Editing Sutton Hoo (section)

=== Similarities with Swedish burials ===

{{multiple image|perrow = 2|total_width=400
| image1 = Swedish shield from Vendel (946).jpg
| image2 = Vendel I helmet.jpg
| footer = ''left'': A Swedish shield from Vendel; ''right'' A helmet from the 7th century ship-burial at Vendel.
}}

The strong similarities in both the armour and the burial with [[Vendel Period]] finds from Sweden have suggested a [[Sweden|Swedish]] cultural influence at Sutton Hoo.

A series of excavations in 1881–83 by [[Hjalmar Stolpe]] revealed 14 graves in the village of [[Vendel]] in eastern Sweden.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NbfRAAAAMAAJ&q=Hjalmar+Stolpe+vendel+1882 |title=Report upon the condition and progress of the U.S. National Museum |author=United States National Museum |page=606 |publisher=G.P.O. |year=1892 |access-date=8 October 2010 }}</ref> Several of the burials were contained in boats up to {{convert|9|m}} long and were furnished with swords, shields, helmets and other items.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gWYhnTuI2NoC&q=vendel+burial+items&pg=PA47 |title=The Scandinavians from the Vendel period to the tenth century |author=Judith Jesch |page=47 |publisher=Boydell Press |year=2002 |isbn=0851158676 |access-date=8 October 2010 |archive-date=28 July 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240728070220/https://books.google.com/books?id=gWYhnTuI2NoC&q=vendel+burial+items&pg=PA47#v=snippet&q=vendel%20burial%20items&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> Beginning in 1928, another gravefield containing princely burials was excavated at Valsgärde.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SaFdpGdjvtoC&q=Valsg%C3%A4rde+discovery&pg=PA291 |title=A Beowulf Handbook |author=Robert E. Bjork, John D. Niles |page=291 |publisher=U of Nebraska Press |year=1998 |isbn=0803261500 |access-date=8 October 2010 |archive-date=28 July 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240728070220/https://books.google.com/books?id=SaFdpGdjvtoC&q=Valsg%C3%A4rde+discovery&pg=PA291#v=snippet&q=Valsg%C3%A4rde%20discovery&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> The pagan custom of furnished burial may have reached a natural culmination as Christianity began to make its mark.{{sfn|Bruce-Mitford|1974|pp=17–35}}

The Vendel and Valsgärde graves also included ships, similar artefact groups, and many [[blót|sacrificed animals]].{{sfn|Arrhenius|1983}} Ship-burials for this period are largely confined to eastern Sweden and East Anglia. The earlier mound-burials at Old Uppsala, in the same region, have a more direct bearing on the ''Beowulf'' story, but do not contain ship-burials. The famous [[Gokstad]] and [[Oseberg]] ship-burials of [[Norway]] are of a later date.

The inclusion of drinking-horns, lyre, sword and shield, bronze and glass vessels is typical of high-status chamber-graves in England.<ref>E.g. Taplow, Broomfield or Prittlewell</ref> The similar selection and arrangement of the goods in these graves indicates a conformity of household possessions and funeral customs between people of this status, with the Sutton Hoo ship-burial being a uniquely elaborated version, of exceptional quality. Unusually, Sutton Hoo included regalia and instruments of power and had direct Scandinavian connections.<ref name="du Chaillu 1889, II, 42–46">du Chaillu 1889, II, 42–46.</ref>{{Dubious|du Chaillu|date=December 2021}}

A possible explanation for such connections lies in the well-attested northern custom by which the children of leading men were often raised away from home by a distinguished friend or relative.<ref name="du Chaillu 1889, II, 42–46"/> A future East Anglian king, whilst being fostered in Sweden, could have acquired high-quality objects and made contact with armourers, before returning to East Anglia to rule.

Carver argues that pagan East Anglian rulers would have responded to the growing encroachment of Roman Christendom by employing ever more elaborate cremation rituals, so expressing defiance and independence. The execution victims, if not sacrificed for the ship-burial, perhaps suffered for their dissent from the cult of Christian royalty:{{sfn|Carver|1998|pp=137–143}} their executions may coincide in date with the period of [[Mercia]]n hegemony over East Anglia in about 760–825.{{sfn|Plunkett|2005|p=173}}

The parallels with the Swedish burials has led some historians, such as Rupert Bruce-Mitford to put forward a Scandinavian origin for the [[Wuffingas]] dynasty,<ref>Bruce-Mitford, ''Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology: Sutton Hoo and other discoveries'', p. 57</ref> although the significant differences, and lack of exact parallels with the workmanship and style of the Sutton Hoo artefacts means the connection is generally regarded as unproven.<ref>Stenton, ''Anglo-Saxon England'', p. 34</ref><ref>Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England'', p. 61</ref>