Heorot

For example, a sceptre or whetstone discovered in mound I of the Anglo-Saxon burial site Sutton Hoo prominently features a standing stag at its top.

[3] According to historian William Chaney: Whatever the association with the stag or hart with fertility and the new year, with Frey, with dedicated deaths, or with primitive animal-gods cannot now be determined with any certainty.

What is certain, however, is that the two stags most prominent from Anglo-Saxon times are both connected with kings, the emblem surmounting the unique 'standard' in the royal cenotaph of Sutton Hoo and the great hall of Heorot in Beowulf.

He suggests that the steep shining sea-cliffs of Beowulf would match the pale cliffs of Sheerness on that island, its name meaning "bright headland".

[8][9] The archaeologist Paul Budden acknowledged "the story appealed" to him as a Kentish man, but felt that (as Wilkinson conceded) the subject was "mythology, not archaeology or science".

The medieval chroniclers Saxo Grammaticus and Sven Aggesen already suggested that Lejre was the chief residence of the Skjöldung clan (called “Scylding” in the poem).

[13] J. R. R. Tolkien, who compared Heorot to Camelot for its mix of legendary and historical associations,[14] used it as the basis for the Golden Hall of King Théoden, Meduseld, in the land of Rohan.