Section IV. Leire and Heorot.
The village of Leire remains to the present day. It stands near the north coast of the island of Seeland, some five miles from Roskilde and three miles from the sea, in a gentle valley, through the midst of which flows a small stream. The village itself consists of a tiny cluster of cottages: the outstanding feature of the place is formed by the huge grave mounds scattered around in all directions.
The tourist, walking amid these cottages and mounds, may feel fairly confident that he is standing on the site of Heorot.
There are two distinct stages in this identification: it must be proved (a) that the modern Leire occupies the site of the Leire (Lethra) where Rolf Kraki ruled, and (b) that the Leire of Rolf Kraki was built on the site of Heorot.
From Saxo Grammaticus, ed. Stephanius, 1644.
(a) That the modern Leire occupies the site of the ancient Leire has indeed been disputed[[34]], but seems hardly open to doubt, in view of the express words of the Danish chroniclers[[35]]. It is true that the mounds, which these early chroniclers probably imagined as covering the ashes of 'Haldanus' or 'Roe,' and which later antiquaries dubbed with the names of other kings, are now thought to belong, not to the time of Hrothgar, but to the Stone or Bronze Ages. But this evidence that Leire was a place of importance thousands of years before Hrothgar or Hrothulf were born, in no wise invalidates the overwhelming evidence that it was their residence also.
The equation of the modern Leire with the Leire of Rolf Kraki we may then accept. We cannot be quite so sure of our thesis (b): that the ancient Leire was identical with the site where Hrothgar built Heorot. But it is highly probable: for although Leire is more particularly connected with the memory of Rolf Kraki himself, we are assured, in one of the mediæval Danish chronicles, that Leire was the royal seat of Rolf's predecessors as well: of Ro (Hrothgar) and of Ro's father: and that Ro "enriched it with great magnificence[[36]]." Ro also, according to this chronicler, heaped a mound at Leire over the grave of his father, and was himself buried at Leire under another mound.