Saxon Shore 9

 

Heavy, garnet crusted, brows become the wings of a fantastical war-bird ; as I stare into the inscrutable pagan ‘face.’ My gaze is returned by dark pools of shadow. The blunt noseguard resolves into a scarab-like body. The stylised moustache metamorphoses into a fanned tail. Jaws agape, this terrible creature soars to attack a snarling serpent. Head of gold. Jewelled eyes aflame. With sinuous iron torso, the snake forms the helm's, sword deflecting, crest. 

Germanic wolf warriors gyrate. Mounted spearmen trample fallen foes. Twining beasts tumble across shimmering repousse surfaces. Tusked boars spring from the tips of the brow-wings. Thus, the epic poem of Beowulf reveals, rendering this helmet impenetrable in battle.  

Discovered during the Sutton Hoo boat burial excavation. Most famous among the grave goods, of the Saxon King Raedwald . An unambiguous personification of power ; the helmet's true purpose remains enigmatic . Ceremonial splendour, the ultimate battlefield armour, an accompaniment to the afterlife ; or all three? Perhaps, one thousand five hundred years ago, the divides, between these realms, were more blurred. 

Much clearer is the imprint, left by the centrepiece ship's timbers. Their sinews long since subsumed by the soft damp of the Suffolk loam . Leaving only the original iron fastenings in situ.

Stamped into the soil is the shapely form, of a slender clinker built craft, twenty seven metres (ninety feet) long. Reminiscent of the Oseberg (pictured) and Gokstad ships, excavated intact, from eponymous ninth century royal barrows, in Norway. 

However the interment, of King Raedwald, predates those, of the two Norwegians, by fully two centuries. It's only known contemporaries lie in eastern Sweden. At Vendel and Valsgarde. Where the designs, of both ship and grave goods, are strikingly similar to those of Sutton Hoo. (Vendel helmet pictured). Raising the intriguing possibility of a seaborne link, between the eastern coasts of England and Sweden, during the seventh century.

Today, the Sutton Hoo treasures no longer lie looking across the river Deben, toward Woodbridge and its Tide Mill. Instead they pose their riddles from the British Museum, in central London. Where I am presenting documentation, to the French Consulate General, in pursuit of a crisp clear Visa, in my passport. The desk officer's expression is as inscrutable as that of King Raedwald’s helmet, when I pass her the painstakingly assembled sheaf of papers. Only time will tell if my application has been successful.

Picture Credits:

1. Sutton Hoo helmet original              British Museum

2. Sutton Hoo helmet reconstruction   Tom Milkins

3. Sutton Hoo excavation                     British Museum

4. Oseberg ship                                    Getty images

5. Vendel helmet                                   Mararie