Best viewed (including the various dictionary entries) by clicking the
following URL: or copying and pasting the URL in your browser.
http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/ANEW/HERG.html
(This is part of a series of investigations reexamining aspects of the
relationship between IE and Semitic languages, by considering in detail
derivations of areas where inferences were made about words which were
common to the homeland of the Indo-European-speaking people before the
period of migrations took them to the different localities)
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The focus of this investigation is the term "herg / hearg".
Kathleen Herbert (1), in her book "Lost Gods of the English", while
discussing the origins of the Anglo-Saxons, alludes to the term "herg and/or
hearg". A term mentioned in Beowulf referring to a grove where a god was
worshipped. Hence, to the Christian, a wicked place(?): dat. pl. hergum
geheaðerod, confined in wicked places (parallel with hell-bendum fæst),
Beowulf 3073.
"The Heathen worship of gods and goddesses in pre-Christian England probably
took place in sacred groves, and maybe also walled and roofed temples. The
Old English words for such places of worship are ealh/alh, heargh/hearh
(hearg, herg) and lea/ley. It seems likely that since earliest times open
air groves in forests and hill sanctuaries were the main places of worship
amongst the Anglo-Saxons, and this is backed up by the writings of Tacitus,
who tell us:
"They judge that gods cannot be contained inside walls...they consecrate
groves and woodland glades and call by the names of gods that mystery which
they only perceive by the same sense of reverence."
(Translation from "Looking for the Lost Gods of England" by Kathleen
Herbert)
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ETYMOLOGY
Herg, hearg: A grove, a heathen place of worship. Icel. hörgr, OHG. harug,
haruc, haruch. (2)
COMPARE WITH
Classical Arabic Hrg (Haa' + raa' +djym): a wood or collection of trees so
called because of their closeness, or dense tangled trees which the
pasturing animals cannot reach. From a trilateral root "Hrg" with a base
meaning: became collected together, became close, strait or narrow.
Ishinan
March 1st, 2008
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SOURCES:
(1) Kathleen Herbert is an expert in the field of pre-Norman-conquest
England. Her book is not a "New Age" pagan text, but a serious, academic,
and properly sourced study of the pre-Christian beliefs which the very early
English peoples brought with them to Britain from their continental Germanic
homelands.
(2) Exxon; Th. Codex Exoniensis, Collection of Anglo-Saxon poetry, from a
MS. of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter by Benjamin Thrope (1782-1870), London
1842..Exxon 54b: Th.192, 25, Az 130 translated by Grein, in Chr . Grein's
Bibliothek der A.S . Poesie (vol. iii. See also:PART part 1, ed . R .
Wiilke)