Councillors in Suffolk County Council’s Endeavour House received an impromptu lesson in Anglo Saxon from LibDem Group Leader Dave Wood today, when they agreed to name the Council Chamber ‘King Edmund’s Chamber’.
Edmund King and Martyr was king of East Anglia from about 855 until he was killed by the Danish Great Heathen Army in 869AD. He was initially patron saint of Suffolk, but then went on to become patron saint of England, before being deposed by St George.
While other group leaders were reduced to describing Suffolk’s Anglo Saxon patron saint in terms of his geographical location, origin and community spirit, Cllr Wood quoted the maxim by which King Edmund lived:
Gif þu eart to heafodmen geset, ne ahefe þu ðe, ac beo betwux mannum swa swa an man of him
(which, roughly translated means: If you become a ruler, don’t be puffed up, but be amongst people as one of them.)
This, said, Cllr Wood, was an excellent maxim for all elected officials to live by.
And after he had translated it, the other parties agreed.
Caroline Page
Lib Dem Group Spokesperson on AngloSaxon