Of head bereft lies Kenelm, king-born.
The Pope sent word to England, the body was found in a thicket over which hung a pillar of supernal light, and was taken to Winchelcumb, in Gloucestershire, for burial; and at the spot near Halesowen, in Shropshire, where he was killed, Kenelm’s Chapel was erected.
But the most mystical legend in which birds are a part, is one familiar in Brittany. It is related of St. Leonore, a Welsh missionary who went to Brittany in the sixth century, to whom many fabulous powers and deeds are attributed, the most comprehensible of which Baring-Gould has put into verse. Leonore, with a band of followers, had decided to settle in Brittany on a desolate moor; but they had forgotten to bring any seed-wheat, and were alarmed.
Said the abbot, “God will help us
In this hour of bitter loss.”
Then one spied a little redbreast
Sitting on a wayside cross.
Doubtless came the bird in answer
To the words the monk did speak,
For a heavy wheat-ear dangled