The strange creature in the above photo is on a bench end in our South Chapel. It is the legendary wolf guarding St. Emund's head in our East Anglian legend. The wolf, as you can see, is clad in priest's clothing. It is a sort of fourteenth century joke or cartoon - a wolf in shepherd's clothing (?)
3 comments:
Looks more like it's eating the head if you ask me!
Lots of really nice carvings at St Peter & Pauls in Harlington...er...where I never go of course...street cred..street cred...;-)
If you never go into St. Peter and St. Paul's how do you know about the carv...... Oh, yes, I suppose Caz has told you about them....sorry, didn't think.
The earliest and most reliable accounts represent Edmund as descended from the preceding kings of East Anglia of the Wuffing line. Other accounts state that his father was King Æthelweard. Geoffrey of Wells claimed that Edmund was the youngest son of Alcmund, a Saxon king. Edmund was said to have been crowned by Bishop Humbert of Elmham on Christmas Day 855.
The tribal name Wuffing means 'people of the wolf' - I wonder if his head was guarded not by a wild animal but by his nearest and dearest? While there is usually a kernel of truth at the core of folk tales and legend, it is frequently garbled over the course of centuries of retelling by and to folk whose principle beverage was ale!
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