[Chris Dayton]

Recent video posted by the British Museum about possible indications that the Sutton Hoo king/chieftain/etc was left-handed:

https://youtu.be/nb9vTu73xmE

Let's all stipulate that the handedness discussion contains a lot of speculation. Still... as a professional archaeologist, I love seeing colleagues get into personal details like this. Even though we don't know for certain who was buried at Sutton Hoo (Raedwald?), the detective work that Sue Brunning has done may give us very intimate insights into his life (or maybe her life; without human remains to study, we can't know for sure). I've had similar experiences that were just magical and convinced me I wanted to have a career in archaeology. The most vivid was on my first dig as an undergraduate more than 20 years ago, when I unearthed a Roman amphora handle with 2,000-year-old fingerprints preserved in the clay.

[Jeremy V. Krause]

That was an interesting video.

I wonder if it is possible that the Sutton Hoo sword owner was left handed. I wonder further if this was the case would a left handed sword wielder have been possible throughout a more broad era in the medieval period.

I have always been under the impression and had the opinion that fighters of the period of a left handed inclination would have been "forced" through early training and really society in general, to operate right handed.

This is especially interesting as south paw myself.