The king was a god and was therefore given the attributes of the gods, so that he could do his work properly; the crown/halo was the symbol of the Sun god, the hammer (later sceptre) the symbol of the god of thunder and the sword the god of lightning. He blessed man on Earth by placing the sword on his shoulder and transferring the Sun's grace to him. The queen was equipped with the attributes of the goddesses; a pot, a cauldron, a basket or a cup, that she could use to fertilize the Earth. She was a goddess, and just like life grew from the Earth each spring, in the form of crops and other growths, or from the sea in form of fish and other seafood, or from the womb of women in form of children, so did fertility emerge from her cup. Together the king and queen, the Sky god and Earth goddess, could bless the kingdom and provide it with everything needed; Sunlight, rain and fertility.
Because of the fact that they did not yet know how women got pregnant the queen's attribute was initially not dependant of the king's attributes to work. Her attribute was in itself able to provide the kingdom with fertility. It was only later they saw a connection between the rays of the Sun and raindrops and men's sperm making women pregnant, but this only changed her attribute slightly, making it unable to work alone and on its own.
1.6 The Patriarchy
With time the right to become queen was passed down from generation to generation, from mother to daughter, so that women no longer could or needed to win contests to become queen. The daughters of the queen automatically inherited her title when she died. The sons inherited nothing, though, because the noble blood was passed down from mother to daughter, so if they wanted to become kings themselves they had to go out into the world and find princesses to marry, like Askeladden and most other men do in the fairy tales. When man realised that it was the sexual intercourse that made the women pregnant, and not contact with green and fertile boughs, the Sun rays or rain drops, the society changed. It turned into a patriarchy, and all of a sudden the sons inherited their titles form their fathers, and not the daughters from their mothers. Also, the young princes no longer had to venture into the unknown world in search of a beautiful princesses (queens) to save, from terrible kings, described in the fairy tales as “trolls”, “dragons” or “giants”, or described as Þjazi in the Scandinavian mythology. Instead they could stay home and arrange marriages like we still do today.
The king's responsibilities however did not change with the coming of patriarchy, and the patriarchal kings were held responsible if anything went wrong, just like the matriarchal kings had before them. It happened, as late as in the Viking Age in Scandinavia, that the kings were executed and replaced by another noble man, because they did not live up to the expectations. The patriarchal kings also had the same restrictions as the matriarchal kings had had. The practical significance of the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy was actually minimal. The biggest changes can actually be seen in the mythology, which of course had to be rewritten (or rather: retold) and changed a lot. This was not always easy, and several myths were in this process made so difficult to comprehend that they lost their meaning for later generations. A good example is the myth I have already mentioned, about the god Skanþan/Skaði who turned into a goddess, and the goddess Nerþuz/Njörðr who turned into a god.
The sorcerer who was unable to keep up with his time, who did for some reason not become a god instead of just being a sorcerer, lost most of his influence in society during the Iron Age. He was no longer king and was reduced to some sort of medicine man, a healer, known from the Viking Age in Scandinavia as a seiðmaðr (“man of the customs”, “man of the traditions”), because of his traditional sorcery practice. Finally, after the introduction of Christianity, the sorcerers disappeared completely, and the last remaining sorcerers were probably burned at the stake by the Christians. However, their sorcery survived in the religion, both the European one and the Asian Christianity. When the early Christians failed to eradicate the European customs, holidays and symbols they simply Christianised them and made them their own.
2.0 The Calendar Woman
Our modern calendar has 12 months and each month has 28 to 31 days. All in all there are 365 days (and 366 every leap year). The Scandinavian Bronze Age calendar, known from a rock carving of a woman, found in what is today known as Bohuslän (in Sweden), has 13 months, each with exactly 28 days. There was also a New Year's Day, that every leap year lasted for two days, so all in all it has 365 days (and 366 every leap year) too. This is in fact the most accurate calendar known from the ancient world.
All the months had exactly 28 days and 4 weeks, so the 1st, the 8th, the 15th and the 22nd day of each month was always a Sunday. Likewise the 2nd, the 9th, the 16th and the 23rd day was always a Monday, and so forth. The New Year's Day was not a Sunday, Monday or any other day, but the New Year's Day.
The week had 7 days, because the sorcerers could only see seven celestial objects on the sky, which they identified as the most important spirits of nature, later to be identified as deities: Sunþon/Sunna (Lat. Sol), Manan/Mani (Lat. Luna), Tíwaz/Týr (Lat. Mars), Woþanaz/Óðinn (Lat. Mercurius), Þunaz/Þórr (Lat. Juppiter), Fraujon/Freyja (Lat. Venus) and finally Haimadalþaz/Heimdallr (Lat. Saturnus). The month had 4 weeks because the Moon had 4 phases: the lunar eclipse/rebirth, the new Moon/birth, the full Moon/life and the waning Moon/death.
Day Norse name proto-Nordic name
Sunday Sunnudagr Sunþudagaz
Monday Mánadagr Manadagaz
Tuesday Týsdagr Tíwadagaz
Tuesday Tírsdagr Tíwadagaz
Wednesday Óðinsdagr Woþanadagaz
Thursday Þórsdagr Þunadagaz
Friday Freyjudagr Fraujudagaz
Friday Frjádagr Frijodagaz
Saturday Laugardagr (“cleaning day”) Laugadagaz
Saturday - Haimadalþadagaz
The Ancient Man believed that the spirits and the deities lived side by side with them, and every month was therefore seen as a house of a deity, who was greeted and welcomed the first day each month. The gods were greeted by the kings/lords and the goddesses by the queens/ladies.
You might believe that it would be impossible or at least difficult to find the names of the 13 months of the ancient calendar, but it actually isn't; they are all listed in the Scandinavian mythology, logically as “houses” or “homes” of the deities.