Thursday 15 August 2013

Discovering the truth behind the Beowulf legend

The origins of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf are being explored in a major archaeological dig in Denmark. Experts working in Lejre, the royal centre of Denmark in the sixth to tenth centuries AD, are uncovering what life would have been like in the great royal feasting hall Heorot, in which many of the poem's pivotal events are supposed to have occurred. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of seven separate buildings used for feasting, all of which stood on the site at various times over a period of 500 years. The earliest of these may have inspired King Hrothgar's hall as described in Beowulf.

I wonder how long it will be before they find the bleached bones of a once monstrous arm, or a huge, deformed skull buried somewhere on the site.


A map of Scandinavia as it was in the Dark Ages.

1 comment:

  1. Grendel may be closer than you think...

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