Beowulf - Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia

accessible, elevated and at the same time also vulnerable character of the building is
a better reflection of the original rationale of the hall. This implies that fortification is
part of a development which is not in harmony with the original hall, despite the fact
that from the very beginning the peaceful hall life seems to have been difficult to
maintain. The centre of society must be approachable and the hall owner strong
enough to defend the ideal of the open centre and strong enough not allow us to
enter. From an idealistic, Late Iron Age point of view defended halls are a crisis
phenomenon although in reality smashed halls are common. We may therefore infer
that it was thought better that some halls should be smashed than all halls defended.
The idea that a hall should have a façade can be seen in Wijster and Cowdery’s
Down. In Lejre, however, the notion of the façade has been carried further and the
main entrance and the position of the hall seem to be designed to create a consciousness
about the hall in the mind of the beholder inasmuch as the façade reveals the
design of the hall (Herschend 1994a, Fig. 3). This is a marked step forward towards
the creation of the official building, as is the isolated situation of the hall in Yeavering.
On the whole, however, it must be underlined that the emergence of official architecture
is a late phenomenon. But then again this type of architecture is an indirect way
of promoting the individual, and Germanic society would have been reluctant to
allow that. A splendid interior was probably much easier to justify.
Modesty, lavishness, tradition and change constitute a complex system in which
the links between texts and the archaeological records is now and then relatively
subtle. For a long time we have noted the curious fact in the description in Beowulf
of the hall Heorot, that the hall was held together with an iron band serving as a hoop:
772 þæt he on hrusan ne feol
fæger foldbold ac he þæs fæste wæs
innan ond utan irenbendum
searoþoncum besmiþod
42
that it did not fall to the ground
the fair building while it was so fast (firmly surrounded)
inside and outside with iron bands
of the smith’s skilful iron work
Although we are given to understand that this fact is some kind of praise it is still an odd
fact. However, with growing knowledge about halls the fact has become understandable
and also significant. To begin with, we must note Michael Thompson’s (1995, pp.
11 f.) observation that Heorot must have been a house with walls constructed mainly of
vertical elements, i.e., elements which had to be prevented from falling out. We may
consider it strange that the Scandinavians, having built houses for thousands of years,