Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Cathedral looted and pillaged... in best-selling game
Iconic building features in Assassin’s Creed
A deadly assassin has got into Canterbury Cathedral to loot and pillage. But there’s no cause for alarm - it’s just a fictional creation in the latest instalment of one of the world’s most popular computer action games. The iconic building features in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which was released last week and stormed to the top of the best-seller charts.
The game is set during the Viking invasion of England in the ninth century.
In reality, it was one of the darkest period’s in the Cathedral’s history when the Scandinavian raiders really did lay siege to the city until its defences were overwhelmed and the cathedral burned down. Archbishop Alphege was captured by the Vikings and beaten to death with ox bones when he refused to be ransomed.
In the new game, created by Ubisoft, gamers play legendary Viking raider Eivor who leads
raids against Saxon fortresses throughout England. Among other locations, the adventure takes players into Canterbury where Eivor scales the old Saxon cathedral walls to gain access and loot the building.
Back then, it was a far less grand building than today’s magnificent structure. Cathedral bosses say they were not consulted about the site being included in the new game and only discovered by chance. Spokesman Nathan Crouch said: “We were surprised to see Canterbury Cathedral as one of the playable locations in the latest video game in the Assassin’s Creed series.
“Two missions in the game – A Bloody Welcome and Search for Fulke – take place within Canterbury itself, requiring players to ride cross-country, infiltrate the city and then gain entry to the Anglo-saxon Cathedral. “While the real Canterbury Cathedral was not involved at all in the game’s development and was unaware that a fictional reconstruction of the AngloSaxon cathedral would appear, the cathedral and Vikings do share a fascinating, and often violent, real history.” After he was murdered in 1012, Alphege’s body was taken to London and buried in the old St Paul’s Cathedral. He was later made a saint.
In 1023, King Canute, a Christian descendent of the Vikings, had St Alphege’s bones moved to Canterbury Cathedral, where they were interred on the north side of the High Altar, near to St Dunstan.