Vé (shrine)

In Germanic paganism, a vé (Old Norse: [ˈweː]) or wēoh (Old English) is a type of shrine, sacred enclosure or other place with religious significance.

The term appears in skaldic poetry and in place names in Scandinavia (with the exception of Iceland), often in connection with an Old Norse deity or a geographic feature.

Andy Orchard says that a vé may have surrounded a temple or have been simply a marked, open place where worship occurred.

Orchard points out that Tacitus, in his 1st century CE work Germania, says that the Germanic peoples, unlike the Romans, "did not seek to contain their deities within temple walls.

For example, the Prose Edda quotes a verse of the Skáldskaparmál of Skúli Þórsteinsson and mentions a vé: Examples of -vé appearing in toponyms after the names of Norse gods and goddesses: Eight old farms in Norway have the name Vé (in Flå, Norderhov, Ringsaker, Sande, Stamnes, Tveit, Tysnes and Årdal).