The Bishop and the Pagan

The story of The Bishop and the Pagan, drawn from musical documents and folklore, tells of the death of the British warrior and Christian missionary Bishop Henry at the hands of the Finnish peasant farmer Lalli in the winter of 1158. By a fortunate and unusual historical circumstance, the viewpoints of both sides have been preserved: a written Latin Gregorian chant "The Sequence of Saint Henry" documents the British Christian side, while numerous folk songs represent the event as seen by the Finnish pagan. (Text: The Sequence of St. Henry, in Latin, and ancient Finnish runic folk songs, in Finnish or English).