Analysis

      The Sutton Hoo burial is interesting because it is very similar to the burial mentioned in the Old English poem Beowulf. In the poem, there is a description of the burial of Scyld Scefing, who is an ancestor of the Danish royal family. Scyld was laid to rest in a boat filled with his treasures. This, along with the Sutton Hoo Burial, shows us that the tradition was to lay the dead in ships, and bury them with their treasures which would accompany them into the afterlife. This leads us to believe that the traditions and ideas during that time were those of a similar world.

      The gold belt buckle illuminates the passage because it is made with gold, an element that symbolizes wealth. It includes serpentine, dragon-like designs engraved into it. In Beowulf, the dragon is known to guard mounds of golden treasure in its mountain lair as it states in the passage:

Line 2302 - The golden treasures. The guardian of the mound

Line 2323 - In the vaults of his burrow

      The passage and object both illuminate each other as they show how dragons were a part of the medieval European culture. They were seen as ominous creatures who would lay waste and destruction to everything when disturbed. Some tales recount dragons as being guardians of great treasures, such as the example from Beowulf. Based on the evidence from the Sutton Hoo Ship Burial, we know that there were people (maybe dragons exactly) who had lots of great treasure that was intricately designed. From pattern-welded swords to garnet cloisonné, some of these rare objects were buried with their owners to help them with their travel into the afterlife.

      To this day, the person laid to rest in the Sutton Hoo Burial remains unknown, but it must have been someone very wealthy such as a king. Perhaps Beowulf did exist, and it is he who was buried here and the gold belt buckle is one of the pieces of treasure he retrieved (from the dragon’s lair) ... We will never know.