Máni’s Day
I thought I would undertake a new exercise in an effort to keep my focus more on Heathenism and also to make up for necessary excursions outside of or more peripherally related to Heathenism.
In this case, I want to look at some Heathen topic every day. My methodology will be to invoke Google. Yes. Google. I will type in a word related to some Heathen topic and Google it, and discuss what comes up, perhaps in general or perhaps related to one specific entry that attracts my attention.
For today’s subject, I chose Máni, since it is, after all, Máni’s Day (Monday).
What struck me was the complete lack of any post related to Máni in a Heathen context:
• Mani Admin Plugin
• Mani (prophet) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Mani – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Mäni’s Bakery Café: Healthy Bakery, Sugar Free Desserts & Restaurant
• Mani – LookLex Encyclopaedia
• Mani Hellas
• Mani – Greece – a guide and history
• Shinta Mani : Welcome
• Mani – Greek Landscapes
• Welcome to the MANI.COM Web pages
Apparently, Máni doesn’t get much mention these days. The only mention of Máni in this entire list is in Wikipedia, among 21 other entries. For those interested, the entry is here.
So who is Máni? (besides being somebody who has Monday named after them, that is…)
Máni is, in Old Norse, the moon. And we can perhaps see why Máni gets so little mention when we flip open Rudolf Simek’s Dictionary of Northern Mythology and learn that
Máni only appears in Vafþrúðnismál 23 and in Snorri (Gylfaginning 10) as a personified mythological figure, as well as in two skaldic kennings in which Máni is apparently a gigantic being in a myth of which we otherwise know nothing (Simek 1993:201).
Snorri tells us that Máni’s sister is Sol (the sun). And yes, contrary to what is understood today, the Sun is female and the moon is male, so the moon is not a harsh mistress, but a harsh master, if you choose to redo the song in Heathen terms.
Both of them are drawn across the sky by horses. The sun is pursued by a wolf and Máni by Hati (ON ‘despiser,’ or ‘hater’) who will devour him when he is caught.
The Germanic peoples followed a lunar calendar. The Voluspá 6 does not contain any story about Máni but it does tell us that the Æsir set the moon into the sky “in order to be able to reckon the year.”
A kenning for the Sun, for you poetic types, is as given in Skáldskaparmál , “sister of Máni” (Lindow 2001:222).
According to mythology, Máni must be destroyed at Ragnarök with the rest of the cosmos but is apparently not important enough even to Snorri to receive specific mention, unless that is what he is talking about when he says that Mánagarm will swallow a heavenly body.
We will unfortunately remain largely ignorant of Máni. Lindow calls “the moon, personified” and that is pretty much all we will ever know barring some new discovery. It’s a shame, but it’s another symptom of Christianity’s ruthless suppression of Germanic and Norse Heathenism in the Middle Ages.
What all this brings home to me is that in many ways, our knowledge of Norse mythology is like a “Cliff Notes” version. We have some surface knowledge but very little real understanding. Enough to get by; not enough to satisfy.
That knowledge that was felt by priest and rune-carver Biari (on the Swedish Rök Stone) so important to be passed on to shape the “behavior and ideals” of future generations (DuBois 1999:65) will remain unknown to us, unable to shape us, except perhaps to touch upon our imaginations and our yearning for what is denied us.
The lesson in all this is, at least in part, that you can Google a lot of things; you cannot Google that which reckless hatred has destroyed.
Sources:
Thomas A. DuBois, Nordic Religions in the Viking Age (University of Pennsylvania Press 1999).
John Lindow, Norse Mytholoy: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs (Oxford University Press 2001).
Rudolf Simek, Dictionary of Northern Mythology (D.S. Brewer 1993)
Hrafnkell Haraldsson is the author of A Heathen’s Day, which since 2005 has addressed the life and thoughts of a modern day Heathen. He is also the founder of the Mos Maiorum Foundation (www.mosmaiorum.org) which is dedicated to the study and support of Paganism as ethnic religion and writes for PoliticusUSA (www.politicususa.com) 
How wonderful that you posted this! I was just standing outside last night reflecting on Mani, since the moon was so… there, and Mani's Day was comin' up. Interesting that our ancestors counted time in nights rather than in days.
I often hail Máni when the moon rises or when I walk outside into a particularly striking moonlit night. I rarely do the same for Sol or Sunna. I have no idea why I do this, but I've done it for many years now.
"you cannot Google that which reckless hatred has destroyed." Exactly. Something that is pretty much guaranteed to fill me with rage and sorrow if I allow myself to dwell upon it too long is the conversion and its accompanying destruction of life, knowledge, and culture. It's something for which I can never forgive the missionaries and their agents.
Thanks, Chell. It's funny how the way things are seem so natural…never knowing that there are other ways of looking at the world. I remember my first encounter with the idea of a "male" moon and a "female" sun and it seemed so foreign to me. After all these years in Heathendom, it seems quite natural.
Sorn, Máni is beautiful this morning, hanging over the bear trees in a star-filled sky. I wish I could take a picture of it that had a hope of turning out. Instead, I tried to impress the picture on my mind, so I could remember later how it looked and how it made me feel with the cold morning air. It must have been an image, minus the background sounds from the Interstate, that our ancestors knew well.
Went for another long hike under an even more beautiful moon last night (brr!). Did your parents or grandparents ever comment about "the man in the moon?" My grandmother did, on a lot of nights. So the idea of the moon being male was not hard for me to embrace. Even seemingly insignificant, playful lore can have depth and history.
so true, Chell! I always thought it was strange as a child to hear things like "the moon is a harsh mistress" and to talk at the same time about "the man in the moon" and to hear of solar gods and lunar goddesses in the ancient Mediterranean world and a solar goddess and lunar god in the Germanic. Sol is still a used as a female name in Scandinavia and probably in Iceland too. We're not likely to find too many girls named after the sun in American culture.
LOL I'm going to leave that there because it's funny. I was playing with the blog I'm going to use to write a serial story online and it changed my name to my character's name in the story…I sure don't look much like a Najet…I think Hrafnkell suits me better
LOL! Don't you just love it when software and online services so gracefully leave one's fanny hangin' out there in the breeze?
"Hrafnkell" fits you perfectly, tho I don't know this shady "Najet" character.
Is your story going to be public?
I wouldn't tell her she is shady! She might kill ya )
I do intend to make the story public. I may well moderate comments after all the experiences I've had here and my fraying patience levels.
It's going to be posted as ship's and personal log entries so I'm trying to accumulate a back-log of posts before I get it going…that and I'm trying to fine-tune the template.
Nice touch.
And tonight (UK Dec 2) is a full moon- the "Oak moon", which is also the 1st of two this month – the next being the "Blue moon" on Dec 31.
I always found he moon to be mysteriously fascinating and often offer a toast to him (Mani). I've never had a problem with the male/female thing as when it's put in a Northern context…it makes sense…
The moon= male…cold & harsh.
The sun= female…warm & comforting.
Chell- "our ancestors counted time in nights rather than in days"…
…that's how-come they had 13 months (monaths) in the year – the word 'monath' means 'month' in Anglo-Saxon; and is derived from the word 'moon'.
The nusery rhyme "Jack and Jill went up the hill…" is supposed to be about Bil and Hjuki (Read Snorris' Edda Chapter 11).
They were "..two children who were taken from the earth as they were walking from the well called Byrgir carrying a pail (Soeg) on a pole (Simul), to follow Mani…as can be seen from the earth."
Nice touch.
And tonight (UK Dec 2) is a full moon- the "Oak moon", which is also the 1st of two this month – the next being the "Blue moon" on Dec 31.
I always found he moon to be mysteriously fascinating and often offer a toast to him (Mani). I've never had a problem with the male/female thing as when it's put in a Northern context…it makes sense…
The moon= male…cold & harsh.
The sun= female…warm & comforting.
Chell- "our ancestors counted time in nights rather than in days"…
…that's how-come they had 13 months (monaths) in the year – the word 'monath' means 'month' in Anglo-Saxon; and is derived from the word 'moon'.
The nusery rhyme "Jack and Jill went up the hill…" is supposed to be about Bil and Hjuki (Read Snorris' Edda Chapter 11).
They were "..two children who were taken from the earth as they were walking from the well called Byrgir carrying a pail (Soeg) on a pole (Simul), to follow Mani…as can be seen from the earth."
Nice touch.
And tonight (UK Dec 2) is a full moon- the "Oak moon", which is also the 1st of two this month – the next being the "Blue moon" on Dec 31.
I always found he moon to be mysteriously fascinating and often offer a toast to him (Mani). I've never had a problem with the male/female thing as when it's put in a Northern context…it makes sense…
The moon= male…cold & harsh.
The sun= female…warm & comforting.
Chell- "our ancestors counted time in nights rather than in days"…
…that's how-come they had 13 months (monaths) in the year – the word 'monath' means 'month' in Anglo-Saxon; and is derived from the word 'moon'.
The nusery rhyme "Jack and Jill went up the hill…" is supposed to be about Bil and Hjuki (Read Snorris' Edda Chapter 11).
They were "..two children who were taken from the earth as they were walking from the well called Byrgir carrying a pail (Soeg) on a pole (Simul), to follow Mani…as can be seen from the earth."
Hey Stu,thanks for elaborating. I'd forgotten about the association with Snorri's Edda!
By the way, the rhyme made me think of a naughty version I heard once:
Jack and Jill went up a hill
each with a buck and a quarter
Jill came down with two-and-a-half
and they didn't go up for water
Stu, those points are fascinating! I've been poking around a couple of books, and also read this page, which has me interested in even more related topics…
Hrafnkell, eek! Hopefully Najet will just laugh off the whole "shady" thing. Or just laugh at that silly rhyme- lol!
Chell, you found Northvegr. How I miss their forums. Wasn't the same after they closed (of course, I was administrator of them so it left a big gap in my Heathen community-building expectations).
You've also found Rydberg. I think the longest or one of the longest-running feuds on the Internet revolves around Rydberg.
I will do what I can to distract Najet along other paths