Ahörgr (Old Norse,pl. hörgar) orhearg (Old English,pl. heargas) is a type ofaltar or cult site, possibly consisting of a heap of stones, used inNorse religion, as opposed to a roofed hall used as ahof (temple).
The Old Norse term is attested in both thePoetic Edda and theProse Edda, in thesagas of Icelanders,skaldic poetry, and with its Old English cognate inBeowulf. The word is also reflected in variousplace names (inEnglish placenames asharrow), often in connection withGermanic deities.
Old Norsehǫrgr means "altar, sanctuary", while Old Englishhearg refers to a "holy grove; temple, idol".[1] From these, and theOld High German cognateharug,Proto-Germanic*harugaz has been reconstructed, possibly cognate withInsular Celticcarrac "cliff".[2]
The termhörgr is used three times in poems collected in thePoetic Edda. In a stanza early in the poemVöluspá, thevölva says that early in the mythological timeline, the gods met together at the location ofIðavöllr and constructed a hörgr and ahof:
- Old Norse:
- Hittoz æsir á Iðavelli,
- þeir er hǫrg ok hof hátimbroðo.[3]
- Henry Adams Bellows translation:
- At Ithavoll met the mighty gods;
- Shrines and temples they timbered high;[4]
- Ursula Dronke translation:
- Æsir met on Eddying Plain
- they who built towering altars and temples.[3]
In the poemVafþrúðnismálGagnráðr (the godOdin in disguise) engages in a game of wits with thejötunnVafþrúðnir. Gagnráðr asks Vafþrúðnir whence the Van godNjörðr came, for though he rules over many hofs and hörgar, Njörðr was not raised among the Æsir (Benjamin Thorpe here glosseshörgr with "offer-steads" and Bellows glosses with "shrines"):
Benjamin Thorpe translation:
- Tell me tenthly, since thou all the origin
- of the gods knowest, Vafthrudnir!
- whence Niörd came among the Æsir's sons?
- O'er fanes and offer-steads he rules by hundreds,
- yet he was not among the Æsir born.[5]
Henry Adams Bellows translation:
- Tenth answer me now, if thou knowest all
- The fate that is fixed for the gods:
- Whence came up Njorth to the kin of the gods,—
- (Rich in temples and shrines he rules,—)
- Though of gods he was never begot?[6]
In the poemHyndluljóð, the goddessFreyja speaks favorably ofÓttar for having worshiped her so faithfully by using a hörgr. Freyja details that the hörgr is constructed of a heap of stones, and that Óttar very commonly reddened these stones with sacrificial blood (Thorpe glosseshörgr with "offer-stead", Bellows with "shrine", and Orchard with "altar"):
- Benjamin Thorpe translation:
- An offer-stead to me he raised,
- with stones constructed;
- now is the stone
- as glass become.
- With the blood of oxen
- he newly sprinkled it.
- Ottar ever trusted theAsyniur.[7]
- Henry Adams Bellows translation:
- For me a shrine of stones he made,
- And now to glass the rock has grown;
- Oft with the blood of beasts was it red;
- In the goddesses ever did Ottar trust.[8]
- Andy Orchard translation:
- He made me a high altar
- of heaped-up stones:
- the gathered rocks
- have grown all bloody,
- and he reddened them again
- with the fresh blood of cows;
- Ottar has always
- had faith in the ásynjur.[9]
The place name Salhøgum, that is mentioned on a 9th-century Danishrunestone known as theSnoldelev Stone, has a literal translation which combines Old Norsesal meaning "hall" withhörgar "mounds," to form "on the hall mounds," suggesting a place with a room where official meetings took place.[10] The inscription states that the man Gunnvaldr is theþulaR of Salhøgum, which has been identified as referring to the modern town Salløv, located in the vicinity of the original site of the runestone.[11]
Many place names inIceland andScandinavia contain the word hörgr or hörgur, such asHörgá and Hörgsdalur in Iceland and Harg inSweden. WhenWillibrord Christianized the Netherlands (~700 AD) the church of Vlaardingen had a dependency in Harago/Hargan, currently named Harga. This indicates that near those places there was some kind of religious building in medieval times.[12]
In the interpretation of Wilson,Anglo-Saxon Paganism (1992),hearg refers to "a special type of religious site, one that occupied a prominent position on high land and was a communal place of worship for a specific group of people, a tribe or folk group, perhaps at particular times of the year", while aweoh, by contrast, was merely a small shrine by the wayside.
Beowulf has the compoundhærgtrafum in the so-called "Christian excursus" (lines 175–178a), translated as "tabernacles of idols" by Hall (1950).[13]
Following the regular evolution of English phonology, Old Englishhearg has becomeharrow in modernEnglish placenames (unrelated to the homophoneharrow "agricultural implement").The London Borough ofHarrow derives its name from a temple on Harrow Hill, whereSt. Mary's Church stands today. The name ofHarrow on the Hill (Harewe atte Hulle) was adopted into Latin asHerga super montem; the Latinized form of the Old English name is preserved in the name ofHerga Road in Harrow.[14][15]