Beowulf's Anglo-Saxon Burial

The early middle ages began approximately around 400 AD, after the fall of Roman Empire. Germanic and Norse tribes, called Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisian began to take over, bringing their Anglo-Saxon traditions and almost ending Christianity. Anglo-Saxon traditions brought the rise of feudalism, an arrangement in which a king offered land to noblemen in exchange for protection and the noblemen offered protection to the peasant in return for living and working on such land (Annenberg Foundation). Paganism – the worship of many gods and stories such as Beowulf, replaced Christianity. One of the oldest epic poems, Beowulf, a young hero, comes to the aid of a community in crisis, monsters are killing the townsfolk and the head monster, Grendel

The Anglo-Saxons were a combination of the Angles and Saxon tribes and were the primary tribes in battle as they welcomed fighting however, outside of battles many were skilled at hunting, farming or leather working while the women of the tribes made clothing, baskets and most likely tended to the home. The men were big in stature, more than likely fair haired, and carried swords, round shields and used helmets to protect their heads and face (Barrow). One of the various items found during the excavating of the site is a helmet, only one of four have been recovered, making this helmet incredibly rare. When the helmet was found it was in pieces, archeologist carefully dug up all the pieces and conservators went to work restoring the helmet. The helmet was made of iron and tinned copper alloy panels the panels were decorated with the traditional animals and also had scenes of gallant soldiers. The crest shows a snake with two heads and on the panels one of the events shown portrays “a mounted warrior trampling a fallen enemy, who in turn stabs the horse” (The Bristish Museum). The face part of the mask is said to be extraordinary showing all parts of the face down to a moustache and small holes for the warrior to breath. The amount of detail the helmet portrayed is remarkable, down to the detailing of the brows above the warrior eyes which used the copper alloy veneered with wire made of silver and small red jewels. This discovery shows the effort each warrior put into surviving and the beliefs of the Anglo-Saxon