Ergi
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "other uses". Script error: No such module "Lang". (noun) and Script error: No such module "Lang". (adjective) are two Old Norse terms of insult, denoting effeminacy or other unmanly behaviour. Script error: No such module "Lang". (also Template:Wikt-lang) is "unmanly" and ergi is "unmanliness"; the terms have cognates in other Germanic languages such as Template:Wikt-lang, Template:Wikt-lang, arag, or arug.
Ergi in the Viking Age
To accuse another man of being Script error: No such module "Lang". was called scolding (see Script error: No such module "Lang".) and thus a legal reason to challenge the accuser in hólmganga.[1] If hólmganga was refused by the accused, he could be outlawed (full outlawry) as this refusal proved that the accuser was right and the accused was Script error: No such module "Lang".. Being proven to be an ergi or niðing was generally punished by becoming an outlaw in surviving law codes.[2] If the accused fought successfully in hólmganga and had thus proven that he was not Script error: No such module "Lang"., the scolding was considered what was in Old English called Script error: No such module "Lang"., an unjustified, severe defamation, and the accuser had to pay the offended party full compensation. The Gray Goose Laws states: Template:Quote
The three words in the Grey Goose Laws that were regarded as equal to argr referred to the passive role of a man in sexual activities, being womanly, and being subservient.[3] Another semantic belonging to argr, ragr and ergi was, from the Gray Goose, "being a sorcerer's friend"; ergi and its derivatives are often attested in the context of seiðr, as in Ynglinga saga.[4] Some of the association between seiðr and ergi may have been that seiðr was seen as a woman's activity, which included prominent references to other gendered activities (such as weaving). Even respected men who took up seiðr might be insulted in connection to the idea of ergi, as Odin was in the Edda.[5] While seiðr was often viewed negatively in surviving literature, all this literature comes from after Christianity took root in the region these terms and practices existed. There is an observable trend of increasing negativity in this literature as well. Together, these mean seiðr — and correspondingly, those called ergi — may not have been viewed negatively in pre-Christian northern Europe.[6]
The negativity towards ergi do not indicate general homophobia was prevalent in Viking Age northern Europe. There are also no written records of how the northern people thought of homosexuality before societal conversion to Christianity. The sociologist David F. Greenberg points out:Template:Quote
Ergi was associated not just with sorcery, unmanliness, weakness, and effeminacy but also especially with lecherousness in the view of Old Scandinavian people during the Early and High Middle Ages. Ergi of females (feminine adjective: ǫrg) was defined as excessive lecherousness or promiscuity, and of males as perversity, effeminacy and the passive role within same-sex intercourse between men.[7]
Saleby Runestone
Although no runic inscription uses the term Script error: No such module "Lang"., runestone Vg 67 in Saleby, Sweden, includes a curse that anyone breaking the stone would become a Script error: No such module "Lang"., translated as a 'wretch', 'outcast', or 'warlock', and Script error: No such module "Lang"., which is translated as 'maleficent woman' in the dative.[8] Here Script error: No such module "Lang". appears to be related to the practice of Script error: No such module "Lang".[9] and represents the most loathsome term the runemaster could imagine calling someone.[10]
Modern usage
Template:Refimprove In modern Scandinavian languages, the lexical root Script error: No such module "Lang". has assumed the meaning "angry", as in Swedish, Bokmål and Nynorsk Template:Wikt-lang, or Danish Template:Wikt-lang. Modern Icelandic has the derivation Script error: No such module "Lang"., meaning "to seem/appear irritable", similar to Bokmål ergre, meaning "to irritate". (There are similarities to the German Template:Wikt-lang, "annoying, annoyed", and Dutch Template:Wikt-lang, "irritating" and Template:Wikt-lang, "to irritate".) In modern Faroese the adjective Script error: No such module "Lang". means "angry/annoyed" and the verb Script error: No such module "Lang". means to "taunt" or "bully". In modern Dutch, the word Template:Wikt-lang has become a fortifier equivalent to English very; the same is true for the old-fashioned adjective Template:Wikt-lang in German, which means "wicked" (especially in compounds as Template:Wikt-lang "malicious" and Template:Wikt-lang "unsuspecting"), but has become a fortifier in the Austrian German. The meaning of the word in Old Norse has been preserved in loans into neighboring Finnic languages: Livonian ārga, Estonian Template:Wikt-lang and Finnish Template:Wikt-lang, both meaning "cowardly".
Some people involved in Heathenry use "ergi" as either an insult for queer men, male seiðr practitioners, or those perceived as "unmanly". Correspondingly, some male seiðr practitioners have reclaimed the word ergi. One male seiðr practitioner from Scotland who was interviewed by researchers noted that "ergi" was still used where he lived by the general public to refer to a man perceived as cowardly.[6]
See also
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- Script error: No such module "Lang". (Script error: No such module "Lang"., Ancient Greek)
References
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- ^ Heusler, Andreas (1911). Das Strafrecht der Isländersagas (in German). Leipzig. p. 56.
- ^ His, Rudolf (1901). Das Strafrecht der Friesen im Mittelalter (in German). Leipzig: Weicher. p. 166.
- ^ Seebold, Elmar (Ed.): Art. arg, in: Kluge. Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 24. Auflage, Berlin, New York 2002, S. 58.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Sturluson, Snorri (1870). "Ynglinga saga". In C.R. Unger, N. Linder, K.A. Hagson (ed.). Heimskringla, eda Sögur Noregs konunga (in non). Uppsala.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link) CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Seidr". Norse Mythology for Smart People. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Blain, Jenny; Wallis, Robert J. (2000-10-01). "The 'Ergi' Seidman: Contestations of Gender, Shamanism and Sexuality in Northern Religion Past and Present". Journal of Contemporary Religion. 15 (3): 395–411. doi:10.1080/713676039. ISSN 1353-7903.
- ^ Ruth Karras Mazo: Sexualität im Mittelalter. Aus dem Amerikanischen von Wolfgang Hartung, Düsseldorf 2006, pp. 275-277.
- ^ Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk - Rundata entry for Vg 67.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.MacLeod, Mindy; Mees, Bernard (2006). Runic Amulets and Magic Objects. Boydell Press. pp. 225–226. ISBN 1-84383-205-4.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Moltke, Erik (1985). Runes and their Origin, Denmark and Elsewhere. Copenhagen: Nationalmuseets Forlag. p. 140. ISBN 87-480-0578-9.
External links
- Template:In lang SAOB: Arg.adj
- Template:In lang Från niding till sprätt. En studie i det svenska omanlighetsbegreppets historia från vikingatid till sent 1700-tal
- Template:In lang Adolfsson, Lars: Germanska mannaförbund. Existens och initiation. Bachelor's thesis, Uppsala 2004
- Viking Answer Lady
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