Haegelisdun

{{Short description|Site where Edmund the Martyr the King of East Anglia was killed}} [[File:St.Edmunds Monument (geograph 2705742).jpg|thumb|right|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 was the initial place where his relics were venerated before moving to Beodricesworth monastery (modern day Bury St Edmunds).

St Edmund's incorrupt{{sfn|Gransden|1994}} relics had been venerated{{sfn|Pinner|2015|p=37}} 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Edmund of East Anglia Part 5 – The Last Mystery: Where Did Edmund Die? |website=Hidden East Anglia |url=http://www.hiddenea.com/edmund5.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928025052/http://www.hiddenea.com/edmund5.htm |archive-date=28 September 2015 |access-date=30 April 2012}}</ref> The placename was long and widely thought - probably in error{{sfn|Evans|1987}}{{sfn|Briggs|2011}} - to refer to Hoxne in Suffolk.{{sfn|Young|2018|pp= 61-66}} Other proposed sites have been Bradfield St Clare, Hellesdon in Norfolk (documented as Hægelisdun c. 985) and more recently Maldon in Essex.{{sfn|Higham|1999}}<ref name="auto">Hoops, ''Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, Volume 6'', p. 328.</ref>{{sfn|Briggs|2011}}

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.{{sfn|Young|2018|p=75}}{{sfn|Ridyard|1988|p=213}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==Bibliography== * {{cite journal|last=Briggs|first=Keith |title=Was Hægelisdun in Essex? A New Site for the Martyrdom of Edmund|journal=Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology & History|volume=XLII, Part 3|year=2011|page=278}} * {{cite journal|last=Evans|first=Margaret Carey |title=The Contribution of Hoxne to the Cult of St Edmund King and Martyr in the Middle Ages and Later|journal=Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology & History|volume=XXXVI, Part 3 |year=1987|page= 182}} * {{cite journal|last=Gransden|first=A|title=The Alleged Incorruption of the Body of St Edmund King and Martyr|journal= The Antiquaries Journal|volume=74|date=March 1994|pages=135–168 |doi=10.1017/S0003581500024410 }} * {{Cite encyclopedia |last=Higham |first=N. J. |title=East Anglia, Kingdom of |editor=M. Lapidge| encyclopedia=The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England |publisher=Blackwell |location=London |year=1999 |pages=154–155 |isbn=978-0-631-22492-1 |display-editors=etal}} * {{cite book | last = Pinner | first = Rebecca | title = The Cult of St Edmund in Medieval East Anglia | publisher = Boydell Press | year = 2015 | location = Woodbridge | isbn = 9781783270354 | pages = 276 | language = English | format = Hardcover|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vpq7CgAAQBAJ}} * {{cite book|last=Ridyard|first=Susan J.|title=The Royal Saints of Anglo-Saxon England: a Study of West Saxon & East Anglian Cults|year=1988|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-30772-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rj49AAAAIAAJ}} * {{cite book |last1=Young |first1=Francis |title=Edmund: In Search of England's Lost King |date=2018 |publisher=Bloomsbury |location=London |isbn=978-17867-3-361-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wBOMDwAAQBAJ }}

Category:Bury St Edmunds