Chi Heorot is a local fraternity

Fraternity

A fraternity is a brotherhood, though the term usually connotes a distinct or formal organization. An organization referred to as a fraternity may be a:*Secret society*Chivalric order*Benefit society*Friendly society*Social club*Trade union...

 at Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

 located in Hanover, NH.

History

Heorot was founded in 1897 as a local fraternity called Alpha Alpha Omega. In 1902 it was granted a charter as the Chi chapter of Chi Phi

Chi Phi

The Chi Phi ' Fraternity is an American College Social Fraternity that was established as the result of the merger of three separate organizations that were each known as Chi Phi. The oldest active organization that took part in the union was originally founded in 1824 at Princeton...

. Soon after, the fraternity moved to its present location on East Wheelock Street, and in 1927 sold off its eighteenth-century house and built the house that stands today. By the mid-1900s, the Dartmouth chapter of Chi Phi was having some issues with its national charter. Some of these disagreements are alleged to have regarded the admission of an African-American student into the Dartmouth chapter, in violation of Chi Phi rules at that time. In 1968 the house finally dissociated from the national fraternity.

The house then became Chi Phi Heorot. After several suspensions by the College in the early eighties, it re-joined the national in 1982. However, in the winter of 1985 the brothers of Heorot attempted to turn the central hall on the first floor of the house into an ice hockey rink by flooding it and opening the doors to allow Hanover's subzero winter temperatures to freeze the water. This caused the floor to fall through into the basement, resulting in costly damage that the national organization refused to help pay to fix. Because of this lack of support from the national, Heorot again opted to become a local fraternity, and the college assumed ownership of the property and house.

Naming

After its final dissociation from the national in 1985, the fraternity chose the name Chi Heorot, derived from the medieval poem Beowulf

Beowulf

Beowulf , but modern scholars agree in naming it after the hero whose life is its subject." of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.It survives in a single...

. Heorot

Heorot

Heorot is a mead hall described in the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf as "the foremost of halls under heaven." It served as a palace for King Hroðgar, a legendary Danish king of the sixth century. Heorot means "Hall of the Hart"...

 is the great hall where warriors converge to tell their stories, described by the anonymous

Anonymous work

Anonymous works are works, such as art or literature, that have an anonymous, undisclosed, or unknown creator or author. In the United States it is legally defined as "a work on the copies or phonorecords of which no natural person is identified as author."...

 author in the following excerpt:

Then, as I have heard, the work of constructing a building

Was proclaimed to many a tribe throughout this middle earth.

In time – quickly, as such things happen among men –

It was all ready, the biggest of halls.

He whose word was law

Far and wide gave it the name ‘Heorot’.

The men did not dally; they strode inland in a group

Until they were able to discern the timbered hall,

Splendid and ornamented with gold.

The building in which that powerful man held court

Was the foremost of halls under heaven;

Its radiance shone over many lands..

Athletics

Heorot draws a good deal of its brotherhood from a variety of varsity athletic teams; ice hockey, cross country and track, rowing, and skiing are all well-represented. Notable alumni include Gerry Geran '18, Adam Nelson

Adam Nelson

Adam Nelson is an elite American shotputter. A 1997 graduate of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, Nelson has competed in two Olympic Games...

 '97, and Andrew Weibrecht

Andrew Weibrecht

Andrew Weibrecht is an American alpine ski racer who has competed since 2002.-Skiing career:...

 '09, who have won Olympic

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

medals in ice hockey, shot put, and ski racing respectively.

Social Life

Heorot is well-known for its dance parties, which have been described by fellow students as "fabled" and "ludicrous".