6 Oct 2008

The Story of Edmund Ironside

This is the story of Edmund Ironside narrated by Jemimah:

After the Queen had died, her brother who was the Ruler of the Danes was so angry that he thought, “I’ll pay these people back for killing my sister.” He gathered many men to fight with him. Then he went on his ships and travelled over to England. He had purple sails! He had many men. He tried burning the English country but the men fled to get away from the King. King Ethelred the Unready fled too. He ran to France because his wife’s dad lived there. He had a very good time there and soon had forgotten about his poor country.

Meanwhile, the country was in a lot of trouble. They had picked a new king. One was the son of the Danish King. He was called Canute, and the other was an English one – Edmund Ironside. He was the son of Ethelred.

One day the Danes came to fight again. It made Edmund, the English King very sad. He did not like to see his country fight and he wept for every person who died, though he kept winning.

Then he told his reporter something very strange: “Go and tell our other king we shall have a fight and the one who dies shall be honoured like a king but the one who lives shall be ruler of England.” So off went the reporter with this very strange report to tell the other king.

He thought and then said, “Yes! We shall do this! I shall fight with him. The one who lives shall be king, and the one who dies shall be dead.”

So, they fought. Just as the Danish king thought he was going to die he said, “Can not we just quit this and be brothers?” Down dropped his spear. “Yes, brother we can. We shall both be king.”
And so it was and the Danish king ruled over the north side and the English king ruled over the south side.

One day the English king died in a battle. He had only ruled for seven months.

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