Sutton Hoo Topics

• Museum
• Helmet
• Shield
• Treasure
• England
• Suffolk

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Sutton Hoo, Sutton Hoo

The word "hoo" means "spur of a hill." About 7 miles (11 km) from the sea, it overlooks the inland waters of the tidal estuary a little below the lowest convenient fording place. Of the two gravefields found here, one ('the Sutton Hoo cemetery') has always been known to exist because it consists of a group of around 20 earthen burial mounds which rise slightly above the horizon of the hill-spur when viewed from the opposite bank. A full description of the locality and environment can be found in Bruce-Mitford 1975, 1–98.

A ship (probably a smaller version of the Snape or Sutton Hoo Mound 1 type) was then placed over it, aligned east and west, before a large earth mound was raised above the whole. Carver 1998, 75–81, 116–121.

The Sutton Hoo tubs and buckets are described by K. East in Bruce-Mitford 1983 (II), 554–596.

On present evidence, this magnificent funeral appears to have been the final occasion upon which the Sutton Hoo cemetery was used for its original purpose.

It opens with the funeral of a king in a ship laden with treasure, and has other descriptions of hoards including Beowulf's own mound-burial. Its picture of warrior life in the Hall of the Danish Scylding clan, with formal mead-drinking, minstrel recitation to the lyre and the rewarding of valour with gifts, and the description of a helmet, could all be illustrated from the Sutton Hoo finds. The interpretation of each has a bearing on the other. Newton 1993.

However, the real eastern Swedish connections of the Sutton Hoo material reinforce this link. Bruce-Mitford 1974, 35–55.

The rather earlier mound-burials (without ships) at Old Uppsala, in the same region, have a more direct bearing on the Beowulf story and date-horizon. The Sutton Hoo and the Swedish burials are earlier than the famous Gokstad and Oseberg ship-burials., directly comparable to the Sutton Hoo shield. The inclusion of drinking-horns, lyre, sword and shield, bronze and glass vessels is not untypical of high-status 6th or early 7th century chamber-graves in England. E.g. Taplow, Broomfield or Prittlewell The selection and arrangement of goods in these graves shows a widespread conformity of household possessions and funeral custom among these wealthy people. The Sutton Hoo ship-burial is a uniquely-elaborated version of the ritual, of exceptional quality, with the addition of the regalia and instruments of power, and with Scandinavian connections more direct than the general overlap between English and north continental art of the period. helmet, at the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities. A possible explanation for these Swedish connections lies in the well-attested northern custom by which the children of leading men were often brought up not at home, but by some distinguished friend or relative. du Chaillu 1889, II, 42-46.

It is a parallel expression of the formation of English and Insular cultural identity, and the dissemination of royal values. That is part of the fascination of Sutton Hoo.

Source: Wikipedia > Sutton Hoo