{{short description|Old Norse term of insult, denoting effeminacy or other unmanly behavior}} {{italic title}} {{other uses}} '''{{lang|non|Ergi}}''' (noun) and '''{{lang|non|argr}}''' (adjective) are two Old Norse terms of insult, denoting effeminacy or other unmanly behaviour. ''{{lang|non|Argr}}'' (also ''{{wikt-lang|non|ragr}}'') is "unmanly" and ''ergi'' is "unmanliness"; the terms have cognates in other Germanic languages such as ''{{wikt-lang|ang|earh}}'', ''{{wikt-lang|ang|earg}}'', ''arag'', or ''arug''.
==''Ergi'' in the Viking Age== To accuse another man of being ''{{lang|non|argr}}'' was called ''scolding'' (see ''{{lang|non|nīþ}}'') and thus a legal reason to challenge the accuser in ''hólmganga''.<ref>Heusler, Andreas (1911). Das Strafrecht der Isländersagas (in German). Leipzig. p. 56.</ref> 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 ''{{lang|non|argr}}''. Being proven to be an ergi or niðing was generally punished by becoming an outlaw in surviving law codes.<ref>His, Rudolf (1901). Das Strafrecht der Friesen im Mittelalter (in German). Leipzig: Weicher. p. 166.</ref> If the accused fought successfully in ''hólmganga'' and had thus proven that he was not ''{{lang|non|argr}}'', the ''scolding'' was considered what was in Old English called ''{{lang|ang|eacan}}'', an unjustified, severe defamation, and the accuser had to pay the offended party full compensation. The Gray Goose Laws states: {{quote|There are three words—should exchanges between people ever reach such dire limits—which all have full outlawry as the penalty; if a man calls another ''{{lang|non|ragr}}'', ''{{lang|non|stroðinn}}'' or ''{{lang|non|sorðinn}}''. As they are to be prosecuted like other ''{{lang|non|fullréttisorð}}'' and, what is more, a man has the right to kill in retaliation for these three words. He has the right to kill in retaliation on their account over the same period as he has the right to kill on account of women, in both cases up the next General Assembly. The man who utters these words falls with forfeit immunity at the hands of anyone who accompanies the man about whom they were uttered to the place of their encounter.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Sørenson |first1=Preben M. |last2=Turville-Petre |first2=Joan (transl.) |author2-link=Joan Turville-Petre |title=The Unmanly Man: Concepts of Sexual Defamation in Early Northern Society |publisher =Odense University Press |series=Studies in Northern Civilization |volume=1 |year=1983 |page=17 |isbn=87-7492-436-2}}</ref>}} [[File:Vg 67, Saleby.JPG|thumb|upright|right|The Saleby Runestone uses the term ''{{lang|non|argri konu}}'' in a curse.]]
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.<ref>Seebold, Elmar (Ed.): Art. arg, in: Kluge. Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 24. Auflage, Berlin, New York 2002, S. 58.</ref> 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''.<ref name="Ynglinga saga">{{cite book|last=Sturluson|first=Snorri|chapter=Ynglinga saga|title=Heimskringla, eda Sögur Noregs konunga|editor=C.R. Unger, N. Linder, K.A. Hagson|language=non|location=Uppsala|year=1870|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TmAIAAAAQAAJ}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Seidr |url=https://norse-mythology.org/concepts/seidr/ |access-date=2025-11-20 |website=Norse Mythology for Smart People |language=en-US}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Blain |first=Jenny |last2=Wallis |first2=Robert J. |date=2000-10-01 |title=The 'Ergi' Seidman: Contestations of Gender, Shamanism and Sexuality in Northern Religion Past and Present |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/713676039 |journal=Journal of Contemporary Religion |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=395–411 |doi=10.1080/713676039 |issn=1353-7903|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
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:{{quote|at first...stigmatization did not extend to active male homosexuality. To take revenge on the disloyal priest Bjorn and his mistress Thorunnr in the ''{{lang|non|Gudmundar Saga}}'' "it was decided to put Thorunnr into bed with every buffoon, and to do that to Bjorn the priest, which was considered no less dishonorable." Dishonorable to Bjorn, not to his rapists. In the ''Edda'', Sinfjotli insults Gudmundr by asserting that "all the ''{{lang|non|einherjar}}'' (Odin's warriors in Valhalla) fought with each other to win the love of Gudmundr (who was male)." Certainly he intended no aspersions on the honor of the ''{{lang|non|einherjar}}''. Then Sinfjotli boasts that "Gundmundr was pregnant with nine wolf cubs and that he, Sinfjotli, was the father." Had the active male homosexual role been stigmatized, Sinfjotli would hardly have boasted of it.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Greenberg |first=David F. |title=The Construction of Homosexuality |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1988 |page=249 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RKhFRgR-1awC&pg=PA249 |isbn=0-226-30627-5}}</ref>}}
''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.<ref>Ruth Karras Mazo: Sexualität im Mittelalter. Aus dem Amerikanischen von Wolfgang Hartung, Düsseldorf 2006, pp. 275-277.</ref>
===Saleby Runestone=== Although no runic inscription uses the term ''{{lang|non|ergi}}'', runestone Vg 67 in Saleby, Sweden, includes a curse that anyone breaking the stone would become a ''{{lang|non|rata}}'', translated as a 'wretch', 'outcast', or 'warlock', and ''{{lang|non|argri konu}}'', which is translated as 'maleficent woman' in the dative.<ref name="Rundata">[http://www.nordiska.uu.se/forskn/samnord.htm Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk] - Rundata entry for Vg 67.</ref> Here ''{{lang|non|argri}}'' appears to be related to the practice of ''{{lang|non|seiðr}}''<ref name="MacLeod">{{Cite book |last1=MacLeod |first1=Mindy |last2=Mees |first2=Bernard |title=Runic Amulets and Magic Objects |publisher=Boydell Press |year=2006 |pages=225–226 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hx7UigqsTKoC |isbn=1-84383-205-4}}</ref> and represents the most loathsome term the runemaster could imagine calling someone.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Moltke |first=Erik |author-link=Erik Moltke |title=Runes and their Origin, Denmark and Elsewhere |publisher=Nationalmuseets Forlag |year=1985 |location=Copenhagen |page=140 |isbn=87-480-0578-9}}</ref>
==Modern usage== {{refimprove|date=March 2012}} In modern Scandinavian languages, the lexical root ''{{lang|gmq|arg-}}'' has assumed the meaning "angry", as in Swedish, Bokmål and Nynorsk ''{{wikt-lang|sv|arg}}'', or Danish ''{{wikt-lang|da|arrig}}''. Modern Icelandic has the derivation ''{{lang|is|ergilegur}}'', meaning "to seem/appear irritable", similar to Bokmål ''ergre'', meaning "to irritate". (There are similarities to the German ''{{wikt-lang|de|ärgerlich}}'', "annoying, annoyed", and Dutch ''{{wikt-lang|nl|ergerlijk}}'', "irritating" and ''{{wikt-lang|nl|ergeren}}'', "to irritate".) In modern Faroese the adjective ''{{lang|fo|argur}}'' means "angry/annoyed" and the verb ''{{lang|fo|arga}}'' means to "taunt" or "bully". In modern Dutch, the word ''{{wikt-lang|nl|erg}}'' has become a fortifier equivalent to English ''very''; the same is true for the old-fashioned adjective ''{{wikt-lang|de|arg}}'' in German, which means "wicked" (especially in compounds as ''{{wikt-lang|de|arglistig}}'' "malicious" and ''{{wikt-lang|de|arglos}}'' "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 ''{{wikt-lang|et|arg}}'' and Finnish ''{{wikt-lang|fi|arka}}'', 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.<ref name=":0" />
==See also== {{Portal|Religion|LGBTQ}} * {{lang|grc-Latn|Malakia}} ({{lang|grc|μαλακία}}, Ancient Greek)
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{in lang|sv}} [http://g3.spraakdata.gu.se/saob/show.phtml?filenr=1/16/3978.html SAOB: Arg.adj] * {{in lang|sv}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20070623024456/http://aarhus2001.hum.au.dk/rundborde/rundbord5paper2.html Från niding till sprätt. En studie i det svenska omanlighetsbegreppets historia från vikingatid till sent 1700-tal] * {{in lang|sv}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20081001190615/http://www.arkeologi.uu.se/ark/education/CD/Cuppsats/CHT04/adolfsson.pdf Adolfsson, Lars: Germanska mannaförbund. Existens och initiation. Bachelor's thesis, Uppsala 2004] * [http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/gayvik.shtml Viking Answer Lady]
{{wikitionary|ergi|argr}} {{LGBT in Nordic countries}} {{Religion and LGBT people}}
Category:Male gender nonconformity Category:Pejorative terms for effeminacy Category:Gender-related stereotypes Category:Old Norse