Happy St Edmund's Day

Submitted by: Steadfast Trust correspondent, 20th Nov 08

Statue of the saint in the gardens of the ruined abbey in Bury St Edmunds

November 20th is Saint Edmund's Day, the true patron Saint of England. When the Northmen from Normandy arrived in England towards the end of the 11th Century, they set about some cultural cleansing. They didn't call it that in those days, they did not call it anything, but they clearly understood the purpose of their actions.

The Norman intention was to remove obvious signs of Angle, Jutish and Saxon cultural emblems and symbols and replace them with something alien, different and more akin to whatever cultural pretentions the Normans had. Their first attempts were directed against English customs and language.

Over the course of the next two centuries, the primacy of Saint Edmund the Martyr as the true patron Saint of the English, was diminished in favour of the semi-mythical image of a Middle Eastern St. George originating in the Papal/Norman Crusades. Edmund, the King of the East Angles had acquired sainthood after he been killed by the Danes in 869 - captured, shot by arrows and then decapitated, his head later being found by a friendly wolf. A shrine was built in the king’s honour in Suffolk which during the early middle ages became one of the great spiritual treasures of England.

Although the Angles, Jutes and Saxons had other symbols of their origins such as the Raven, Boar, Wolf etc. their enduring and unifying emblem was the White Dragon - itself copied from the legions of Imperial Rome.

As part of the power greedy Norman influence of the time and inspired by the religious fervour of the Crusades, the White Dragon Flag of the English was gradually replaced by the Red Cross (so called St. George's Cross).

The poetically beautiful personal names of the Angles, Jutes and Saxons, such as; Waltheof, Aelfred, Aelgifu, Aedward and many others, were lost to the more mundane names of Biblical origin with a few of Norman provenance thrown into the mix. Fortunately, since Victorian times we have enjoyed something of a revival in the use of many of our traditional English names.

Tinkered with it might be, but our wonderfully expressive English language survived intact. Our foreign rulers of the 12th and 13th Centuries; tyrants all, had to bow to the will of the English in that respect. So it was and so it would be for the future.

So when you're flying the Cross of St George remember a White Dragon sits very well along side it. Likewise a few rounds of drinks and a toast for St Edmund on his day goes down just a well as a cry for God, Harry and St George on the 23rd April.