SaintFamous
The Stone Princes
A white hart, a hermit, and a father's sword.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Parish church in the town centre
- Legend from
- Medieval foundation legend
- Tone
- Dark history
Two princes followed a white deer to a hermit. Their father hunted them down for it.
Stone, the legend says, is named after a cairn. King Wulfhere of Mercia had turned back to paganism. His sons Wulfad and Rufin, out hunting, followed a white hart to the hermit St Chad, who baptised them. A nobleman, Werebode, betrayed them, and Wulfhere killed Rufin at Burston and Wulfad at Stone. Their mother raised a cairn of stones over their grave, and a remorseful Wulfhere let her build a priory there in about 670. The Victoria County History rejects the story: Wulfhere was already a Christian, and it probably borrows a tale Bede sets elsewhere.