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Heorot

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Heorot voiceoftheblood Heorot or Herot is a mead hall described in the

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Heorot (/ˈheɪərɒt/ HAY-ə-rot), also Herot, is a mead-hall described in the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf as "the foremost of halls under heaven." It served as a palace for King Hroðgar, a legendary Danish king of the sixth century. Heorot means "Hall of the Hart" (male deer). The Geatish (Swedish) hero Beowulf defends the royal hall and its residents from the demonic Grendel.

Contents

Heorot John Howe Illustrator Portfolio Home Books with Pictures

Heorot ristiretki


Description and symbolism

The anonymous author of Beowulf praises Heorot as follows:

Heorot the heorot Tumblr

The hall was large enough to allow Hroðgar to present Beowulf with a gift of eight horses, each with gold-plate headgear. It functions both as a seat of government and as a residence for the king's thanes (warriors). Heorot symbolizes human civilization and culture, as well as the might of the Danish kings—essentially, all the good things in the world of Beowulf. Its brightness, warmth, and joy contrasts with the darkness of the swamp waters inhabited by Grendel.

Location of Heorot

Heorot MidPenBeowulf Heorot

Modern scholarship sees the village of Lejre, near Roskilde, as the location of Heorot. In Scandinavian sources, Heorot corresponds to Hleiðargarðr, King Hroðulf's (Hrólfr Kraki) hall mentioned in Hrólf Kraki's saga, and located in Lejre. The medieval chroniclers Saxo Grammaticus and Sven Aggesen already suggested that Lejre was the chief residence of Hroðgar’s Skjöldung clan (called “Scylding” in the poem). The remains of a Viking hall complex was uncovered southwest of Lejre in 1986-1988 by Tom Christensen of the Roskilde Museum. Wood from the foundation was radiocarbon-dated to about 880. It was later found that this hall was built over an older hall which has been dated to 680. In 2004-2005, Christensen excavated a third hall located just north of the other two. This hall was built in the mid-6th century, all three halls were about 50 meters long.

Heorot Untitled Prezi by Brett H on Prezi

Fred C. Robinson is also convinced by this identification: “Hrothgar (and later Hrothulf) ruled from a royal settlement whose present location can with fair confidence be fixed as the modern Danish village of Leire, the actual location of Heorot.” The most recent publication on Lejre and its role in Beowulf is by John Niles and Marijane Osborn, Beowulf and Lejre.

Heorot img00deviantartnetf470i2013024e1heoroth

  • In the novel Grendel (1971), Heorot is referred to as "Hart" (male deer).
  • In the video game Grendel's Cave, Heorot Hall is the starting location in the game and a safe place, except from the AI Monster Grendel, to sleep.
  • The Heorot is a pub and draught house located on South Walnut Street in downtown Muncie, Indiana.
  • Chi Heorot, a fraternity at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, is named after the hall.
  • Heorot is the name of a short story set in the Dresden Files universe, a series of novels written by Jim Butcher.
  • Herot is the primary setting of the TV series Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands.

    • Science fiction references

    Heorot A mead hall by any other name The English 340 Blog

  • The Heorot series by Steven Barnes, Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven is named after the hall. It contains the following books:
    1. The Legacy of Heorot (1987)
    2. Beowulf's Children (1995)
  • The castle of Harrenhall in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series is based on Heorot, and its attack and destruction.
  • In The Sorrow of Odin the Goth, a story in Poul Anderson's Time Patrolman series, a fictional group of Goths migrate from the Vistula to the Dnieper and build a hall named Heorot, because "that was the name of a famous dwelling in the north".

    • Tolkien's usage

    J. R. R. Tolkien, who compared Heorot to Camelot for its mix of legendary and historical associations, used it as the basis for the Golden Hall of Rohan, Meduseld.

    References

    Heorot Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA