About the Score
The story of King Edmund takes place in the mid 800s and remains shrouded in some mystery. Though certain details are sketchy depending on the historical source, the events depicted in the poetic text seem consistent with most sources. I believe that the story of this king is not about the violent loss of a life, but about the triumph of a man who held fast to his faith. His enemy took all-- his kingdom, his family's dynasty and ultimately his earthly body. What so enraged his enemy and led to the cruelty of the execution, was the knowledge that they could not take his faith. They could not reach beyond the bounds of the frailty of human life and alter his sacred eternity. In the end and thereafter King Edmund, the last EastAnglian king, also rumored to be the last of the Wuffingas ("Little Wolves") Dynasty, was triumphant.
It is said that when Edmund's men found his remains, it was so riddled with arrows it resembled more a hedgehog than a human. When they went looking for his head, they heard the beckoning call of a wolf. They soon came upon the old grey creature, standing guard over the head of their king.
The text, taken from the writings of Ælfric of Eynsham and adapted by Frances E. F. Ward
