Editing Heorot (section)

=== Lejre, Zealand ===

[[File:Fyrkat hus stor.jpg|right|thumb|A reconstructed Viking Age longhouse (28.5&nbsp;metres long) in [[Fyrkat]].]]

An alternative theory sees Heorot as the accurate, but Anglicised, iteration of a historic hall in the village of [[Lejre]], near [[Roskilde]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lapidge |first1=Michael |last2=Godden |first2=Malcolm |title=The Cambridge companion to Old English literature |year=1991 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-37794-2 |page=144 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-e5YuuS_yicC&pg=PA144 |access-date=22 May 2010}}</ref> Though Heorot does not appear in Scandinavian sources, King [[Hroðulf]]'s (Hrólfr Kraki) hall is mentioned in [[Hrólf Kraki's saga]] as Hleiðargarðr, and located in Lejre. The medieval chroniclers [[Saxo Grammaticus]] and [[Sven Aggesen]] already suggested that Lejre was the chief residence of the [[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&nbsp;meters long.<ref name="Niles"/>

Fred C. Robinson is also attracted to 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."<ref>{{cite book |last=Robinson |first=Fred C. |title=Approaches to Teaching Beowulf |year=1984 |publisher=MLA |pages=109 |editor=Jess B. Bessinger, Jr. and Robert F. Yeager |location=New York |chapter=Teaching the Backgrounds: History, Religion, Culture}}</ref> The role of Lejre in ''Beowulf'' is discussed by [[John Niles (scholar)|John Niles]] and [[Marijane Osborn]] in their 2007 ''Beowulf and Lejre''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Niles |first1=John |author-link=John Niles (scholar) |last2=Osborn |first2=Marijane |author2-link=Marijane Osborn |title=Beowulf and Lejre |year=2007 |publisher=Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies |isbn=978-0-86698-368-6 }}</ref>