Beowulf - Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia

is found at Borg in Lofoten and dated to the Viking Age, but we may expect to find
much earlier examples in southern Norway with the introduction of new excavation
methods (cf. Løken et al. 1996).
In South Scandinavia a more developed type of hall seems to have been established
in the 7th century at Lejre and in Old Uppsala. These halls, which may have
had forerunners like that at Gudme, are kings’ halls containing several rooms with
different function and great dimensions. Smaller halls, such as those at Svintuna
(Nordén 1938, pp. 151 ff.), on Helgö or in Slöinge and perhaps in Sanda (Åqvist
1995), continued nonetheless to be built alongside the larger ones.
The development of the hall can be sketched in the following way:
First, a period in which an economically dominant person strives to define the
phenomenon as a part of his personal farm, although we may suppose that also
matters of public interest could be discussed in this kind of hall. The hall and farm are
village-bound, as in Feddersen Wierde, and the ambitions of the leading farmer fit in
with the common development of a marked privatisation which characterises the
Iron Age farm. This is reflected in, e.g., the changes in the fencing tradition indicated
by sequences such as those formed by the villages Hodde and Nørre Snede (Hvass
1985; Hansen 1988 ) or Hodde and Wijster (van Es 1967; Tibblin 1994, pp. 56 ff.).
Secondly, when the privacy of the halls has been established, their social significance
continues to grow as a result of the growing influence of the individual chieftain
or king on his people. This means that, as in Lejre, the hall becomes the interface
between the private and the res publica, eventually dominating the latter in the feudal
state. In its general development the hall is a parallel—probably closer than we are
able to prove—to the development of the Germanic kingship as we see it from the
time of Segestes and onwards (Thompson 1965), born out of the res publica, eventually
to dominate it. In this development the hall seems to denote a number of concepts
that are also of interest in connection with the concept of being good, since in
the end goodness becomes a royal virtue.
Neither Caesar nor Tacitus could be expected to point out Germanic goodness,
but the glimpses we get of the Germanic king acting in public and the even fewer
glimpses of his private or family life suggest that, on one hand, an essential part of his
leadership in the region closest to the Roman Empire is linked to the existence of a
balanced political and ideological setting and to a capacity to care for his people (cf.
Andersson and Herschend 1997, pp. 77 ff.). On the other hand and figuratively
speaking, there are many leaders in a stand-by position waiting for the right crisis
situation to appear, so that they may be chosen as executive leaders with undisputed
and not least martial power. It is their ability to deal with a particular problem that
makes them suitable, and the problem solved they are not needed anymore
(Thompson 1965; Hedeager 1991; Andersson and Herschend 1997). Goodness is
linked to the former aspect of leadership and it is thought of as a guiding principle for
leadership in all kinds of situations, not just political ones. This in its turn implies that
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