The showier pieces of their armour often bear startling resemblances to Roman armour, and their leaders aspired to be something more than war chiefs. They wanted to be known as "dux", a Roman duke. But in one crucial respect, the Germanic tribal societies were utterly different from the Roman's. Theirs was a culture based on the blood feud and punishment by ordeal. It was an entire social system, its plunder was the glue of loyalty. But the Saxons were no more immune to change than the Romans had been before them. To look at the relics recovered from the Sutton Hoo burial site is to be teased by a powerful question: Did the Saxon lord buried here find his resting place in a pagan Valhalla or in a Christian Paradise?


他们铠甲护面的样子，与罗马人的惊人地相似。他们的领袖有比军阀更高的渴求，他们渴望被称为罗马公爵。而残酷的是，日耳曼部落社会与罗马截然不同。他们的文化基于鲜血、征战，与严酷的磨练与惩罚之上，整个社会体系的忠诚靠掠夺维系。撒克逊人与罗马人一样对转变毫无抵抗力。见到萨顿胡遗址所复原的遗迹（英国萨福克郡的古迹），让人们不禁提出一个讽刺而强力的问题：撒克逊首领安葬的这方土地，究竟是异教英灵殿还是基督教的伊甸园呢？