Development of St Edmund's Cult in the Oral Tradition and Hagiography
This paper aims to trace the early stages of the cult of St Edmund, the East
Anglian king killed by the Vikings in 869. It addresses the question of how
St Edmund’s legend was created and circulated in the oral tradition and how
it was later incorporated in a hagiographical text («Passio sancti Eadmundi»
by Abbo of Fleury). The paper analyzes the correlation between elements of
oral tradition and hagiographical topoi in the «Passio» and seeks to reveal
various textual layers refl ecting different stages of the development of St Edmund’s
cult.
References
Англосаксонская хроника IX–XI веков / Пер. с древнеанглийского, введе-
ние, примеч. З.Ю. Метлицкой. СПб., 2010.
Омельницкий М. П. Жития трех английских святых Эльфрика: св. Осваль-
да, св. Эдмунда, св. Свизина. М., 1997.
Abbo of Fleury. Passio sancti Edmundi regis et martyris // Three lives of English
saints / Ed. M. Winterbottom. Toronto, 1972. P. 65–87.
Alexander D. Saints and Animals in the Middle Ages. Woodbridge, 2008.
Asser. De rebus gestis Ælfredi // Asser’s Life of king Alfred / Ed. W.H. Stevenson.
Oxford, 1904.
Blunt C.E. The St Edmund memorial coinage // Proceedings of the Suffolk
Institute of Archaeology. 1969. Vol. 31. P. 234–255.
Cavill P. Vikings: Fear and faith. Grand Rapids (MI), 2001.
Colgrave B. The earliest saints’ lives written in England // Proceedings of the
British Academy. 1958. Vol. 44. P. 35–60.
Cubitt C. Sites and sanctity: Revisiting the cult of murdered and martyred
royal saints // Early Medieval Europe. 2000. Vol. 9 (1). P. 53–83.
Damon J.E. Soldier saints and holy warriors. Warfare and sanctity in the literature
of early England. Aldershot, 2003.
Dolley M. Viking coins of the Danelaw and of Dublin. London, 1965.
Gransden A. The legends and traditions concerning the origins of the Abbey
of Bury St Edmunds // The English Historical Review. 1985. Vol. 100.
P. 1–24.
Grierson P., Blackburn M. Medieval European coinage, with a catalogue
of the coins in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Cambridge, 1986.
Vol. I: The early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries).
Gusakova O. A saint and the natural world: a motif of obedience in three
early Anglo-Saxon saints’ lives // God’s bounty? The Churches and the
natural world: Studies in Church history. 2010. Vol. 46. P. 42–52.
Hawkins E. The silver coins of England. London, 1841.
Hayward P.A. The idea of innocent martyrdom in late tenth- and eleventh
century English hagiology // Martyrs and martyrologies: Studies in Church
history. 1993. Vol. 30. P. 81–92.
Hadley D. M. The Vikings in England: Settlement, society and culture. Manchester,
2006.
Hobgood-Oster L. Holy Dogs and Asses: Animals in the Christian Tradition.
Urbana (Ill.) 2008.
John E. The age of Edgar // The Anglo-Saxons / Ed. J. Campbell. London,
1991 (fi rst publ. 1982).
Ridyard S. The royal saints of Anglo-Saxon England. A study of West Saxon
and East Anglian cults. Cambridge, 1988.
Rollason D.W. The cult of murdered royal saints in Anglo-Saxon England //
Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge, 1983. Vol. 11. P. 1–22.
164
Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel: A revised text / Ed., with intr., notes,
appendices and glossary Ch. Plummer; on the basis of an edition by
J. Earle. 2 vols. Oxford, 1892–1899. Vol. II.
West S. A new site for the martyrdom of St Edmund // Proceedings of the
Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History. 1981–1984. Vol. 35.
Whitelock D. Fact and fi ction in the legend of St Edmund // Proceedings of
the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History. 1969. Vol. 31.