Sutton Who? Who is buried at Sutton Hoo?

by Matthew Harffy

Sutton Hoo is one of the most important historical sites of Great Britain. The name derives from the Old English (Sutton = South farmstead and Hoo = someone who lives on a spur of a hill).

Sutton Hoo is situated near the village of Woodbridge on the River Deben in the county of Suffolk, the southern part of East Anglia. The history of the place can be split into two distinct eras: recent (from 1930s to the present day), and early medieval (from the early seventh century).

Mound 2 at Sutton Hoo

Before the owner of the house at Sutton Hoo, Mrs Edith Pretty, invited local archaeologist, Basil Brown, to dig into the many mounds that dotted an area of her land, there was nothing much to make Sutton Hoo stand out from a historical point of view. But, as the archaeologists dug into the sandy soil in 1939, uncovering perfect lines of rivets showing the shape of the overlapping planks of a great clinker-built ship buried beneath the largest mound, it quickly became apparent that Sutton Hoo had a historical importance none had imagined before then.

The village of Woodbridge and the river Deben
in the distance (viewed from Sutton Hoo)

All of the mounds had been disturbed over the centuries and most of the treasures that lay within had been stolen. But amazingly, although the largest mound (known as Mound 1) had suffered from the attentions of grave robbers in the sixteenth century (possibly the infamous Dr John Dee, who obtained a royal permit to dig for treasure in burial mounds in East Anglia), Brown found in 1939 that the main burial chamber that had been erected over the ship was largely undisturbed.

Reconstruction of the inside of Mound 1

At least it had not been disturbed by men; the earth had fallen in centuries ago, crushing the items stored within and damaging many of them. And of course, the passing of time had wreaked havoc with the organic materials and iron. However, the treasures that were pulled forth from the earth showed that the man buried in the ship was hugely wealthy, a pagan and almost certainly a king.

Basil Brown during the dig of Mound 1 in 1939

The most recognisable artefact is of course the Sutton Hoo helmet, the remains of which are now on display in the British Museum. Time has taken its toll on the helmet, but when we see a replica showing it as it would have been when worn and buried with its owner, we can but marvel at the workmanship and artistry.

Replica of the Sutton Hoo Helmet (by Ivor Lawton)

There were many other important pieces that came from the grave, each providing invaluable insight into the customs of the time and the identity of the man buried.

Among many other items of value, the following are a few of the most important finds from Mound 1:

• a large Byzantine silver bowl, which had travelled over 1,500 miles to reach its resting place
• thirty-seven gold coins 
• an ornate golden belt buckle 

Replica of the gold belt buckle

• two gold and garnet shoulder clasps 
• a harp 
• nine spears 
• a whetstone sceptre 

Replica of the whetstone sceptre

• a shield with intricate gold fittings

Replica of the shield and gold fittings

The excavation of the mounds was halted during the Second World War, but since that time the investigations of the site has continued to the present day, first under the direction of Rupert Bruce-Mitford (1965-71), then Martin Carver (1983-92). In subsequent digs since the war, many other graves have been found in the area around the mounds. It is believed that these newly-discovered bodies, which were buried with no grave goods, in shallow graves are from a later time. Looking at the evidence, they were probably criminals who had been hanged from a gallows near the highway that ran past the mounds.

The mounds at Sutton Hoo

Other mounds have also been excavated, shining more light into the darkness of the time when these mounds were erected. A young warrior is buried alongside his horse in Mound 17 and Mound 14 probably held the body of a woman, given the grave goods found.

Replica pattern welded sword

We will almost certainly never know who each of these people were due to the period when they were buried and the lack of documentary evidence in what is commonly known as the Dark Ages.

Nevertheless, there is enough evidence to pinpoint the age of the ship burial of Mound 1 as between 590 and 640. Weighing up the finds of such riches, along with the location of the mounds, only four miles from Rendlesham, where Bede says the King of East Anglia had his great hall, and the fact that the burial is pagan, it seems overwhelmingly likely that Mound 1 at Sutton Hoo is the ship burial of the great King Rædwald of East Anglia, who died in 624 or 625.

Artist's impression of King Rædwald

This of course takes us into the second historical era of Sutton Hoo. The early seventh century, when Christianity had yet to be adopted by all the kingdoms of Britain. A time when warrior kings of the Angles and the Saxons held sway over retinues of thegns and vied for power and territory with neighbouring kings in a way that could be compared to the gangs of modern-day cities or the cattle barons of the American West in the nineteenth century.

Such a man was Rædwald, ruler over East Anglia, one of the richest kingdoms of Britain. He had supposedly converted to Christianity when visiting Kent, but apostatised once more on his return to East Anglia where, instead of destroying the shrines to the old gods, he built new Christian shrines alongside them. Claiming Woden as one of his ancestors, as did all of the Anglo-Saxon kings of the time, he would have worn the great helmet that was buried with him into combat, not only as protection but as an indication of his wealth and extreme power.

Artist's impression of the interior of an Anglo-Saxon great hall

Rædwald’s power stretched well beyond the borders of East Anglia. When the young Edwin of Deira fled from his enemies in Northumberland, he ended up finding a safe haven in the hall of Rædwald. Edwin’s sworn enemy, King Æthelfrith, would rather avoid a war with a king as mighty as Rædwald but he clearly believed that the King of East Anglia could be swayed by gold. For we are told in Bede’s History of the English Church and People that Æthelfrith sent Rædwald increasingly large bribes in the form of coins in exchange for Edwin. It seems Rædwald was tempted by the offer until his wife famously told him that it was “altogether unworthy of so great a king to sell his good friend in such distress for gold, and to sacrifice his honour, which is more valuable than all other adornments, for the love of money”. And so, listening to his wife and recognising the wisdom of her words, Rædwald not only rejected Æthelfrith’s offer but instead lent his aid to Edwin and marched with him northward where together they defeated Æthelfrith. Thus Rædwald installed Edwin as King of Northumbria.

The National Trust Exhibition Hall at Sutton Hoo

Visiting the site today and seeing in the National Trust Exhibition Hall the stunning replicas of the grave goods that were buried with Rædwald to be carried into the afterlife in his great ship, one gets an idea of the powerful hold this man must have had on his people. And I think we must consider ourselves extremely fortunate that after 1,400 years and numerous attempts to rob the graves of Sutton Hoo, these most fabulous, iconic artefacts have been recovered and kept safe, allowing them to be witnessed and studied by history lovers for generations to come.

Image attribution:

All photos copyright Matthew Harffy, unless otherwise stated.
The image of the 1939 dig is by Harold John Phillips - Screen capture of image from home movie, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14677136

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Matthew Harffy is the author of the Bernicia Chronicles, a series of novels set in seventh century Britain. The latest book in the series, Warrior of Woden was released on 1^st April 2018.

The previous books in the series, The Serpent Sword, The Cross and theCurse, Blood and Blade and Killer of Kings are available on Amazon, Kobo, Google Play, and all good bookstores.

Kin of Cain, a standalone prequel novella, is currently free on Amazon worldwide.

Website: www.matthewharffy.com

Twitter: @MatthewHarffy

Facebook: MatthewHarffyAuthor

Swords, Seaxes and Saxons

By Matthew Harffy

The Germanic tribes who settled in Britain from the 5th century onward, commonly known as the Anglo-Saxons, were a bellicose people. They put great stock in battle-prowess and dying in combat in the service of one's lord was the ideal death of a warrior. They were a people of tales and sagas told around hearth-fires in smoky halls. The story of Beowulf, a great warlord who later becomes a great king, harkens from sometime during this period. The eponymous character of the epic poem is typical of heroes of the time. He is brave, strong, honourable and his fame is known throughout the lands in which he travels. Warriors such as Beowulf measured their battle-fame and success in the quality of their weapons and armour. The Saxons are even named for their use of the single-edged knife or short sword called the seax.

High status warrior with pattern-welded sword

The period from the end of the Roman presence in Britain to the Norman Conquest is now known as the early medieval. However, it is more romantically, and much more commonly, known as the Dark Ages, and in many ways these centuries were dark. Literacy and education was very rare, so much of the history was not recorded in writing. As to remains for archaeologists to study, the Anglo-Saxons built their halls and houses of timber, leaving little in the way of visible marks on the landscape. The times were dark indeed for many who perished in the frequent bloody battles between the small kingdoms that divided Britain.

However, it was not all gloom and death. It was also a time of great craftsmen, who created some incredibly intricate work. Nowhere was this more apparent than when their love of war melded with their sense of the artistic in the creation of their sword blades and the ornate decorations that adorned their pommels and hilts. The Anglo-Saxons' skill in forging pattern welded blades was second to none. The discovery of the Bamburgh sword and the Staffordshire Hoard show the incredible workmanship that these craftsmen from the so-called Dark Ages were capable of.

Pattern welding

The best quality sword blades of the time were made using the forging technique that we now know as pattern welding.

Pattern welding involves forging together alternating twisted rods. These rods form complex patterns when forged into a blade. During the Anglo-Saxon period, sword manufacture reached a level where thin layers of steel were overlaid onto a soft iron core. This made the swords flexible with a springy strength that would prevent the blade bending or snapping in combat. The most sought after blades had pattern welding forged around an iron core.

Pattern-welded seax

Not only were these blades coveted due to their qualities, they were also things of beauty in their own right. One sword was described in Beowulf as "the woven snake-blade" and "marked with venom-stripes". It is likely that these descriptions came from the scop putting into words the fabulous, striped markings on the best pattern-welded blades.

Pattern-welded blade

Such blades would have been like the sports cars of their day, admired by many, owned by few. Both functional and beautiful, these incredible weapons were status symbols of kings, warlords and the richest of household warriors.

The Bamburgh Sword

One such fabulous pattern-welded sword is the Bamburgh Sword.

It was discovered at Bamburgh Castle in 1960 by Brian Hope-Taylor, who failed to identify it. It was only forty years later, following Dr Hope-Taylor's death, that a student found the blade in a suitcase that was going to be sent to landfill!

Luckily it was not destroyed, and subsequent studies of the blade showed it to be a unique seventh century sword made up of six separate strands of iron. No other sword has been found from the period with more than four rods in a pattern welded blade. It must have been fabulously valuable, perhaps even owned by a king.

It is now on display at Bamburgh Castle, along with a replica of what it would have looked like when it was new.

The Bamburgh Sword

The Staffordshire Hoard

The swords of noble warriors did not only have fine blades, their hilts were adorned with gold and garnet pommel caps, golden rings, and all manner of scroll work and runes. Nowhere can the quality of these items be seen more clearly or in greater quantity than in the huge number of pieces discovered in the Staffordshire Hoard.

Discovered by a metal detectorist in 2009 near Lichfield, it is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork found to date, with a total of 5.1 kg of gold, 1.4 kg of silver and around 3,500 pieces of garnet cloisonné jewellery.

The Staffordshire Hoard

The hoard was most likely deposited sometime in the 8th century, though the exact date or indeed why such riches were abandoned, can only be speculated upon. However, many of the items were stripped from fine weapons, attesting perhaps to the hoard being spoils of war, or maybe payment from a defeated force containing many wealthy warriors of high standing. The level of detail on the items is really astounding, and shows that weapons were clearly status symbols in their own right and not merely tools for dealing death.

Burials with weapons

Another way we can see the importance of weapons to the Anglo-Saxons is by the objects they buried with their dead. Before Christianity took a firm hold on the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, men were often interred with swords, shields, spears and seaxes, not to mention other items that presumably they would have found useful in the afterlife.

Later in the Anglo-Saxon period the number of grave goods dwindled, perhaps due to pressure from the Christian church or maybe more prosaic reasons, such as inheritance and trade becoming more commonplace.

Anglo-Saxon swords

Estimating from the number of swords found in graves, only a small number of warriors owned a sword (most had to make do with a spear). However, the sword remained the symbol of the successful warrior. It was what all young men would aspire to own. Lords would gift swords to their most trusted warriors and blades were given names. They were the ultimate Dark Ages status symbol.

Nowadays, if someone wishes to show off at a dinner party they might mention what model of car they drive. If you met a Saxon warrior at a feast in a mead hall, he might boast of the quality of his sword’s blade and regale you with the tales of its exploits in battle.

Images:

Warrior: Copyright Stephen Weatherly, used with permission.

Staffordshire hoard: By David Rowan, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Staffordshire hoard) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Anglo-Saxon Swords: By Internet Archive Book Images [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons

All other photos, Copyright Matthew Harffy

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Matthew Harffy is the author of the Bernicia Chronicles, a series of novels set in seventh century Britain. The first of the series, The Serpent Sword, was published by Aria, an imprint of Head of Zeus on 1st June 2016. The sequel, The Cross and The Curse will be released on 1st August 2016. Book three, By Blood and Blade, is due for publication in January 2017.

The Serpent Sword is available on Amazon, Kobo, Google Play, and all good online bookstores.

The Cross and the Curse is available for pre-order on Amazon and all good online bookstores.

Website: www.matthewharffy.com
Twitter: MatthewHarffy
Facebook: MatthewHarffyAuthor

The Corpse Road

by Deborah Swift

Now it is the time of night,
That the graves all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his sprite,
In the church-way paths to glide

Puck - A Midsummer Night's Dream

When I was out walking last week I was travelling what is known as a 'coffin route or 'corpse road.'

So what exactly is a 'corpse road'?

In the Middle Ages there were only a few mother churches in England that held burial rights. This meant that when someone died, the corpse had to be transported long distances, sometimes through difficult terrain. Because of the landscape, often a corpse had to be carried miles by the bearers unless the deceased was rich and had left instructions for a horse-drawn bier.

The Fairy Steps, Beetham, a narrow passageway
where coffins were carried to the top of the hill

One well-known funeral way is the one that runs from Rydal to the church in Ambleside in the Lake District where you can still see a coffin stone on which the coffin was placed while the parishioners rested.

Many of the corpse roads are now long gone, but there are clues in the names of footpaths and fields. Fields crossed by church-way paths often had names like "Church-way" or "Kirk-way Field". 

Where I was walking the coffin had to be carried up the side of a limestone rock face known locally as 'the Fairy Steps' because there was no burial ground in Arnside and the coffin had to be carried over the marshes to nearby Beetham.

The coffins were hoisted over the limestone cliffs using metal rings embedded in the rock. In 1866, the church at Arnside was consecrated, and the walk between Arnside and Beetham was no longer necessary.

St Michael's Church, Beetham

I'll digress a little to show you a few pictures of Beetham church, which is a beautiful historic building dating back to Saxon times, with these lovely medieval-style carvings above the door.

The church was also besieged by Parliamentarians in the Civil War in 1647, where local landowners tombs were desecrated by having the heads removed from the statues.

Desecrated tombs

Stained glass window dedicated to Charles I
Beetham Church

But to return to corpse roads - There was much superstition associated with the coffin route. For example, the feet of the corpse had to be be kept pointing away from the family home on its journey to the cemetery, to prevent the deceased wanting to walk back home.

To prevent the dead returning, the route often went over bridges or stepping stones across running water which it was believed spirits would not be able to cross. Sometimes it led over stiles or through various other hazardous locations, such as The Fairy Steps. This was supposed to deter the ghosts from wandering. Ghosts and spirits were an accepted part of everyday life right up until the 20th century. 

The corpse light, the supposed soul of the dead, was supposed to linger on these roads, and there were many accounts of people seeing them.

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Deborah Swift is the author of several historical novels.  To read more about her, please visit her website  www.deborahswift.blogspot.com

And to find out more about her books:
The Lady's Slipper
The Gilded Lily
A Divided Inheritance (Oct 2013)