World Archaeology

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A fear of the past: The place of the prehistoric

burial mound in the ideology of middle and later
AngloSaxon England

Sarah Semple

To cite this article: Sarah Semple (1998) A fear of the past: The place of the prehistoric burial
mound in the ideology of middle and later AngloSaxon England, World Archaeology, 30:1,
109-126, DOI: 10.1080/00438243.1998.9980400

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00438243.1998.9980400

Published online: 15 Jul 2010.

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A fear of the past: the place of the
prehistoric burial mound in the
ideology of middle and later
Anglo-Saxon England

Sarah Semple

Abstract

Archaeological investigation is revealing a consistent tradition of Anglo-Saxon secondary activity,

occurring at Bronze Age burial mounds and Neolithic long barrows. Through a discussion of
archaeological, historical, literary and linguistic sources relating to barrows and other types of pre-
historic monument, this paper seeks to illustrate the distinctive place of the barrow in Anglo-Saxon
society and ideology. It is intended to demonstrate that the written material of the period contains
vital evidence of the Anglo-Saxon peoples' perception of their surrounding landscape.

Keywords

Anglo-Saxon; prehistoric barrow; documentary sources; pagan; Christian; landscape perception.

The ravager of the night,

the burner who has sought out barrows from old,
then found this hoard of undefended joy.
The smooth evil dragon swims through the gloom
enfolded in flame; the folk of this country
hold him in dread. He is doomed to seek out
hoards in the ground, and guard for an age there
the heathen gold: much good does it do him!
(Alexander 1987:122-3)
This passage, introducing the final struggle in the eighth-century epic Beowulf, depicts two
essential parts of the ideology of middle Anglo-Saxon England: the terror of the dragon
and the prehistoric barrow as the dragon's home. It forms a descriptive link between the
spiritual imagination and superstitious reaction to physical elements of the surrounding
landscape. The sequence in the poem, Beowulf, beginning with the description of the

World Archaeology Vol. 30(1): 109-126 The Past in the Past

Routledge 1998 0043-8243
110 Sarah Semple

burial of the warrior with his treasure, in a barrow in ancient times, the theft of the cup,
the wrath of the dragon, its subsequent attack on Beowulf and the fight to the death, form
a magnificent tale and incidentally provide a detailed insight into the Anglo-Saxon under-
standing of the barrow as a landscape feature. The dwelling of the dragon, the stan-beorh,
stone barrow, is referred to as an eordsele, earth structure, and eordscrafa, earth cave, with
stan bogan or stone bows inside (Zupitza 1882:102, In. 2213,117, In. 2515,119, hi. 2545,
139, In. 3046). These terms are strongly indicative of a stone-chambered long barrow
(Keiller and Piggott 1939: 360-1), and this is indeed believed to be the meaning of the
term in Beowulf (Leslie 1988: 55-6).
Maxims II (Cotton Tiberius B i, fol.H5a-b) presents general beliefs regarding the order
of natural things including the expectation of both a dragon and treasure in a mound, "The
dragon belongs in its barrow (hlcew), canny and jealous of its jewels' (Bradley 1995:
513-14, his. 26-7). Several place-names appear to refer to this superstition, such as
Drakelow (DRB), Dracan hlawen 942 BCS 772 (Ekwall 1960: 150), Drakelow (WOR)
and Drake Howe (YON) (Grinsell 1976: 70).
With the identification of the dragon's dwelling as a prehistoric barrow, the description
of the beast using adjectives such as 'evil', 'a ravager' and a 'waster of peoples', begins to
establish how this landscape feature was regarded. The creator of Beowulf, as an ambas-
sador of his culture, had an understanding that mounds were raised for burial, and an
expectation that they would contain treasure. A clear indication is given that the barrow
was not entered by ordinary people, 'Men did not know the way underground to it'
(Alexander 1987:120). Only the dragon, consistently represented as a symbol of death,
evil and greed, dares to make it his home. The one human who does enter is a slave and
significantly, an outcast,

The nameless slave

of one of the warriors, wanting shelter
on the run from aflogging,had felt his way inside,
a sin-tormented soul.
(ibid: 121)
This miserable character, upon entering the barrow and taking the cup, is revealed as a
thief.
A second piece of literature of equal importance is The Wife's Lament, a poem included
in the Exeter Book (c.950-1000), found at the end of a series of riddles. The original title
is unknown, and the passage may even be incomplete. In contrast to Beowulf this text
seems to describe a woman living in a prehistoric barrow, but in agreement with the theme
of the ?eowu//sequence, this woman has been forced to live in the barrow as an exile or
outcast. In a first-person narrative, the woman laments the loss of her lord and her situ-
ation and she describes herself as a friendless exile, forced to live in isolation,

I was bidden to dwell among a thicket of trees under an oak tree in this earthen dug-
out (eordscreefe). Ancient is this earthen abode (eordsele) - 1 am quite consumed by
longing - the dales are dark, the hills high, the bastioned towns grievously overgrown
with briars, their habitations void of pleasures.
(Bradley 1995: 382-5)
 A fear of the past 111

The poem is imbued with a feeling of gloom, loneliness and emptiness, and the mention
of the ruins of a fortified place, burgtunas (Gelling 1989:145-8), is indicative of decay and
the passing of time. Her place of confinement and exile is described as both eorpscrafu,
earth cave, and eorpsele, earth structure, words used in Beowulf to describe the dragon's
barrow. The crux of the piece is revealed in the lines:
Frynd sind on eoran,
leofe lifgende leger weardiad
(Leslie 1988: 55-6)
This has been interpreted as the woman's lamentation that other lovers are lying abed
while she remains alone (Kershaw 1922). To take on eoran as 'in earth' (Bradley 1995:
385) alters the sense of the lines: the friends would then appear to be dead and buried.
Support comes from the word leger, which has a consistent association with the sick and
the dead, the grave and the place where the dead lie (Roberts et al. 1995: Vol. II, 1133).
The line may be translated as, 'my friends, loved while they lived, are in earth: possessed
by the grave'. On this basis, the departure of her husband may also be from an earthly
existence. What remains obscure is her part in the tragedy,
they keep their rest while I in the dawning pace alone
under the oak-tree around this earthen dug-out
There I must sit the summer-long day. There I may weep for the ways of my
exile, my many hardships.
A word implied by the language of the poem is 'haunting'. It can be hypothesized that the
woman is not a living exile, but dead. Light is thrown on why she might, in her afterlife,
be confined to a prehistoric mound by emerging evidence of Anglo-Saxon execution sites
and criminal burial grounds located on prehistoric monuments (Reynolds forthcoming).
A significant number of execution cemeteries are focused on both long and round
barrows, and evidence suggests that hanging and decapitation took place at the site
(Reynolds 1997:39). At Walkington Wold (YOE) the flexed burial of a female (38-45 yrs)
was excavated. She was one of fifteen executed criminals interred in the mound and ditch
of a prehistoric barrow (ibid.). Pathological evidence showed she had been decapitated
from behind with an axe or broad-sword. Presumably because of some evil doing, the
female character in The Wife's Lament may have been damned or even executed. She is
tied to the earth as a ghost or spirit, haunting the barrow, perhaps the place of her death
and certainly that of her burial.
Reynolds suggests that the choice of barrows for the interment of criminals, may have
been influenced by the wish for the criminal to be tormented in the afterlife by the evil
spirits which dwelt in the mound (ibid.). Etymological evidence demonstrates that
barrows were not just associated with dragons but also with goblins, elves and Woden
himself (Table 1). It has been suggested that such associations are unlikely to be authen-
tic and in fact are attributable to 'later, imaginative formation', because the names are
attached to monuments which are human artefacts (Hines 1997: 386). In the light of the
source material discussed in this paper, there is evidence for the existence of a perception
of the barrow as the home of supernatural entities, and this therefore provides a context
for the authenticity of these place-names. Even if applied in the later Anglo-Saxon period,
112 Sarah Semple

Table I Place names referring to burial mounds.

Place-name County Early-name form Meaning Reference
Shuckburgh (WAR) Socheberge DB, goblin hill Ekwall 1960:421
scucca beorg haunted hill

Shucklow (BUC) scuccan hlcewe goblin barrow Grinsell 1953:67

Grim's Hoe (NFK) hlw Grim's (Woden's)

barrow

AileyHill (YON) Elueshou, -howe elf barrow Hall and Whyman

1996:65

Adam's Grave (WLT) Wodnes-beorh ASC Woden's barrow Garmonsway 1975:

592. 20-1; Whitelock
1979:158

they concur with the existence of fears associated with prehistoric barrows which date
back to the eighth century and may have a root in pagan practice associated with burial
mounds.
The Anglo-Saxon Lacunga contain a charm for a sudden pain or elf shot, which opens
with the words,
Hlude wceran hy, la, hlude,
dhy of er pone hlw ridan:
wceran anmode,
da hy ofer land ridan.
Loud were they, lo, loud
When over the barrow they rode:
They were of stout mood
When over the land they rode.
(Cockayne 1865: 53)
'They' are revealed later in the charm as the JEsir, the pagan pantheon. This charm sug-
gests that the pagan gods as well as elves and hags are all connected with the barrow.
Further evidence for groups of spirits inhabiting barrows is found in Felix's, Life of
Saint Guthlac (ed. Colgrave 1956) and the later poems Guthlac A &B (Bradley 1995:
248-83). These describe the saint's search for a lonely, unholy and despised place. He
chooses the fens, and a particular island on which is a large burial mound associated with
horrors and fears. The area he selects has been identified with Crowland (LIN) (Stocker
1993), and the place-name is thought to derive from Crug, barrow: it is the barrow land
which particularly appeals to his wish for a self-enforced exile. It is on one side of the
burial mound, in the hollow caused by robbing, that Guthlac builds a house (Swanton
1993: 94). It is unsurprising in the light of the evidence presented so far, that, once
ensconced, he is tormented by terrible demons described as 'evil and wicked spirits', 'evil
murderers' and 'criminal ravagers'. Ellis-Davidson argued that Guthlac's choice of the
 A fear of the past 113

barrow demonstrated the sanctity of the burial mound (1950:176). On the contrary, the
text clearly indicates that he chose a barrow for his 'time in the wilderness' because it
was the most fearful, horrible and haunted place he could find. Guthlac eventually tri-
umphs against the demons and drives them back to hell. All these sources indicate an
Anglo-Saxon belief in the association of barrows with supernatural entities, either singly
or as collective groups. It is interesting to note that Irish folklore includes the belief that
barrows were the home of fairies (Thompson 1955: Vol.iii, 38) and Icelandic folklore
shows a belief that the barrow was the home of dwarves and trolls (ibid.: 109, Vol.iii.
120).
In a short but convincing argument, Bill Griffiths (1996:26-7) suggests the pagan after-
life existed in a 'quasi-physical plane', in the 'ground of the grave' (ibid.: 34). Support for
this argument comes from the Irish law tracts in the late sixth to early seventh centuries,
where riding over a burial mound is used to establish the person's hereditary right to the
land (Charles-Edwards 1976). It is suggested that to undertake this task if an impostor
would be dangerous because those buried in the mound would repel outsiders (ibid.: 86).
This suggests a belief in the afterlife existing in the mound in a ghost-like state. Further-
more the barrow as the abode of the dead is recognized as an Icelandic folk motif (Thomp-
son 1955: 460). These provide a context for Elfric's warnings against witches raising the
dead at heathen burial places and at cross-roads (Meaney 1984: 31). If the pagan spirit
resided in the earth in a limbo existence, it was reachable by powers of sorcery, whereas
the Christian spirit was far removed from the living world after death. The places where
the dead spirits were accessible would be those burial places reserved for the damned -
suicides, criminals and the unbaptized, those in a Christian world who were heathen and
whose resting place was sometimes the barrow. To return to The Wife's Lament, the
endless pacing of this woman within or around the confines of the barrow, and the par-
ticular reference to the fact that she must remain there 'all the summer long day', begin
to make sense as some kind of supernatural exile, a pagan afterlife, or, in a Christian view,
a wretched living death.
Reynolds has noted that 90 per cent of recognized execution sites are on hundred
boundaries (Reynolds forthcoming). The hundred was a system of territorial land division
and judicial administration, functioning in Wessex in the mid-tenth century, but many of
the individual meeting places and territorial units may be much earlier (Loyn 1989:
140-1). In the detailed boundary descriptions attached to later Anglo-Saxon charters,
barrows are commonly used as markers (Grinsell 1991), as are stones and prehistoric
camps (Semple 1997: 16-26). Beowulf contains within its text the spatial topography
understood by an eighth-century mind, and it includes boundaries and barrows. In the
first part of the poem, the young and noble Beowulf despatches two terrible supernatural
creatures; the monster Grendel and his mother. The text states with clarity that both crea-
tures must wait for darkness before they make their attacks, 'With the coming of night
came Grendel also' (Alexander 1987: 54, ln.115).
Gliding through the shadows came
the walker in the night...
(ibid.: 73, ln.703)
The dragon in the second part of the poem, having discovered the theft of the cup,
114 Sarah Semple

waited until evening only with difficulty.

The barrow-keeper was bursting with rage:
his fire would cruelly requite the loss
of the dear drinking vessel.
At last day was gone,
to the worm's delight; he delayed no further
inside his walls
(ibid.: 123-4, Ins 302-9)
Grendel and his mother are also vividly described by Hrothgar as 'haunting the moors',
and treading 'the tracks of exile' (ibid.: 93, Ins 1345-56). Of importance is the description:
Grendel they called this cruel spirit,
the fen and fell his fastness was,
the march his haunt
(ibid.: 54, Ins 103-4)
The term used in this last Une is mearc-stapa (Zupitza 1882:6, In. 11): boundary walker.
The dragon's barrow is described as having a coastal location, on a headland (Alexander
1987:121), which would function as the boundary or edge of a territory. These beasts are
confined within the landscape to the periphery, the territorial perimeters, and dwell in
horrible, fearful places, until night when they are able to move where they please. An
excellent parallel has been drawn between Grendel, the demons who attack Guthlac and
the East Anglian mythical Shuck, a dog-like monster from folklore (Newton 1993:142-4).
All live in the fens, and certainly the Shuck emerges at night, walks alone and haunts
specific places. The darkness is significant in this discussion. At night, the physical land-
marks which defined the landscape of the Anglo-Saxons, such as boundary markers,
would no longer be visible. When the darkness swallowed up the visible, physical bound-
aries, the spiritual barriers also dissolved and supernatural monsters could come out of
their lairs. The Wife's Lament emphasizes the imprisonment of the woman 'all the summer
long day', and she is described as pacing at dawn. This suggests some similarity with the
monsters in Beowulf.
A final piece of evidence comes from a later period, 1261, when the Oxfordshire eyre
roll records:
Two strangers were found killed under the 'how' (hoga) of Cutteslowe. The hundred
jury testify that evil doers are wont to lurk in the hollow of the 'how' and that many
robberies and homicides have been committed there. Therefore the Sheriff was com-
manded to level the 'how'.
(Cam 1935:96-7)
'How' is used in the translation in the sense of barrow. It seems that, even in the thir-
teenth century, the barrow was a place where outcasts could hide. Perhaps this was
because there was still a widespread fear of the supernatural occupants of such places.
One could regard the discovery of some hoards of Anglo-Saxon and Viking metalwork
from the vicinity of barrows as reflecting a clever decision to hide treasure where no one
would dare to look. Certainly in Beowulf the dragon's treasure, the ancient gold, is under
 A fear of the past 115

'a curse to last till doomsday' (Alexander 1987:148). The tragedy of Beowulf's death is
linked to the curse, and the treasure he bequeaths to his people is deposited in his own
burial mound, 'It dwells there yet, of no more use to men than in ages before' (ibid.:
151).
These sources illustrate a middle and late Anglo-Saxon fear of prehistoric barrows. This
superstition is related to the monsters which were believed to inhabit the burial mounds.
Throughout the evidence, no specific type of barrow is singled out. In Beowulf the lan-
guage strongly suggests a stone-chambered barrow (see above). The two terms used in
The Wife's Lament refer to an earth structure rather than a stone chamber (see above),
suggesting a round barrow. The description of Guthlac's dwelling by Felix as
a mound built of clods of earth which greedy comers to the waste had dug open, in the
hope of finding treasure there; in the side of this there seemed to be sort of cistern, and
in this Guthlac... began to dwell, after building a large hut over it
(Colgrave 1956: 93-5)
would imply a stone-chambered barrow. Within Beowulf the words hlcew and beorh are
both used for the dragon's barrow. The /Esir ride over a hlcew is the Charm for a sharp
pain (see above) and Guthlac goes to a Crug. No distinctions are made between long
barrows, chambered barrows and round barrows. It has been suggested that hlw was
used as a term for Anglo-Saxon barrows and beorg was applied to prehistoric burial
mounds (Hooke 1981), but although the sources suggest a belief in the antiquity of this
landscape feature, there is no sense of a distinction between a prehistoric tumulus and an
early Anglo-Saxon mound. The application of Elf hlcew to a natural knoll (Hall and
Whyman 1996:65) would also imply a difficulty in distinguishing anthropogenic landscape
features from comparable natural topography.
The growing compendium of documentary information regarding the evil nature of the
barrow is thrown into sharper relief by the negative evidence for supernatural associations
with other types of prehistoric monument. An analysis of the sources of the period
revealed a profound silence concerning stone circles (Semple 1997), although single
stones had great significance as boundary markers and are referred to several times in the
laws in connection with pagan practice (e.g. Quit.V.l.). Etymological study produced no
evidence of supernatural entities associated with stone circles or henge monuments
(Semple 1997). The names of earthen fortifications (-burhs) are sometimes associated
with animals and birds, which may imply some supernatural association (Gelling 1988:
145). Wansdyke (WLT), a linear earthwork, is connected with Woden (Cameron 1988:
121), and numerous associations are known with Grim, Woden's masked alter ego (Gelling
1988: 148-50), e.g. Grim's Ditch (WLT). The linear earthwork stands out in a similar
fashion to barrows because of its frequent supernatural associations. The argument has
been put forward that the Anglo-Saxons named prehistoric dykes after Grim, because
they were in awe of their massive construction (ibid.: 149). The Anglo-Saxon charters
demonstrate that the linear ditch was not just used as a marker, but often the whole length
formed part of the boundary. The eastern portion of the Wansdyke (Alton Priors, WLT)
forms the hundred boundary between Selkley and Cannings hundreds. The county bound-
ary between Wiltshire and Hampshire follows at least three stretches of dyke, all called
Grim's Ditch (OS 184). In the light of the information from the literature suggesting that
116 Sarah Semple

boundaries were evil and haunted places, the association of great dykes with Grim may
relate to their function as boundaries, rather than to their dimensions.
Earthwork fortifications which may be hillforts or henges or ring-ditches are frequently
mentioned in charter bounds. The Anglo-Saxon terminology used to identify them has
been shown to be of a purely functional nature e.g. eor brge, earthen camp, S463, ealdan
burh die, old camp ditch, S789 (Semple 1997). The limited evidence now emerging for
possible secondary activity on such prehistoric sites in the Anglo-Saxon period has as yet
little archaeological support. Blewbury Hundred (BRK) takes its name from a hillfort that
occupied a central position in the early administrative unit, as does JEscesbury (BRK)
where the burh has been identified as Uffington hillfort (Gelling 1988:197). In both cases
a prehistoric fort gives its name to a substantial land unit, suggesting that the camp was
significant to the local community at an early period. Both forts are bisected by later
boundaries. The frequent division of such sites between two or three estates indicates the
possible continued significance of the monument. Finds of sceattas (coins) have been
made on several hillforts (Rigold and Metcalf 1977:31-52), suggesting the use of the sites
as trading centres. A local market site is exemplified by Ceapman's Pit (HMP), an earth-
work enclosure located where the boundaries of Highclere, Burghclere and Woodcott
meet (Hadrian Allcroft 1927 vol. i: 187-8). The monument's position on the meeting of
three estates is suitable for a market or fair (Sawyer 1981:162) and the place-name, Ceap-
manna-del, peddler's pit, is evidence for its reuse as a fair site. It seems that the functional
terminology applied to these prehistoric monument types in the Anglo-Saxon period par-
allels the functional nature of the secondary activity which may have occurred at some
sites. If regarded as seasonal fair sites or assembly places, there would be no fear attached
to such monuments, a situation clearly reflected by the place-name evidence.
The prehistoric barrow is unique in the written and place-name evidence in being con-
nected with supernatural spirits, but place-name evidence also demonstrates the common
use of mounds for the site of the hundred meeting place (Meaney 1994: 69). Certainly the
mound is an excellent assembly point because 'it gives good opportunities for announce-
ments, for speech making, and for impressing inferiors' (ibid.). The use of barrows associ-
ated with supernatural entities for meeting places, such as Thunderlow (ESX):Thunres
hlaw, 'the mound of Thunor' and Wenslow (BDF): Wodnes hlaw, 'Woden's mound'
(Meaney 1997:198-9), demonstrate that in some cases, people were definitely not terri-
fied of such monuments. The connection between hundred meeting places and pagan
shrines has recently been made (Meaney 1995). The communal nature of the meeting
place and the tribal shrine and the location of both types of site on mounds or barrows
are suggestive of distinct similarities between the sites (ibid.: 36-7).
The explanation for the deep fear of barrows in the middle and later Anglo-Saxon
period may lie with John Blair's recent work on Anglo-Saxon shrine types. He has demon-
strated a possible long-lived tradition of square enclosures and identifies a particular
group, Category E: square-plan fenced enclosures imposed on prehistoric monuments, as
a late sixth- to early seventh-century tradition (Blair 1995:16-18). These include Slonk
Hill, Shoreham (SSX) (Fig. 1), where the fenced enclosure is imposed on a Bronze Age
barrow (ibid.: fig. 11). The Bronze Age ring-ditch at Burghfield (OXF) (Fig. 2) was the
focus of seventh-century burial (Blair 1994: fig. 31), and the inhumations trace three sides
of a square open area. This may suggest the presence of a square enclosure imposed on
 A fear of the past 111

Figure 1 Timber-built square shrine overlying Bronze-Age barrow at Slonk Hill (SSX) (Hartridge
1978:fig.6).

the ring-ditch, which becomes the focus of the cemetery. At Guildown (SUR), the spatial
organization of the sixth-century Anglo-Saxon cemetery may indicate an upstanding,
large barrow with a founder burial (Reynolds 1997; Fig. 3a). The same site is used as an
execution cemetery during the late tenth and early eleventh centuries (ibid.), which takes
no account of the alignment of the sixth-century burials but appears to describe a square
enclosure set around the largest barrow (Fig. 3b). A chronology of activity may be sug-
gested for the site, where the early burials and the barrow become a focus for pagan
activity after the sixth century. The possible square enclosure could be a candidate for
Blair's Category E shrines. The pagan shrine and the pagan cemetery and the barrow at
a later period become the focus for a criminal cemetery, when the place is then perceived
as a heathen and perhaps haunted place.
The later writings and laws refer, several times, to attempts to speak to or even raise
the dead. Elfric particularly mentions,
Witches still go to cross-roads and to heathen burials with their delusive magic and call
to the devil; and he comes to them in the likeness of the man who is buried there, as if
he arise from death.
(Meaney 1984:131)
The pseudo-Egbert penitential refers to 'asking the future at burial places' (ibid.). Earlier
in this paper, the argument for the pagan afterlife being contained within the ground in a
118 Sarah Semple

^- ^

>

bronze-age ring-ditch

y
6- ^- ~ - -'.1 i'
f

~~ ~~. '' //
/
' .ft
J
\ 1

C7th burials
M!
1
?
conjectured shrine area i

0 20m N

Burghfield Farm ring-ditch (OXF) and secondary seventh-century burials (Butterworth

and Lobb 1992: fig. 7).

'quasi-physical plane' was mentioned (Griffiths 1996). If the later sources refer to frag-
ments of a surviving pagan practice of communicating with the dead because it was
believed that the spirits still inhabited the place of burial, then the placing of a pagan
shrine on a barrow has a context. The pagan shrine type identified by Blair may have been
located on barrows because of the practice of communication with the dead or greater
spirits such as the /Esir. The prehistoric barrow may therefore have been perceived in the
early Anglo-Saxon period as the home of spirits, ancestors or gods and was a focus of
pagan spiritual activity.
The sources used to describe the Anglo-Saxon fear of barrows are all texts written in
the Christian period. Beowulf is thought to be an eighth-century text and the original Life
of Guthlac is believed to have been composed between about AD 730 and 740 (Swanton
1993: 88). The surviving manuscript of The Wife's Lament is dated to the second half of
 A fear of the past 119

Figure 3a Guildown (SUR),

sixth-century cemetery and
conjectured barrows (Rey-
nolds forthcoming; Lowther
-
Y"' 1931).

I
1
I ^/ 1
1 x s
V 1 \
X saucer brooch
and crystal pendant
conjectured barrows
C6th burials

/N
0 20m
Figure 3b Guildown (SUR),
tenth-eleventh-century execu-
tion cemetery (Reynolds forth-
coming; Lowther 1931), and
conjectured line of pagan
shrine area.

conjectured snrine area

conjectured barrows
- ClOth-llthburials

20m
120 Sarah Semple

the tenth century (Alexander 1987: 201), but the theme may have an earlier root. The
written sources must be regarded as coming from a Christian Anglo-Saxon world. The
writing of Elfric and Wulfstan illustrate the feelings of the late-Saxon church towards sur-
viving pagan practice and heathenism. Whilst the perception of the prehistoric barrow in
the sources could be seen in this light, as Christian feeling and the product of the Church's
attempts to outlaw heathenism, the archaeology reveals eighth-century practices associ-
ated with barrows which carry a very different message. The burial of a female in a Bronze
Age burial mound on Swallowcliffe Down (WLT), towards the end of the seventh century
(Speake 1989:129), demonstrated the very careful interment of a rich, important woman
in a topographical situation very similar to the later siting of execution cemeteries
(Reynolds forthcoming).The Bronze Age barrow selected was prominent and located on
a boundary (Speake 1989:129). However, the investment of labour in the burial implied
the woman was important and well cared for and the skeletal remains showed no signs of
trauma or injury. Her burial equipment was lavish and certain decorative symbols on the
grave goods have been used to suggest she was a Christian (ibid.: 80). The discussion of
the grave goods of the Sutton Hoo burials (SFK), demonstrate the difficulty of using
Christian symbolism on grave objects to infer that the deceased is actually practising the
religion. Lavish decorated artefacts may say more about the status of the individual than
the religious belief, just as Morris suggested that burial in a barrow may be a status symbol
rather than a demonstration of pagan belief (Morris 1989: 256). The excavation at
Winwick (CHE) revealed a large cemetery of probable seventh-eighth-century date over-
lying a barrow (Freke and Thacker 1988). The excavations at Wigber Low (DRB)
revealed a small family group of seventh-century Christian burials interred in a prehis-
toric barrow. In a similar manner, the recent work at Ailey Hill, Ripon (YON) (Hall and
Whyman 1996: 62-150) shows burial continuing from the sixth to ninth century on a
natural tumulus, mistaken for a barrow. The first phases (seventh and perhaps sixth
century) are thought to represent a local population, the later burials (seventh to eighth
centuries) appear to represent a monastic community (ibid.: 124). There is a context for
Christian burial in association with prehistoric barrows. The Minster at Ripon, Saint
Wilfrid's church, appears to be aligned on Ailey Hill. The growing compendium of
churches known or believed to be sited on or next to prehistoric barrows is suggestive of
the intentional assimilation of these monuments by the Christian church, e.g. Fimber,
Taplow, Ludlow, Bampton (OXF) and Yatesbury (WLT). The Life of Guthlac describes
the battle of the saint with the demons in the burial mound and his success. He drives
them from the place and then constructs his monastery on the site: a ritual of exorcism of
the supernatural entities by fasting and prayer, prior to the foundation of the monastic
community. The recent work on the royal centres in Ireland have demonstrated a tradition
of incorporating prehistoric monument complexes into an invented ideology and history,
for the purpose of legitimization of royalty and the need to absorb paganism into the
ecclesiastical world (Aitchison 1994: 306). Aitchison stated this was profoundly different
from Anglo-Saxon England (ibid.: 310-11). The recent excavations at Ripon and the
identification of the large-scale layout of the monastery in relation to topographical fea-
tures which may have been believed to be giant earthworks (Hall and Whyman 1996:143)
and excavations at Bampton (OXF), showing the layout of ecclesiastical structures refer-
enced prehistoric features, suggest that such practice was occurring in England, albeit on
 A fear of the past 121

a smaller scale. How can this acceptance and incorporation of prehistoric monuments
within Anglo-Saxon Christian practice be ratified with the concept of the barrow as an
evil and haunted place? The limited evidence suggests the use of prehistoric barrows for
single interments or the focus of small cemeteries. The evidence for burial starting in the
sixth century at such sites suggests a definite pagan context for the earliest phases. The
continuation of burial at the site in the Christian period may represent the continuation
of behavioural practice, despite a change in religion. The conversion presumably could
not break strong ancestral family ties and people may have continued to be buried with
their ancestors despite a difference in religion. The universal adoption of churchyard
burial (approx. c.900-50, pers comm. Dr J. Blair) would have finally eliminated these
burial practices, which is the period when specific burial grounds for criminals were initi-
ated (Reynolds 1997). Beowulf is the Christianized version of a pagan tale and The Life
of Guthlac is a religious story. They reflect ecclesiastical perception in the eighth century
but they do not necessarily reflect the view of the laity. These sources may indeed have
been used to try and dissuade the continuation of such practices discussed above.
With evidence of the demonization of the barrow from the eighth century onwards and
the very strong perceptions of the tenth and eleventh century regarding barrows and
pagan practice, why in later Anglo-Saxon England were barrows functioning as hundred
meeting places, when the sources suggest that they were thought to be haunted? The
place-names weoh and hearh have been identified as pagan Anglo-Saxon wayside shrines
and tribal temples respectively (Wilson 1985). These place-names have also been used to
argue for a late, politicized reorganization of traditional religious cults at a time when the
conversion to Christianity had begun (Hines 1997: 387). The weoh has been identified as
a personal shrine because it was often located next to a Roman road. The Roman road in
the Anglo-Saxon period was not just a route way: the charters show that stan-strete were
sometimes used (in a similar manner to the linear dykes) as boundaries. The centrally pos-
itioned hearh would function as the tribal temple of one particular group. As a purely
speculative idea, if the tribal temple, the hearh, developed into the hundred meeting sites
of the later period (Meaney 1995), then one may see the Christian acceptance of meeting
on mounds as an acceptance of the administrative or tribal organization of the early
period. The practice would be allowed to continue, but in a Christian format. Weyhill
(HMP) may be evidence of the survival of such customs. It was recorded in the nineteenth
century as the location of a fair, the earliest date of which is the thirteenth century
(Heanley 1922). The place-name Weyhill is recorded c.1270 as La Wou and Leweo,
thought to derive from weoh. The fair was sited near a great mound believed to be a burial
mound, and the place-name could in fact be a corruption of both hlaw and weoh, barrow
and shrine. Newcomers to the fair by tradition were required to wear a pair of antlers for
the day (Heanley 1922: 23). References are made in the late sources to people dressing
up as beasts with antlers at the new year celebrations (Morris 1989), and a set of reindeer
antlers still used for the horn dance at Abbots Bromley (STF) provided a radiocarbon
date of the eleventh century (Campbell 1991: 241). The places of pagan worship located
on boundaries had no useful function and were dismissed, slowly emerging as evil, unsanc-
tified places, suitable for the interment of criminals, and heathens. The site of Guildown
(SUR) discussed above is located on a hundred boundary.
To return again to The Wife's Lament, it was earlier suggested that this female character
122 Sarah Semple

was a ghost forced to haunt the place of her burial. The piece has always been regarded as
enigmatic and is unique in its subject matter. Its roots may lie in another fragment of a tale,
also obscure and enigmatic. The right hand end of the Frank's Casket depicts a scene which
is believed to derive from Germanic legend. The text is runic and partly encoded and a
widely accepted translation is, 'Here Hos sits on the sorrow-mound; she suffers distress in
that Ertae had decreed for her a wretched den of sorrows and torments of mind' (Webster
1991:102-3). Griffiths noted the similarity in sentiment between the two texts (1996: 34).
The second similarity is that both female characters sit on mounds, 'while I in the dawning
pace alone under the oak tree around this earthen dugout. There I must sit the summer-
long day. There I may weep for the ways of my exile' (The Wife's Lament, Bradley 1995:
385).
In the opening discussion of this paper, the mound in The Wife's Lament was shown to
represent a prehistoric barrow. The Frank's Casket shows a beast sitting on a small, but
pronounced bump (Fig. 4). The casket is dated to the first half of the eighth century and
is of Northumbrian workmanship (Webster 1982). It is important to note that the theme
of The Wife's Lament has never been understood and the characters have no names. It
seems these two pieces may represent divergent motifs or themes from the same legend.
This may be evidence for the Christianization of another pagan tale such as Beowulf.
When the words were set down in the tenth century, the writer was telling a story already

Figure 4 Hos on the sorrow mound? Detail from the right hand end of the Frank's Casket
(Webster 1991: no. 70), not to scale.
 A fear of the past 123

possibly transmitted through two centuries of Anglo-Saxon Christian society. The true
nature of the female character and her barrow in the pagan world is unknown.
To conclude, the late Anglo-Saxon attitude to prehistoric barrows was one of super-
stitious wariness; emotions also connected with boundaries. Both places were portrayed
as the haunt of monsters, spirits and evil creatures in the eighth century and after. The
poetic sources are the product of a Christian world and represent a Christian perception
of the landscape. The root of this perception may be the remembrance of early Anglo-
Saxon pagan activity which took place at barrows. The prehistoric barrow stands apart
from other types of monument because of the wealth of information which attributes
supernatural elements to the feature, and the archaeological evidence suggesting the
association of pagan practice with these monuments. Despite the depiction of the barrow
as a dangerous feature, the archaeology indicates people did not give up the practice of
burial associated with the mound until the arrival of churchyards, showing an unwilling-
ness to ignore a previous way of life. The later references to heathen practices and barrows
show that even in Elfric's time pagan belief persisted in association with the properties
of the prehistoric burial mound and its supernatural inhabitants. This long continuation
of practice and belief implies the real significance of the barrow in the Anglo-Saxon ideol-
ogy, and the portrayal by Christian sources of the barrow as an evil, haunted place serves
to support the existence of strong beliefs associated with the burial mound, which the
Church wished to change. In some cases the Church appears to have assimilated barrows
by placing churches on or next to them, which further confirms the barrow's pre-Christ-
ian significance. The depiction of heathenism as evil presumably led to sites which were
commonly associated with pagan practice becoming associated with evil in later popular
belief, a situation no doubt encouraged and exploited, if not initiated, by the Christian
church. The use of the barrow for the interment of criminals in the later Anglo-Saxon
period appears in the light of the discussion to be a detailed topographical selection of
sites to heighten the punishment of wrongdoers and extend it after death. It must also
have served to reinforce and perpetuate the popular belief that such places were inhab-
ited by evil spirits.

Acknowledgements

The preparation of this paper would have been impossible without the valuable encour-
agement and criticism of Dr J. Blair. I am grateful to Andrew Reynolds for his advice
and tolerance and to Prof. R. Bradley for the invitation to contribute to this volume.
Finally my thanks go to Mrs Leslie Webster, Helen Gittos, Jonathan Bengston and Ray
and Joan Semple for commenting on drafts of this paper.

The Queen's College

Oxford OX1 4AW
124 Sarah Semple

List of abbreviations

County abbreviations
BDF Bedfordshire OXF Oxfordshire
BRK Berkshire SSX Sussex
BUC Buckinghamshire STF Staffordshire
CHE Cheshire SUR Surrey
DRB Derbyshire WLT Wiltshire
ESS Essex WOR Worcestershire
HMP Hampshire YOE Yorkshire East Riding
LIN Lincolnshire YON Yorkshire North Riding
NFK Norfolk

Other abbreviations in the text

ASC Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
BCS Birch, W. de Gray. 1884-93. Cartularium Saxonicum: A Collection of Charters
Relating to Anglo-Saxon History, Vols IIII. London: Whiting & Co.
DB Domesday Book
OE Old English
S Sawyer, P.H. 1968. Anglo-Saxon Charters: An Annotated List and Bibliography.
London: Royal Historical Society.

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