The building, launching and putting to sea of a full-scale reconstruction of the ship found in 1939 at Sutton Hoo under Mound 1 is an enterprise in which we invite wide participation. It has four main phases: the design, the build, the trials and the publication of the results of the experiment, which are expected to take about ffteen years between 2017 and 2032. We can be followed on social media and via our website at https://saxonship.org , and in flms and YouTube broadcasts. The build is being carried out by the Sutton Hoo Ship's Company at Whisstocks Place on the waterfront at Woodbridge, Sufolk where visitors are always welcome.

Visitors like to take home a published account of what is being done, and since ffteen years is a long time to wait for it, we decided to publish consecutive short books to cover each of the three phases. The frst book (the present one) covers the period in which the project was conceived and designed. The second, composed with Tim Kirk, Laurie Walker and Jacq Barnard, will take the story from the start of the build to the launch. A third, still a twinkle in the eye, will describe the ship's achievements on trials and its eventual retirement on display.

The present volume lays the basis for the project. It explores the early English society which knew the Sutton Hoo Ship, frst in narrative of characters mentioned in surviving histories, pre-eminently that of Bede, and then by making archaeological visits to the graves of unnamed persons of the time, of higher rank and of no clear rank at all. Other key players are the artisans who left their inventive personalities encased in artefacts – metalworkers, textile workers and carpenters. We search for ideas in the minds of the ship-builders, detected in boats built both before and after the Sutton Hoo Ship and boats built and used around the northern seas, on the Continent and the Mediterranean.