What do you think Heorot might have looked like?

The word 'heorot' in Anglo-Saxon means 'deer', and the poem tells us that the hall had a special kind of pointed roof. Perhaps the points on the roof were made to look like a deer's antlers.

The hall would probably have been made of wood. Some Anglo-Saxon halls had thatched roofs. Some had wooden ones and some had tiles on the roof.

Inside the hall people sat at tables on long benches to eat and drink and talk. Sometimes they listened to songs and poems. There would be a fire in the middle of a large room, with a hole in the roof for the smoke. The lord and his closest friends and advisers probably sat at one table near the fire.

Except for the warriors who slept in the hall to guard it, most families lived in smaller buildings with their animals. These buildings would be not far from the hall.

Drawing of an anglo-saxon house and family

The Anglo-Saxons lived in small groups or tribes made up of families related to each other. Usually they had a leader and a council called the Witan to make decisions for the tribe.

The hall was important as a place where everyone could meet together. Things which mattered to the whole tribe could be discussed. Also the hall was a place where the leader could give gifts to his warriors and they could promise to fight for him if he needed them.