Druid Festival Sites

A community spiritual festival site called a hof or hov in Old Norse. This is where the Spring festival would have been held. 
Image is an artist's reconstruction of site (Artist: Kari Støren Binns, 2011) Online at: http://www.germanicmythology.com/original/RanheimSite.html
View from a hill towards the Trondheim Fjord showing the remains of the horgr as a faint gray circle. (Photo: Preben Rønne 2010)
A bead found in the soil covering the Horg representing the the dark new moon and eye pupil god Su who is also mentioned in the Trondheim runestone.
In the centre of the horg were found these water cracked stones. They had been placed in a wooden box, 1.3 meters in length and about 1 meter wide. The box was visible in the form of small red-brown stripes, each of which was almosttwo centimetres wide,. These stones were packed in a reddish sand and gravel. These stones seem to have been part of an opening ritual involving the life powers (red color, water, fire).

A Festival Site (Hof/Hov) Along with a Horg (Energizing Stage) Found at Trondheim Norway (400 - 950 CE)

(July 8, 2023, updated January 29, 2025) While not a sacred place like a temple or sacred grove, Hof's were places where Pagan festivals took place like the festival of Mid-Summer. These were feasts presided over by priests and magic crafters. Hov derives from an Akkadian phrase "Ḫ’.U" or with its inner vowels  "Hu'u.Wa" meaning "The Astrological-Owl's.Fate-Cursing" where the astrological-owl was the owl of fate and foreboding. So a Hov was a celebration of overcoming hardship which would normally occur in the Spring.

This site was located on the side of a shallow hill overlooking the fjord outside of Trondheim, Norway. The site was located in a suburb called Ranheim before the site was destroyed by a housing development.

The site consisted of a large circular horg (Old Norse Hǫrgr: Akkadian ḪR.G meaning "liver.energizer") about 15 meters (48 feet) in diameter and almost a meter (3 feet) high above the original soil. The liver was thought to be like an emotional radio receiving emotion/motion powers from divine motion sources. In this case a horg was a stage on which drumming or some other emotional energy raising activity was performed. When first found this horg was completely covered by a thick layer of earth. This layer was removed and what was assumed to be a common type of cairn was revealed to be almost flat instead making it a stage. The archaeologists believed this soil was placed on the horg in order to hide it from Christian authorities.

This Horg was placed over an old fire pit made directly on the soil layer predating the hof suggesting that this was a ritual bonfire. The charcoal from this pit was dated to 400-500 CE.  The pre Hof soil layer had plow marks from an ancient ard plow indicating that this pasture was originally farmed and that it was part of a crop rotation scheme.

The entrance path to the hof was off to the side of the pasture. At the end of the entrance was a 2-story caretaker's cabin 5.3 x 4.5 meters which is not correctly drawn in the image. One level would have housed various cooking and ritual supplies while the other level would have been for a summer caretaker. It was dated to about 900 CE and did not have a stone foundation indicating it was not meant to be permanent. The open pasture was were where the feasting and socializing would have taken place. 

The word for and horg is mentioned in verse 7 of the Völuspá in the Poetic Edda (Codex Regius). This text has a sibyl describing how the gods gathered together and made a horg and hov. This is the text although it is not translated well because the author has no knowledge of the Akkadian roots of many European words.


‘Hittusk Æsir á Iðavelli,þeir er hǫrg ok hof átimbruðu;afla lǫgðu,  auð smíðuðu,tangir skópu ok tól gørðu.
‘The Æsir met on Iðavǫllr,they who erected an altar (horg) and a temple (hof) high;they set up forges, fashioned treasure,shaped tongs and made tools.

(Translation by Edward Pettit, CC BY-NC 4.0 in 2023. Online at: https://books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp.0308/ch1.xhtml)

A runestone dating to the same period was also found in the Trondheim area and is shown below.

References

Rønne, Preben (2011) Horg, hov and ve –a pre-Christian cult place at Ranheim in Trøndelag, Norway, in the 4rd – 10th centuries AD. Adoranten. Online at: https://www.rockartscandinavia.com/images/articles/preben_roenne_a11.pdf

Rune stone as displayed at the University Museum at  Trondheim.  Photo from: https://www.arild-hauge.com/vitenskapsmuseet.htm

Trondheim Runestone (800 CE)

(July 8, 2023) This is a text promoting offerings to astrology-powers to get the connective life powers of Hu and Ayu moving. The text is claiming offerings made directly to the life-powers directly are ineffective. What is lacking is the energy behind the life powers and not the amount of the life powers. Hu and Ayu only represent the connective layer of life powers in the Ancient Pagan Paradgim unlike Thor and his hammer which represent all 3 layers of the life powers. 

Su is the dark new moon god and the source of motion powers (astrology and emotional). Selu (Selene) is the feminine bright moon component which defines the energy release amount.

The Christian cross seems to be a later addition because nothing Christian is referenced in the text.

Translation in Akkadian (Rune Text 20)

(read left to right. Capital letters on object. Small letters are inferred Inner vowels. Verbs are italic bold) 
  1. Gu  AYu  Ru.  Pu  AYu  Tu  GiSu : Ṭu  Tu  Ku  Du  Ya : KiSu  Ḫu  Gu  Ya  Tu :  Gu  AWu  Su  :  Su  ISu  IGu  :  Ya  :  Tu  ASu  Ya  UYa (Rune 20.1)
  2. Du  ASu  Ya  Su  :  Yu  AKu  ṬaTu  Gi  :  A  Tu  SeDu  Su  :  Su  Tu  Ya  Ḫu  :  Gu  AYu,  Gu  Ḫu  Tu  :  Du  Ya  Ḫu  EPu.  Gu  AYu  Pu.  ReYu  AGu (Rune 20.2)

(Dual use letters are E/H, I/Y, U/W, and '/A in which vowel appears at beginning of words except for Yahu which is keeping its traditional Hebrew transliteration)

In English

  1. Energize Ayu's eagle-vultures. Open Ayu's astrology-magic with blessings :  Thu's astrology-magic does not life-manifest involvement :  Clinging to Hu is not energizing astrology-magic  : Energize the motion-powers of Su  :  Su is fated by the Woman (Selu, Selene) : Is it not : Astrology-magic cannot celestially-heal the fate-curses (by itself without emotion magic).
  2. Life-manifestations are not only being celestially-healed by Su  :  Are not the emotion-owls contributing to the energy?  :  Those astrology-magic-powers are being cared-for by Su  :  Su is not crafting-magic for Hu  :   Energize Ayu, energize Hu's astrology-magic  :  Don't life-manifest Hu's drying.  Energize Ayu's openings. Shepherd the anger.