To understand the rites, traditions and way of life of our ancestors, one should know our original pre-Christian calendar. This knowledge is also crucial to understanding the traditions of today, their backgrounds, their execution and their logic.
The Norse calendar consists of 13 months. The week consists of 7 days. Each month is dedicated to a god/goddess, who has a birthday on the 13th of each month. There are 28 days in each month. Each weekday is also dedicated to a god/goddess. There are 2 New Year's days every other year, which regulates leap years. The calendar follows the lunar and solar cycles. For our ancestors, sun and moon were the two most important gods / forces of nature, and all other deities are only isolated versions and attributes of these. Rather, they are consequences of them. This is precisely why related forces are married to one another, or have other "human" relationships with one another in our mythology. Often they have marriages, often multiple spouses, and in relationships we would consider obscene on a human level.
Familiar and interpersonal relationships are used to recount myths, fairy tales and legends. These relationships, rather than among themselves, only reflect the order of nature and attributes and consequences in the same way you find and see them in nature. The goddess Frøya is not a dishonorable woman with many partners. She is a symbol of all women and their relationship with their respective husbands. This symbol has nothing to do with lack of honor. Our ancestors never had honorless idols.
Of countless examples of such conditions, here are a few of them;
Thor (electric voltage, gravity) through the thunder, chases Loke (fire, flame) where lightning strikes down to earth. In nature we always perceive that after lightning, thunder comes. That is why Thor always chases Loke in our mythology, and in all stories the chase is a consequence of the forces of nature they represent, in a given order. Just as Loke is the catalyst and adrenaline that gets things moving.
In the myth where Thor visits Utgards-Loke, he wrestles with an old lady named Elle. This woman's name means "old age". Even the mighty Thor is forced to his knees.
Drawing by Rudolf Herzog in 1919, Germaniens Götter.
Another example is Njord (the sea, the time) and Skade (rivers and watercourses that flow into the sea). In our mythology, they are married to each other. They have the twin children Frøy and Frøya who hold their parents' attributes in a more specific form. In this way, everything fits together logically, throughout mythology, and in all pagan teachings of the gods (nature).
The solar chariot from Zealand in Denmark. The finding is from the older Bronze Age, and is made of gold and bronze. These sculptures illustrate the mythological horse Alsviðr (meaning: omniscient / all-encompassing), which through the myths personifies "the sun's orbit around the earth". Photo: National Museum, Denmark.
The weekdays
Our weekdays still carry the original names:
Sunnadagr (søndag/Sunday) – Balder´s day (sun, summer, life, heat etc.)
Mánadagr (mandag/Monday) – Moon´s dag (measure of time, tides, watercources etc.)
Týsdagr (tirsdag/Tuesday) – Tyr´s day (battle, balance, justice, rain etc.)
Óðinsdagr (onsdag/Wednesday) – Odin´s day (thought, inspiration, spirit, water etc.)
Þórsdagr (torsdag/Thursday) – Thor´s day (loyalty, willpower, gravitation, earth etc.)
Freyjudagr (fredag/Friday) – Frøya´s day (love, fertility, forest, sacred etc.)
Laugardagr (lørdag/Saturday) – Heimdal´s day (lauge= to wash, transition, time, mercy etc.)
The three basic elements [1] for everything we know are represented through the gods: fire, water and earth. No life is without any of these elements, and all life has them in various forms. The sky god (Tyr) with sun and moon above earth contains all this.
The months
The months are divided into worlds (states/realms), which reflect the state nature is in - for the given year / time (cycle).
1. Valaskjálfr («the fallen and chosen one» Váli (Vali))
̴ 31. Oct. - 27. Nov.
2. Himinbjörg («hidden/mountain,heaven» Heimdallr (Heimdal))
̴ 28. Nov. - 23. Dec.
3. Landvíði («woodland» Viðarr (Vidar))
̴ 24. Dec. - 20. Jan.
4. Søkkvabekkr («sinking/deep river» Sága (Saga))
̴ 21. Jan. - 17. Feb.
5. þrúðheimr («strenght» þór (Thor))
̴ 18. Feb. - 17. March.
6. Breiðablik («spark/glimmering» Baldr (Balder))
̴ 18. March - 14. April.
7. Nóatun («ship lay/yard» Njörðr (Njord))
̴ 15. April - 12. May.
8. Glítnir («sparkling» Týr/Forseti (Ty/Forsete))
̴ 13. Mai - 9. June.
9. Folkvangr («Folk Home» Freyja (Frøya))
̴ 10. June - 7. July.
10. Alfheimr («white world» Freyr (Frøy))
̴ 8. July - 4. Aug.
11. Glaðsheimr («shining, bright world» Óðin (Odin))
̴ 5. Aug. - 1. Sept.
12. þrýmheimr («noisy world» Skaði (Skade))
̴ 2. Sept. - 29. Sept.
13. Ýdalir («evergreen» Ullr/Höðr (Ull/Hod)
̴ 30. Sept. - 27. Oct.
After the last and thirteenth month of Ýdalir, the New Year's Day (s) comes so that the leap year is regulated. The time after today’s calculation in today’s calendar is stated by a couple of day’s margin, since we are currently using the Gregorian calendar, and that our original Norse calendar only follows the sun and moon with moving days. The division of the year above is the one believed to be from before the Bronze Age, and can be found and reconstructed from archaeological finds from this period.
There are other sections and designations for the year's seasons in other sources. The subdivision below is the one that was probably used later in the Iron Age, when agriculture had become more extensive. This division of the year is, as the earliest known calendar, also based on solar and lunar cycles. It is also based on the zodiac sign of the sun and the moon's journey across the sky. No matter what calendar or source you use for our ancestors year and cycle breakdown, they are always based on the cosmological positions of the sun and moon, the changing of the seasons and the pulse of nature.
1. Ýlir, Frermánuður (the frost month).
Star sign: Skytari/Skyti (Marksman).
Present time: 21. November - 20. December.
2. Mörsugr, Jólmánaðr (Yule month, fatmonth).
Star sign: Steingeitarmerki (Capricorn).
Present time: 20. December - 20. January.
3. Þorri (Fertilizing month).
Star sign: Vatnkarl (Aquarians).
Present time: 20. January - 19. February.
4. Gói (the womens month).
Star sign: Fiskr (Fishes).
Present time: 19. February - 21. March.
5. Einmánuðr, Krákamánaðr (the mens month).
Star sign: Hrútr (Aries).
Present time: 21. March - 20. April.
6. Gaukmánuðr, Sáðtið (the kokoo month, sow time).
Star sign: Griðungr (Taurus).
Present time: 20. April - 21. May.
7. Stekktíð, Eggtíð (Egg- and lamb month).
Star sign: Tvíburar (Twins).
Present time: 21. May - 21. June.
8. Sólmánaðr (the Sunmonth).
Star sign: Krabbi (Crayfish).
Present time: 21. June - 23. July.
9. Heyönn, Ormamánaðr (Hay- and wormmonth).
Star sign: Ljún (Lion).
Present time: 23. July - 23. August.
10. Tvímánaðr, Kornskurðarmánaðr (The two month, cropcut month).
Star sign: Mær (Virgin).
Present time: 23. August - 24. September.
11. Haustmyrkr, Haustmánaðr (Fallmonth, Fall darkness).
Star sign: Vekti (Weight).
Present time: 24. september til 22. oktober.
12. Vetra (Vintre).
Star sign: Haldreki/Sporðdrekamerki (Scorpion).
Present time: 22. October - 22. November.
It was also common to call the period from 14. October until
13. November for Gormánuður (butcher month).
All of our past, and not least identical current traditions and cultural identity markers, appear around this calendar. The high festivals, culture and mythology described have thus references in it. Our most important high festivals to this day, most often occur with 28 day cycles - and in perfect sync with our Nordic nature. They occur after a woman's own reproductive cycle (a pregnancy's length), and above all, they are life-celebrating in every way.
[1] The elements occur in different forms, so-called allotropic forms, because the atoms can stick to each other in different ways. Just as the gods (forces of nature) stick to each other in mythology (and thus in nature) in the same logical ways. The elements are very different in their form and nature. The elements include substances that play an important role in nature's processes, such as hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon. In our case, these are represented and personified through the Earth Goddess and the Sky God, and therein Sun, Moon, Earth, Loke, Thor, Odin and Frøya and all the other gods and goddesses, dwarves and Ettins etc., which together form what we denote as the periodic system - in a logical sense.
Note: There is currently no exact Bronze Age calendar, but based on strong clues and archaeological findings, this has been reconstructed, and is the most likely reconstruction we can relate to. The reconstruction that gives the greatest logic is from the book Sorcery and Religion in Ancient Scandinavia by Varg Vikernes. The Iron Age calendar has a number of sources.