Haegelisdun

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St Edmund's Memorial in Hoxne, Suffolk, marking the location of an ancient oak tree, supposed to be the site of Edmund's death. St.Edmunds Monument (geograph 2705742).jpg
St Edmund's Memorial in Hoxne, Suffolk, marking the location of an ancient oak tree, supposed to be the site of Edmund's death.

Haegelisdun was the site where Edmund the Martyr the King of East Anglia was killed by the Viking Great Heathen Army, and were the initial place where his relics were venerated before moving to Beodricesworth monastery (modern day Bury St Edmunds).

St Edmund's incorrupt [1] relics had been venerated [2] from around the early tenth century at in a wooden chapel in Haegelisdun commemorating the original burial place near to where he was killed.

The location has never been conclusively identified. [3] The placename was long and widely thought - probably in error [4] [5] - to refer to Hoxne in Suffolk. [6] Other proposed sites have been Bradfield St Clare, Hellesdon in Norfolk (documented as Hægelisdun c. 985) and more recently Maldon in Essex. [7] [8] [5]

At a date generally assumed by historians to have been during the reign of Æthelstan, who became king of the Anglo-Saxons in 924, Edmund's body was translated from Haegelisdun to Beodricesworth monastery. [9] [10]

References

  1. Gransden 1994.
  2. Pinner 2015, p. 37.
  3. "Edmund of East Anglia Part 5 – The Last Mystery: Where Did Edmund Die?". Hidden East Anglia. Archived from the original on 28 September 2015. Retrieved 30 April 2012.
  4. Evans 1987.
  5. 1 2 Briggs 2011.
  6. Young 2018, pp. 61–66.
  7. Higham 1999.
  8. Hoops, Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, Volume 6, p. 328.
  9. Young 2018, p. 75.
  10. Ridyard 1988, p. 213.

Bibliography