• 

  Back of the brooch

• 

 

Diameter: 14.900 cm

M&ME 1951,10-11,1

Enlightenment: Ancient scripts

• Larger image

Previous tour

tour 19 of 23

Next tour

The Vikings

Silver disc brooch of Ædwen

A hoard of objects, which included coins, gold rings and this brooch, was discovered during the ploughing of a field near Ely in 1694. The objects disappeared, but the brooch was rediscovered in a private collection in 1951 when it was bought by the British Museum.

There is an inscription in Old English around the edge on the back. Uniquely, it tells us who owned the brooch. The inscription may be translated as: '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'.

The back of the brooch is also decorated and has a fragment of silver strip attached, onto which the fixings for the missing pin were mounted. This strip is engraved with seven imitation Anglo-Saxon runes which cannot be read. The nature of the damage may indicate that the brooch was torn quickly and with some force from clothing and then buried, perhaps at a time of danger.

The bold but simple decoration, the size of the brooch and the inscription suggest that its owner was a woman of some status.