The prefatory remarks about Scyld Sceafing and his dynasty are meant to lead us to Hrothgar, the King at Heorot. He is one of a set of brothers, but their deeds are not given to us in the story. His name isn’t listed first, so the implication is that he isn’t the oldest, but it was very common for young men to die in battle. Alfred the Great, King of Wessex in the late 800s, was the youngest son with four brothers ahead of him, but in the end he ruled longest and became greatest.
So it was with Hrothgar, for as he became great, he urged his men to build him the largest and finest hall of all the kings in the region. In this story, he is identified with his hall, for the building of the hall is what brings calamity on his head. But from the legends of other Germanic tribes, and from later details in the story, we know a few other things about him.
At the time of this story, he is apparently no longer strong: either elderly or suffering from a disease. He seems to have married late in life, for he is presented as having only sons who are not yet of age. There are two legendary feuds connected to Hrothgar’s family.
First, it seems that when Hrothgar’s older brother died, he left a son. This son, Hrothulf, must have been too young to rule, so the council chose Hrothgar. But during Hrothgar’s reign, Hrothulf has been growing up as the heir presumptive. There was no direct rule of primogeniture at this point among the Danes, Swedes, and Anglo-Saxons. As the council had chosen Hrothgar, so after his death they might choose the nephew Hrothulf instead of the children Hrethric or Hrothmund. Connected legends of Hrolf Kraki, who seems to be the same person as Hrothulf, suggest that he did become king. What happened to the little boys? It’s unclear, but probably at least one of them was murdered, while the other may have escaped.
Second, Hrothgar has a daughter named Freawaru, and in the story, it will be mentioned that she is going to be married soon. She will be a “peace-weaver” bride, sent to the Heathobards to end hostilities with Ingeld, their prince. But we know from another fragment of a legend that the feud did not end, with disastrous results. There are hints that the Heathobards will eventually attack Heorot and burn it down.
At this early point in the story, the focus is on Heorot, the grand hall that Hrothgar has just built. The story tells us that it was very large and very fine, but it gives us only one concrete visual detail. It was called Heorot (“hart”) because it had horned antlers at the ends of the roofline.
The site that archeologists can identify is Lejre, not far from Copenhagen. At Lejre, they found the outline of a very large hall, which the Danish government has reconstructed as part of Sagnlandet (Land of Legends) living museum. The King’s Hall is 61 meters (200 feet) long and 10 meters (30 feet) high. If you haven’t already seen the documentary about building it, I hope you will give it fifteen minutes.
These halls had an unusual feature: their walls and roofline were curved, like a ship. We have some architects and engineers in the audience, so perhaps some of them would like to comment on the benefits of this design. Inside, rafters and pairs of wooden pillars supported the roof. The hall at Lejre has small windows along the wall, and additionally, we know that the hall design always featured shuttered windows at the front and back roof peak, above the doors. These high windows allowed smoke to exit; there may also have been other smoke holes along the roofline.
Inside, it was mostly just one open room. At the end where the king sat, there was probably a dividing wall that sheltered his private room, where treasure was kept in chests. More chests lined the walls, and we see in the story that among other things, they held blankets and pillows to turn the hall into a dormitory at night. These public chests did not have treasure, but many of the men sleeping in the hall had gold and silver arm rings. Turning the hall into a dormitory was one way of keeping it under guard at all times.