ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Among the early Germanic peoples, a mead hall or feasting hall was a large building with a single room intended to receive guests and serve as a center of community social life. From the fifth century to the Early Middle Ages such a building was the residence of a lord or king and his retainers.

Detailed explanation-2: -Hrothgar named the hall Heorot, and there, as he had promised, he held feasts for his people, gave out gold rings and other gifts.

Detailed explanation-3: -A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages, and continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great chamber for eating and relaxing.

Detailed explanation-4: -The word ‘mead-hall’ (Old English meduseld, beorsele, etc.) is a simple com-pound: a mead-hall is a hall or ‘meeting house’ with mead or ‘strong drink’, which might equally be beer, wine, cider or ale.

Detailed explanation-5: -Heorot is the Danish mead hall in Beowulf, the famous poem. It is the seat of the famed King Hrothgar of the Danes, as he built it for his throne room, for the purpose of celebrating with his people.