Edmund the Martyr

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"Here lies King Edmund, father of East Anglia, a good and godly man. May he lie here in peace, surrounded by the children of the God, until Doomsday when the dust shall return to the earth, and the spirit shall return unto Heaven. Lord have mercy on his soul."

―A note near Edmund's crypt.

Edmund the Martyr (c. 841 – 869), also known as Saint Edmund, was King of East Anglia from about 855 until his death. He was succeeded by Oswald.

Biography

In 869, the Great Heathen Army invaded East Anglia as part of the Viking expansion into England. At some point, emissaries met with Edmund and demanded that he renounce Christianity and accept Danelaw as the new law of the land. Edmund refused to recant his beliefs and challenged his aggressors to do their worst. Furious, the Danes tied him up and beat him, before shooting him with arrows and beheading the body. Following his death, Edmund was buried in the church crypt in the village of King's Bury near Theotford.

Legacy

During the 9th century CE, the Viking Eivor learned of the king's death after opportunistically taking the arrows embedded in his throne. A local Anglo-Saxon woman informed them of the weapons' history and offered to buy them back for her own hagiographical study, which Eivor accepted.

Behind the scenes

Although tradition holds that Edmund died in the as-yet unidentified place known as Haegelisdun, the Assassin's Creed: Valhalla memory "Edmund's Arrows" instead says that he died in Norwich, pinned to his throne by arrows which were considered holy artifacts after Edmund's canonization.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (mentioned only)