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Truth Burial In Beowulf

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In the year 1939 in the community of Sutton Hoo near Suffolk, England a discovery of massive proportion took place. The magnitude of this archeological find was described in a local news article, “For the first thousand years of the Christian era the little island of Britain was overrun by hordes of men who rose up out of the sea. In the Fifth Century came the Angles, from somewhere on the bleak coast of the Baltic. Ships brought them, and when their kings died they were buried in ships with their bows pointing toward the sea.” This discovery answered many of the questions left by the story Beowulf, a document once cast of as a transcribed lore. Modern day archeological discoveries prove that Beowulf is a story founded in truth.
That truth …show more content…

That fact is no different during the Anglo-Saxon period in England. For centuries there had been a great deal of controversy as to the accuracy of the burial depicted in Beowulf. In the novel it is described as “A huge heap of wood… ready, Hung around with helmets, and battle Shields, and shinning mail shirts, all As Beowulf had asked” (Beowulf 3136-3140). This except describes the pyre that the body of Beowulf was cremated on while being surrounded by objects that highlighted his position. Another excerpt describes the final location that they rested his remains in. “For ten long days they made his monument, Sealed his ashes in walls…And the riches he and Wiglaf Had won from the dragon, rings, necklaces, Ancient, hammered armor-all… silver jewels buried in the sandy ground”(Beowulf 3159-3167). The vastness of the riches that Beowulf was cremated and buried with is what has caught the eye of readers and historians for years. For a great period of time historians believed that it was infeasible to have Anglo-Saxons bury such a vast amount of wealth with the dead. That was until Sutton Hoo and as Rosemary Cramp states, “Nevertheless the archaeologist wishes to know how far this poetic evidence can be trusted: the rich gold treasure from Sutton Hoo brought the immediate recognition that descriptions of lavish burials and gold-adorned armor in Beowulf could no longer …show more content…

For example in Beowulf there is described a helmet that Hrothgar bestows on to Beowulf. “To fight. Hrothgar’s helmet would defend him; That ancient, shinning treasure, encircled With hard-rolled metal, set there by some smith’s Long-dead hand”(Beowulf 1448-1451) This description of the helmet brings forth images of a similar one found on the burial ship of Sutton Hoo as described by the British Museum, “ The helmet was made of iron and probably weighed about 2.5kg” The metal was polished and was decorated with pictures of warriors and powerful animals. Another example of the similarities between objects from Sutton Hoo and Beowulf is a sword “Hrothgar’s courtier Lent him a famous weapon, a fine, Hilted old sword named Hrunting; it had an iron blade, etched and shining” (Beowulf 1455-1458). This description is almost identical to the description of the sword found at Sutton Hoo as described the University of Chicago, “The hilt of the sword has a beautiful gold and cloisonné garnet pommel and gold guards. The iron blade is heavily corroded but was pattern-welded, made from eight bundles of thin iron rods hammered together to form a pattern of parallel or herringbone lines in the metal. To this core, a cutting edge of carbon steel then was forged.” The images produced by the descriptions of actual artifacts and the descriptions of objects from Beowulf are

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