2020/03/16 by Julia Barrow · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · #Medieval Literature and History #Historical and Religious Studies of Rome #Byzantine Studies and History
paper · pdf · doi:10.1163/9789004421899_010
openalex publication_date 2020/03/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
Barbara Yorke has made major contributions to our understanding of early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, including Northumbria, and this paper, which aims to shed some new light on Bede's handling of one of the key battles in early Northumbrian history, is presented to her as a small thank-offering for her work in this field and for her many kindnesses to fellow-scholars.1 Most recently Barbara Yorke has turned her attention to Aldfrith of Northumbria and his associations with Iona and Abbot Adomnn before the latter helped him to become king of Northumbria following the death of his half-brother Ecgfrith in 685.2 This paper goes a little further back in time to look at Aldfrith's uncle Oswald, another Northumbrian ruler with strong Ionan connections, and in particular at Bede's account of how Oswald defeated Caedwalla, king of the Britons, near Hexham in 634. As has long been noted by commentators, Bede does not provide any practical military information about the battle but instead concentrates on its spiritual meanings, and this paper will attempt to explore some of these further.3 The main aim is to point out a hitherto unnoticed set of allusions to passages in Luke Ch. 11 and Matthew Ch. 12 in the two opening chapters of Book iii of Bede's Ecclesiastical History: paying attention to these allows us to see how Bede shaped his material,4 and in particular helps to deepen discussion of three debates about Bede's HE, first of all his presentation of the kingdom of Northumbria as united polity, secondly whether or not he had read Adomnn's Life of St Columba and thirdly why he describes Oswald 1 See esp.