View source for Hörgr

{{short description|Type of altar or cult site, possibly consisting of a heap of stones}}
A '''{{lang|non|hörgr}}''' ([[Old Norse]], {{plural form|{{lang|non|hörgar}}}}) or '''{{lang|ang|hearg}}''' ([[Old English]], {{plural form| {{lang|ang|heargas}}}}) is a type of [[altar]] or cult site, possibly consisting of a heap of stones, used in [[Norse religion]], as opposed to a roofed hall used as a [[Heathen hofs|''hof'' (temple)]].

The Old Norse term is attested in both the ''[[Poetic Edda]]'' and the ''[[Prose Edda]]'', in the [[sagas of Icelanders]], [[skald|skaldic poetry]], and with its Old English cognate in  ''[[Beowulf]]''. The word is also reflected in various [[Germanic toponymy|place names]] (in [[English placenames]] as ''[[:wikt:harrow|harrow]]''), often in connection with [[List of Germanic deities|Germanic deities]].

==Etymology==
Old Norse ''[[:wikt:hǫrgr|hǫrgr]]'' means "altar, sanctuary", while Old English ''[[:wikt:hearg|hearg]]'' refers to a "[[Sacred grove|holy grove]]; temple, idol".<ref name=SIMEK156>Simek (2007:156).</ref> From these, and the [[Old High German]] cognate ''harug'', [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] ''[[:wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/harugaz|*harugaz]]'' has been reconstructed, possibly cognate with [[Insular Celtic languages|Insular Celtic]] ''[[Crag and tail |carrac]]'' "cliff".<ref>Gerhard Köbler, [http://www.koeblergerhard.de/germ/germ_h.html Germanisches Wörterbuch], 5th ed. (2014). [[Pokorny (1959)]] s.v.
 [http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/ielex/X/P0847.html "3. kar- 'hard'"].</ref>

==Old Norse tradition==

===Literary===
The term ''hörgr'' is used three times in poems collected in the ''[[Poetic Edda]]''. In a stanza early in the poem ''[[Völuspá]]'', the [[völva]] says that early in the mythological timeline, the gods met together at the location of [[Iðavöllr]] and constructed a hörgr and a [[Heathen hofs|hof]] ([[Henry Adams Bellows (businessman)|Henry Adams Bellows]] and [[Ursula Dronke]] here [[interlinear gloss|gloss]] ''hörgr'' as "temples"):
<blockquote>
{|
|
:<small>Old Norse:</small>
:Hittoz æsir á Iðavelli,
:þeir er hǫrg ok hof hátimbroðo.<ref name=DRONKE8>Dronke (1997:8).</ref>
|
:<small>[[Henry Adams Bellows (businessman)|Henry Adams Bellows]] translation:</small>
:At Ithavoll met the mighty gods;
:Shrines and temples they timbered high;<ref name=BELLOWS5>Bellows (1936:5).</ref>
|
:<small>Ursula Dronke translation:</small>
:Æsir met on Eddying Plain
:they who built towering altars and temples.<ref name=DRONKE8/>
|
|}
</blockquote>

In the poem ''[[Vafþrúðnismál]]'' [[List of names of Odin|Gagnráðr]] (the god [[Odin]] in disguise) engages in a game of wits with the [[jötunn]] [[Vafþrúðnir]]. Gagnráðr asks Vafþrúðnir whence the Van god [[Njörðr]] came, for though he rules over many hofs and hörgar, Njörðr was not raised among the Æsir ([[Benjamin Thorpe]] here glosses ''hörgr'' with "offer-steads" and Bellows glosses with "shrines"):
<blockquote>
{|
|
<small>Benjamin Thorpe translation:</small>
: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.<ref name=THORPE16>Thorpe (1866:16).</ref>
|
<small>Henry Adams Bellows translation:</small>
: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?<ref name=BELLOWS79>Bellows (1923:79).</ref>
|
|}
</blockquote>
In the poem ''[[Hyndluljóð]]'', the goddess [[Freyja]] speaks favorably of [[Óttar (mythology)|Óttar]] 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 glosses ''hörgr'' with "offer-stead", Bellows with "shrine", and Orchard with "altar"):
<blockquote>
{|
|
:<small>[[Benjamin Thorpe]] translation:</small>
: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 the [[Áss|Asyniur]].<ref name=THORPE108>Thorpe (1866:108).</ref>
|
:<small>Henry Adams Bellows translation:</small>
: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.<ref name=BELLOWS221>Bellows (1936:221).</ref>
|
:<small>Andy Orchard translation:</small>
: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.<ref name=ORCHARD89>Orchard (1997:89).</ref>
|
|}
</blockquote>

===Epigraphic===
The place name Salhøgum, that is mentioned on a 9th-century Danish [[runestone]] known as the [[Snoldelev Stone]], has a literal translation which combines Old Norse ''sal'' meaning "hall" with ''hörgar'' "mounds," to form "on the hall mounds," suggesting a place with a room where official meetings took place.<ref>Sundqvist (2009:660-661)</ref> The inscription states that the man Gunnvaldr is the ''[[thyle|þula<small>R</small>]]'' of Salhøgum, which has been identified as referring to the modern town Salløv, located in the vicinity of the original site of the runestone.<ref>Peterson (2002).</ref>

===Toponymy===
Many place names in [[Iceland]] and [[Scandinavia]] contain the word hörgr or hörgur, such as [[Eyjafjörður|Hörgá]] and Hörgsdalur in Iceland and Harg in [[Sweden]]. When [[Willibrord]] 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.<ref>Kvaran (2006).</ref>

==Old English tradition==
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 
a ''[[Vé (shrine)|weoh]]'', by contrast, was merely a small shrine by the wayside.

''[[Beowulf]]'' has the compound ''hærgtrafum'' in the so-called "Christian excursus" (lines 175&ndash;178a), translated as "tabernacles of idols" by Hall (1950).<ref>
Yasuharu  Eto, "Hearg and  weoh in Beowulf, ll. 175-8a" 
''The Bulletin of the Japanese Association for Studies in the History of the English Language'', 2007, 15-7.
</ref>

Following the regular evolution of English phonology, Old English ''hearg'' has become ''harrow'' in modern [[English placenames]] (unrelated to the homophone ''[[Harrow (tool)|harrow]]'' "agricultural implement").
The London Borough of [[Harrow, London|Harrow]] derives its name from a temple on Harrow Hill, where [[St. Mary's, Harrow on the Hill|St. Mary's Church]] stands today. 
The name of [[Harrow on the Hill]] (''Harewe atte Hulle'') was adopted into Latin as ''Herga super montem''; the Latinized form of the Old English name is preserved in the name of ''Herga Road'' in Harrow.<ref>Briggs, Keith "Harrow", Journal of the English Place-name Society, volume 42 (2010), 43-64</ref><ref>Room, Adrian: “Dictionary of Place-Names in the British Isles”, Bloomsbury, 1988. {{ISBN|0-7475-0170-X}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
{{refbegin}}
* [[Henry Adams Bellows (businessman)|Bellows, Henry Adams]] (Trans.) (1936). ''The Poetic Edda''. [[Princeton University Press]]. New York: [[The American-Scandinavian Foundation]].
* Bellows, Henry Adams (Trans.) (1923). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=cJG6kfgZBf8C&q=Poetic+Edda The Poetic Edda]''. American-Scandinavian Foundation.
* [[Ursula Dronke|Dronke, Ursula]] (Trans.) (1997). ''The Poetic Edda: Volume II: Mythological Poems''. [[Oxford University Press]]. {{ISBN|0-19-811181-9}}
* Kvaran, Guðrún (May 29, 2006). "[http://visindavefur.is/?id=5978 Hvað þýðir orðið hörgur?]." Vísindavefurinn.
* Orchard, Andy (1997). ''Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend''. [[Orion Publishing Group|Cassell]]. {{ISBN|0-304-34520-2}}
* Peterson, Lena (2002). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20110225031159/http://www.sofi.se/servlet/GetDoc?meta_id=1472 Nordisk runnamslexikon]''. Swedish Institute for Linguistics and Heritage (Institutet för språk och folkminnen).
* [[Rudolf Simek|Simek, Rudolf]] (2007) translated by Angela Hall. ''Dictionary of Northern Mythology''. [[Boydell & Brewer|D.S. Brewer]]. {{ISBN|0-85991-513-1}}
* {{Cite book |last=Sundqvist |first=Olof |editor-last=Heizmann |editor-first=Wilhelm |editor2-last=Beck |editor2-first=Heinrich |contribution=The Hanging, the Nine Nights, and the "Precious Knowledge" |title=Analecta Septentrionalia |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=2009 |location=Berlin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KtubHqCa2HAC  |isbn=978-3-11-021869-5}}
* [[Benjamin Thorpe|Thorpe, Benjamin]] (Trans.) (1866). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=WGUCAAAAQAAJ&q=Edda+S%C3%A6mundar Edda Sæmundar Hinns Frôða: The Edda of Sæmund the Learned].'' Part I. London: Trübner & Co.
{{refend}}

{{Germanic pagan practices}}
{{Norse mythology}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Horgr}}
[[Category:Altars]]
[[Category:Germanic paganism]]
[[Category:Norse mythology]]