A still from the 2007 motion-capture film Beowulf. The epic poem featured a great hall of its own, Heorot, whose 'radiance shone over many lands'. Photograph: Paramount/Everett/Rex Features
Posted on 10/31/2012 3:32:28 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The foundations of a spectacular Anglo-Saxon feasting hall, a place where a king and his warriors would have gathered for days of drinking and eating -- as vividly described in the poem Beowulf -- have been found inches below the village green of Lyminge in Kent.
There was one last celebration by the light of flickering flames at the site, 1,300 years after the hall was abandoned, as archaeologists marked the find by picking out the outline of the hall in candles, lighting up the end-of-excavation party. Heaps of animal bones buried in pits around the edge of the hall bore testimony to many epic parties of the past.
The unexpected find, by a team from the University of Reading funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and working with local archaeologists and villagers, is exceptionally rare. Digging under the curious gaze of drinkers in the garden of the Coach and Horses pub a few metres away, it is the first great hall from the period to be discovered in more than 30 years.
At 21 metres by 8.5 metres, it would have been the most imposing structure for miles, large enough to hold at least 60 people...
The director of the Lyminge excavations, Gabor Thomas, said: "This would undoubtedly have been the scene of many Beowulfy type activities, great assemblies for feasts that lasted for days, much drinking and story-telling, rich gifts like arm rings being presented, all of that. There could have been no more visible sign of wealth and status than raising a hall like this."
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
A still from the 2007 motion-capture film Beowulf. The epic poem featured a great hall of its own, Heorot, whose 'radiance shone over many lands'. Photograph: Paramount/Everett/Rex Features
|
|
|
| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
|
|
Thanks Renfield! |
|
|
|
|
Oh My! Lets throw back a few Mugs of Mead in celebration of this find and go wild!
Yeah, look where all that partying and drinking and eating got them: dead. Every last one of them.
Cool. Passed on to mrs. jimfree who will pass to archeologist friend (who probably heard about this a while back).
bump
The Golden Corral of it’s day.
This is where the Saxon Secret Service ended.
The hall, if in use for parties, would probably have been built no earlier than 541 AD ~ reminding everybody St. Gildas' said all the buildings in that region had fallen down due to whatever it was changed the climate.
Then the Saxons implemented affirmative action and began admitting Vikings to the party.
Look where that got them.
Leave it to "The Guardian" to go politically-correct on the room measurements but to revert to the dreaded Imperial system for the rest. Shouldn't consistency have made it the most imposing structure for "kilometers?"
Of course, Beowulf wouldn't have known a metre from a gobsmack.
The Who should rewrite that “I Can See For Miles” song, too. ;’)
That was a real good movie. I loved the way he jumped on Grendel’s back and punched his ears out. It’s my favorite animated movie.
I wonder if the Village Green has always been the village green...ie. not built upon. In which case, it is the obvious place to start in other villages.
I wonder if the Village Green has always been the village green...ie. not built upon. In which case, it is the obvious place to start in other villages.
I love great feasting halls and would like to build one!
I wouldn’ t mind feasting in one.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
