Beowulf happened here in Sussex, new book argues

SussexWorld

Brighton author George W Jones argues that Beowulf isn’t a myth and that it didn’t mythically happen in Sweden.

Transcript

00:00good afternoon my name is phil here a group arts editor at sussex newspapers great to speak to

00:06george w jones now this is fascinating this is going to change the way we think about history

00:11and myth isn't it george your new book argues that not only did beowulf actually exist he wasn't a

00:18myth at all he existed in sussex now absolutely absolutely but not not only that but um we kind

00:26of can find out who he was within that um period and that landscape because of charters so

00:33we're not um lacking evidence for this we have a a man called beowulf who is a like a lowly

00:40elderman at one point um and then he becomes a king which is the same description that we have

00:46of beowulf and then after um beowulf dies wiglaf takes the throne and in the beowulf legend when

00:53beowulf dies wiglaf takes the throne people have put another another chap in called ludicum between

00:59beowulf's rules but he's only there for a year so it's not going to make a huge difference if he

01:05really did exist and if he really did exist in sussex how come sussex has lost him and lost this

01:10knowledge and lost this claim until now it's very interesting to me too that that's been the the big

01:16kind of um puzzle for me and it seems like a massive amount of place names uh and battle sites have been

01:23placed without actual evidence or knowledge elsewhere in the country so we have lots lots of different

01:29battle sites that are all surrounding the life of this king and king alfred as well so he's very

01:34important in this because he's actually this is incredible he's in the beowulf's manuscript and

01:39people haven't recognized this so um we have a line of kings who are living around the time of

01:46beowulf um and they are let me just kind of give some people some actual detail which is they're

01:53king ecbert king ethel wolf um these are all in line as well and then the sons of ethel wolf are

01:59ethel red ethel bald um and who else is that and alfred of course yeah um so yeah and then we also have

02:09an ethel stan but i'm not so sure now that the ethel stan that's attributed to this guy is not actually

02:14somebody else called guthrum who took on that name later on down the line so this is this is very

02:19complicated but we can actually bring him bring them all into the ewes valley with beddingham

02:24and which is a little old royal saxon minster that belonged to um offer um but then that that was

02:31also passed on to alfred it was also passed on to earl godwin and harold godwin so clearly hugely

02:38detailed compelling evidence a whole book's work so what do you think sussex should do with this

02:48knowledge well what i want to do is get in contact with archaeologists and historians because they are

02:53i mean i would be amazed if they wouldn't be interested in this but it's very difficult to get

02:58hold of them and to get them to take you seriously but i need them to you need to look at charters

03:03which are the charter of ethel stan from lift and devon which talks about bayo and grendel um in

03:09relation to ham which has been placed elsewhere but it's the wrong ham that one um and then we also

03:15have another one that talks there's one in 801 which talks about bayon wolf and denton and clove show

03:22again um and then another one in 825 which talks about denton beddingham clothes ham and bayon wolf and

03:30we can link all of them they're all in the ooze valley and and then there's all this landscape

03:35um description within the text that matches exactly with hamsi the talcum tide it's the ooze valley

03:44that's the critical location it's the ooze valley and it's the fact that you know in like i was saying

03:49earlier it's it's it's the fact that that whole tidal valley was once um navigable and was flooded by

03:56the sea and the very end of that sea channel was hamsi church so the reason that clove show this

04:02important meeting place of kings would have been there is because you could have got come into the

04:07the um valley at new haven without fail you'd end up at hamsi church so it's a very easy way to

04:13but now you'd never know that you know you'd still get there

04:16it sounds a fascinating book it's by george w jones beowulf revelations the forgotten anglo-sanxon

04:25king that's it and that that forgotten anglo-sanxon king is beowulf he really is and then um ringma

04:31is all to do with um the ring danes and that links up to ring there's one thing that i really think that

04:38academics and scholars are going to need to hear which is to do with the skill things so at the

04:44beginning of the beowulf manuscript we learn about shield sheafing um and and then this whole line

04:51or field skeething it actually is but then in history we know about the skilledings and there's

04:55a guy called skilled skeething um and they're the same person so the skilledings were the geeks and

05:01now we're trying to everyone has decided that the beowulf legend took place in the south of sweden

05:06but there's very little evidence for that whereas there's an awful lot of evidence to state that it did

05:12take place in sussex bearing in mind all the characters the 15 characters that match up around

05:18beowulf good luck with pushing your argument great to speak it's so hard i'm really hopeful that we'll

05:26actually get to have a look there one day and do some archaeological digs and i feel feel like we've

05:31found possibly his urn and i'd like that exam ended as well so like uh yeah well good luck with it all

05:37lovely to speak to you thank you thank you very much james

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