microrobert
08-26-2013, 07:01 PM
Feasting and fighting: the long-lost secrets of Beowulf
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/08/26/article-2402079-0C51BD56000005DC-619_634x806.jpg
Manuscript: The one surviving copy of the poem is contained on badly burnt parchment in the British Library
The dark secrets of the legend of Beowulf, England’s oldest work of epic literature, are gradually emerging from under a field in eastern Denmark.
Archaeologists in the country’s earliest royal ‘capital’ – Lejre, 23 miles west of modern Copenhagen – are investigating the joys of elite Dark Age life in and around what was probably the great royal feasting hall at the violent epicentre of the Beowulf story.
The archaeologists – led by Tom Christensen, director of the Lejre investigation – have so far managed not only to find, excavate and date the late 5 or early 6 century building most likely to have been Lejre’s first royal hall (described in Beowulf as `the greatest hall under heaven’), but have also succeeded in reconstructing what was on the menu at the great feasts held there.
Feasting and fighting: the long-lost secrets of Beowulf - Features - Archaeology - The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/features/feasting-and-fighting-the-longlost-secrets-of-beowulf-8784510.html)
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/08/26/article-2402079-0C51BD56000005DC-619_634x806.jpg
Manuscript: The one surviving copy of the poem is contained on badly burnt parchment in the British Library
The dark secrets of the legend of Beowulf, England’s oldest work of epic literature, are gradually emerging from under a field in eastern Denmark.
Archaeologists in the country’s earliest royal ‘capital’ – Lejre, 23 miles west of modern Copenhagen – are investigating the joys of elite Dark Age life in and around what was probably the great royal feasting hall at the violent epicentre of the Beowulf story.
The archaeologists – led by Tom Christensen, director of the Lejre investigation – have so far managed not only to find, excavate and date the late 5 or early 6 century building most likely to have been Lejre’s first royal hall (described in Beowulf as `the greatest hall under heaven’), but have also succeeded in reconstructing what was on the menu at the great feasts held there.
Feasting and fighting: the long-lost secrets of Beowulf - Features - Archaeology - The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/features/feasting-and-fighting-the-longlost-secrets-of-beowulf-8784510.html)