ABSTRACT
Throughout Europe, the need-fire has been the most important and essential fire from the domestic hearth used to light the major bonfires. This was essentially a fertile fire, and the production of this fire by friction has cross-culturally many associations to sexual intercourse. In the 19th-century folklore, there were still remnants of ancient Indo-European fire sacrifices. In remote regions in the southernmost part of Norway, daily and annual sacrifices were offered to the domestic fire on the farm. Food and beer were given to the hearth. The goddess or female ancestor embodying the fire and flames was called Eldbjørg (Eld = fire, Bjørg is a common female name). She was a wight and Mother of the farm. Also, there were remnants of a similar male spirit or ancestor, Eldgrim, and they seemed to represent an ancient fire couple closely linked to the heart of the farm: the hearth. From Rome to Russia, the same beliefs are evident in the documented sources: the ancestor of the farm or the main deity lived in the hearth.
