Ædwen's brooch (also known as ''Sutton brooch'', British Museum 1951,10-11,1) is an early 11th-century

Anglo-Scandinavian Anglo-Scandinavian is an academic term referring to the hybridisation between Norse and Anglo-Saxon cultures in Britain during the early medieval period. It remains a term and concept often used by historians and archaeologists, and in linguistic ...

silver

disc brooch A disc fibula or disc brooch is a type of fibula, that is, a brooch, clip or pin used to fasten clothing that has a disc-shaped, often richly decorated plate or disc covering the fastener. The terms are mostly used in relation to the Middle Ages ...

with an inscription on the reverse side. It was discovered in 1694 during the ploughing of a field in

Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a location * Sutton-in-the-Isle, Ely, Cambridgeshire * S ...

Isle of Ely The Isle of Ely () is a historic region around the city of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England. Between 1889 and 1965, it formed an administrative county. Etymology Its name has been said to mean "island of eels", a reference to the creatures tha ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

, along with a hoard including coins and gold rings. The brooch was re-discovered in a private collection in 1951 and bought by the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...

. The

Anglo-Saxon brooch Anglo-Saxon brooches are a large group of decorative brooches found in England from the fifth to the eleventh centuries. In the early Anglo-Saxon era, there were two main categories of brooch: the long (bow) brooch and the circular ( disc) brooc ...

is decorated with nine conical silver bosses (one now missing) and an engraved pattern of four overlapping circles forming flower-like motifs. In the circles are representations of different animals and plant ornaments reminiscent of the Ringerike style. The inscription on the obverse side is a

curse A curse (also called an imprecation, malediction, execration, malison, anathema, or commination) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, ...

against those who would take the brooch from its rightful owner, Ædwen (Æduwen): :''+ ÆDVǷEN ME AG AGE HYO DRIHTEN / DRIHTEN HINE AǷERIE ÐE ME HIRE ÆTFERIE / BVTON HYO ME SELLE HIRE AGENES ǷILLES'' :"Ædwen owns me, may the Lord own her. May the Lord curse him who takes me from her, unless she gives me of her own free will." A short film has been made that shows the curse spoken by Ædwen in Old English and modern English. In addition, on the strip which once held the pin and catchplate, is an inscription of seven

pseudo-runic Pseudo-runes are letters that look like Germanic runes but are not true ancient runes. The term is mostly used of incised characters that are intended to imitate runes. Pseudo-runes in this sense are difficult to distinguish from cipher runes, whic ...

characters.

References

*R.I. Page, ''An introduction to English runes'', 1973 (2nd ed. 1999) *D.M. Wilson, ''Anglo-Saxon ornamental metalwork 700–1000 in the British Museum'' The British Museum Press, 1964. * R.L.S. Bruce-Mitford, 'Late Saxon disc-brooches' in ''Dark-Age Britain'', London, Methuen, 1956, pp. 171–201. *Catherine E. Karkov, ''The Art of Anglo-Saxon England'', Boydell studies in medieval art and architecture, 2011
p. 158

External links

Ædwen's Brooch film and interactive games
the curse spoken in Old English and modern English
Sutton Silver Ædwen BroochSilver disc brooch of Ædwen (britishmuseum.org)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aedwen's brooch Anglo-Saxon art Medieval European objects in the British Museum Medieval European metalwork objects Individual brooches Silver objects 11th-century artifacts