St Edmund and the Great Heathen Army Beyond Ragnar's Legend

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into the historical figure of King Edmund of East Anglia, whose death at the hands of the Great Heathen Army in 869 has been mythologized into one of England's most celebrated martyr stories. They explore the sparse contemporary records in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle versus the vivid hagiography written by Abbo of Fleury a century later, and how the legend—Edmund tied to a tree, riddled with arrows, his head guarded by a wolf—blurs with the saga tradition of Ragnar Lothbrok's sons, especially Ívarr the Boneless. The conversation examines what we can know about the real king, the political context of the Viking invasion of East Anglia, and how the cult of St Edmund shaped English identity. Along the way, they touch on the challenges of separating history from legend in early medieval sources, and why Edmund's story remains a powerful lens onto the Viking Age.

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