Hereot

Definition: Hereot is the name of the hall built by Hrothgar to celebrate his war victories. It was a “hall of halls” and it “towered, its gables wide and high and awaiting” (Beowulf line 78-82).  There is even description of gold detailing within the hall (Beowulf line 308). After each victory for the Danes, there is a large celebration with food, drink, and entertainment in Hereot. The hall is supposed to be merry at all times, but the attacks of Grendel and Grendel’s mother dampen the mood at points during the epic.

Importance: This hall stood as a symbol of Danish power to foreign and domestic invaders. There have been excavation sites across Europe that resemble those mentioned in Beowulf. One specific site in Hampshire that dates back to the seventh or eighth century gives archeologists a relatively clear idea of what Hereot would have looked like. One feature that Hereot would have most likely had would have been a raised wooden floor. Among other embellishments in Beowulf, there is no archeological evidence that gold was used in the construction of mead halls (Donoghue and Heaney 217). This leads us to believe that Hereot was more fiction than fact.

source: http://beowulfbasics.weebly.com/2--the-heorot.html