{{Short description|Anglo-Saxon princess, died c. 800}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{Infobox saint |name= Saint Alkelda |birth_date= |death_date= c. 800 |feast_day= 28 March |venerated_in= |image=File:Alkelda Giggleswick SD8164 034.jpg |imagesize= |caption=St Alkelda's Church, Giggleswick |birth_place= |death_place= Middleham, North Yorkshire |titles= |beatified_date= |beatified_place= |beatified_by= |canonized_date= |canonized_place= |canonized_by= |attributes= |patronage= |major_shrine= |suppressed_date= |issues= }}
'''Saint Alkelda''' ({{langx|ang|Hǣlcelde}}, "healing spring"; died on 28 March c. 800), also spelt '''Alcelda''' or '''Alchhild''', was ostensibly an Anglo-Saxon princess of whom almost nothing is known and whose existence has been questioned.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.jervaulxchurches.co.uk/middleham/st_alkelda.html |title=Middleham |publisher=Jervaulx Churches |access-date=30 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314105318/http://www.jervaulxchurches.co.uk/middleham/st_alkelda.html |archive-date=14 March 2012 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all}} (quoting William Grainge (mid 19th century)</ref>
==Alternative origins== Legend has it that she was an Anglo-Saxon princess,<ref>John Blair (2002), "A Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Saints", in Alan Thacker and Richard Sharpe, ''Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 511 ff.</ref> and probably also a nun, who was strangled by pagan Viking women during Danish raids in about 800 at Middleham in Yorkshire. She is patron of the church at Giggleswick and also of that of Middleham, the church there having a holy well, but of no others. She may have been in addition abbess of a monastery at Middleham. In 1389, the Lord of Middleham Manor received a crown grant to hold a weekly market and yearly fair on the feast of St Alkelda. [[File:Middleham, The Collegiate Church St Mary and St Alkeda. - geograph.org.uk - 231927.jpg|thumb|Church of Saints Mary and Alkelda, Middleham]] The area is known for its many springs, some very near the sites of these churches. With no documentary reference to this saint until the late Middle Ages, it has been surmised that the name ''Alkelda'' is a corruption of an Anglo-Saxon word, ''haligkelda'', meaning ''holy spring''.<ref>''Secret Britain'', Automobile Association, January 1987. {{ISBN|978-0-86145-435-8}}</ref> However, this has been contested,<ref name="auto">{{Cite web |url=http://www.northcravenheritage.org.uk/NCHTJto2009/Journals/2008/StAlkelda.html|title=St Alkelda |website=www.northcravenheritage.org.uk |access-date=10 August 2017}}</ref> also with claims that she may actually have been Icelandic, from Ölkelda, and her reputation brought to Yorkshire in Northern England by Vikings, where she became associated with holy springs such as Giggleswick.<ref name="auto"/>
Her feast day is 28 March.
==St Alkelda’s Way== St Alkelda’s Way is a self-guided pilgrimage walk of 33 miles that runs from Giggleswick to Middleham through the Yorkshire Dales National Park,<ref>[https://www.britishpilgrimage.org/portfolio/st-alkeldas-way? "St Alkelda’s Way", British Pilgrimage Trust]</ref> and pass the remains of Coverham Abbey.<ref>[https://ldwa.org.uk/ldp/members/show_path.php?path_name=St+Alkelda%27s+Way "St Alkelda's Way", The Long Distance Walkers Association]</ref> ==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==External links== *[http://www.daelnet.co.uk/local/churches/giggleswick/alkelda/psaint.htm Account of Saint Alkelda from Giggleswick church] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927211628/http://www.daelnet.co.uk/local/churches/giggleswick/alkelda/psaint.htm |date=27 September 2011 }} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20060211125308/http://www.alkelda.f9.co.uk/holywells/alkeld1.htm Description of Saint Alkelda's Well at Middleham]
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Alkelda}} Category:800 deaths Category:Anglo-Saxon royalty Category:Northumbrian saints Category:Yorkshire saints Category:8th-century Christian saints Category:Year of birth unknown Category:Medieval English saints Category:Female saints of medieval England Category:8th-century English people Category:8th-century English women Category:Middleham