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212 EELIGION OF THE NOETHMEN.
The temples were looked upon as sacred and
inviolate ; no deed of violence could be committed
with impunity within their walls, nor upon their
grounds. This sacredness was expressed in the an-
and whosoever
cient language by the name of Ve ;
violated it was called " vargr i veum "—a wolf in
the sanctuary—and was declared an outlaw to all
persons. "We find in the Sagas many traces of the
veneration of the ancient Northmen for their tem-
ples. Of the great sanctity which rested upon the
temple in Baldur's grove, in Sokn, we have before
spoken. When the Icelander Hrapp had burned
the temple in Gudbrandsdal, which Hakon Jarl and
Dala-Gii5brand owned in fellowship, the Jarl de-
clared the deed to be one which should shut out the
perpetrator from Valhalla. The afore-mentioned
Icelandic settler Thorolf Mostrarskegg, regarded as
sacred the whole promontory of Thorsnes, which re-
ceived its name because Thor's image had drifted to
land there, and because the temple of Thor was
erected upon it. The ground should rfot be defiled
by blood shed in anger (heiptarbl65), nor by any of
the baser necessities of nature ; for the latter a rock
along the coast was appointed. There was one iso-
lated rocky hill upon the promontory which Tho-
rolf held in special veneration. It was named Hel-
gafeU—the Holy Eock—and Thorolf believed that
an abode was prepared in it for him and his family
after death. It was so very holy that no one could
look upon it before he had washed himself, and it was
a place of refuge for both man and beast. Thorolf
established a Hera8s-J)ing—a district court of jus-