by Rannoch Daly
Colm O’Brien led discussion of Chapters 2-4 of the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto.[1] There are three surviving texts in Oxford, Cambridge and Lincoln’s Inn but the Oxford text omits Chapters 1-9. All three were written a few centuries after the death of Cuthbert in 687 AD.
History
Chapter 3 says that King Oswine [of Deira] (Cambridge text) or King Oswy [of Bernicia] (Lincoln’s Inn text) gave the monastery of Old Melrose and twelve vills in the Bowmont valley to Abbot Boisil on condition that he pass them on to St Cuthbert. However, according to Bede, Oswine died in 651 AD, twelve days before Cuthbert joined the church at Old Melrose, and Oswy died in 670, several years before Cuthbert became either a bishop (685) or a saint (698)[2]. The writers of HSC Chapter 3 seem to have been re-interpreting earlier history to ‘justify’ their present possession of these lands. Colm O’Brien concluded that it had been ‘an ecclesiastical heist’.
Geography
Chapter 4 describes land south of the river Tweed between the east coast and the river Till but gets a bit fuzzy in the south-west referring to ‘land that lies on both sides of the river Breamish up to the place where it rises’, which is not a very precise boundary description. Incidentally, much of these lands formed the territories of Norhamshire, Islandshire and Bedlingtonshire which survived until a local government reorganisation in 1844.[3]
Chapter 4 also describes land north of the Tweed lying as far as the Leader Water and the ‘fluius Edre’ but does not clarify whether the ‘Edre’ is the Blackadder or the Whiteadder. As a glance at the map reveals, this makes a considerable difference to the amount of land described. Did the writer not know, or was this a deliberately vague ‘land grab’?
Conclusion
In the case of Old Melrose and of the rivers Breamish and ‘Edre’ it seems that the writers may have been trying to stretch the boundaries of history and of geography to their own advantage. These observations lead us to wonder; who were they trying to convince?
Next Meeting: Thursday 4 June
Topic: Can you tell your Uncial from your Insular Majuscule? A look at 8th century hand-writing.
All welcome – especially the inquisitive!!
[1]SOUTH, Ted Johnson 2002 Historia de Sancto Cuthberto (Rochester, NY; Boydell and Brewer)
[2]BEDE 1968 History of the English Church and People Trans. Leo Sherley-Price (London; Penguin) (Books III.14,17 & IV.5,27,29,30)
[3]RAINE, Rev. James, 1852 The History and Antiquities of North Durham (Durham; John Bowyer Nichols)