These are surely here to symbolise more than just the artistic skills of their creator. It could be that such birds embodied courage and strength, and the man who wore and carried these possessions into battle was deemed to inherit such virtues. A bird that does have connections to war and battle is the raven, a bird that was possibly sacred to the Anglo-Saxon god Woden. In Old English literature ravens are described as being waelceasig, which along with the similar Old English word Waelcyrge, mean choosers of the slain. These two |
can be found upon the Sutton Hoo shield, again this is a design that seems to show a bird of prey proudly bearing it's vicious beak and tallons, but this time we find it alongside the design of a fierce looking dragon. But why would bird designs be found upon objects such as a helmet and shield?, these objects of course being instruments of war. |
Birds |
The symbolism and importance of the bird, and bird like designs, is very common amongst the Anglo-Saxons, and have been preserved in both literary and physical examples. The Sutton Hoo ship burial, with it's ancient treasure hoard, is full to bursting with such surviving physical examples of the symbolic nature of birds. We can start with the most famous find within the burial, that of the helmet. This spectacular find at first glance may not seem to reveal any form of bird design at all, but on closer inspection of the mask, a bird like design is clear to see. The bird |
itself is skilfully comprised of the face-like physical features of the helmets face mask. The body of the bird is that of the masks nose, it's tail is comprised of the moustache and mouth, whilst the masks eyebrows make up the birds wings. And just above the centre of the wings can be found the head of the bird, which seems to be 'kissing' a serpent that runs over the top of the helmet from front to back. This whole bird design, as-well as being very decorative, is extremely imaginative, a testament to the |
imagination and skill of our Heathen forefathers, and to the symbolism of the bird. The Sutton Hoo ship burial gives us several more examples too. Another of the artefacts found was the lid of a purse, a beautiful symmetrical designed piece, that would have more than likely held the money of the deceased King. The design shows two birds, one small and one large, with the larger one with it's long pointed beak seemingly being a bird of prey attacking the smaller one. Whilst the other example |
To show the bird design on it's own, put your cursor over the face mask. |
can be found upon the Sutton Hoo shield, again this is a design that seems to show a bird of prey proudly bearing it's vicious beak and tallons, but this time we find it alongside the design of a fierce looking dragon. But why would bird designs be found upon objects such as a helmet and shield?, these objects of course being instruments of war. |
These are surely here to symbolise more than just the artistic skills of their creator. It could be that such birds embodied courage and strength, and the man who wore and carried these possessions into battle was deemed to inherit such virtues. A bird that does have connections to war and battle is the raven, a bird that was possibly sacred to the Anglo-Saxon god Woden. In Old English literature ravens are described as being waelceasig, which along with the similar Old English word Waelcyrge, mean choosers of the slain. These two |
words have the same meaning as the Norse Valkyrie, female spirits from Norse myth, who help in battle and take slain warriors to Valhalla. So with this connection between the raven and war, and the Old English waelceasig/Waelcyrge to the Norse Valkyrie, it could be that at one time, if ravens were seen scavenging upon the battle field, the |
Anglo-Saxons believed them to actually be choosing the slain, taking the souls of the dead to the afterlife, and therefore called them Waelcyrges. Or alternatively, it could be that the belief in female spirits called Waelcyrges amongst the Anglo-Saxons stemmed from observances of ravens, again, upon the battle field. Whether seen as powerful and courages creatures, or just as beautiful artistic designs, the bird and it's representation in artistic symbolism, was great amongst the Anglo-Saxons, and played a significant role in their Heathen religion. |
This page was last
updated on: July 22,
2003
