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 Æthelred II.

Biography

In 865, the Great Heathen Army invaded East Anglia as part of the Viking expansion into England. Four years later, 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. By 873, Ivarr the Boneless claimed personal credit for having killed Edmund, but this could not be proven, as there were conflicting claims that Ubba had killed the king instead, though Ubba never challenged Ivarr on his boasts. 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 shieldmaiden Eivor Varinsdottir of the Raven Clan learned of the king's death after opportunistically taking the arrows embedded in his throne. A local Anglo-Saxon woman informed her 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, a fact upheld in the Assassin's Creed: Valhalla tie-in novel Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Geirmund's Saga, the 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)
• Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Geirmund's Saga (mentioned only)
• Echoes of Valhalla (voice only)
• Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Blood Brothers (first appearance)