Great references written down by my friend Ronald. He covers information about a Hörgr, as I see many asking about Altars. I personally don’t use an Altar in that sense, but I do have a Hörgr in my forest. In ancient Norse traditions they used a form of altar known as a hörgr. This was essentially a platform of stones in which they preformed blóts. Many modern practitioners use a form of altar more closely related to Keltoi culture as well as wiccan practices. Not saying these people are wrong in they way they practice. We here just strive for Historical accuracy. The lore and Sagas go into some details about the hörgr as well as how they were used within temples and parts of the blót process. Sacrifices upon these altars were also prepared in certain ways (I.E. the hluat, the meat of the offerings, as well as what to to with the objects upon the hörgr as well as temple. The community goði would charge a fee essentially to enter and attend the blóts he was also in charge of the upkeep of the temple. Not much is known about the true structure of how exactly historically they were practiced. But as I stated previously, there are small parts we can take from the lore and Sagas. Chapter 2 of Kjalnesinga saga contains an extended description of Thorgrim Helgason's temple and parts of the blót. He had a large temple built in his hayfield, a hundred feet long and sixty wide. Everybody had to pay a temple fee. Thor was the god most honored there. It was rounded on the inside, like a vault, and there were windows and wall-hangings everywhere. The image of Thor stood in the center, with other gods on both sides. In front of them was an altar made with great skill and covered with iron on the top. On this there was to be a fire which would never go out, they called it sacred fire. On the altar was to lie a great armband, made of silver. The temple godi was to wear it on his arm at all gatherings, and everyone was to swear oaths on it whenever a suit was brought. A great copper bowl was to stand on the altar, and into it was to go all the blood which came from animals or men given to Thor. They called this sacrificial blood and the sacrificial blood bowl. This blood was to be sprinkled over men and animals, and the animals that were given in sacrifice were to be used for feasting when sacrificial banquets were held. Men whom they sacrificed were to be cast into a pool which was outside by the door, they called it Blótkelda. There is a similar passage in Eyrbyggja saga about Thorolf Mostrarskegg's temple at Hofstaðir, which gives more information about the layout of the temple as well as parts of the blót.
There he had a temple built, and it was a sizeable building, with a door on the side-wall near the gable. The high-seat pillars were placed inside the door, and nails, that were called holy nails , were driven into them. Beyond that point, the temple was a sanctuary. At the inner end there was a structure similar to the choir in churches nowadays and there was a raised platform in the middle of the floor like an altar, where a ring weighing twenty ounces and fashioned without a join was placed, and all oaths had to be sworn on this ring. It also had to be worn by the temple priest at all public gatherings. A sacrificial bowl was placed on the platform and in it a sacrificial twig, like a priest's aspergillum, which was used to sprinkle blood from the bowl. This blood, which was called sacrificial blood , was the blood of live animals offered to the gods. The gods were placed around the platform in the choir-like structure within the temple. All farmers had to pay a toll to the temple . . . . The temple godi was responsible for the upkeep of the temple and ensuring it was maintained properly, as well as for holding sacrificial feasts in it. Snorri Sturluson's description in Heimskringla of the process of blót repeats the same information about the blood and the bowl, and temple. and with the hlautteinar were to be smeared all over with blood the pedestals of the idols and also the walls of the temple within and without; and likewise the men present were to be sprinkled with blood. But the meat of the animals was to be boiled and to serve as food at the banquet. Fires were to be lighted in the middle of the temple floor, and kettles hung over them. The sacrificial beaker was to be borne around the fire. In the poem Hyndluljóð, the goddess Freyja speaks favorably of 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.
Andy Orchard translation: 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. 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 hof. Old Norse: Hittoz æsir á Iðavelli, þeir er hǫrg ok hof hátimbroðo. Henry Adams Bellows translation: At Ithavoll met the mighty gods; Shrines and temples they timbered high.
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