Sea Storm at Sunset, by Russian artist Ivan Aivazovsky (1817–1900). Canute (or Cnut) the Great was a King of Denmark who took the English throne from Edmund Ironside in 1016. Canute ruled both Denmark and England until his death in 1035; Edith’s timely intervention in a storm took place on one of his voyages across the North Sea.
Episode 4 of 5 in the Series
St Edith of Wilton
Introduction
In about 961 King Edgar took a noble lady named Wulfthryth from Wilton Abbey to be his lover. Soon after, she returned to Wilton with a daughter named Edith, who became a nun. Many years later Canute, King of Denmark and since 1016 also King of England, paid a visit to the Abbey, and expressed surprise that Edith was now regarded there as a saint.
AT Wilton Abbey one Whitsuntide, King Canute kept laughing loudly throughout dinner, refusing to believe that a daughter of Edgar could be a saint, since her father had always been addicted to lust and tyranny.* Archbishop Æthelnoth, who was present, contradicted him, and immediately uncovered the virgin’s shrine.*
What follows is quite true: raising herself up to the waist, she was observed to strike at the contemptuous king!* He quailed inwardly, then betrayed his fear by falling down as if dead; but he recovered his breath and, flushed with happiness, asked her pardon for his temerity; and ever afterwards, he held the virgin in high honour.
Once when beset by a sea-storm he called on her; serenity returned, and he reached his chosen port safely. When Ealdred,* Archbishop of York, was caught up in a dangerous situation on the Adriatic, he too called on the holy virgin, and presently she appeared to him in visible form saying ‘I am Edith’, and tranquillity was restored as before.
Freely translated from the Latin
From ‘Life of St Edith’, by Monk Goscelin (fl. 1050-1090), as given in J. P. Migne’s ‘Patrologia Latina’ MPL 155 cols 0109-0116B. Freely translated. For substantial extracts in English, see ‘A Catholic History of England’, by William Bernard MacCabe (1801-1891), and there is a life of St Edith at OrthoChristian.
William of Malmesbury (1080-1143) complained that many of the tales of Edgar’s misdeeds “have rather been cast on him by ballads,” though he nonetheless felt compelled to record some of Edgar’s guilty liaisons. As for tyranny, although Edgar liked humiliating his lords, his worst excesses were surely the appalling punishments he handed out to thieves and other wrongdoers in the pursuit of the good social order that won him the title of ‘Edgar the Peaceful’. See also Edgar and the Ship of Kings and Edgar’s Peace.
St Æthelnoth was chaplain to King Canute (Cnut), and from 1020 to 1038 he was Archbishop of Canterbury. Edith’s tomb was within the Chapel of St Denis that she had herself founded and adorned with frescoes just before she died. Who opened the tomb is not absolutely clear. It could have been Æthelnoth in irritation, or Canute in a spirit of forensic inquiry. The purpose would be much the same: Edith’s remains were said to be partially uncorrupted, and thus proof of sanctity.
The rebuke may seem less than saintly, but Canute was implying that sanctity is a matter of heredity, i.e. that virtue (or the lack of it) is determined biologically. That kind of talk needs to be nipped in the bud because it tempts people to blame bad genes for their vices, or else to think that good genes will inoculate them against having any. For another tale of contempt and reproof, though much closer to our own day, see The Miracle of Piso Livadi.
Ealdred was Archbishop of York from 1060 to 1069; he had previously been Bishop of Worcester. Despite backing Edgar the Atheling in the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings in 1066, Ealdred was one of the few English bishops to continue in post under William of Normandy. He was prevailed on to crown William as King of England on Christmas Day that year, and seems to have been determined to act as a restraining influence on him. On the curious history of Edgar the Atheling, a great-great-grandson of King Edgar, see Edward the Exile.
Questions for Critics
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Archive
Word Games
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Dinner. Loud. Lust.
2 Contemptuous. Keep. Serenity.
3 Believe. Father. Tyranny.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Confusables Find in Think and Speak
In each group below, you will find words that are similar to one another, but not exactly the same. Compose your own sentences to bring out the similarities and differences between them, whether in meaning, grammar or use.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1.
Call.
Visit.
2.
Can.
Could.
3.
Observe.
Watch.
4.
Quite.
Rather.
5.
Rise.
Raise.
6.
Tall.
High.
7.
Then.
Next.
8.
Too.
Very.
9.
Were.
We’re.
Subject and Object Find in Think and Speak
Use each word below in two sentences, first as the subject of a verb, and then as the object of a verb. It doesn’t have to be the same verb: some verbs can’t be paired with an object (e.g. arrive, happen), so watch out for these.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1. Fall. 2. Return. 3. Recover. 4. Breath. 5. King. 6. Reach. 7. Safe. 8. Sea. 9. Catch.
Variations: 1.use your noun in the plural (e.g. cat → cats), if possible. 2.give one of your sentences a future aspect (e.g. will, going to). 3.write sentences using negatives such as not, neither, nobody and never.
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
n (7+4)
aeon. an. in. ion. no. on. one.
eon. nae. nee. uni.
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