An Introduction to the Life and Times of
King Rædwald

with Dr Sam Newton

at Tranmer House, Sutton Hoo (map)
on Saturday, 30th January 2010

Who was the great king who lay in state aboard the treasure-laden longship berthed beneath Mound One at Sutton Hoo? The East Anglian king Rædwald is thought by many to have been the most likely and we shall spend the day exploring what can be ascertained about Rædwald in the context of the history of the early seventh century. Of great interest are his apparent military and political achievements, for he can be seen to have been the first English overlord of all Britain. We shall also assess the part he plays in the coming of Christianity to England and the possibility that he may have been a more central figure than has been previously acknowledged.

Sam Newton was awarded his Ph.D at UEA in 1991 and is the author of The Origins of Beowulf and the pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia (1993), and The Reckoning of King Rædwald, (2003). He has lectured widely around the country and has contributed to many radio and television programmes, most recently Michael Wood on Beowulf, shown on BBC4. He is also a Director of Wuffing Education, NADFAS lecturer, and Time Team historian.

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Bruce-Mitford, R., Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology (Gollancz 1974)
Chadwick, H.M., “The Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial: Who Was He?”, Antiquity, 14 (1940), pp.76-87
Chaney, W.A., The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England (Manchester 1970)
Evans, A., The Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial (British Museum 1986)
Heaney, Seamus (tr.) Beowulf: An Illustrated Edition, ed. J.Niles (Norton 2007)
Higham, N., An English Empire: Bede and the Early Anglo-Saxon Kings (Manchester 1995)
Higham, N., The Convert Kings: Power and Religious Affiliation in Early Anglo-Saxon England (Manchester 1997)
Hines, J. (ed.), The Anglo-Saxons from the Migration Period to the Eighth Century: An Ethnographic Perspective (Boydell 2003)
Keynes, S., “Rædwald the Bretwalda”, in Voyage to the Other World: The Legacy of Sutton Hoo, ed. C.Kendall & P.Wells (Minneapolis 1992), pp.103-123
Kirby, D.P., The Earliest English Kings (London 1991)
Mayr-Harting, H., The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford 1977)
McClure, J. & R.Collins, (eds.), Bede: the Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Oxford 1999)
Newton, S. The Origins of Beowulf and the pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia (Brewer 1993, 2004)
Newton, S., The Reckoning of King Rædwald: The Story of the King linked to the Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial (Redbird 2003)
Plunkett, S.J., Suffolk in Anglo-Saxon Times (Tempus 2005)
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Scarfe, N., Suffolk in the Middle Ages (Boydell 1986)
Swanton, M., The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Dent 1996; Phoenix 2000)
Warner, P., The Origins of Suffolk (Manchester 1996)
Webster, L., & J.Backhouse, The Making of England: Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture AD 600-900 (British Museum 1991)

Bookings

Please phone or email to check the availability of places.  This Study Days are £38 per person, which includes a full day of lectures, access to the NT site, parking, coffee and tea throughout the day, and access to the NT exhibition.  Once you have reserved your place please send a cheque to confirm the booking. For your first booking please complete the application form to ensure that we have recorded your contact details correctly.

Wuffing Education,
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Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 4DX
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