Ink Pen by Phil Dunlap for December 28, 2011

The calendar used in the Viking Age had months of six five-day weeks (called "fimmts, from the Old Norse word for five). Four of the days were named after deities: Týrsdagr, Óðinsdagr, Þórsdagr and Frjádagr. Yes, this does add up to only 360 days in the year, but five days not part of any month were added as part of a midwinter festival (six in leap years). The last day of the week was not named after a deity – it was Laugardagr, which translates as “bathing day”. With one day in five set aside for a bath, the idea of the unwashed Viking barbarian (also perpetuated in Hagar The Horrible) can be put to rest. In fact, the Vikings probably had better personal hygiene than the rest of Europe. The seven-day week came to Scandinavia at the end of the Viking Age in the 10th-11th centuries, when Christianity was imposed there.