Beowulf and LejreTradition places the main action of this Old English poem at Lejre, Zealand (Denmark), and excavations there 1986-88 and 2004-05 have revealed a succession of great halls dated from the middle sixth to the late tenth centuries, and very similar to the one described in eight-century poem. Archaeologists, historians, and literary scholars consider the implications. |
Contents
Preface to the American Edition | 17 |
Preface to the 1991 Danish Edition | 19 |
Fact and Fable 1991 | 21 |
The Textual Sources | 29 |
The Settlement beneath the Field | 39 |
Large Estates | 73 |
The Name Hleipra Hleiðr Lethra Lejre | 89 |
Chronological Table | 95 |
The Rise and Fall of a Myth | 267 |
Marijane Osborn The Lejre Connection in Beowulf Scholarship | 287 |
Some Medieval Sources for the Legendary History of Lejre | 295 |
Ole Worm On the Danes Ancient Sacrifices 1643 | 391 |
Erich Pontoppidan from The Danish Atlas 1764 | 401 |
Frederik Münter from Lejre in Zealand at the Beginning of the | 411 |
Et Digt 1837 | 431 |
The Early Viking Capital of Denmark 1923 | 449 |
Holger Schmidt Reconstruction of the Lejre Hall 1991 | 103 |
Tom Christensen A New Round of Excavations at Lejre to 2005 | 109 |
Lejre as Seen by Other Contemporary Archaeologists | 127 |
Niles Beowulf and Lejre | 169 |
List of Illustrations 99 | 170 |
Marijane Osborn Legends of Lejre Home of Kings | 235 |
Niles Was There a Legend of Lejre? | 255 |
Sigurd Vasegaard four illustrations to Danmarks Riges Krønike 1970 | 455 |
The Lejre Experimental Centre | 461 |
Afterword by Tom Shippey | 469 |
Acknowledgments | 481 |
General Index | 489 |
Copyright | |