hekkeplasser

Hekkeplasser is a Norwegian term used in folklore to describe places believed to be gathering sites for witches to hold sabbaths or hexing rituals. The word combines hekse (witch) and plass (place). In regional tales and oral tradition, hekkeplasser are typically imagined as remote and secluded locations such as groves, hilltops, rocky outcrops, or crossroads, where witches could meet away from human observers.

Historically, belief in witches and their gatherings was present in Norway from the late Middle Ages through the early modern period. Allegations and trials sometimes invoked hekkeplasser as locations associated with witchcraft, and such stories were used to account for misfortune, disease, or crop failure. The concept reflects broader European folklore about witchcraft and sabbaths.

Descriptions of hekkeplasser vary, but they are often linked to nocturnal or liminal settings and to activities such as dancing, singing, or the making of pacts or curses. The places functioned in local lore as thresholds between the ordinary world and the supernatural.

Today, hekkeplasser are studied primarily as part of folklore and cultural memory. While some sites are named in modern maps or preserved in local traditions, there is little archaeological evidence to confirm historical gatherings. Scholars emphasize their value as expressions of social fears, moral explanations, and regional identity.

In contemporary culture, the concept appears in literature, media, and heritage storytelling, contributing to regional culture and tourism in certain areas. The term remains a window into how communities historically understood misfortune and the unknown.