Herthasee (Rügen)

Herthasee is a lake on the island Rügen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. At a length of 170 m and a width of 140 m, it covers a surface area of 0.202 km². It has a maximum depth of 11 m. It is located in the center of the Jasmund National Park and its famous chalk cliffs.

Herthasee
LocationRügen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Coordinates54°34′7″N 13°38′52″E
Basin countriesGermany
Max. length170 m (560 ft)
Max. width140 m (460 ft)
Surface area0.202 km2 (0.078 sq mi)
Max. depth11 m (36 ft)
SettlementsSassnitz
View from the Slavic hill fort Herthaburg towards the lake

At its embankment, the lake features a Slavic hill fort called Herthaburg, with a height of 17 m. It was constructed and inhabited between the 8th and 12th century.

Nerthus and Hertha

The misreading of the goddess name Nerthus in Tacitus's 1 CE ethnographic work Germania on the ancient Germanic peoples led to the proliferation of the goddess name Hertha from the 16th century to the 19th century, which led to the coining of the hydronym Herthasee. However, developments in historical linguistics led to a widely accepted etymological identification with the North Germanic god Njörðr. The location of the Nerthus lake ritual attested in Germania has subsequently been rejected, with contenders such as the island of Zealand (in modern Denmark) often proposed.[1]

gollark: I am hoping that whoever is behind that won't decide to try something like this again, but I bet *someone* will think "ah yes, this is a great idea, we'll just lie because it's mildly more convenient, that can't go wrong in the long term".
gollark: ... yes, that.
gollark: It probably doesn't help that apparently some people said they were unhelpful in order to ensure that healthcare people had enough.
gollark: There was a lot of confusion about this initially but the consensus seems to have converged on them being useful.
gollark: No, they aren't.

References
  1. Chambers (2001 [1912]:70-71) and Simek (2007:145).
  • Media related to Herthasee (Rügen) at Wikimedia Commons
  • Chambers, Raymond Wilson (2001 [1910]). Widsith: A Study in Old English Heroic Legend. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108015271
  • Simek, Rudolf (2007) translated by Angela Hall. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. D.S. Brewer. ISBN 0-85991-513-1
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