Druid Festival Sites

(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.

(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