Saewulf

Illuminated manuscript depicting city map of Jerusalem under Crusader control, 1200s. Sæwulf ( ; 1102 – 1103) was probably the first English (Anglo-Saxon) pilgrim to Jerusalem following its conquest in the First Crusade. His Latin written account of his pilgrimage, Relatio de situ Ierusalem , tells of an arduous and dangerous journey; and Sæwulf's descriptive narrative provides scholars brief but significant insight into sea travel across the Mediterranean to the new Kingdom of Jerusalem that was established soon after the end of the First Crusade.

Life Given his Anglo-Saxon name, Sæwulf likely came from mainly Anglo-Saxon heritage rather than Norman descent. Though details of Sæwulf's life after his pilgrimage are uncertain, he is generally thought to be the Sæwulf (or Seuulfus) of Worcester mentioned by the distinguished English historian William of Malmesbury in his "Gesta Pontificum Anglorum" as a merchant who in his old age became a monk in Malmesbury Abbey in Wiltshire, England.

Pilgrimage

Sæwulf's telling of his travels on pilgrimage to the Holy Land start in Apulia on 13 July 1102 with his boarding ship at Monopoli. Three years earlier in 1099, Jerusalem fell to the Crusaders in a successful siege, reopening the city for Christian pilgrims. Via many ports, he made landfall at Jaffa and began a tour of Palestine, including Jericho and Hebron. including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He also visited Bethlehem, finding it, with the exception of a monastery, "all ruined". He noted the presence of many corpses of pilgrims abandoned on and near the road, unburied because of the rough ground and reasons of safety, as "nybody who did this would dig a grave not for his fellow Christian but for himself."

In 1839 Sæwulf's report was edited into French by Armand d'Avezac and from that translated into English by Thomas Wright who included it as the section "The Travels of Sæwulf" in his 1848 anthology "Early Travels in Palestine".