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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wehha_of_East_Anglia
Wehha was a pagan king of the East Angles who, if he actually existed, ruled the 
kingdom of East Anglia during the 6th century, at the time the kingdom was being 
established by migrants from what is now Frisia and the southern Jutland peninsula. 
Early sources identify him as a member of the Wuffingas dynasty, which became 
established around the east coast of Suffolk. Nothing of his reign is known.

According to the East Anglian tally from the Textus Roffensis, Wehha was the son of 
Wilhelm. The 9th century History of the Britons lists both Wehha, who is named as 
'Guillem Guercha', as the first king of the East Angles, and his son and successor 
Wuffa, after whom the dynasty was named. It has been claimed that the name Wehha 
was a hypocoristic version of Wihstan, from the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, which, 
along with evidence such as the finds discovered at Sutton Hoo in 1939, suggests a 
connection between the Wuffingas and a Swedish dynasty, the Scylfings.
Background[edit]

Wehha is thought to have been one of the earliest rulers of East Anglia, an 
independent and long-lived Anglo-Saxon kingdom that was established in the 6th 
century, and which includes the modern English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk.

According to R. Rainbird Clarke, migrants from southern Jutland "speedily dominated" 
the Sandlings, an area of southeast Suffolk, and then, by around 550, "lost no time in 
conquering the whole of East Anglia". Rainbird Clarke identified Wehha, the founder 
of the dynasty, as one of the leaders of the new arrivals: the East Angles are 
tentatively identified with the Geats of the Old English poem Beowulf. He used the 
evidence of the finds at Sutton Hoo to conclude that the Wuffingas originated from 
Sweden, noting that the sword, helmet and shield found in the ship burial at Sutton 
Hoo may have been family heirlooms, brought across from Sweden in the beginning of 
the 6th century.[1] As it is now believed that these artefacts were made in England, 
there is less agreement amongst scholars that the Wuffingas dynasty was directly 
linked with Sweden.[2]

The extent of the kingdom of the East Angles can be determined from a variety of 
sources. Isolated to the north and east by the North Sea, there were mainly 
impenetrable forests to the south and the swamps and scattered islands of the Fens 
on its western border. The main land route from East Anglia would at that time have 
been a land corridor, along which ran the prehistoric Icknield Way.[3] The southern 
neighbours of the East Angles were the East Saxons and across the other side of the 
Fens were the Middle Angles.[4] It has been suggested that the Devil's Dyke (near 
modern Newmarket) at one time formed part of the kingdom's western boundary, but as 
its construction can only be dated from between the 4th and 10th centuries, it cannot 
be established to be of Early Anglo-Saxon origin.[5]

Genealogy[edit]

Main article: Anglo-Saxon Genealogies

Wehha is a semi-historical figure and no surviving evidence has survived to show he 
actually existed or was ever king of the East Angles. The name Wehha is included in 
tallies of the ruling Wuffingas dynasty:[6] the name appears as ?ehh ?ilhelming - 
Wehha Wilhelming - in the East Anglian tally from the Textus Roffensis, an important 
collection of Anglo-Saxon laws and Rochester Cathedral registers that has survived in 
the form of two distinct books that were bound together in the 13th century.[7] 
According to this list, which is also known as the Anglian collection, Wehha was the 
son of Wilhelm, who was the son of Hryþ, who was the son of Hroðmund, the son of 
Trygil, the son of Tyttman, the son of Casere Odisson, the son of the god Woden. 
Wehha's son Wuffa, after whom the Wuffingas dynasty is named, is also listed.

According to the 9th century History of the Britons, a man listed as Guillem Guercha 
was the first of his line to rule as king of the East Angles. The History of the Britons 
lists Guillem Guercha's descendants and ancestors: 'Woden begat Casser, who begat 
Titinon, who begat Trigil, who begat Rodmunt, who begat Rippa, who begat Guillem 
Guercha, who was the first king of the East Angles'.[8] According to the 19th-century 
historian Sir Francis Palgrave, Guercha was a distortion of Wuffa.[9] D. P. Kirby is 
among those historians who have concluded from this information that Wuffa's father 
was the founder of the Wuffingas line.[10]

Despite the Wuffingas' long list of ancestors — that stretch back to their pagan gods — 
their power in the region can only have been established in the middle third of the 6th 
century, if Wehha is taken as the dynastic founder.[11] Martin Carver warns against 
using the scant material that exists to draw detailed inferences about the earliest 
Wuffingas kings.[4]
The name Wehha[edit]

The name Wehha has been linked as a hypocoristic (shortened) version of Wihstan, 
the father of Wiglaf in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, strengthening the evidence for 
a connection between the Wuffingas dynasty and a Swedish royal dynasty, the 
Scylfings.[13] It has also been suggested that Wehha is a regular hypocoristic form of 
Old English names beginning with We(o)h-, for instance in the unattested name 
*Weohha.[11] Lindqvist's conjecture that Wehha is a hypocoristic form of the name 
Weohstan is linguistically not possible, according to O'Loughlin, as Weohstan is a 
later West Saxon name.[14]

O'Loughlin notes that Wehha and his father Wilhelm can be linked with a person 
named Wehilo and his father Weho, who are listed in a genealogy found a manuscript 
of the laws of Rothari, a 7th-century king of the Lombards.[15][note 1]

Wehha may occur on a bronze pail excavated from the Chessell Down cemetery on 
the Isle of Wight, which possesses the runic inscription wecca.[16]

Reign and succession[edit]

Nothing is known of Wehha or of his rule, as no written records have survived from 
this period in East Anglian history. At an unknown date Wehha was succeeded by 
Wuffa, who was ruling the kingdom in 571, according to the mediaeval chronicler 
Roger of Wendover.[17] The date given by Roger of Wendover cannot be 
corroborated.[4]

Parents
____ Wilhelm ()
----- ----- ()

Siblings
____ Webha ()

Marriage To ----- ----- ()
    m.  

Notes


Children by ----- ----- 
____ Wuffa ( -  578)

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