Overview

Bede was a monk of the joint monastery of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow in the late seventh century into the early eighth, and England's first historian: his 'Ecclesiastical History of the English People' is our greatest source for the history of early Anglo-Saxon England. Yet Bede was also a leading scholar of the Church, and much of his effort went into biblical exegesis, many of his works in this field surviving to this day. In this book, Clive Tolley looks at some events in the reigns of three early kings of Northumbria, Bede's own homeland, and seeks to develop a better understanding not only of what took place from a secular point of view, but also of how the recounting of these events was informed by a spiritual perception of history such as Bede and his contemporaries espoused. The topics dealt with include the battle of Chester and the slaughter of the monks of Bangor-is-Coed by Æthelfrith, the conversion of Eadwine and desecration of the pagan sanctuary of Goodmanham, and the victory of Oswald following his raising of the cross at Heavenfield.

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9780852449301

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Clive Tolley read Classics and Old English at New College, Oxford, and completed a doctorate there on comparative Norse and Finnish/Siberian mythology and shamanism (1993). He has also studied at the universities of Helsinki, Turku and Munich, and additionally has a PGCE (English and Classics) and Diploma in Music (Open University). He is a docent (researcher and occasional lecturer) affiliated to the folkloristics department (Faculty of Humanities) at the University of Turku, Finland, and runs his own business, Word and Page, in Chester, England, focused on editing and typesetting primarily academic books, and translations from Finnish. He has lived for shorter or longer periods in several European countries, above all Finland, where stays have included an extended period in the Orthodox monastery of Valamo.

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