in synchronous rotation with Earth, always showing the same face with its near side marked by dark volcanic maria that fill between the bright ancient crustal highlands and the prominent impact craters. It is the second-brightest regularly visible celestial object in Earth’s sky after the Sun, as measured by illuminance on Earth’s surface.
Its surface is actually dark (although it can appear a very bright white) with a reflectance just slightly higher than that of worn asphalt. Its prominence in the sky and its regular cycle of phases has made the Moon an important cultural influence since ancient times on language, calendars, art, and mythology.
The Moon’s gravitational influence produces the ocean tides, body tides, and the slight lengthening of the day. The Moon’s current orbital distance is about thirty times the diameter of Earth, with its apparent size in the sky almost the same as that of the Sun, resulting in the Moon covering the Sun nearly precisely in total solar eclipse. This matching of apparent visual size will not continue in the far future. The Moon’s linear distance from Earth is currently increasing, but this rate is not constant.
The usual English proper name for Earth’s natural satellite is “the Moon”. The noun moon is derived from moone(around 1380), which developed from mone (1135), which is derived from Old English mōna (dating from before 725), which ultimately stems from Proto-Germanic *mǣnōn, like all Germanic language cognates. Occasionally, the name “Luna” is used, such as for a personified Moon in poetry or to distinguish it from other moons in science fiction.
The principal modern English adjective pertaining to the Moon is lunar, derived from the Latin Luna. A less common adjective is selenic, derived from the Ancient Greek Selene, from which is derived the prefix “seleno-” (as inselenography).
Both the Greek Selene and the Roman goddess Diana were alternatively called Cynthia. The names Luna, Cynthia, and Selene are reflected in terminology for lunar orbits in words such as apolune, pericynthion, andselenocentric. The name Diana is connected to dies meaning ‘day’.
The Moon’s regular phases make it a very convenient timepiece, and the periods of its waxing and waning form the basis of many of the oldest calendars. Tally sticks, notched bones dating as far back as 20–30,000 years ago, are believed by some to mark the phases of the Moon.
The ~30-day month is an approximation of the lunar cycle. The English nounmonth and its cognates in other Germanic languages stem from Proto-Germanic *mǣnṓth-, which is connected to the above-mentioned Proto-Germanic *mǣnōn, indicating the usage of a lunar calendar among the Germanic peoples (Germanic calendar) prior to the adoption of a solar calendar.
The PIE root of moon, *méh1nōt, derives from the PIE verbal root *meh1-, “to measure”, “indicat[ing] a functional conception of the moon, i.e. marker of the month” (cf. the English words measure and menstrual), and echoing the Moon’s importance to many ancient cultures in measuring time (Latin mensis and Ancient Greek meis or mēn, meaning “month”).
The Moon has been the subject of many works of art and literature and the inspiration for countless others. It is a motif in the visual arts, the performing arts, poetry, prose and music. A 5,000-year-old rock carving at Knowth, Ireland, may represent the Moon, which would be the earliest depiction discovered.
The contrast between the brighter highlands and the darker maria creates the patterns seen by different cultures as the Man in the Moon, the rabbit and the buffalo, among others. In many prehistoric and ancient cultures, the Moon was personified as a deity or other supernatural phenomenon, and astrological views of the Moon continue to be propagated today.
The Moon plays an important role in Islam; the Islamic calendar is strictly lunar, and in many Muslim countries the months are determined by the visual sighting of the hilal, or earliest crescent moon, over the horizon. The splitting of the moon was a miracle attributed to Muhammad.
The Moon has long been associated with insanity and irrationality; the words lunacy and lunatic (popular shortening loony) are derived from the Latin name for the Moon, Luna. Philosophers Aristotle and Pliny the Elder argued that the full moon induced insanity in susceptible individuals, believing that the brain, which is mostly water, must be affected by the Moon and its power over the tides, but the Moon’s gravity is too slight to affect any single person.
Even today, people who believe in a lunar effect claim that admissions to psychiatric hospitals, traffic accidents, homicides or suicides increase during a full moon, but dozens of studies invalidate these claims.
The sun and the moon
In Norse myth, there was once a giant named Mundilfari (Old Norse, possibly “the one moving according to particular times”) who was married to Glaur or Glen (“Shine”). Their children were so beautiful that he named his son Mani (Old Norse/Icelandic “moon”) and his daughter Sol (Old Norse/Icelandic “sun”). Sol and Mani form a brother and sister pair
Sunna, Mani, and Sinthgunt became the deities of Sun, Moon, and Twilight. An ancient giantess, Nott, joined the House of Mundilfari and became the goddess of Night, the herald of Mani. Nott’s son Daeg (by a red elf named Delling) became the god of Day, Sunna’s herald. Mundilfari’s family and House gives us our sense of Time, every day of our lives.
In Norse mythology, Sköll (Old Norse “Treachery”) is a warg that chases the horses Árvakr and Alsviðr that drag the chariot which contains the sun (Sól) through the sky every day, trying to eat her. Sköll has a brother, Hati, who chases Máni, the moon. At Ragnarök, both Sköll and Hati will succeed in their quests.
Sköll, in certain circumstances, is used as a heiti to refer indirectly to the father (Fenrir) and not the son. This ambiguity works in the other direction also, for example in Vafþrúðnismál, where confusion exists in stanza 46 where Fenrir is given the sun-chasing attributes of his son Sköll. This can mostly be accounted for by the use of Hróðvitnir and Hróðvitnisson to refer to both Fenrir and his sons.
The antiquity of the myth that the Sun is pulled by horses is not definitely from the Nordic religion. Many other mythologies and religions contain a solar deity or carriage of the Sun pulled by horses. In Persian and Phrygian mythology, Mithras and Attis perform this task. In Greek mythology, Apollo performs this task, although it was previously performed by Helios.
In almost every religion in the world, the Sun is held most sacred. To the Norse, the sun was known as Sunna or Sol and was considered feminine. The sun’s light and warmth symbolizes life, nurturing, growth and all that is good. In some Northern cultures, they start their day at sunset and usually begin their year in the winter months. (This is why many Sun and Moon images show the Moon ahead of the Sun).
The name Mundilfari appears in various forms in attestations for the figure, some of them significantly different, and various theories have been proposed for the name. John Lindow states that if the first element, mundil- is related to mund, meaning “period of time,” then the name may be a kenning for the Moon, as Rudolf Simek theorizes.
Sunna is the Norse Goddess of the Sun, also known as Sól (pronounced like the English word “soul”; Old Norse Sól, “Sun”), though some hold that Sól is the mother and Sunna Her daughter. As Sunna, She is a healer. Máni (pronounced “MAH-nee”; Old Norse Máni, “Moon”) is the personification of the moon. As a proper noun, Máni appears throughout Old Norse literature. Sol and Mani are, as their names suggest, the divine animating forces of the sun and the moon, respectively.
On Midsummer Eve, Sunna’s strength begins to decline, and those who honor her gather to celebrate this passage. For the Pagan religions of Northern Europe, this is the Sabbat of Midsummer. Songs are sung, poems are read, libations and toasts fill the air. In honor of the strength of light and warmth that are Sunna’s blessing, fire is a central part of the celebration at this Sabbat.
The gods were angered at such daring. They took both children and placed them in the sky to guide the chariots of the sun and the moon. When the world was created from the body of the dead giant Ymir by the triad of Odin, Vili, and Ve, the celestial bodies of the Sun, Moon and Stars were created from the gathered sparks that shot forth from Muspellsheim, the Land of Fire.
When they first emerged as the cosmos was being created, they didn’t know what their powers were or what their role was in the new world. Then the gods met together and created the different parts of the day and year and the phases of the moon so that Sol and Mani would know where they fit into the great scheme of things.
They ride through the sky on horse-drawn chariots every day/night. The horses who pull Mani’s chariot are never named, but Sol’s horses are apparently named Árvakr or Arvak (“Early Riser”) and Alsviðr or Allsvinn (“Swift”). They ride “swiftly” because they’re pursued through the sky by the wolves Skoll (“Mockery”) and Hati (“Hate”), who overtake them when the cosmos descends back into chaos during Ragnarok.
It is said that sometimes he comes so close that he is able to take a bite out of the Sun, causing an eclipse. According to one of the poems in the Poetic Edda, a figure named Svalinn rides in the sun’s chariot and holds a shield between her and the earth below. If he didn’t do this, both the land and the sea would be consumed in flames.
At Ragnarok, the foretold “Twilight of the Gods” or end of the world, it is believed the Sun will finally be swallowed by Skoll. But when the world is destroyed, a new world shall be born, a world of peace and love, and the Sun’s bright daughter shall outshine her mother.
Despite the wolf Skoll catching and killing Sunna, not all is lost. Like the other Gods at the end of Ragnarok, light still shines on the Earth. Before her death, she gives birth to a daughter as beautiful as her mother and she shall ride her mother’s road. The daughter survives with the Sun to aid and guide humanity after the destruction of the world as we know it. She heals the world, knitting together the fragmented pieces of life after the chaos of Ragnarok.
The medieval Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson, whoseProse Edda can’t be taken at face value but nevertheless is in most low-quality introductory books on Norse mythology tries to compile these disparate references into a comprehensive narrative: Mundilfari had two children who were so beautiful that he called the girl “Sol” after the sun and the boy “Mani” after the moon.
Sun married a man called Glenr (“Opening in the Clouds”). The sun, which had originated as a spark in Muspelheim, was pulled through the sky in a chariot, but the chariot had no driver. The gods were outraged by Mundilfari’s arrogance in the names he chose for his children, so they forced Sol to drive the sun’s chariot.
The conception of the sun and the moon riding on chariots through the sky is evidently a very old one among the Norse and other Germanic peoples. It can be found on rock carvings and other Scandinavian artifacts from the Bronze Age, perhaps the most notable of which is the Trundholm sun chariot. The idea that the sun deity was female, and with a name that means simply “Sun,” is also attested among the continental Germanic peoples.
Sinthgunt is a figure in Germanic mythology, attested solely in the Old High German 9th- or 10th-century “horse cure” Merseburg Incantation. In the incantation, Sinthgunt is referred to as the sister of the personified sun, Sunna (whose name is alliterative to Sinthgunt), and the two sisters are cited as both producing charms to heal Phol’s horse, a figure also otherwise unattested. The two are then followed by Friia and Uolla, also alliterative and stated as sisters.
As Sinthgunt is otherwise unattested, her significance is otherwise unknown, but some scholarly theories exist about her role in Germanic mythology based on proposed etymologies, and the potential significance of her placement within the incantation.
The etymology of Sinthgunt is unclear. There have been interpretations such as “the night-walking one”. As a result of the paring with Sunna, the personified sun, this etymology has been interpreted as a reference to the moon.
However, this reading has yielded problems; the moon in Germanic mythology is considered masculine, exemplified in the personification of the moon in Norse mythology, Máni, a male figure. Interpretations from the amended “Sinthgunt” have resulted in readings such as “the one moving into battle” or “heavenly body, star”.
The figures Fulla (Uolla) and Frigg (Friia) are attested together in later Old Norse sources (though not as sisters), and theories have been proposed that the Fulla may at one time have been an aspect of Frigg. As a result, this notion has resulted in theory that a similar situation may have existed between the figures of Sinthgunt and Sól, in that the two may have been understood as aspects of one another rather than entirely separate figures.
Day and night
Nótt (Old Norse “night”) is night personified, grandmother of Thor. In both the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, Nótt is listed as the daughter of a figure by the name of Narfi or Nörvi (with variant spellings) and is associated with the horse Hrímfaxi.
The Prose Edda features information about Nótt’s ancestry, including her three marriages. Nótt’s third marriage was to the god Dellingr (Old Norse possibly “the dayspring” or “shining one”) and this resulted in their son Dagr, the personified day (although some manuscript variations list Jörð as Dellingr’s wife and Dagr’s mother instead). As a proper noun, the word nótt appears throughout Old Norse literature.
Dellingr is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and in the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In both sources, Dellingr is described as the father of Dagr, the personified day.
The Prose Edda adds that, depending on manuscript variation, he is either the third husband of Nótt, the personified night, or the husband of Jörð, the personified earth. Dellingr is also attested in the legendary saga Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks. Scholars have proposed that Dellingr is the personified dawn, and his name may appear both in an English surname and place name as well as German surnames.
Dagr (Old Norse “day”) is day personified. This personification appears in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In both sources, Dagr is stated to be the son of the god Dellingr and is associated with the bright-maned horse Skinfaxi, who “draw[s] day to mankind”.
Depending on manuscript variation, the Prose Edda adds that Dagr is either Dellingr’s son by Nótt, the personified night, or Jörð, the personified Earth. Otherwise, Dagr appears as a common noun simply meaning “day” throughout Old Norse works. Connections have been proposed between Dagr and other similarly named figures in Germanic mythology.
Skinfaxi and Hrímfaxi are the horses of Dagr (day) and Nótt (night). The names Skinfaxi and Hrímfaxi are bahuvrihis, meaning “shining mane” and “rime mane” (or “frost mane”), respectively. Skinfaxi pulled Dagr’s chariot across the sky every day and his mane lit up the sky and the earth below.
A general problem with the Nordic mythology is the lack of written and reliable sources. Scandinavia is an area with huge impact of geological transformations with lead to many changes in settlement structure. The artefact of Tundholm is one of the strongest evidences for the mythology of Skinfaxi.
The myth of Skinfaxi is believed to originate in Nordic Bronze Age religion, for which there is strong evidence of beliefs involving a horse pulling the sun across the sky. The Trundholm sun chariot is drawn by a single horse, and was possibly imagined to be pulled back across the sky west to east by a second horse. Related are Arvak and Alsvid, the horses of the chariot of Sól, now a team of two horses pulling a single chariot.
Hjúki and Bil
Máni, personified, is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. Both sources state that he is the brother of the personified sun, Sól, and the son of Mundilfari, while the Prose Edda adds that he is followed by the children Hjúki and Bil through the heavens.
Scholarly theories have been proposed about Máni’s potential connection to the Northern European notion of the Man in the Moon, and a potentially otherwise unattested story regarding Máni through skaldic kennings.
Rudolf Simek connects the account of Máni, and Hjúki and Bil (featuring, as Simek states, “a man with a pole and a woman with a bushel”) found in chapter 11 of Gylfaginning with modern accounts of the Man in the Moon found in modern folklore in Scandinavia, England, and North Germany.
In Norse mythology, Hjúki (Old Norse, possibly meaning “the one returning to health”) and Bil (Old Norse, literally “instant”) are a brother and sister pair of children who follow the personified moon, Máni, across the heavens. Both Hjúki and Bil are solely attested in the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson.
Scholarly theories that surround the two concern their nature, their role as potential personifications of the craters on the moon or its phases, and their relation to later folklore in Germanic Europe. Bil has been identified with the Bilwis, an agriculture-associated figure that is frequently attested in the folklore of German-speaking areas of Europe.
Simek additionally points out that a stanza appearing early in the poem Völuspá states that the Æsir had set up the moon “in order to be able to reckon the year”, which Simek connects with Germanic computation of time having been directed towards the moon rather than the sun, and that shorter amounts of time were given in nights rather than days.
John Lindow theorizes on Máni’s fate at Ragnarök in that “as part of the creation of the æsir, that is, the cosmos, Máni must be destroyed at Ragnarök, but this is not explicitly stated, except perhaps by Snorri, who tells about Mánagarm, who will swallow a heavenly body that may be the moon”.
In Norse mythology, Hati Hróðvitnisson (first name meaning “He Who Hates, Enemy”) is a warg, wolf that according to Gylfaginning chases the Moon across the night sky, just as the wolf Sköll chases the Sun during the day, until the time of Ragnarök when they will swallow these heavenly bodies, after which Fenrir will break free from his bonds and kill Odin. Hatí is possibly alluded to in Völuspá as “moon-snatcher”.
Hati’s surname is Hróðvitnisson, attested in both Grímnismál and Gylfaginning, which indicates that he is the son of Fenrir, whose alternate name is Hróðvitnir (“Famous Wolf”). Hati’s mother is the giantess, not named but mentioned in Völuspá and Gylfaginning, who dwells to the east of Midgard in the forest of Járnviðr (“Ironwood”).
Snorri Sturluson states that this giantess and witch bears many giants for sons, all in the form of wolves including one named Mánagarm (“Moon Hound”) who shall swallow the Moon and is thus identified with Hati. From this passage it is also presumed that Sköll is Hati’s brother. Hati is the god of solar eclipses as well.
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