The Project Gutenberg eBook, Wulfric the Weapon Thane, by Charles W.
Whistler

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Title: Wulfric the Weapon Thane

Author: Charles W. Whistler

Release Date: October 14, 2004 [eBook #13752]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WULFRIC THE WEAPON THANE***

E-text prepared by Martin Robb

WULFRIC THE WEAPON THANE

A Story of the Danish Conquest of East Anglia

by

CHARLES W. WHISTLER

PREFACE.

A word may be needed with regard to the sources from which this
story of King Eadmund's armour bearer and weapon thane have been
drawn. For the actual presence of such a close attendant on the
king at his martyrdom on Nov. 20, 870 A.D. we have the authority of
St. Dunstan, who had the story from the lips of the witness
himself.

But as to the actual progress of events before the death of the
king, the records are vague and imperfect. We are told that, after
the defeat at Thetford, the king had intended to seek safety in the
church, probably at Framlingham, where the royal household was, but
was forced to hide, and from his hiding place was dragged before
Ingvar the Danish leader, and so slain.

The two local legends of the "king's oak" in Hoxne woods, and of
the "gold bridge", may fill in what is required to complete the
story.

The former, identifying a certain aged oak as that to which the
king was bound, has been in a measure corroborated by the discovery
in 1848 of what may well have been a rough arrow point in its
fallen trunk; while the fact that, until the erection of the new
bridge at Hoxne in 1823, no newly-married couple would cross the
"gold bridge" on the way to church, for the reasons given in the
story, seems to show that the king's hiding place may indeed have
been beneath it as the legend states. If so, the flight from
Thetford must have been most precipitate, and closely followed.

There are two versions of the story of Lodbrok the Dane and Beorn
the falconer. That which is given here is from Roger of Wendover.
But in both versions the treachery of one Beorn is alleged to have
been the cause of the descent of Ingvar and Hubba on East Anglia.

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