13 February 2023
Six planets in the night sky are visible to the naked eye, and five have been known since antiquity: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The sixth, Uranus, is at the edge of perception for the unaided human eye, and its orbital period, 84 years, is too long for the ancients to have noticed its apparent motion. It was not recognized as a planet until the eighteenth century.
The English names for these five classical planets are taken from the Latin ones. The names appear in the Old English corpus with their Latin inflections, indicating that the names had not been fully assimilated into English at the time. Bede and Alcuin, writing in Latin, mention them. And King Alfred’s ninth-century translation of Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy makes mention of Saturnus. But it is two monks, Ælfric of Eynsham and Byrhtferth of Ramsay, writing in the tenth and eleventh centuries that use the names in English writing, albeit with the Latin inflections.
In his translation of Alcuin’s Interrogationes Sigewulfi in Genesim (Questions to Sigewulf About Genesis), Ælfric writes:
Ðone ufemyston heton þa hæþenan saturnus, se gefylð his ryne on þrittig geara fyrste; þone oðerne þe beneoþan Saturnu[m] gæð hi heton iouis & se gefylð his ryne bin nan twelf gearu[m]; Þone þriddan þe benoþan iouem gæð: hi heton mars & se gfylð his ryne binnan twam gearum; Se feorða is seo sunne; seo gefylð hire ryne on twelf monþu[m]; þæt is on þrim hund dagu[m] & fif & sixtigu[m] & syx tidum; Se fifta is gehaten uenus, se is æfen steorra, se gefylð his ryne on þrim hund dagu[m] & eahta & sixtigu[m] dagum; Se syxta is gehaten mercurrus, micel & beorht, se gefylð his ryne on þrim hund dagum & nigon & twentigu[m] dagum; Se seofoþa is se mona ealra tungla nyðemest & forþi hæfð læstne embegang & forþi hegefylð his ryne on seofon & twentigu[m] dagum & on eahta tidu[m].
(The uppermost the heathens called Saturn; it runs its course in thirty years time. The second that goes beneath Saturn they called Jove, and it runs its course in twelve years. The third that goes beneath Jove they called Mars and it runs its course in two years. The fourth is the sun; it runs its course in twelve months: that is three hundred sixty-five days and six hours. The fifth is called Venus; it is the evening star; it runs its course in three hundred twenty-nine days. The sixth is called Mercury, strong and bright, it runs its course in three hundred twenty-nine days; The seventh is the moon, of all the stars the lowest and therefore has the shortest circuit and therefore runs its course in twenty-seven days and eight hours.)
Note that Ælfric calls these heathen names and uses the Latin inflections, although one cannot distinguish between the Latin and later English names for Venus and Mars. The orbital periods he gives are accurate if one assumes a geocentric model of the solar system.
Byrhtferth, writing some decades after Ælfric, gives a similar account. His book on astronomy, titled the Enchiridion (Handbook), is a macaronic text of Latin and English. The passage here is largely English but uses the Latin names for the planets, including Martis and Veneris:
Þa steorran þe man hæt planete on Lyden and on Grecisc apo tes planes (hoc est ab errore) oðre hwile hig beoð on eastende þære heofone swa sunne byð dæghwhamlice, and se mona gelome geondscrið þæne circul þe hatte zodiacus. Eall swa deð se steorra þe hatte Veneris and eac Mercurius; þæt ylce we cweðeð be þam steorran þe hatte Martis and eac be þam þe ys Iouis geciged. Saturnus ys se yfemsta; he geyrnð hys ryne binnan þrittigum wintrum. And se oðer ys geciged Foeton oððe Iouis; twelf wintrum he gerynð his ryne. And se þridda, þe hatte Vesper oððe Martis, he gefærð his ryne binnan fiftyne wintrum. Seo sunne ys onmiddan þissum tacnum gesett, and heo gerynð hyre ryne binnan eahta and twentigum wintrum. Þæræfter on þam circule Lucifer uparist, þæne sume uðwitan hatað Candidum; he yrnð nigon ger hys ryne. He ys Veneris gehaten; he scinð ealra steorra beorhtest. Mercurius yrnð twentig wintra his ryne. Luna (þæt ys mona) he geondscrið hys ryne binnan nigontyne wintrum. Iudagum Romani and eac Angli gehalgedon on þisra tungla gemynde heora dægas, and þæne forman dæg hig heton Sunnandæg forþan heo ys ealra tungla wlitegost, and se dæg wæs ealra daga firmest on heora dagum and nu ys on urum timan, Gode lof, ealles. Þone oðerne dæg hig heton Monandæg forþon he ys beorhtest æfter þære sunnan. Ðæne þriddan Marte hig getealdon and þone feorðan Mercurio and þone fiftan Ioue and þone syxtan Venere and þone seofeðan Saturnus.
(The stars that one calls planets in Latin and in Greek apo tes planes (hoc est ab errore [that is from wandering]) are sometimes in the eastern quarter of the heavens as the sun is daily, and the moon often traverses the circle that is called the zodiac. As well do the stars that are called Venus and Mercury; we say the same about the star that is called Mars and also about the one called Jove. Saturn is the highest; it runs its course in thirty winters. And the second is called Phaeton or Jove; it runs its course in twelve winters. And the third, that is called Vesper or Mars; it travels its course in fifteen winters. The sun is placed in the middle of these stars, and it runs its course in twenty-eight winters. After that, Lucifer arises in the circle, which some wise people call Candidum; it runs its course in nine years. It is called Venus; it shines the brightest of all the stars. Mercury runs its course in twenty winters. Luna (that is the moon), it traverses its course in nineteen winters. Formerly, the Romans and also the English consecrated their days in commemoration of these stars, and they called the first day Sunday because it is brightest of all the stars, and that day was the first of all the days in their days and now in our time entirely so, God be praised. The second day they called Monday because it is the brightest after the sun. The third they assigned to Mars and the fourth to Mercury and the fifth to Jove and the sixth to Venus and the seventh to Saturn.
Byrhtferth’s orbital periods for Jupiter and Saturn are accurate. His twenty-eight-year period for the sun is the number of years it takes for the Easter cycle to repeat itself, and the period he gives for the moon is the nineteen-year solar-lunar cycle. The periods he gives for the other planets cannot be explained.
The English in the pre-Conquest period did not, as far as we know, give the planets English names. It is possible that there were English names which were not written down. But militating against this hypothesis is the fact that both Ælfric and Byrhtferth used the Old English sunna and mona, and Byrhtferth even provides the English translation for the Latin Luna. If there were commonly used English names for the other planets, these two writers would probably have mentioned them.
It isn’t until the Middle English period that we start to see some of the names of the planets Anglicized. In addition to the sun and moon, the South English Legendary, a collection of saint’s lives written c.1300, refers to Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, but keeps the Latin Mercurius and Saturnus:
Eiȝte firmamenz þare beoth: swuche ase we i-seoth,
þe Ovemeste is þe riȝtte heouene: in ȝwan þe steorrene beoth—
for godes riche is þare a-boue: þat last with-outen ende;
þare-be-neoþe beoth seoue fermamenz: þat euerech of heom, i-wis,
One steorre hath with-oute mo: þat planete i-cleoped is.
Ichulle nemmen heore seoue names: and formest bi-guynne hext:
Saturnus is al a-boue: and Iupiter sethþe next,
þanne Mars bi-neoþen him: and sethþe þe sonne is,
Venus sethþe, þe clere steorre: Mercurius þanne i-wis,
þat wel selden is of us i-seiȝe: þe Mone is next þe grounde.
(There are eight firmaments, such as we see. The highest is the genuine heaven, in which are the stars—for God’s kingdom is above that, which lasts without end. Beneath that are seven firmaments, each one being home, in fact, to just one star, which is called a planet. I will list their seven names, beginning with the highest. Saturn is above all, and Jupiter follows next. Then Mars is beneath him, and then follows the sun. Venus, the bright star, follows, then, in fact, Mercury, which is very seldom visible to us. The moon is next to the ground.)
By the late fourteenth century, all the planetary names had been Anglicized. Book 7 of John Gower’s 1390 poem Confessio Amantis lists them all, which you can click the link to read.
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