Saint Edmund, the original patron saint of England, was the 9th-century Anglo-Saxon King of East Anglia. He became King in 855 and was crowned at Bures. He died after a battle with the Vikings near Thetford, but most information about Edmund is conflicting and open to debate.
According to legend, he bravely fought the invading Viking Army but was defeated. In some accounts he was captured by the leaders, and according to legend he refused to renounce his Christian faith and was tied to a tree, shot with arrows, and beheaded. Other historians believe he may have died on the battlefield but as with all aspects of this story there is very little concrete evidence.
The most enduring myth surrounding St. Edmund involves the miraculous recovery of his head. Following his martyrdom, the Vikings threw his severed head deep into the forest brambles. When Edmund’s followers searched for him, they tracked the sound to a wild wolf or maybe a hunting dog gently guarding the king’s head between its paws.
This legendary protection cemented his status as a martyr, and the famous tale inspired the wolf-and-crown emblem seen across the town of Bury St Edmunds where his remains were eventually enshrined until the Reformation in the reign of Henry XIII. At this time the shrine was opened it was found to be empty. Many theories abound about what happened to the relics, ranging from them being destroyed in a fire 100 years earlier, to them being buried somewhere in the abbey grounds at Bury St Edmunds.
St.Edmunds Crown And The Wolf by Keith Evans, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
As with the many legends surrounding Edmund, it is probably something we’ll never know for certain and the mystery will continue.
Sally Card