Alexis Master: Miscellany on the Life of Saint Edmund, folio 9v - Landing of the Vikings (1130)

(The Morgan Library, New York, USA)

An illustration made by an unknown English artist with the notname 'the Alexis Master'. This page comes from the illuminated manuscript 'Miscellany on the life of Saint Edmund' (MS M.736). The book deals with the death and burial of saint Edmund the Martyr (reign A.D. 855-869). Edmund the Martyr was the king of of the East Angles (or East Anglia), a former kingdom in the East of England comprising what are now the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The kingdom of the East Angles was devastated by a massive viking invasion who also destroyed almost all contemporary evidence of Edmund's reign. As a result later Medieval chroniclers produced fictitious accounts of Edmund's life such as this book. In A.D. 865 a large Viking army (known as 'the Great Viking army or Great Heathen Army), composed of warriors from Norway, Denmark and Sweden, landed in East Anglia. The reason for the invasion was to avenge the death of king Ragnar Lodbrok of Sweden who was supposedly executed by King Ælla of Northumbria who had Ragnar thrown into a pit full of snakes. Three sons of Ragnar commanded the great Viking army against the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. When the vikings landed in A.D. 865 king Edmund at first made peace with the invaders by providing them with horses for their campaign. The vikings invaded other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms but when the returned to East Anglia in 869 Edmund fought against the viking but was defeated and killed. The book 'Miscellany on the life of Saint Edmund' claims that the viking demanded that Edmund renounced Christ but when he refused the vikings beat him, shot him with arrows and then beheaded him. People quickly found the body of the saint but his head was missing. The head of Edmund was thrown into the forest, but was found safe by searchers after following the cries of an ethereal wolf that was calling, in Latin, "Hic, Hic, Hic" – "Here, Here, Here". The saint was buried at Bury St Edmunds but his shrine was destroyed in 1539 during the English Reformation. Saint Edmund is the patron saint of Kings, pandemics, the Roman Catholic diocese of East Anglia, Douai Abbey, wolves, torture victims, protection from the plague. The page shows the landing of the Great Viking Army - seven viking ships, 5 with the famous animal-headed prows, are near the shore of England. Warriors armed with spears and shield are walking on planks to land. The viking army itself continued to campaign in England for about 14 years, devastating large parts of the country and killing King Ælla of Northumbria. Book from 1130.