Augustine vs Wodan

Abstract The change of the weekday terminology for Wednesday from ‘Wodan’s day’ to ‘middle of the week’ in Old High German around the year 1000 is commonly explained through a rejection of the Germanic god Wodan by Christian intellectuals. This article takes a closer look at the institutional setting and textual context of this change. Effectively, Notker Labeo was following Augustine’s comments on Psalm 93 in the same way as Irish intellectuals had already done in the early eighth century. This article demonstrates the vibrancy of Irish teaching at St Gall in the two core areas relevant for this shift, psalm studies and especially calendrical science. Notker’s momentous decision can therefore be traced back to strong, and often underrated, Irish intellectual influence at St Gall in the early Middle Ages.