Wild Edric

Wild Edric, or Edric Salvage (Sauvage), is first recorded in the Domesday Book as holding several manors in the south and west of the county. 

After the defeat of Harold at the battle of Hastings in 1066, William the Conqueror didn't have things all his own way. A few regions held out against the invaders - Northumbria, Cheshire and, most famously, the Fenlands under Hereward the Wake.

It's not certain what Edric's attitude was initially toward the Norman invaders. The chronicler Ordericus Vitalis records that Edric submitted to the new king and was confirmed in his lands. Whether that's true or not, Edric soon changed his mind.

Even before the Norman Conquest there were a number of estates already ruled by Norman noblemen who had been encouraged by Edward the Confessor to settle in the Shropshire and Hereford to build castles to defend against the Welsh. One of whom was Richard Fitz Scrob who had Richard's Castle at Ludlow.

According to Florence of Worcester's Chronicle: "Because he (Edric) scorned to submit to the king, his lands were frequently ravaged by the garrison of Hereford and by Richard Fitz Scrob: but whenever they raided his territories , they lost many of their knights and men-at-arms. Therefore, having summoned to his aid the princes of the Welsh, namely Bleddyn and Rhiwallon, this same Edric, about the feast of the Assumption of St Mary (15 August 1067), devastated Herefordshire as far as the bridge over the River Lugg and carried away much plunder."

Nothing much happened for a couple of years - Edric remained undefeated and, presumably, untroubled by further campaigns against him. In the autumn of 1069 however there were widespread uprisings against the Normans - Northumbria offered the crown of England to King Sweyn Estrithson of Denmark, who duly arrived with 300 ships to conquer England. William marched north to meet this army and several other revolts sprang up - in the West Country, Cheshire and Wales.

Edric joined his old Welsh allies and the Anglo-Danes of Cheshire in a campaign into Shropshire, destroying Shrewsbury. His objective was to join the rebels at Stafford but these were defeated by William before contact was established. He retreated to his own lands and by the summer of 1070 was, again according to Florence of Worcester 'reconciled with King William'.

That William didn't take any action against Edric was unusual considering the treatment meted out to other rebels. Two years later in 1072, Edric even joined the King's expedition against the Scots. What happened after that is obscure except that by 1087 when the Domesday Book was compiled all Edric's estates had passed to Norman lords - especially Ralph Mortimer of Wigmore Castle. It is possible that there was a further revolt in 1075 in which Edric was defeated by Mortimer at Wigmore - though this is only mentioned in the Mortimer family chronicles.

So much for the history, now the folklore...

From De Nugis Curialum (The Courtier's Trifle), compiled in the 1180s by Walter Map, there is the first mention of the faery-bride. Edric had been out hunting with a page and was returning from the forest in the middle of the night. He came upon a large building at the edge of the forest and he looked inside. There he saw "many fine ladies dancing: they were most beautiful to look upon ... and were taller and nobler than human women. One among them struck the knight especially..." So, chivalry not being his strong point, he kidnaps her and, the narrative implies, rapes her. She is silent throughout.

After four days, she finally speaks to him and consents to be his bride on the condition that he never mentions her origins or the place from which she came. Edric agrees and they marry with great ceremony. She bears him a son, Aelnoth. 

Many years later, the wife, Lady Godda, returns home late and Edric accuses her of being with her "sisters in the forest". As he says the word "sisters", the faery disappears, never to be seen again. Edric searches in vain for the place he found her. Eventually he pines away from grief.

Aelnoth lived to an old age: when aged, he "fell into a palsy and shaking of the head and limbs". After pilgrimage to the tomb of St Ethelbert at Hereford Cathedral he is cured and presents his estate at Lydbury North to the church. De Nugis Curialum records that "We have often heard of demons, incubi and succubi, and of the dangers of mating with them, but rarely or never do we read that the offspring of such unions ended their lives happily, as did this Aelnoth". (According to Kightly in Folk Heroes of Britain this is an adaptation of an earlier story where the person cured of palsy who gave his lands to the church was Egwin Shaking-Head.)

Over the years more legends grew up around Edric. A magical fish guarded Edric's sword in Bomere pool and would only give it up to Edric's true heir. Edric's ghost - in the form of a giant hound with blazing, red eyes - haunts the hills around Church Stretton.

Then came the story that Edric had never died and was imprisoned, along with his wife and warriors, for his surrender to William in the lead mines around the Stiperstones. Miners reported a knocking sound which they believed were the 'Old Men' alerting them to a rich lode. Whenever war was near, Edric and his retinue would emerge and ride over the hills as warning. They were reported as appearing before the Napoleonic, Boer and First World Wars...

So Edric seems to have acquired a lot of "standard" folklore around him - the king under the hill (Arthur, Barbarossa, Charlemagne, Niebelungen), the faery-bride, the wild hunt and I'm pretty sure I've heard the magical fish story before as well...