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Author Topic:   Castles of the Beowulf Era
joshmo
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posted 09-26-99 02:23 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for joshmo   Click Here to Email joshmo     Edit/Delete Message
I was wondering what castles looked like during the Beowulf Era, which is during the 6th-8th century. I would appreciate feedback.
Thanks,
Josh

Philip Davis
unregistered
posted 09-26-99 07:48 PM           Edit/Delete Message
As I understand the period there were no castles. Lords had a band of warriors with them continually and if they were attacked they fought the attackers on the open field. Other than this the lord and his warriors rode around their territory, stopping for a few weeks, at wooden halls before moving on. These halls may have been surrounded by a fence but this was mainly to keep animals in or out. It is unlikely that these halls had a pallisade large enough for a guard to walk along (A good definition of a castle is a home with a wall thick enough to be patrolled-it doesn't have to be a stone wall). In France in the 9th and 10th centuries the hall fences were strengthed with earth embankments and, in some places, with larger mounds of earth (mottes).
Having said this it is not improbable that 6th century warriors would have used old Romen or Iron age hill forts as defensive refuges but these were not residences and therefore not castles. (The Normans in Britain often reused Romen forts but they built permanent halls within the old walls, making them castles)

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