Hun of East Anglia

Hun is the name of a supposed 8th century ruler of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia, who may have begun ruling with Beorna and Alberht at the division of the kingdom in 749.

Sources

Hun is barely a historical figure, depending upon one's reading of the unique late annal which appears to mention him. This is in the compilation of Roger of Wendover, in material which it is suggested may derive from the work of Byrhtnoth of Ramsey, written in about 1000. The annal states that in 749, after the death of Ælfwald, "cujus regnum Hunbeanna et Albertus inter se diviserunt" - 'Hunbeanna and Alberht divided the kingdom of East Anglia between themselves'.^[1]

In recent years some aspects of this statement have been verified by the discovery of coins of Beorna and of Æthelberht. The recognition of Beorna's reality as a historical figure leaves the Hun element in the annal word Hunbeanna detached, because Beanna (or Beorna) is itself a hypocoristic form of a diathematic (two-part) name from which the second part has been reduced to '-a', with a hardening of the preceding consonants (as with the example of Jonathan and Jonny).

An East Anglian context for the name

Hun could therefore be an epithet for Beorna (as is the case with Beorn's contemporaries Aethelwold Moll or Eadbert Praen), or possibly a third person whose name has been run together with Beonna's by a scribe. The name Hun is familiar as an element in 8th and 9th century England, though usually as part of a diathematic name. Æthelhun, for instance, was among the West Saxons involved in the turmoil leading to the Battle of Burford Bridge in 752 and during the 9th century there were northern East Anglian bishops of Helmham named Ælfhun, Hunferthus and Hunbeorht: it also occurred as part of a moneyer's name. There are several placenames in East Anglia that contain Hun as a personal name element, such as Hunston and Hundon, in Suffolk, or Hunstanton, in Norfolk.

An alternative theory is that this annal, which is written in Latin, was derived from an Old English source and that the translator scribe misread the opening word Here for part of the name of Beorna. "Her" - 'In this year' - is the usual opening for an Old English annal and the typical form of the letter 'r' might easily be misread for an 'n'. The person of Hun is therefore possible, but not quite substantial.

Footnotes

Sources

• M.M. Archibald, 1985, The coinage of Beonna in the light of the Middle Harling hoard, British Numismatic Journal 55, 10-54.
• M.M. Archibald, V.H. Fenwick and M.R. Cowell, 1996, A sceat of Ethelbert I of East Anglia and recent finds of coins of Beonna, British Numismatic Journal 65, 1-19.
• J. Campbell (Ed.), The Anglo-Saxons (Oxford 1982).
• V.H. Fenwick, 1984, Insula de Burgh: Excavations at Burrow Hill, Butley, Suffolk 1978-1981, Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 3, 35-54.
• J.A. Giles, Roger of Wendover's Flowers of History (Translation - 2 Vols.) (London 1849).
• D.P. Kirby, The Earliest English Kings (London 1991).
• S.J. Plunkett, Suffolk in Anglo-Saxon Times (Tempus, Stroud 2005).
• B. Yorke, Kings and kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England (London 1990).