Saint
The Saint's Spear
Only the Viking king could see who killed him.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Ruins of the great abbey that held Edmund's shrine
- Legend from
- Anglo-Saxon, 1014
- Tone
- Eerie
Bury St Edmunds. In 1014 a Viking king threatened this shrine. That night, they say, a dead saint came for him with a spear.
In 1014 the Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard demanded tribute from the lands of St Edmund's monastery at Bury and threatened to burn the town and the saint's shrine. Medieval writers say that at Gainsborough, surrounded by his army, Sweyn suddenly cried out that St Edmund was coming at him. Only he could see the armoured saint, who struck him with a spear. Sweyn fell from his horse and died that night. The story was told for centuries to show the power of the dead king over his enemies, and the abbey that grew up here became one of the richest in England, with Edmund's shrine at its heart.