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""Chapter VI: Who Was He?""

CHAPTER VI 
WHO WAS HE?

THE identity of the person for whom the Sutton Hoo ship and its treasures were buried is a controversial question which cannot be discussed at length here. The suggestion that the cenotaph is that of the East Anglian King Aethelhere and that the Sutton Hoo ship was burried at the end of the year A.D. 655 or early in 656 is now put forward merely as an indication of present opinion. 
An independent and more leisured examination of the coins found in the purse carried out in 1946 by Mr. John Allan, Keeper of Coins and Medals in the Museum, reinforces the numismatist's view of the date of the burial put forward in 1939 by Mr. Derek Allen. In Mr. Allan's view 'we are certainly on the safe side if we say that the hoard (of coins) was put together after 650, but I have little doubt the date is nearer A.D. 670'1 If the coins came together in the Sutton Hoo purse after 650, the burial must also be after that date. 
In favour of the suggestion that the cenotaph is Aethelhere's the following points may be made. As Professor Chadwick pointed out in 1940 2 he seems to be the only possible candidate amongst the East Anglian kings at so late a date. He was evidently a person of consequence who, although he only reigned one year, showed himself a man of policy and personality and left a mark in the pages of Bede. 3 In spite of clear traces of Christianity amongst the grave goods 4 which is only to be expected at a date so late in the seventh century, 5 there can be little doubt that Sutton Hoo is a pagan burial. It is wholeheartedly, perhaps ostentatiously so. Aethelhere was very probably a pagan. He allied himself actively 6 witch the pagan King of Merica 7 Penda, who had killed his Christian brother and two other 

1. In a paper read before the Society of Antiquaries, January 1946. Mr Allan has identified a coin of the Merobingian King Dagobert I (A.D 628-38) amongst the Sutton Hoo coins. This coin alone rules out the possibility that the cenotaph commemorates Redwald, who died before A.D. 626 Others of the coins bear degraded versions of innovations in currency design introduced after A.D. 60 by the Frankish goldsmith and mint master Eligius, an important seventh-century figure who became a bishop and was later canonized. 
2. See his study of this question in Antiquity, vol, xiv, 1940 pp.56 ff. 3. Bk. III Ch. xxiv
4. See Chapter VII, Apart from various evidences in the silver, the fish in the hanging bowl seems likely to have been placed there as a Christian symbol. 
5. At least three of the East Anglian kings that preceded Aethelmere were Christians (Bede, III, xviii) 
6. Aethelhere... auctor ipse belli (Bede, loc, cit) 
7. The kingdom established by that section of the invading Saxons known as the "Middle Angles" and comprising roughly the modern midland area. 

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CHAPTER VI WHO WAS HE? THE identity of the person for whom the Sutton Hoo ship and its treasures were buried is a controversial question which cannot be discussed at length here. The suggestion that the cenotaph is that of the East Anglian King Aethelhere and that the Sutton Hoo ship was burried at the end of the year A.D. 655 or early in 656 is now put forward merely as an indication of present opinion. An independent and more leisured examination of the coins found in the purse carried out in 1946 by Mr. John Allan, Keeper of Coins and Medals in the Museum, reinforces the numismatist's view of the date of the burial put forward in 1939 by Mr. Derek Allen. In Mr. Allan's view 'we are certainly on the safe side if we say that the hoard (of coins) was put together after 650, but I have little doubt the date is nearer A.D. 670'1 If the coins came together in the Sutton Hoo purse after 650, the burial must also be after that date. In favour of the suggestion that the cenotaph is Aethelhere's the following points may be made. As Professor Chadwick pointed out in 1940 2 he seems to be the only possible candidate amongst the East Anglian kings at so late a date. He was evidently a person of consequence who, although he only reigned one year, showed himself a man of policy and personality and left a mark in the pages of Bede. 3 In spite of clear traces of Christianity amongst the grave goods 4 which is only to be expected at a date so late in the seventh century, 5 there can be little doubt that Sutton Hoo is a pagan burial. It is wholeheartedly, perhaps ostentatiously so. Aethelhere was very probably a pagan. He allied himself actively 6 witch the pagan King of Merica 7 Penda, who had killed his Christian brother and two other 1. In a paper read before the Society of Antiquaries, January 1946. Mr Allan has identified a coin of the Merobingian King Dagobert I (A.D 628-38) amongst the Sutton Hoo coins. This coin alone rules out the possibility that the cenotaph commemorates Redwald, who died before A.D. 626 Others of the coins bear degraded versions of innovations in currency design introduced after A.D. 60 by the Frankish goldsmith and mint master Eligius, an important seventh-century figure who became a bishop and was later canonized. 2. See his study of this question in Antiquity, vol, xiv, 1940 pp.56 ff. 3. Bk. III Ch. xxiv 4. See Chapter VII, Apart from various evidences in the silver, the fish in the hanging bowl seems likely to have been placed there as a Christian symbol. 5. At least three of the East Anglian kings that preceded Aethelmere were Christians (Bede, III, xviii) 6. Aethelhere... auctor ipse belli (Bede, loc, cit) 7. The kingdom established by that section of the invading Saxons known as the "Middle Angles" and comprising roughly the modern midland area. 42