#BLDG_Heithinn_Hof
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^[The Heithinn Hof] produces three $LINK<content faces=GCON_Happy_Faces>, making three unhappy citizens content. You must have a
$LINK<Temple=BLDG_Temple> in the city in order to build a Heithinn Hof.
#DESC_BLDG_Heithinn_Hof
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^Pagan Europe's decline began in 312 CE when the Roman Emperor onstantine adopted Christianity. The Germanic peoples flooding the empire adopted the new religion for a variety of reasons. Over the following centuries, Christianity continued to spread, both via missionaries and via the sword. By the dawn of the "Viking Age" Christianity dominated everywhere in Western Europe north of the Pyrenees and west of the Rhine. The Balkans were given over to pagan Slavs and the whole of the east remained trueto the old ways. The Scandanavian peoples were also true to their gods. THey called themselves "heithinn."
^In the early days, they seem to have confined their worship to the out of doors - at a stone harrow (hörgr) - or to their homes. In time, it seems, actual structures to be used solely as a place of worship became more common. The fact that such temples did exist both in Norway and in Iceland is shown in the Eyrbyggjasaga in the account of Thórólf Mostrarskegg, who was a chieftan, or hersir, in southwest Norway who fled, with so many others, the tyranny of Harald Finehair. Thórólf was called a "great friend of Thórr"
and when he arrived in Iceland he rebuilt his temple there, a "mighty house" of the god. His steading he called Hofstaðir (Temple-steads). Unlike the rest of Western Europe after the so-called Dark Ages had lifted, the peoples of Scandanavia continued to worship in the ancient way, true to their gods.
^A Heithinn temple was called a hof. These "Heathen temples"were also called goðahús (House of the Gods) or blóthús (House of Sacrifice). This name for a temple came about late in the Heiðinn era. This is suggested by its infrequent appearance in place names in Sweden in Denmark as opposed to Iceland and parts of Norway. Eventually, Heithinn Scandanavia gave way to Christianity as well, and again, fire, sword and torture played a role in putting down devotion to Odhinn and his kin. Norway became Christian first, then Iceland's heithinns accepted the new faith to prevent violence, and finally Sweden. The old religion died hard though. Norwegian law proclaimed that anyone raising a
structure (hús) and called it a hörgr, forfeited all his wealth. It has been suggested that these hofs influenced the design of the stave church. The stave churches, so called for their corner posts, or "staves", themselves seem to have been built over the sites of older heithinn places of worship, as was typical of Christian missionary activity. For instance, Borgund's church is built on the site of the old heithinn hof, and the Reinli church was built on the site of a hof that was burned or torn down in 1023. Even then, the people did not break troth easily. There are many examples of these survivals: Carved doorposts of the medieval stave church at Hylestad, Setesdal, Norway represent scenes from the heithinn story of Sigurd the dragon slayer; When the Undredal stave church in Sogn was restored in 1962, paintings of mythic animals, as well as many symbolic signs, were found to be underlying at least three other coats of paint, and the face of Odin himself has been detected
among the carvings of the Hegge church. It has been estimated that at one point there might have been as many as 800 to 1000 stave churches in Norway, but only 25 survive today, along with one in Hedared, Sweden and one in Greensted, Essex in England. Ironically, says Elisabeth Seip, manager of the Norwegian Architecture Museum in Oslo "This tieback with the heathen past in ornamentation, and the dark and mystical atmosphere in the interior contributed, unfortunately, to the tearing down of many of the churches after the Reformation." (Architecture in Norway,
http://www.reisenett.no/norway/facts/culture_science/architecture_in_norway.html).
