Editing Heorot (section)

==Name==

The name ''Heorot'' is the Old English word for a [[stag]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Old English Translator |url=https://www.oldenglishtranslator.co.uk/}}</ref> Its use may stem from an association between royalty and stags in [[Germanic paganism]]. Archaeologists have unearthed a variety of Anglo-Saxon finds associating stags with royalty. For example, a sceptre or whetstone discovered in mound I of the Anglo-Saxon burial site [[Sutton Hoo]] prominently features a standing stag at its top.<ref name="ARCHAEOLOGICAL-RECORD">For general discussion, see Fulk, Bjork, & [[John D. Niles|Niles]] (2008:119–120). For images and details regarding the sceptre or whetstone, see the [[British Museum]]'s [http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?assetId=724350001&objectId=88895&partId=1 collection entry for the object here].</ref>

In a wider Germanic context, stags appear associated with royalty with some frequency. For example, in [[Norse mythology]]—the mythology of the closely related North Germanic peoples—the royal god [[Freyr]] (Old Norse: "Lord") wields an antler as a weapon. An alternative name for Freyr is ''Ing'', and the Anglo-Saxons were closely associated with this deity in a variety of contexts (they are, for example, counted among the [[Ingvaeones]], a Latinized Proto-Germanic term meaning "friends of Ing", in Roman senator [[Tacitus]]'s first century CE ''[[Germania (book)|Germania]]'' and, in ''Beowulf'', the term ''ingwine'', Old English for "friend of Ing", is repeatedly invoked in association with Hrothgar, ruler of Heorot).<ref name="CHANEY">See discussion in, for example, Chaney (1999 [1970]:130–132).</ref>

According to historian [[William Chaney]]:

<blockquote>Whatever the association with the stag or hart with fertility and the new year, with Frey, with dedicated deaths, or with primitive animal-gods cannot now be determined with any certainty. What is certain, however, is that the two stags most prominent from Anglo-Saxon times are both connected with kings, the emblem surmounting the unique 'standard' in the royal cenotaph of Sutton Hoo and the great hall of Heorot in ''Beowulf''.<ref name="CHANEY-1999-1970-132">Chaney (1999 [1970]:132).</ref></blockquote>