A reconstructed Viking Age longhouse (28,5 metres long).

A mead hall or feasting hall was initially simply a large building with a single room. From the fifth century to the early medieval times, such a building was the residence of a lord and his retainers. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (919x561, 678 KB) En: Reconstruction of a viking house from the ring castle Fyrkat near Hobro, Denmark. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (919x561, 678 KB) En: Reconstruction of a viking house from the ring castle Fyrkat near Hobro, Denmark. ... Europe in 450 The 5th century is the period from 401 to 500 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. ...

Archaeology

The remains of a Viking hall complex were uncovered southwest of Lejre, Denmark in 1986–1988 by Tom Christensen of the Roskilde Museum.^[1] Wood from the foundation was radiocarbon-dated to about 880 AD. It was later found that this hall was built over an older hall which was itself dated to 680. In 2004–2005, Christensen excavated a third hall located just north of the other two. This hall was built in the mid-6th century, exactly the time period of Beowulf. All three halls were about 50 meters long.^[2] Viking, also called Norseman or Northman, refers to a member of the Scandinavian seafaring traders, warriors and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the 8th to the 11th century[1] and reached east to Russia and Constantinople, referred to as Varangians by the Byzantine sources and... A hallway at the Royal York Hotel Look up Hall, hall in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Lejre is a municipality in east Denmark, in the county of Roskilde on the peninsula of Zealand. ... Year 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... Carbon-14 is the radioactive isotope of carbon discovered February 27, 1940, by Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben. ... For other uses, see number 880. ... Look up AD, ad-, and ad in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Events October 10 - Battle of Kerbela November 12 - The Sixth Ecumenical Council opens in Constantinople The Bulgars subjugate the country of current-day Bulgaria Pippin of Herstal becomes Mayor of the Palace Umayyad caliph Muawiyah I succeeded by Yazid I ibn Muawiyah Erwig deposes Wamba to become king of the... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The 6th century is the period from 501 - 600 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. ... This article is about the epic poem. ...

In Gudme, Denmark two similar halls were excavated in 1993. Of the so called "Gudme Kongehal" (Kings hall) only the post holes were found. The larger of the two was 47 meters long and 8 meters wide. Gold items found near the site have been dated between 200 and 550. The iron age graveyards of Møllegårdsmarken and Brudager are close by. The halls may have been part of a regional religious and political center serving as royal feasting places with Lundeborg serving as harbor.^[3] Gudme is a municipality in central Denmark, in the county of Funen. ... Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ... Iron Age Axe found on Gotland This article is about the archaeological period known as the Iron Age, for the mythological Iron Age see Iron Age (mythology). ...

A similar large hall has been found next to the church of Gamla Uppsala, Sweden on a clay plateau called Kungsgårdsplatån. This was the feasting hall of the Swedish kings. Together with the religious center (Temple at Uppsala), nearby royal estates (husaby/Uppsala öd), and the royal grave mounds, it was part of the religious and political central region of the Swedish people. Gamla Uppsala is an area rich in archaeological remains seen from the grave field whose larger mounds (left part) are close to the royal mounds. ... The Temple at Uppsala was a temple in Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala), near modern Uppsala, Sweden, that was created to worship the Norse gods of ancient times. ... Uppsala öd, Old Norse: Uppsala auðr or Uppsala øðr (Uppsala domains or wealth of Uppsala) referred to the network of royal estates that were the property of the Swedish crown. ...

From around 500 AD. up until Christianization (the 13th century at the latest), these large halls were vital parts of the political center. They were superseded by the Medieval banquet halls of later times. For the purposes of this article the Christianization of Scandinavia refers to the process of conversion to Christianity of the Scandinavian and Nordic peoples, starting in the 8th century with the arrival of missionaries in Denmark and ending in the 18th century with the conversion of the Inuits and the... (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. ... A banquet hall is a room used for social gatherings like receptions, reunions, parties, and business events. ...

Other such halls may have been found at Högom (Medelpad) and Borg, Norway on the Lofotens. One excavated here from the iron age measured 67 meters long and an even later finding (from the Viking era) measured 83 meters long. Borg is a hamlet near Bøstad, VestvÃ¥gøy, Norway. ... Reine, Lofoten, seen from top of Reinebringen (June, 2003). ...

Legends and history

Ingjald using his new feasting hall as he intended.

There are several accounts of large feasting halls constructed for important feasts when Scandinavian royalty was invited. According to a legend recorded by Snorri Sturluson, in the Heimskringla, the late 9th century Värmlandish chieftain Áki invited both the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair and the Swedish king Eric Eymundsson, but had the Norwegian king stay in the newly constructed and sumptuous one, because he was the youngest one of the kings and the one who had the greatest prospects. The older Swedish king, on the other hand, had to stay in the old feasting hall. The Swedish king was so humiliated that he killed Áki. Hugo Hamilton, 1830 This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired in the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... Hugo Hamilton, 1830 This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired in the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... A statue of Snorri Sturluson by Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland was erected at Reykholt in 1947. ... Heimskringla is the Old Norse name of a collection of sagas recorded in Iceland around 1225 by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson (1179-1242). ... As a means of recording the passage of time the 9th century was the century that lasted from 801 to 900. ... â–¶(?) is a historical province or landskap in the west of middle Sweden. ... Harald I (b. ... Eric Anundsson/Eymundsson (d. ...

The construction of new feasting halls could also be the preparation for treacherous murders of royalty. In the Ynglinga saga part of the Heimskringla, Snorri relates how, in the 8th century, the legendary Swedish king Ingjald constructed a large feasting hall solely for the purpose of burning all his subordinate petty kings late at night when they were asleep. According to Yngvars saga víðförla, the same ruse was done by the Swedish king Eric the Victorious and the Norwegian ruler Sigurd Jarl, when they murdered Áki, a rebellious Swedish subking, at Gamla Uppsala, in the late 10th century. The Ynglinga saga was originally written in Old Norse by the Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson about 1225. ... (7th century — 8th century — 9th century — other centuries) Events The Iberian peninsula is taken by Arab and Berber Muslims, thus ending the Visigothic rule, and starting almost 8 centuries of Muslim presence there. ... Ingjald centralizing Sweden Ingjaldr hinn illráði or Ingjald illrÃ¥de (ill-ruler), ca 640 - ca 650, was a legendary Swedish king of the House of Ynglings. ... Ingvar the Far-Travelled was the leader of the Swedish Ingvar expedition, which was an unsuccessful Swedish Viking attack against Persia, in 1036-1041. ... Eric the Victorious (VI), or Erik Segersäll, (985?- 995), was king of the Swedes during the last two decades of the 10th century. ... Haakon Sigurdsson Jarl (d. ... Gamla Uppsala is an area rich in archaeological remains seen from the grave field whose larger mounds (left part) are close to the royal mounds. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 10th century was that century which lasted from 901 to 1000. ...

Mythology

From at least the tenth century onwards in Norse mythology, there are numerous examples of halls where the dead may arrive. The best known example is Valhalla, the hall where Odin receives half of the dead lost in battle. Freyja, in turn, receives the other half at Sessrúmnir. Norse, Viking or Scandinavian mythology comprises the indigenous pre-Christian religion, beliefs and legends of the Scandinavian peoples, including those who settled on Iceland, where most of the written sources for Norse mythology were assembled. ... For other uses, see Valhalla (disambiguation). ... For other meanings of Odin,Woden or Wotan see Odin (disambiguation), Woden (disambiguation), Wotan (disambiguation). ... A statue of Freyja at DjurgÃ¥rden, Stockholm, Sweden. ... In Norse mythology, Sessrúmnir (Room of seat) was Freyas hall in the Fólkvangr. ...

Etymology

The old name of such halls may have been sal/salr and thus be present in old place names such as "Uppsala"^[4]. The idea or concept may have been preserved in the German word Festsaal (feasting hall).

Precursor

The mead hall developed from European longhouses: In archaeology and anthropology, a long house or longhouse is a type of long, narrow single room building built by peoples in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe and North America. ...

• The unrelated Neolithic long house type was introduced with the first farmers of central and western Europe around 5000 BC—7000 years ago. The first later longhouses came into use more than a thousand years after the neolithic version had become extinct.
• The Germanic cattle-farmer longhouses emerged along the southwestern North Sea coast in the third or fourth century BC and is the ancestors the German and Dutch Fachhallenhaus and might have common ancestors with several other medieval house types such as the Scandinavian langhus and the English, Welsh and Scottish longhouse variants .

The possibly related medieval longhouse types of Europe of which some examples have survived are among others: The Neolithic long house was a long, narrow timber dwelling built by the first farmers in Europe around 7,000 years ago. ... The North Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, located between the coasts of Norway and Denmark in the east, the coast of the British Isles in the west, and the German, Dutch, Belgian and French coasts in the south. ... Fachhallenhaus Fachhallenhaus ---- (more info) Stage 2 : In Progress (How-to) Fachhallenhaus seems like the best title, the particular Fachhallenhaus variety of Long House doesnt seem to have an accepted name in English, so the German name is probably what should be used. ...

• The Scandinavian or Viking Langhus, with the variants of traditional farm house such as excavated in Vorbasse, a garrison/barracks type for warriors such as found at the Viking ring castles and the sophisticated large banquetting halls such as the mead halls.
• The southwest England variants in Dartmoor and Wales
• The northwest England type in Cumbria
• The Scottish Longhouse, "Black house" or taighean dubha
• The French longère or maison longue (only considering the types similar to the ones described in Dartmoor or Cumbria, possibly of norman origin)

Viking, also called Norseman or Northman, refers to a member of the Scandinavian seafaring traders, warriors and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the 8th to the 11th century[1] and reached east to Russia and Constantinople, referred to as Varangians by the Byzantine sources and... Vorbasse is a small community out side of Billund. ... Trelleborg is a collective name for six Viking ring castles, located in Denmark and the southern part of modern Sweden. ... The Dartmoor longhouse is a type of traditional home, found on the high ground of Dartmoor, in the south west of the United Kingdom. ... For the novel by the same name, see Black house (novel). ...

Modern popular culture

In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, Meduseld was the great Golden Hall built in Rohan. Meduseld was a large hall with a straw roof, which made it appear as if it were made out of gold when seen from far off. Its walls were richly decorated with tapestries depicting the history and legends of the Rohirrim, and it served as a house for the King and his kin, a meeting hall for the King and his advisors, and a gathering hall. Tolkien redirects here. ... A fictional universe is an imaginary world that serves as the setting or backdrop for one or (more commonly) multiple works of fiction or translatable non-fiction. ... A map of the Northwestern part of Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age, courtesy of the Encyclopedia of Arda. ... In J. R. R. Tolkiens fictional universe of Middle-earth, Meduseld was the great Golden Hall built in Edoras. ... For other uses, see Rohan (disambiguation). ... GOLD refers to one of the following: GOLD (IEEE) is an IEEE program designed to garner more student members at the university level (Graduates of the Last Decade). ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Rohan. ...

References

Links

• Pictures of the hall on the Lofotr museum homepage.
• A picture of the "Gudmekongens" Hall as it appears today. The text is danish though.
• A list(pdf) of twenty large Iron Age Halls. From the book "The Idea of the Good"(OPIA 15.) by Frands Herschend. 1998. Uppsala: Uppsala University Department of Archaeology & Ancient History; 91-506-1276-X ISSN 1100-6358 .