Forgotten Ground Regained
Rædwald's Return
“Perhaps the best known supernatural story about Sutton Hoo is Edith Pretty’s claim that she saw an armed warrior standing on top of Mound 1 long before the excavation took place”
Originally published in Withowinde 138, p. 7, Winter, 2005
After his reign and rule were done, Rædwald the kingWas buried in the bosom of a ship, long and broad.His treasures and toys, quite a trove, went with himIn his hill on the heath; and here he waited.Winters passed, some of weal, some of woe; the world changed.For his distant descendants there dawned a new ageOf men whose minds would seek the majestyOf fathers half-forgotten in a far-off past.Then Rædwald rose from his mound. He reached out his spirit,Called his companions, king’s thanes laid near him:“Come look on the light of the world again, and let us be seen.”“To be plundered and pillaged? To have pilferedWhat’s left after looting long sinceOf much of our gold – goods forever gone?“Our rust and our rotting rags?” replied the king.“Come, cave-ins have crushed the craft-work of old;winters have worn away what has not dissolved.Decay of costly things cannot be cured.But far-flung fame can again be found.So mighty men’s spirits came out from the moundsAnd were seen by the seekers of unworldly sooth.So to delve in the dust modern diggers began, and in that ground the great rich grave was found,and Rædwald’s name was known again, and near and farmen marveled at his majesty. His memory lives.
Copyright © Karen M.P. Crlson, 2005
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