Harold's Love Bites, 1066 And All That

I heard on the lunchtime news that on this day in 1066 King Harold was killed at the Battle of Hastings. I decided to visit Waltham Abbey, where it is said that he is buried, but not before doing a bit of research.

His body was very badly mutilated and even though his mother offered his weight in gold, the Norman army refused to let her identify him. The task fell to his mistress, Edith Swan Neck, using marks on his body known only to her. Because of her identification Harold was given a Christian burial by the monks of Waltham Abbey.

Heinrich Heine's poem has it thus:

"Discovered hath Edith the corpse of the king!
No longer need she seek;
No word she spake, she wept no tear,
She kissed the pale, pale cheek.
She kissed the brow, she kissed the lips,
Her arms about him pressed,
She kissed the deep wound blood-besmeared
Upon her monarch’s breast.
And at the shoulder looked she too —
And them she kissed contented —
Three little scars, joy-wounds her love In
Passion’s hour indented."

This woman with a swan-like arched neck of smoothest pearl picking barefoot through the carnage in search of her lover is a strong image and joy-wounds for love bites appeals. The Joy Of Sex 1066 style.

I passed the King Harold's Head pub and Harold's Park Farm on my way to the abbey. Nothing much Harold inside but Eve in the Edward Burne-Jones stained glass window looked a bit Edith The Fair. I got rained on while I was shooting Harold's statue outside.