← Contents

XXX

The Slain Are Buried Beneath the Church Floor

The History of King Sweyn Estridsson and His Sons and of the Martyrdom of King Canute the Holy

When the disturbances already described had subsided and the agents of impiety withdrew from the divine temple and from God, the devoted clergy there, joined by the faithful, carried out their duty of compassion. They tended to the bodies of the slain, placing the royal remains and those of his brother within the basilica itself, each in its own resting place, as befitted the site of their struggle. The bodies of the glorious warriors were committed to the earth in the courtyard of the same basilica, toward the western and northern corners, to be kept there until the day of resurrection.