Acknowledgements

There are a number ofpeople whose assistance and encouragement I must acknowledge with the sincerest gratitude and thanks:

Professor C. Abbott Conway, McGill University provided me with guidance and encouragement over the past year and was exceedingly generous with his time, advice, and support regarding scholarship and career direction; he also taught me the true importance of primary sources. Professor Dorothy A. Bray, McGill University, for a gentle and finn guiding hand during my time at McGill, and for telling me when to stop reading and start writing. Ruth Wehlau, PhD. (T('ronto) whose work provided the basis for so much of my own. My parents and my parents-in law: Victor and Jacqueline Solomon and Robert and Esther Luchinger whose material support allowed me to invest the time to devote myself to my studies. Liisa Stephenson whose friendship helped to keep me on an even keel through the difficult stages ofthe creative process. Jason Polley whose editorial advice was of timely assistance.

This work and all else of value that I ever do I dedicate to my blessed and beloved wife Martina. John-Christian Solomon M.A. Thesis - Abstract Department of English McGill University August 2002

Thesis Title: Healdeo Trywa Wel: The English Christ

Abstract: An exan1ination of extant historical and literary evidence for the purpose of

questioning the standard paradigm of the "Germanization of Christianity". While the melding

and inclusion of both Mediterranean and Teutonic elements in Anglo-Saxon poetry has been the

subject of extensive research, until relatively recently, scholars have attributed this dynamic

largely to a central manipulation of the Christian message by the Roman church with a view

towards making it compatible with the societal mores of the (relatively) newly convt..rted

Northern Europeans. This thesis will suggest rather, that the presentation of God and Christ in

Old English religious verse may have been an exploration by English scribal clerics of

theological issues specifically important to their laity. This study is divided into three parts: the

historical background of Anglo-Saxon society in the early Middle Ages; Christian conversion in

England and later English evangelization in the north; an analysis of structural metaphor and the

importance of hidden meaning in extant Anglo-Saxon religious poetry with a specific look at the

Christ of Anglo-Saxon poetry as the personification of specifically English ideas of origin,

structure and meaning.

) John-Christian Solomon M.A. Thesis - Abstract Department of English McGill University August 2002

Titre de la These: Realdeo Trywa Wei: Le Christ des Anglais

Resume: Cette these comporte un examen d'evidence historique et litteraire afin de remettre en cause Ie paradigme standard du «Germanisation du christianisme». Bien que la fusion des elements mediterraneens et Teutoniques dans la poesie anglo-saxonne ait ete Ie sujet d'une recherche etendue, jusque relativement recemment on a attribue cette dynamique en grande partie a une manipulation centrale du message chretien par I' eglise romaine, manipulation dont Ie but etait de rendre la foi chretienne conciliable avec l'ethos social des Europeens nordiques nouvellement convertis. Comme hypothese alternative, cette these suggere que par la presentation heroYque du Christ dans leur vers religieux les ecrivains anglo-saxons puissent avoir explore des questions theologiques qui etaient tres importantes pour les Anglais, c'est a dire, dont la provenance etait dans la pensee culturale angbise meme. Cette etude se divise en trois sections: 1. L 'historique de la societe anglo-saxonne dans Ie haut moyen age; 2. La conversion des Anglais en christianisme, et l'initiative anglaise d'evangelisation qui a suivi dans Ie nord de l'Europe ; 3. Une analyse de metaphore structurale dans la poesie religieuse anglo-saxonnf> de survie, et de l'importance la de dans de la «signification cachee» avec un regard specifique chez

Ie Christ de la poesie anglo-saxonne comme personnification des idees specifiquement anglaises qui concernent les questions de I' origine, la structure, et la signification du monde. TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 1

Chapter I: The Historical Background Ofthe Evolution of a Myth 6 Of Ethnicity and the Nature of Conquest 8 Of the Nature of Early English Society 16

Chapter II: Conversions and Concerns Of Germanic Paganism 21 Of the British Church and the Celtic Contribution 26 Of the Papal Involvement 33 Of the Nature of Conversion 38 Of the Method of Converting the Heathen 44

Chapter III: Order, Disorder, and Modes of Meaning in Old English Poetry Of Creation 60 Of Hall and Home 69 Of Sin and Chaos 78

Conclusion 83

Bibliography 86 Solomon 1

Introduction

I began this thesis with the intention of considering a number of Old English poems and

other writings to the larger purpose of examining the standard paradigm of the "Germanization

of Christianity." The reason for my interest in this subject was that over the course of my work

during the past two years, I became increasingly convinced that certain aspects of the paradigm

were either overly simplistic, or wrongly emphasizeci. While it is conventional (and comforting)

to believe that "the Church" centrally orchestrated all the adapting, I came to believe that this

was not the only force at work. In other words, the modification of Christian ideas evident in

Northern Europe in the early medieval period may not only suggest a manipulation of customs

and ideas found on the periphery of Roman civilization by central figures like Gregory the Great,

but may more interestingly represent a positive contribution by that "periphery".

However, as I delved into my subject, I began to realize that there were key issues I

needed to attend to in regards to the societal parameters and ethnic matrix of early English

society before I could proceed to deal with a matter so culturally specific as religious verse in

anything resembling a meaningful and/or intelligent fashion. Unfortunately, there was no single

Ur-text to which I could tum for all the answers that I needed, so as a result I found it necessury

to devote a good deal of time (and a major portion ofthis study) to the purpose of grappling with

the historical questions vis-a-vis culture and society that a topic of this nature inherently requires

to be addressed, if not resolved.

I started this study from the premise that many common and established perception'

(shared by lay persons and scholars alike) concerning the "Dark Ages" are at best,

oversimplistic. However, as I conducted the research for what I had originally intended to be the

) first subsection of my first chapter, I was quite unprepared for the conclusions to which I would Solomon 2

amve. My ultimate realization was that the familiar 1110del ofthe "Dark Ages" bandied about in

popular culture and academia, is not simply a misconception born of a dearth of information or

flawed scholarship, but is actually the cumulative result of sixteen centuries of ignorance where

fiction was traditionally substituted for historical fact largely because it was socially reassuring.

What the modern student of the Early Middle Ages faces is not a paradigm, it is a mythology -- a

mythology that constitutes the prevailing scholastic view ofthe period to this very day.

Therefore, immediately upon achieving this realization (or revelation) I understood that my first

task was to achieve and establish a proper conception of Anglo-Saxon society -- at least in my

own mind. It is (to say the least) problematic to approach any literary genre in any sort of

constructive fashion prior to forming an understanding of the society that produced it, but

forming this understanding was a rather laborious and delicate process. A good deal of the

difficulties I encountered in the initial stages of this study stemmed from the basic fact that that

the Anglo-Saxons were quite different and more complex than I had previously thought, and

thus, I was (reluctantly) forced to acknowledge that in truth I had been affected by the very

paradigm I sought to disprove. Therefore, I had to begin with asking the most fundamental

question of all: Who were the Anglo-Saxons?

I concluded the "Anglo-Saxons" were a multi-tribal conglomerate, the scope of which

extended far beyond Angles and Saxons. Furthermore, it is almost certain that the overwhelming

majority of the population of many (if not most) regions of what we now refer to as England was

of Brythonic (and north of the Humber, Goidelic) rather than of Germanic extraction. This new

conceptualization radically influenced my entire approach to this subject, for if the early English

were not Germanic, how Germanic were the themes in extant early English literature?

Therefore, I began my study with trying to discern, to the extent feasible, the actual ethnic

) ./ Solomon 3

composition ofthe inhabitants of the land that produced the literature I have always found so

compelling; to make an assessment of what the Anglo-Saxons believed and wrote, I first had to

discover who the Anglo-Saxons were. Once I had achieved (to my satisfaction) a grasp of the

poly-ethnic nature of English society, other questions, and doubts, and inescapable realizations

naturally streamed from this new discernment or perr:3.ps, appreciation. For example: If the

indigenous ("surviving") population was not completely pushed into "the Celtic fringe", but

rather lived among the newcomers, it is unlikely that the Germanic migration to Britain followed

the traditional "fire and sword" model that is so much a part ofthe popular belief. Ifthe "Anglo­

Saxon conquest" of England was only loosely Anglo-Saxon (a polyglot of ethnic Germans is

probably more accurate), and possibly more resettlement than conquest, how much of a warrior

people were the early English? And ifthey were not a warrior people, what kind were they? And

what did they do if they did not live for feuding and war? And ifthere was a large (or majority)

Romano-British population living with them as neighbours, what happened to the British

Church? And were the pagan English affected by native Christianity? And if so, how much of

the nature of the English Church was truly "Augustinian"? If we as scholars are to work froM

the premise that the poetic articulation of a society is at least in some part a reflection of that

society -- as we must -- it is essential that we accurately define the composition and parameters

of said society before we can attempt to draw any conclusions about any of their intimate cultural

representations such as theological or artistic expression.

After outlining the early English cultural dynamic to the best of my ability (given the

scope of this study) I then turned my attention to the contemporary ecclesiastical documentation.

My analysis ofthe clerical correspondence relating to the conversion ofthe early English and the

later proselytization in the north by the early English themselves a generation after their

) Solomon 4 conversion was to the purpose of placing Anglo-Saxon Christo logical conceptualization within a

Germanic social matrix, and thereby placing my subsequent analysis ofthe religious poetry within a theological context. This part of the study also served the equally important function of beginning to illustrate the precise cosmological issues that the Anglo-Saxons deemed to be fundamental. It is logical to assume that the lessons they taught to those on the continent they deemed to be like themselves would be the same themes and motifs to which they would give vent in the form of spiritual artistic expression. After making my determinations concerning the ethno-cultural and theological influences at work, I was able to draw my conclusions as to the crucial questions, fears and concerns of the Germanil- peoples as a whole, and use this knowledge to identify common threads, motifs, and streams of thought in Anglo-Saxon religious poetry throughout the course of the third chapter ofthis work. It my sincerest wish and intention to take the lessons I have learned, and the conclusions I have reached during this (indescribable) process and extensively apply them to the future scholarship in the field of Germanic religious poetry of the early medieval period I hope to conduct.

This present study proposes then to approach my subject in three chapters: In chapter l, I will outline the nature of the paradigm, how it was developed and how it evolved into the common misconceptions ofthe present. I will then discuss the ethnic composition of early medieval England and the nature of the Germanic influx into Britain. I will then conclude the chapter with a look at the character ofEarly English society. In the second chapter I will deal with matters of theology. Specifically: the nature of Germanic paganism and the native and the various exterior Christian influences acting upon the Germanic English prior, during, and after their conversion to the Christian faith. I will conclude the theological phase ofthe discussion with a examination ofearly English ecclesiastical literature and evangelization in the north c~r Solomon 5 the purpose of discovering what this reveals about what they felt to be compelling cultural messages and questions. The third and final chapter will apply the conclusions drawn in the previous sections and apply them to selected passages of extant early English religious poetry, and thus I will argue that the motifs developed and expressed in Anglo-Saxon religious poetry

were the result of internal influences designed to shape the Christian message as Good News to

its hearers. I will also attempt to demonstrate that presentation of the godhead in the extant

poetry was not simply a reflection of a lingering societal ethos, but was the personification of an

answer to pre-existing societal questions. Solomon 6

CHAPTER I

The Historical Background:

Of the Evolution of a Mvth

In his introduction to English Literature Before Chaucer, Michael Swanton states:

"[c] hanging perspectives in our understanding of the period no longer pennit us to think of the fall of Rome as a radical divide, a cultural watershed separating order and chaos, civilization and barbarism, urban sophistication and 'dark age' superstition" (1). Although the incursions by peoples from east of the Rhine unquestionably brought with them economic anxiety, physical displacement, and cultural devolution to an extent unknown for centuries in the West, the year

476 CE does not represent the societal Ragnar6k of popular imagination. Not only did the

Gennanic colonists in the West consider themselves to be the natural and rightful heirs of imperial Rome, but they also recognized that continuity was in their best self-interest.

English history begins with the end of Roman hegemony over Britain and the following arrival ofGennans from the continent. While from approximately the thirteenth century onwards, comprehensive records from all administrative levels (manorial, municipal, parish and state) make a detailed and accurate reconstruction of English life and society feasible and comparatively straightforward, prior to that time the picture is not quite so clear. There is relatively little surviving personal correspondence before circa 950 CE and there is a similar dearth of material regarding any aspect of village life; this lack of direct documentary evidence has traditionally served to put the student ofthe Anglo-Saxon period at a serious disadvantage

(Hodges 6). Because the sources at our disposal are traditionally so limited, it is hardly a Solomon 7

surprise that the resulting process ofhistorical extrapolation has often amounted to what Colin

Renfrew tenns the "Dark Age Myth". He describes it as follows:

a) [An] attempt by new power groups to establish legitimacy in historical terms

with the creation of genealogies either (i) seeking to find a link with the

'autochthonous' former state or (ii) relating the deeds by which the 'invaders'

achieved power by force of arms.

b) [A] tendency among early chroniclers to personalize historical explanation, so

that change is assigned to individual deeds, battles, and invasions, and often a

tendency to attribute the decline to hostile powers outside the state territories.

c) Some confusion in legend and story between the Golden Age ofthe early

vanished civilisation and the Heroic A ~e of its immediate aftennath.

d) [A] paucity ofarchaeological evidence after collapse compared with that for

proceeding period (arising from loss of literacy and abandonment or diminution

of urban centres).

e) [A] tendency among historians to accept as evidence traditional narratives first

set down in writing some centuries after the collapse.

f) [The] slow development of Dark Age archaeology, hampered both the

proceeding item and by focus on the larger and more obvious central place sites of

the vanished state. (484)

With the above six points, Renfrew has summarised and explained the genesis and evolution of

sixteen centuries of scholarship regarding the early lnstory ofthe Germanic peoples. Early

English scribes such as the compilers of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle or the Venerable Bede

initiated this process, and indeed, as we may discern from Renfrew's definition above, it was in Solomon 8

their collective political and personal interest to depict (their) history in this form and manner1

(Hodges 7). As a whole, the modern medievalist is well aware ofthis dynamic. However, the

"myth" (as defined by Renfrew) still figures largely in historical scholarship as it relates to early

Germanic societies and nowhere has it been more prevalent than in the study of early medieval

England. Hodges explains: "[t] he literal acceptance of the Anglo-Saxon invasions as a crucial factor in the making of a new society after the Romans, the axial part played by the Church, and the Christian virtues oflater Saxon kingship ... are still the stuff of modern interpretations" (7).

These are among the issues that were seized upon and embellished by the Victorian scholars2 who were primarily responsible for the formulation of the traditional model ofthe Germanic migration that is still so much a part of popular historical conception: (what is now modem,

England was overrun in a series of apocalyptic battles and the indigenous population was displaced, slaughtered andlor enslaved.

Of Ethnicitv and the Nature of Conquest

Cornelius Tacitus wrote the first surviving account of the proto-English in the late first- century CEo Tacitus fails to make any mention of the Saxons3 but he does refer to the Anglii

(Germania 40), and appears to situate them in modem Schleswig-Holstein. And, as we shall see below, Bede would reiterate this theory (Whittock 4). To discover the origins of the English

I Early English historians were hardly unique in terms of presenting a historical narrative in a manner designt.i to advance a political or moral agenda concerning the general subject ofthe Germanic peoples; both Caesar and Tacitus may be charged with using the Germans as an ominous spectre and a moral model respectively.

2 The Victorian scholars to whom I am here referring are collectively known as the "Germanist school" and I shall refer to them as such.

3 However, the second century geographer Ptolemy does mention the Saxons and describes them as a Germanic people living in the neck ofthe Cimbric peninsula in modern Holstein. Whittock theorizes that the people Ptolemy refers to as the Saxons, "Tacitus had previously called Reudigni" (6). Solomon 9

people,4 we must look towards northern Europe in the first four centuries ofthe Common Era during which period the evidence suggests, "on the eve ofthe great land-takings, the Anglo-

Saxons were already a mixed and mongrel people"(English Literature Before Chaucer 6). The ancestral homeland of the proto English appears to have been in what is now northern Germany and southern Denmark. Probably the most descriptive (and well known) analysis ofthe location of the original homes of the ancestral English is Bede's eighth century account:

These newcomers were from the three most formidable races of Germany, the

Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. From the Jutes are descended the people of Kent and

the Isle of Wight and those in the provmce of the West Saxons opposite the Isle of

Wight who are called Jutes to this day. From the Saxons -- that is, the country

now known as the land of the Old Saxons -- came the East, South and West

Saxons. And from the Angles -- that is, the country now known as Angulus,

which lies between the provinces of the Jutes and the Saxons, is said to remain

unpopulated to this day -- are descended the East and Middle Angles, the

Mercians, all the Northumbrian stock (that is, people living north of the river

Humber), and the other English peoples (A History ofthe English Church and

People, I.l5).5

4 In this study I will use Martin Whittock's tenn "proto English" as well as Leslie Alcock's tenns of "ancestral English" in addition to the more common "Anglo-Saxons" when referring to the Gennanic peoples who would later contribute to the settlement of England prior to their migration tv Britain. After their arrival and subsequent settlement, I will refer to them as the "early English" -a more comprehensive and accurately descriptive tenn than "Anglo-Saxons." As Whittock points out, the name Anglo-Saxon implies that only two tribes took part in the invasion of Britain and was not used by the early English; additionally, the early English themselves were quite inconsistent in their use ofnational names (Whittock 2). However, Campbell defends the use of the tenn "Anglo­ Saxons" (Campbell 22), and utilises it in a holistic manner in reference to any and all Gennanic settlers in Britain. will do so as well.

5 Bede's account ofthe proto English ancestral homelands of is consistent with the Laud Chronicle entry for L.Je year 449. Solomon 10

In short, according to Bede the Saxons came from the Elbe estuary; the Angles from modern

Angeln at the base ofthe Schleswig-Jutland peninsula; and the Jutes from Jutland (Alcock 279).

We fmd another early description of the ethnic composition ofthe early English in the late siAth century writings of the Byzantine historian Procopius who stated that the British population was composed of "Angiloi, Frissones [Frisians] and Britons" (Whittock 3)6. From the existing evidence, we are on fairly solid ground in stating that while it is likely a number of Germanic peoples settled in Britain following the Roman withdrawal, most of the settlers were Angle

Saxons and Jutes (in the specific case ofKentl The latest archaeological evidence concerning the composition of the early Germanic immigrants to Britain is by no means conclusive, but the suggestions are fascinating: not only does it seem to confirm the variety of Germanic peoples listed by Bede in HE (V.9) (see n.6 below), but may even expand it (James 108). The tribe that

Bede calls the "Boructuari" (known to continental SOl.!Ices as the "Bructeri") was one of the

groups that comprised the coalition of Western Germans known as the Franks. James speculates that the bodies found in Frankish dress in sixth and seventh-century Kentish cemeteries actually

6 Whittock makes the observation that Procopius's inclusion of the Frisians should not be discounted as the early English and the early Frisians were very closely related in terms oflanguage and therefore shared close ties of culture and blood: "[there is a likelihood that the] Frisians accompanied their English cousins in their travels" ,J). Additionally, Campbell points out that both Angles and Saxons were settling in Frisia in the fifth century and emphasizes, "there is no doubt that many of the settlers did come from Frisia" (31); Wilson backs this point as well (27). Bede also includes the Frisians as one ofthe colonizing tribes form Germany along with the "Rugians, Danes, Huns. Old Saxons, and Boructuars besides many other races in that region who still observe pagan rites" (HE V.9). Indeed, the multiethnic nature of "Germanic" armies during the migration period is well documented. "The 'Ostrogothic' army of Eormenric, for example, incorporated not only various Germanic groups, but also non­ Germanic Huns, Slavs, Finns, Sarmatians, and even Romans who would serve 'with Gothic hearts'" (English Literature before Chaucer 6). However, Eric James points out that Procopius is notoriously ignorant of affairs in the west and that the archaeological evidence for the Frisians is slowly disappearing (the "Anglo-Frisian" combs and pots no longer appear to be typically Frisian). Furthermore, place names, which have the element "fris", appear in forms that suggest that they are 400-500 years after the migration period and the linguistic similarities may have been the result of insulation from changes occurring in other di .. :ects of Continental Germanic (l09). There is also speculation that Bede was simply listing all unconverted tribes of Germany that he had heard of(1 08).

7 The fact that Bede regards the Angles and Saxons as virtually i.adistinguishable is noteworthy. Solomon 11

were Franks8 rather than Jutes wearing Frankish clothes (108)9. Furthennore, there is evidence of a Scandinavian presence in Britain long before the Vikings. Excavations have discovered female bodies in eastern and northern England bearing wrist-clasps of a type only found in

Norway, most likely a relic from an undocumented migration ofthe latter fifth-century; scholars have long been aware of the possibility of Swedish immigration to East AnglialO •

We derive virtually all our primary evidence concerning the physical settlement of the

Gennanic peoples in early medieval Britain from cemetery archaeology. During the fifth century it was a rapidly expanding custom in northern and western Europe to inter the dead fully clothed, surrounded by items of both symbolic and practical value. There have traditionally been two general assumptions made concerning this particular burial custom during the Migration Period:

(i) that it is pagan and (ii) that it is Gennanic (James 112). However, as Hodges points out, _e practice of cremation was brought by Gennanic settlers from the continent and was particularly widespread in East Anglia, a primary centre of Gennanic immigration and settlement (15-26).

Although it has been usual to associate the practice of"furnished burial" with pagan beliefs, comparisons with excavations of contemporary sites on the Continent strongly suggest that the custom was not incompatible with an adherence to the Christian faith. The Franks adopted the fashion at roughly the same time as their conversion to Christianity, and the most elaborate examples are to be found underneath the great cathedral at Cologne and the abbey-church at St-

Denis. Furnished burial appears to have been a practice that, as James says, the Church made no attempt to ban (112).

8 Or at least people from Frankish ruled areas.

9 Of course, the greatest weakness of using archaeological evidence in this manner is our uncertainty as to precisely how closely jewellery and costume were linked to ethnicity.

10 The custom of aristocratic ship burial, such as at Sutton Hoo (Suffolk), was common in east-central Sweden but rare in the rest of Europe. And of course a Swedish helm and shield were found at the English site. Solomon 12

Just as we cannot use shifting burial customs to trace religious changes with any degree

. ) ofcertainty, we must also approach using them to trace ethnic changes in the former provinces of

the Empire with a great deal oftrepidation. The Franks adopted the custom offurnished burial

long after their settlement of Gaul, and then exported it to the lands east of the Rhine. I turn once

again to James. He writes: "[the fact that the custom of furnished burial] spread through

northern Gaul and beyond probably had more to do with the spread of Frankish lordship and the

influence ofthe Frankish ruling and military class than with the colonization of parts of Roman

Gaul by immigrating Franks" (112). In this light, we can theorize that since we know to a

certainty the Romano-Gallic population adopted Frankish personal names to identify themselves

with the ruling class, it is possible they also adopted Frankish styles of dress and burial in the

same manner. Now if we apply this premise twenty miles to the north, perhaps we should

rethink how truly representative the "Anglo-Saxon" cemeteries are ofthe actual number of

German settlers. In other words, the archaeological record may not so much indicate an

expansion ofthe German immigrant community in Britain as an adoption of Germanic practices

by the indigenous Romano-Celtic populace. An even more intriguing hypothesis would be . 1t

many in the immigrant community may have adopted native British burial practices, which

would transform all of our previously held assumptions into doubts. The relatively small number

of "Germanic" graves in Northumbria has generally been understood to indicate Northern

England was inhabited by a predominantly indigenous Celtic population ruled by an Anglo-

Saxon military elite. Conversely, the prevalence of "Germanic" graves in Kent and East Anglia

has usually been accepted as evidence of a large-scale settlement and displacement, but now we

must at least accept the possibility that the extant archaeological evidence is misleading. 11

11 In Spearheads ofthe Anglo-Saxon Settlements, Michael Swanton concludes the fifth-century Germanic settlements were of an extremely amorphous nature and that the initial conquest was not, "the work of large folk So .,mon 13

Ultimately, it appears that we will have to wait for future studies in order to help resolve these -) questions (113).12

From the scholar's perspective, the most problematic aspect regarding Germanic

immigration to Britain is that ofnumbers. In short, it will never be known for certain how many

newcomers arrived in Britain after the Roman withdrawal. Based upon the number of excavated

graves that have traditionally been considered typically "Germanic" I3, the number of actual

"newcomers,,14 appears to have been quite small. If the foundation ofour conjecture is the

number ofexcavated individuals and an estimation ofundiscovered sites -- really a matter of

guesswork-- the figure for the number of Anglo-Saxons who arrived in Britain in the fifth

century could range from 10,000 to 100,000 with the most recent scholarship favouring a total

closer to the lower figure (114)15. If we compare this number to a native population of anywhere

from 1-4 million (Alcock 310-11), the traditional model of Germanic expansion through

conquest, pillage and enslavement begins to appear more and more unlikely.

The only hard evidence to back the conventiollal paradigm of folk-migration stems from

place names, and modern scholarship has shown even that to be far less conclusive than

groups coherent enough to transmit common cultural traditions, but of small and mongrel war-bands whose ultimate origins may have been very diverse" (140). It was in subsequent waves of immigration from the continent over the next 150 years that Germans arrived: "not merely as an invading army but in coherent family groups, with women and children, and in numbers large enough to swamp the indigenous population [in certain areas]" (English Literature Before Chaucer 2). Indeed, we must afford some credence to Bede's account ofthe contemporary resultant depopulation ofthe proto-English ancestral homeland of what is now Schleswig-Holstein (1.15).

12 Phyllis Jackson has suggested that the shape of Germanic feet may have been different than those ofthe aboriginal population (466-70). James raises the possibility of future DNA analysis on skeletal remains (113).

13 Heinrich Harke's study on early English grave sites suggests that many graves previously thought to be "Anglo­ Saxon" in fact contain members ofthe Romano-British population as well (Harke 22-43).

14 The term Bede uses in reference to the Germanic immigrants.

15 Campbell speculates the total ofthe located graves to range from between 0.2 and 1 percent (29). See n.II above for Swanton's view on the number of immigrants. Leslie Alcock puts the figure at no more than 50-100,000 (310­ Il). Solomon 14

previously posited. Primajacie, Anglo-Saxon place names appear to be predominant in the East and become progressively less so as we look towards the "Celtic" southwest. However, just as with burial sites, caution is in order. Eric John writes:

All place name experts know Old English, almost none know Old Celtic. Some

ofthe English place names could be Celtic Gust as what appear to be typical

Welsh names, like Rhyl and Prestatyn are in fact English in origin). Some names

like Dover are simply translations of the original Celtic names 16 (8).

In her study of the kingdom ofthe Hwicce, Della HOuke goes into great detail about the conflicting evidence of place names and concludes that while the language did clearly shift, many of the names can be traced back to Celtic and even pre-Celtic sources (31-50). Some scholars have defended the traditional folk-migration theory by arguing that the shift in language could only have come about through a massive influx of immigrants. Anthropological studies have shown that language is symbolic of status rather than ethnicity, as James Leach has demonstrated in his research on the tribes ofthe Burmese highlands. 17 This same principal could also indicate the survival of a Celtic speaking nobility in the West (John 8).

Ifwe are to surmise that the Anglo-Saxons were at most 10% ofthe popUlation, then we must briefly consider the means by which they controlled and ruled an alien people who vastly outnumbered them 18 . The most obvious answer would seem to be that to a certain extent the)' took over and utilized well-established systems that were long in existence. Recently, during the process of studying the early economy of North Wales, scholars have noticed many similarities

16 This is especially prevalent when the place name is derived from a topographical feature (Hooke 35-6)

17 The modem examples ofthe Swedish language in Finland and the German language in east Switzerland are alSO applicable. One can also cite the English language in Ireland as examples of the popUlation adopting the language of a numerically diminutive ruling class.

18 This also raises serious questions as to how hostile the native population could have actually been. Solomon 15

between Celtic manorial arrangements of multiple estates and those ofthe Early English. 19 The manor as it existed in Britain indeed proved to be ancient, but it was neither a fundamentally

Roman nor an Anglo-Saxon institution. The British estate system existed within a general social context of population control and organization and numerous federal manors have been identified throughout the entire island. As there are Scottish and Welsh equivalents "that direct influence or institutional diffusion cannot explain, it would seem that the multiple estate is a

Celtic institution and a very ancient one" (John 12).20

Though difficult to prove, the archaeological record appears to suggest that there was a great deal of continuity between many ofthe institutions of Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon

England.21 Pollen analysis does not indicate any significant ecological change during the transition period, so we may safely conclude that there is neither any evidence of a large-scale abandonment of farmland nor is there any accompanying regeneration or expansion of woodland. If we are to define continuity as meaning that during the fifth and sixth-centuries there was no time when the landscape of lowland Britain ceased to be inhabited or cultivated, then we can be reasonably sure that continuity was definitely the case (Welch 107). Conversely, the scientific evidence suggests that the demand for land was such that settlers -- possibly a dispossessed element from the east due to pressures of an expanding population -- found it

19 Throughout England, the mUltiple manorial estates were called shires or federal manors. In The Anglo-Saxons, Campbell traces the parallels between the Anglo-Saxon and medieval Welsh systems to similarities oflinguistic terminology and legal structure that cannot logically be attributed to coincidence (40-2)

20 My other references for the estate system were G. Barrow, The Kingdom ofthe Scots, P. Sawyer's paper The Royal Tun in pre-Conquest England', and Martin Welch's Discovering Anglo-Saxon England. Welsh focuses upon the Northumbrian King Edwin's country estate at Yeavering in Northumberland and compares the great hall on that site to the one described by the Beowulfpoet (43-53).

21 In his paper titled 'The Roman to Medieval Transition', Simon Cleary states that the areas where we fmd the largest Germanic presence, Kent and East Anglia, are the locaticns where the "earliest Anglo-Saxon material consistently occurs in clear stratigraphic and spatial relationships with the Romano-British" in a manner that indicates coexistence rather than displacement. (Council for British Archaeology Research Report 125 92). In all his writings, Swanton emphasizes the likelihood of a considerable degree ofnative survival. Solomon 16

profitable to penetrate, clear and cultivate marginal wasteland in the hill-country in the north and west (English Literature Before Chaucer 3). The difficulty lies in narrowing this to any. greater

degree of specificity. It is not unreasonable to suppose that Romano-British farmers were reluctant to abandon their landholdings and were thus willing to make arrangements with their

new political masters in return for permission to stay. This is not to say that there was no

bloodshed or upheaval involved in the transition periud,22 I am only stating that it is very easy to

accept the my1h Renfrew described above and hyperbolize its effects. The "conquest" of what

would become England was indisputably an extended, multidimensional process that in many

areas would never and could never be fully completed.

Of the Nature of Earlv English Society

The existing evidence belies the idea that the Early English fit the common stereotype of

the barbarian Germanic warrior. The fact that the Anglo-Saxons were not terribly militarily

successful is indicated by their almost total inability to deal effectively with the Scandinavian

threat until the reforms of the ninth century. The greatest problem of countering the Viking

assaults lay in the pirates' ship-borne mobility and speed of movement that gave them the ability

to strike wherever the Anglo-Saxon Fyrd was not (The Anglo-Saxons 150).23 Once again the

actual number of sea-borne invaders involved in the war against the inhabitants of Britain and

22 If the evidence from the Visigothic occupation of Southern Gaul is a precedent, probably the only native inhabitants to be severely affected were the great Romano-British landowners that were simply replaced by (h ..nans who took over shires and parishes more or less intact. Gildas alludes to the impact ofthe German invasions on the Romano-British ruling class in Liber de Exeido et Conquestu Britanniae 25.3.

23 As an example, the Parker Chronicle entry for the year 893 states: "Then the king was on his way west with the levies towards Exeter as I said before, and the host had besieged the town; when he had arrived there they returned to their ships ... they went up the Thames until they reached the Severn, then up along the Severn". The true irony is this is that the Viking tactics are identical to the methods Gildas describes the Picts and Scots as employing against the Romano-British -as a response Vortigern enlisted the aid ofthe Saxons and invited them to Britain (14-23.4). A Solomon 17

the following settlement of the Danelaw is extremely ambiguous. What is unarguably clear is that whatever the Viking numbers were, they were more than sufficient to wreak massive damage and create a general climate of despair and terror; it would be a serious mistake to understate the magnitude of the Norse menace?4 What is also clear is that the Anglo-Saxor methods of static, land-based defence were completely inappropriate to deal with a maritime threat - particularly in the defence of an island. According to the annals of the Parker Chronicle, it was only in the year 896 that King Alfred formulated an effective counter to the Viking attacks:

This same year the hosts in East Anglia and Northumbria greatly harassed Wessex

along the south coast with predatory bands, most of all with the warships that they

had built many years before. Then King Alfred ordered warships to be built to

meet the Danish ships: they were almost twice as long as the others, some had

sixty oars, some more; they were both swifter, steadier, and with more freeboard

than the others; they were built neither after the Frisian design nor after the

Danish, but as it seemed to himself to that they could be most serviceable.

further irony is that for a time, according to Gildas, the British pcified the Saxons by means of ever increasing payments (23.5).

24 As a direct result of the Viking attacks and land seizures, thret:. dioceses vanished (Hexham, Leicester, and South AngJia) and the succession of every diocese in the north, except York and Lindisfame, was interrupted for decades (John 69). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells ofthe death oftwo Northumbrian kings, Osberht and Aella, and the wholesale slaughter of the population of York and its environs at the hands ofthe Viking army ofIvar the Boneless in the year 867. The Knutsdrapa and the Thattr ofRagnar's Sons describe the ritual sacrifice to Odin of the two kings at the hands ofIvar by means of an indescribably gruesome process known as the "blood eagle"; the Thattr goes into precise anatomic detail. King Edmund of East Anglia would meet a similar fate at the hands ofIvar in 870 and the Cogadh implicates him in a similar execution of an Irish king (Marsden 145-6); there is no reason to suppose that Alfred would not have suffered a similar fate had he not defeated Guthrum. Whatever one mighi. _y about them, the Vikings were a ruthless group of invaders with a penchant for horrifying cultic practices. Solomon 18

It would seem that building a navy to cope with an enemy that depended upon ships for everything25 would be fairly obvious, especially since Charlemagne had previously done so with great success. We must also note that even when the great or the select Fyrd actually managed to find the Vikings on land -- before and after the military reforms instituted by King Alfred -­ victory was by no means assured. Based upon the contemporary accounts, both historical and poetic, for the Anglo-Saxons to engage the Vikings in a pitched battle can be described at best as a risky proposition with potentially disastrous consequences. In Anglo-Saxon Military

Institutions, C. Warren Hollister makes it clear that certain fundamental elements of the EaLj

English military establishment, such as the great Fyrd, were at times inadequate to deal with the armies generated by societies to which war and piracy was an inherent, specialized part of the economy -- for example, the societies of Westem Scandinavia26• However, early English society undeniably did retain a militaristic element in its character traditionally associated with

Germanic peoples, as Hollister writes:

[i] t is not only disappointing but almost incredible that a highly systematic

recruitment system such as the Anglo-Saxons possessed should possess such a

miserably ineffective military force. And the most cursory examination of Anglo-

Saxon military history demonstrates that the Old English army cannot have been

as helpless as it has been so often described. For more than a century after the

battle of Edington (879) the English showed themselves fully capable of coping

25 According to Alfred Smyth, the essence ofthe Viking strategy for the reduction of Wessex and subsequent conquest ofthe entire island depended upon their control of the two key centres of Dublin and York, which necessitated total control ofthe shipping lanes of the North and Irish seas.

26 Wilson notes that swords are much more common among Scandinavian gravesites than those ofthe Anglo­ Saxons even though both cultures shared a reverence for the sword (114). An excellent reference for Scandinavian burials is Cultural Atlas o/the Viking World, edited by James Glaham-Campbell. Solomon 19

successfully with the Danish threat, and although they failed to meet the challenge

during Ethelred's reign, they redeemed themselves at Stamford Bridge (l29~

The Anglo-Saxons saw themselves as the descendants of ancestors who had performed heroic deeds, and the literature that they produced graphically reflects this self-image, even ifthis view was more reflective of desire than reality. While poets and perhaps even society in general may be permitted the luxury of waxing nostalgic about past deeds and works, both real and imagined, political leaders must govern in the present and make decisions based upon current realities. The facts indicate that while the military establishment of Anglo-Saxon England was quite adept at wreaking internal mayhem, it was not always capable of defending the country at all points in its history. In this light, the policy ofDanegild - which even Alfred, viewed as the archetypical

Anglo-Saxon warrior king, did not hesitate to utilize -- no longer seems foolish or cowardly, and was perhaps more in keeping with the true nature of early English society than warfare.

Archaeological and (surviving) contemporary documentation seems to suggest a nation more given to trade and negotiation than war. Recent excavations in Northamptonshire and

Staffordshire have uncovered structures and artefacts that can only be associated with the storage and processing of surplus grain and hay27. This is in keeping with other evidence that indicates a rapid expansion ofagrarian production in the rural ...reas and craft production by the Anglo-

Saxons from in the cities the settlement period onward (Hodges 136-9). England was also blessed with many of the river estuaries that were the favoured sites for mercantile centres throughout the Middle Ages. Excavations of Anglo-Saxon Southampton reveal it to have been at least thirty hectares, which indicates the size and importance oftrading centres in eighth-century

England (The Anglo Saxons 102). Further evidence of the importance of mercantile trade is the

27 Lava from the Niedermendig region of the Rhineland was imported to Britain to be made into millstones. A surviving letter from Charlemagne to Offa in 796 states that he sent the requested 'black stones' (Welsh, 108). Solomon 20

fact that the towns that we know to have been heavily involved in this fonn of commerce hold a disproportionate number of charters attesting to royal visits. This also reveals the existence of a sophisticated bureaucracy whose primary function was not military, but was the exploitation of commerce for the King's interest. Additionally, we have extraneous documentary evidence for the primacy of trade among the Anglo-Saxons. At one point, Charlemagne imposed a trade embargo on English merchants in retaliation for the breakdown of the marriage negotiatiopr between his and King Offa's families -- presumably an action calculated to quickly hurt and affect the Anglo-Saxon king. Secondly, in contemporary documentation, London (Lunden-wic),

York (Eofor-1vic), Han1wich, Fordwich, and Droitwich all carried the suffix wic. This was derived from the Latin vicus that by the eighth century acquired the meaning "market town"

(119). If we additionally consider the English innovations regarding coinage and tolls (119), it would appear that the early English placed a great deal more energy and ingenuity into trade and commerce than they did into warfare. The cumulative evidence brings one to the conclusion that we must seriously question the warrior model of early English society; a society that the historical record indicates held a strong agricultural and mercantile presence. Solomon 21

CHAPTER II

Conversions and Concerns:

Of Germanic Paganism

The Gennanic inhabitants of Britain retained ~.heir pagan beliefs for approximately the first two centuries after the migration(s). It is virtually impossible to state in any precise or detailed tenns as to what this "paganism" entailed, for once again, the surviving evidence is either questionable, or lacking.28 In the twelfth and thirteenth- centuries, much was \vritten in

saga fonn29 depicting the beliefs of the pagan north (John 22) but these tales are clearly describing the practices of an earlier time, are in large part intended as entertainment; and they are inherently reactionary and nostalgic in character due to the inexorable (and in some quarters

resented) spread of the Christian faith in Scandinavia.30 We must tum once again to the

ubiquitous Tacitus for the first documentation of ancestral English religious practices:

[I] n the traditional songs which fonn their only record of the past the Gennans

celebrate an earth-born god called Tuisto. His son Mannus is supposed to be' the

28 There is a mid-ninth century account of the pagan practices of the Old Saxons titled the Translalia Sancti Alexandri. This work was authored by two Benedictines in residence at the monastery of Fulda (Saxony): Rudolf and Meginhart. The Translatia was modelled upon the Germania and penned at the request of Count Walbrecht of Saxony, himself a second generation Christian and the grandson of Widukind (Schlager, CE)o Because ofthe source, and the patronage, we must be wary of its veracity and of course we have no way of assessing the similarity between the two paganisms ofthe Old and "New" Saxons, particularly due to the chronological differential of two to three centuries.

29 The Icelandic manuscripts themselves are often from as late as the fifteenth century and "the burden of proof now rests upon showing that a Norse poem thought to be pagan is not actually an antiquarian forgery (North 5-6).

30 John emphasizes the difficulties of making any sort of accurate assessment of Germanic pagan practices in their early history. He concludes this point with a brief discussion ofthe Woden cult and compares it to the cult of St. Michael while also noting that their respective places in Germanic pagan and Christian eschatology are not dissimilar (22-3). I shall explore the question ofthe significance of Woden to the Anglo-Saxons in more detail below. Richard North's Heathen Gods in Old English Literature is an exhaustive, eminently readable (and possibly definitive) study ofthe subject in which the author states the pagan cults died out in Iceland and Norway not long after those countries were Christianized in 999 and 1030 CE respectively (5). Solomon 22

fountain-head oftheir race and himself to have begotten three sons who gave their

names to three groups of tribes -- the Ingaevones31 , nearest the sea; the

Herminones, in the interior; and the Istaevones, who comprise all the rest. ~ome

authorities, with the freedom of conjecture permitted by remote antiquity, assert

that Tuisto had more numerous descendants and mention more tribal groups such

as Marsi, Gambrivii, Suebi, and Vandilii -- names which they assert to be both

genuine and ancient (Germania 2).

Tacitus goes on to claim that Hercules once visited the Germans and that they sing of him as pre­ eminent among their heroes immediately prior to engaging in battle (3).32 It cannot be overemphasized that caution is in order whenever we use Tacitus as an historical source in reference to early Germanic customs and practices, especially if we are to apply them to the post- migratory English. I have noted above that Tacitus has an overt socio-political agenda and his descriptions of the Germanic peoples are an integral part of this agenda. 33 Furthermore, TaL,Js

31 Several sections of Heathen Gods in Old English Literature are devoted to the etymology ofthis tribal name -- derived from Ingvi or Yngvi, a prefix of Freyr-, which held a number of significant theological, literary and cultic connotations for the early Germans. See North 26-77 and 133-303.

32 Tacitus also claims that many of the German tribes worship other deities in the Romano-Mediterranean pantheon such as Mercury, Mars and Isis (9). Throughout the Germania, Tacitus also describes other elements of Germanic religious practice such as cultic sacrifice (of both humans and animals), and a reverence of sacred woods and groves.

33 It is very possible that the Roman historian's descriptions of Germanic religion, especially his depictions of the German reverence for earth deities -- besides "Tuisto", he also tells us of "Nerthus" or "Mother Earth" (40), unseen spirits that are "seen only by the eye of reverence ('I), and natural sites of worship ("their holy places are woods and groves"(9))- are exaggerated as a contrast to the pomp and ostentation of Roman worship that Tacitus clearly finds distasteful (9; 27). However, it is an error to discount Tacitus altogether because both the archaeological and the documentary record substantiate many of his statements.

33 "Tiw" is also a rune in the Germanic pre-Roman alphabet as we read from the Rune Poem: "Tiw is a guiding star; well does it keep faith with princes; it is ever on its course over the mists of night and never fails" (In. 48­ 50). Solomon 23 may not have been ""Titing from first hand observation and he authored the Germania over three centuries prior to the first Germanic migrations to Britain. During such an interval, changes are likely to take place, even in an isolated, inherently conservative culture (Wilson 10).

Conversely, as shall be apparent below, to dismiss the Germania as a valuable resource to our discussion would be an even more serious mistake. Of particular interest to this study is not simply Tacitus' description of the details of Germanic worship nor the names of particular deities, but rather his emphasis.

We perceive from the quote above that the pagan Germans based their faith upon

"traditional songs" that are in essence a glorification of their ancient past. We also read that the

Germans "celebrate" Tuisto, (very possibly the god the pagan English referred to as Tiw34), a divine manifestation of middangearcf5 (the realm that sustains and harbours corporeal, perceptible life), to be the literal father, and therefore creator -- of Mannus, "the fountain-head of their race". Given his function in Germanic cosmology, "Mannus" was likely the personification, or deification ofan earlier form ofthe Anglo-Saxon root word "mann", which is

"people" or "mankind".36 This song of origin was the basis of Germanic theology, which apparently also incorporated an elaborate genealogy, "they affirm to be both genuine and ancient". There are three other passages in the Germania along these lines that deserve furl_ ...:r attention. Tacitus informs us that even though the Treveri and the Nervii have long lived west of

34 "Tiw" is also a rune in the Gennanic pre-Roman alphabet as we read from the Rune Poem: "Tiw is a guiding star; well does it keep faith with princes; it is ever on its course over the mists of night and never fails" (In. 48­ 50).

35An intriguing etymological fact to mention here is that beside~ the usual translations of "globe ", "world", or "earth", iElfric uses the word "middangeard' to indicate "mankind' (ASD 236).

36 In Chapter three I will engage in a fuller discussion on the significance and concept of words to early medieval societies. Solomon 24 the Rhine37 and presumably had become virtually indistinguishable from the surrounding

Romano-Celtic population, "[they] take pride in the German decent to which they lay claim.

Such a glorious origin, they feel should prevent their being thought to resemble the unwarlike

Gauls" (28). We then learn:

[t] he oldest and most famous of the Suebi, it is said are the Semnones, and their

antiquity is confirmed by religious observance. At a set time, deputations from all

the tribes of the same stock gather in a grove hallowed by the auguries of their

ancestors and by immemorial awe [ ... ] the grove is the centre of their whole

religion. It is regarded as the cradle of the race and the dwelling-place of the

supreme god to whom all things are subject and obedient. (39)

Immediately following this, we encounter an interesting passage in which Tacitus specificc._ .; mentions one of the proto-English tribes which also appears to lend credibility to his accounts of

Germanic customs:

The Langobardi, by contrast, are famous because they are so few. Hemmed in as

they are by many mighty peoples, they find safety, not in submission, but in

facing the risks of battle. After thep-t come the Reudigni, Aviones, Anglii [my

italics], Varini, Eudoses, Suarines, and Nuitones, all of them safe behind rivers

and woods. There is nothing noteworthy about these tribes individually, but they

share a common worship ofNerthus or Mother Earth. They believe that she takes

part in human affairs, riding a chariot among her people [and that a priest] attends

her with the deepest reverence as her chariot is drawn along by COWS38 [ ••• ] After

37 This was in the provinces of Belgica and Transalpine Gaul respectively.

38 Stuart Piggott points out that this ritual implies (and requires) a supporting political infrastructure. The journey Tacitus describes in chapter 40 ofthe Germania would take several months and cross seven tribal Solomon 25

that, the chariot, the vestments, and (believe it if you will) the goddess herself are

cleansed in a secluded lake. (40)

Tacitus ends this account by saying that all who participate in this ritual are required to be sacrificed as a stimulus to reverence and piety. North states that it is well known that the elements ofthe ceremony described above could have been obtained from the rites ofCybe .. or

Magna Mater in Rome; Tacitus was a priest ofthe Quindecemviri whose responsibilities included the oversight of Magna Mater and other gods of non-Italic extraction (21).39 However, there are two reasons to suggest that this was not the case. First, what Mattingly translates above as 'Mother Earth', the Roman historian wrote originally as "Terra Mater", not "Magna Mater"; a ritual quite different celebrated the Roman deity of Tellus or Terra Mater than the one Tacitus describes above. Second, North also points out, "Tacitus must have had a Gem1anic source for the name Nerthus, which is one of only three divine names of ethnic origin in the Germania"

(21), the others being Tuisto and Alci. Although Terra Mater's chariot-tour resembles the rite of

Cybele, "Tacitus' use of an inappropriate Roman title in Terra Mater, and an ethnic form in

Nerthus, indicate that the details ofNerthus' cult as he reports them are probably not Roman but

Germanic" (North 21). North's fascinating hypothesis must give some pause to those readers

whose inclinations are to view all of the descriptions contained within the Germania with

skepticism.

From the Germania we may observe that there are three reoccurring themes surrounding

the sacred rites ofthe Germans: (i) origins, (ii) genealogy, and (iii) universality. These are the

regions (North 24-5). This supports Tacitus' claim regarding the number of tribal groups participating in this particular cultic worship.

39 His duties specifically included washing the image ofMagna Mater in the river Alma annually on 27 March (North 21). Solomon 26 very concepts that not only constituted the foundation ofearly Gennanic religious beliefs, but also the foundation of early Gennanic society; this was not merely as they saw it, but more importantly, as they wished to see it. It was their desire to assume a mantle ofantiquity originating from the beginning of things as far back r-'~ comprehension could reach that would constitute the fundamental appeal ofthe Christian message, not only to the early English, but also to the Gennanic peoples as a whole. Following a discussion concerning the specific mechanics of the Anglo-Saxon embracement of Christianity and their later proselytization among their kinsmen on the continent, it shall be worth revisiting this matter of the Gennanic, and specifically the Anglo-Saxon sense ofthe past in further detail.

Of the British Church and the Celtic Contribution

Our surviving picture of the state of post-Roman Christianity in Britain is dominated by

Bede's Historia, where the author is extremely anxious to explain that the Christian faith was imported directly to the English people from the Vicar of Christ in Rome and explicitly not from any native British source (James 147).40 It was fonnerly (and widely) held that Romano-British

Christianity was virtually wiped out with the arrival of the Gennanic newcomers, but modem scholarship has largely discarded this mode1. 41 In his sixth-century work, De Excidio Britonum,

40 At the end of 1. 22, Bede writes that "[the British] never preached the faith to the Saxons and the Angles who dwelt with them in Britain"; the implication is that the British preferred to see them in hell. Furthermore, the indigenous Christians, such as they existed, bore a taint ofheresy. James points out that while Bede would have been well aware ofthe probability that Christianity continued among the Romano-British in the sixth century (indeed, he alludes to it above), there are no records of bishops operating in Anglo-Saxon England during that time. To Bede, or almost any contemporary Roman churchman, "Christianity without bishops was worse than no Christianity at all: an ecclesiastical structure was more important than a belief system, because only such a structure ensured correct belief and worship, and hence the salvation of souls" (147). Refer to Bede below on King Cadwallon in n. 18.

41 We have seen above that it is likely the only element of society to be radically displaced in any manner resembling the traditional paradigm was the Romano-British ari~tocracy. There is a pool ofscholarship that theorizes the British Church was largely a lower-class church with the colonial aristocracy remaining conservatively pagan. Ifthis model is true then the comings and goings of invaders must have had little effect Solomon 27

St. Gildas explicitly states that far from being in retreat or distress, his contemporary British church is corrupted by prosperity and wealth.42 Archaeological evidence is making it clear that

Christianity was widespread in Britain by the fifth century and this form of Christianity was essentially Roman (Evans 78). Bede describes the Episcopal See of St. Ninnian ("the Apostle of the Picts,,)43 as being in Whithom in Galloway,44 and his ethnicity to be "of British race" (III.

4).45 And of course, according to tradition Ireland was Christianized by Patrick (also a saint of

Romano-British extraction) who flourished in the fifth century; from Patrick's writings, we know

that he equated "Christian" with "Roman" (78). The archaeological record also provides us with

clues as to the existence of pre-Augustinian British Christianity, although they are more teasing

than informative. As Wilson says:

Evidence of Christianity in Roman Britain grows from year to year, but while a

number of buildings of Roman date may have served a Christian liturgical

purpose (as at Lullingstone, Kent), few churches or fragments of churches. now

on the day-to-day life of British Christians (Dark,passim). Conversely, in his book Christian Theology and Old English Poetry, James Wilson suggests the possibility that Anglo-Saxon proximity to British Christians might have made more of an impression than previously thought as "the swiftness ofthe conversion of [the Germanic immigrants] once they settled in England suggests the possibility of prior conditioning [ ... ] Christianity had been accepted by practically all ofthe invaders within 100 years of the completion of the occupation" (Wilson 19).

42 The entire second half of the treatise -- chapters 66-110 (entitled The Complaint: Clergy) -- is devoted to this very subject.

43 Ninnian is one oftwo saints to be anointed with this title, St. Columba, an Irishman, is the other.

44 Leo Sherley-Price states that the diocese appears to have extended from the environs of Glasgow to the borders of Westmorland (342).

45 In his endnotes to HE, Sherley-Price describes Ninnian as a native of North Wales (342). Undoubtedly, p~ ofthe reason for Bede's glowing endorsement ofNinnian as a "most reverend and holy man" (III. 4) was because of his fervent opposition to the "noxious and abominable" (LlD) teachings of "the Briton" (l.1D) Pelagius. Indeed, after revealing Ninnian's ethnicity, he establishes the Saint's orthodox credentials by telling us that Ninnian "had been regularly been instructed in the mysteries ofthe Christian faith in Rome" (lIlA) Solomon 28

survive which were used in the period between the departure of the Romans and

the Augustinian mission and the evidence oftheir use is slender (50).46

In light of this evidence, it is safe for us to assume that Roman Christianity did not disappear with the arrival of the Germanic migrants even though Bede may well have believed that the British church was given to the "doctrinal perversity" that gave "God good reason to

contemplate its extinction" (Corbett 64).47 It is quite possible that following the departure nfthe

legions in 407 CE, the British Church suffered considerable trial and tribulation at pagan English

hands, but the evidence does not support the view that the British Church was extinguished.

John Corbett writes, "Bede's prejudice,48 probably widely shared by his colleagues, may have

led him to underestimate the strength and significance of the British church, despite the evidence

which he himself reports (64)".49 Given the fact that we have seen that there appears to have

been an extensive degree of coexistence between Celt and German at every societal echelon in

46 Wilson goes on to say that a portion of the church ofSt. Martin in Canterbury may be an original part of Queen Berthefled's chapel and that the church at Stone, Kent may be pre-Augustinian.

47 See HE I.1 0 and II.19 for Bede's views on British heresy.

48 A graphic illustration of this "prejudice" is Bede's account of "the British [Christian] King Cadwalla" (Cadwallon, King of Gwynedd) in his war against the "glorious" King Edwin of Northumbria who reign Jver "English and Britons alike". Cadwallon was allied to Penda, King of Mercia, a pagan, but a pagan WIth the redeeming quality (in Bede's eyes) of Germanic ethnicity. Following Edwin's defeat and death at the battle of Hatfield (12 October, 633), Bede tells us: "[ ... ] a terrible slaughter took place among the Northumbrian church and nation, the more horrible because it was carried out by the two commanders, one of whom was a pagan and the other a barbarian more savage than any pagan. For Penda and all his Mercians were idol-worshippers ignorant of the name of Christ; but Cadwalla, although he professed to call himself a Christian, was utterly barbarous in temperament and behaviour. He was set upon exterminating the entire English race in Britain, and spared neither women nor children, putting them all to death with ruthless savagery, and continuously ravaging their whole country. He had no respect for the newly established religion ofChrist. Indeed, even in our own days the Britons pay no respect to the faith and religion ofthe English and have no more dealings with them than the heathen [my italics]" (HE II.20).

49 When king /Ethelberht of Kent was converted to ChristIanity, Bede tells us that "[0] n the east side of [Canterbury] stood an old church, built in honour of Saint Martin during the Roman occupation of Britain, Where the Christian queen [Berthefled] of who I have spoken went to pray' (1.26). Campbell has suggested that Bede's specific knowledge of the church's dedication was probably derived from the Queen household: "This can have been known only from popular memory, and it sounds as if the building had not been put to other uses. The residual Christians had been cut off from resources fmancial and intellectual but is it likely that they [embraced Germanic Solomon 29 post-Roman Britain,SO it is logical for us to assume that the traditions and works of the early

English church incorporated Romano-British elements.

Although the role ofthe native British church in the conversion ofthe Anglo-Saxons is still largely a. matter of academic theory and debate, the Irish contributionS! is far less ambiguous. According to Bede, a pivotal factor in tbe ecclesiastical development of England was the distinctive, non-orthodox customs of the Irish monks and missionaries who came as evangelists to Britain during the first century of the conversion (Wright 1).52 The Romanist faction saw these deviations from Catholic practice as representing a serious threat to the unity of the fledgling English Church and Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, sent by Rome to oversee the organization ofthe fledgling English Church, was vehement in his rej ection of Irish

"wandering bishops,,,s3 "who are not Catholic with respect to Easter and the tonsure and are not

united to the church" (Wright 39-40). Theodore required any English bishop ordained by them

to be confirmed by a 'Catholic' bishop and also ordered the re-consecration of all Irish -founded

paganism]? In the north Christianity had not died, and pagans L,mquered much ofthe north only a generation before the arrival of the mission [of Augustine] (John 28).

50 Besides the evidence presented in the first section of this study, we only have to look at the footnote above to see that racial interaction existed in the political, social and economic spheres. Although Bede is trying to illustrate an ethnic divide, he eloquently documents the opposite. 51 In this study, I use the term "Irish Church" as opposed to the "Celtic Church" because for our purposes it is more accurate as the contributions and actions we are examining here are specificaIly Irish. AdditionaIly, I quite agree with CampbeIl's view that there was no "Celtic Church" but rather churches that were Celtic (The Anglo-Saxons 47).

52 The points of divergence between Irish and Roman ecclesiastic practices included the form of the tonsure, of baptism, ordination, liturgy, chronological cycle (Evans 85-6), and most importantly to Bede, the calculation of the date of Easter (HE 11.2; 11.4; 11.19; 111.3, 111.17; 111.25; etc.) It is quite probable that Bede is exaggerating the importance of the Easter controversy in order to stress the need for universality and adherence to Roman doctrine (Evans 90) and that even Bede's Romanist contemporaries did not take the issue very seriously, although the issue mattered more in Northumbria than elsewhere (John 24). To the lay, political, as weIl as the clerical community at large, it is likely that the most obvious and more importantly, rumoured distinction of the Irish clerics were their "rigorously ascetic devotional practices" (Wright I).

53 Episcopi uagantes. We shall see below that due to the nature of English Christianity in its formative period, these travelling clergymen wielded a disproportionate influence. Solomon 30 churches in England (Wright 40); by inference, all the Irish were tainted with the charge of heresy. These were strong measures, but we must view them in their proper perspective given

Theodore's background, 54 mandate, and the situation he found upon his arrival in Britain.

Outside Kent, the organization ofthe Church ranged from the chaotic to the non-existent.

Although all the major English royal dynasties had been (officially) converted,S5 there were only a few presiding bishops between them,56 all ofwhom had either purchased their offices, or had been ordained under highly questionable circumstances (The Anglo-Saxons 51). Because there also appear to have been few priests, the English church depended upon the itinerant monks and bishops who toured the countryside and perfonned pastoral duties (51); Theodore had a vested interest in making certain these people followed strict Roman doctrine. Nevertheless, Wright raises a salient point:

It is essential to draw a distinction between 'irregularities of observance and

custom such as the calculation of Easter and the Celtic tonsure -- however 5 :ely

men such as Theodore, Aldhelm and Wilfred viewed them -- and heresy in

matters of faith. Despite the polemics of the Romanists, the evidence suggests that

the overwhelming majority of Irish scholars and missionaries who came to

England were theologically orthodox. (40)

54 Theodore had been forced to flee his home and diocese in Amtolia because ofthe Islamic invasion.

55 In 665 Sigere king of Essex along with a part of his people, "[temporarily] abandoned the mysteries ofthe Christian faith and relapsed into paganism" following the omens and disasters of the previous year (HE III.30). The Laud Chronicle reports that: "[1] n [664] there was an eclipse of the sun on 3 May and in this year came a great pestilence to the island of Britain. In the pestilence passed away bishop Tuda; he was buried at Wagele, and Eorcenberht, king of Kent passed away [ ...] Colman with his companions went to his native land [ ... ] and in that same year archbishop Deusdedit passed away." Given the context ofthis close sequence ofevents, perhaps the king is to be forgiven his (understandable) doubts regarding the new faith.

56 Bede comments on the scarcity of English clergy in HE III.21. Solomon 31

Bede, the most ardent ofRomanists, lends some contemporary reinforcement to Wright's statement above. Although he condemns the Irish for their unorthodoxy and stubbornness, he also acknowledges their sanctity and scholarship 57 (40) saying:

At this period [664] there were many English nobles and lesser folk in Ireland

who had left their own land [ ...] either to pursue religious studies or to lead a life

of stricter discipline. Some ofthese soon devoted themselves to the monastic life,

while others preferred to travel, studying under various teachers in turn. The

[Irish] welcomed them all kindly, and without asking for any payment, provided

them with daily food, books, and instruction (III.27).

The tone ofthe passage above is clearly one of respect and appreciation; this is completely representative of Bede's attitude towards Irish religious life and learning throughout the Historfa.

The education of English clerics was only one way the Irish would influence the Anglo-Saxons,

and by extension, their religious writings.

It is probable that Christianity existed in Ireland prior to the ministry of St. Patrick, which

comn1enced in the early fifth century,58 but it was subsequent to his arrival that the Christian

faith spread and flourished throughout the island. Patrick appears to have attempted, at least

initially, to organize the Irish Church along the diocesan pattern standard to the Christian west,

but in Ireland this was unworkable due to the fractured, unstable political structure.59 Because of

57 For another example ofthis schizophrenic view, see HE IILl7 for Bede's comments on St. Aidan.

58 Wilson notes possibly apocryphal account ofKing Cormac Macart's renunciation of Druidism in 266 and refusal to be buried with his pagan kinsmen (14). He also makes the point that Pall ad ius is said to have preceded Patrick and that the safest assumption is that Christianity reached the Emerald Isle in the fourth century from western Gaul and Britain (14).

59 In the fifth-century, the Irish system of government was established upon the basis of small, autonomously ruled tribal units: "Either a tribal chief and his followers would be converted and thus establish the tribal territorial limits as the authority of the church or monastic settlement, or a converted chief would make territorial grants to a churchman, similarly establishing the limits ofhis authority" (Wilson 14-15). Solomon 32

this, the Irish Church consisted ofautonomous monasteries, an incarnation which paralleleL~ 'Ie governmental structure ofthe island (Wilson 15). The Irish Church did have bishops, and they alone were allowed to confinn and consecrate, but unlike in the Roman Church they did not rule dioceses as the function ofthe Irish bishop was almost exclusively spiritual and sacramentaL

They had no practical administrative power, but prefonned their functions under the authority of an abbot, either travelling the countryside or residing In a monastery60 (The Making ofEngland

34).

Along with the papacy, Irish monasticism was one of the great energizing forces ofthe early medieval Church in the west and nowhere was this more the case than in Britain. Though

Bede was careful to state that the English only felt the influence ofthe Irish monks -- specifically the monks of lona -- after the Augustinian mission, even he admitted that they did more to convert the inhabitants of Britain than anyone else (HE IIIA-6); it was this very missionary zeal that was perhaps the greatest contribution of the Irish to the English Church. The fervent evangelical activity so characteristic ofthe Irish was the result ofthe monastic tradition of peregrinatio pro amore Dei61 . As a fonn ofpenance,62 a monk would leave behind everything that he knew and cherished to begin a new life in a foreign, often hostile land in order to spread the "Good News" (Evans 81). The Christian faith had spread from the Eastern Mediterranean throughout the Empire and beyond largely due to the efforts of the peregrini of the early

60 The abbaye-eveche or abbey-bishopric was common throughout the northwestern Celtic 'fringe' of Europe; additionally, often the abbot was bishop as well (Evans 79).

61 "Pilgrimage for the love of God."

62 The Irish monks were famed for their harsh ascetic regimens and penitential practices that could range from immersion in ice water to standing in an immobile position with arms raised. Confession ofboth evil acts and sinful thoughts would be made to an anamchara (soul friend) who would then dictate the appropriate form of penance. The term anamchara is indicative ofthe Irish monastic view ofpenance, which was not thOUght of as punitive, but as curative for maladies ofthe soul. (Evans 80-81). Solomon 33 church.63 These men usually separated themselves from a parent monastery in groups of thirteen, symbolizing Christ and the twelve disciples, and built a sub-establishment in, or along the borders ofheathen lands, at which point they would then fan out individually into the new territory and carry with them their message of salvation (Wilson 15-16; Evans 81); in all likelihood, these were the sort of men who brought Christianity to Ireland from the Roman colonies in Britain and Gaul. Bede celebrates the Irish peregrini as saint-heroes, and indeed

Columbia, Aidan, Eata, Colman, and Cuthbert are the great names of the English conversion.

Later, in the sixth to eighth centuries, peregrini from the new English Church (in large part a creation of Irish missionaries), such as Boniface and Willihad, ventured throughout the north to convert their Germanic brethren.

Of the Papal Involvement

According to Bede, Gregory the Great harboured a "deep desire for the salvation of [the

English] nation" well before attaining the bishopric of Rome, and sought permission from the then current Pope to personally attempt the task of converting the English to Christianity (11.1).

This permission was not forthcoming because, "although the Pope himself was willing, the citizens of Rome would not allow Gregory to go so far away from the city" (II. I ). We have seen that Bede was not a neutral historian. The Northumbrian cleric's purpose was to outline a

pattern he saw in history in order to teach a lesson, and impart a warning to his audience:

Christian faith and liturgy (as Christ and God intended it to be practised) stems from Rome and

63 In his chapter on apocryphal cosmology and Irish myth, Wright comments at length upon the popularity of 'The Devil's Account ofthe Next World' among both the Anglo-Saxons and the Irish: "the protagonist ofthe 'The Devil's Account' is an anchorite is certainly consistent with an Irish background, for Eastern monasticism and the ascetic ideals of the desert fathers exerted a strong influence on monastic spirituality in Ireland where anchoritism was actively cultivated. The Catalogus Sanctorum Hlberniae identifies the third order of saints as those 'qui in locus desertis habitabant"'. Solomon 34 only Rome. The Britons received it from Rome but fell victim to the vice and sin that lead from disorder. The English have also received Christianity from Rome but were lapsing into the vice and sin that lead from disorder; non-Roman Christian doctrine is a source of disorder no matter how saintly its adherents are in other respects. The historia is a compilation of:

[N] arratives of assimilation and integration, whereby paganism is smoothly if

unevenly converted to Christianity. This developmental model culminates in the

Benedictine reforms and the 'golden age.' As Bede also emphasizes, however,

religious assimilation, whether of non-Christians or of different modes of

Christianity, causes both real and symbolic violence. (Lees 108)

In large part Bede wrote his Historia to call his sinful countrymen back to the proper ways of

God -- which are spelled out for all to see in Roman doctrine -- before they too are punished, as were the Britons before them by the adventus Saxonum.64

There are two interesting points regarding the Gregorian initiative in sending the

Augustinian mission to Britain. Based upon Gregory's letter to the kings of the Franks,65

Theuderic and Theudebert,66 and a later missive to the Queen Regent Brunhild in July of 596, it appears that: (i) the concept for the Augustinian mission to England came from the English

64 Three generations later, Alcuin of York similarly argued that the coming of the Vikings was similarly the result of God's wrath for the sins of the English people (James 154).

65 The Frankish kings claimed dominion over southern England in the sixth-century and were involved in this process due to their perceived responsibility to convert their subjects (James 155); James cites the essay by I. N. Wood "Frankish Hegemony in England," as a source. Of course the Christian queen of Kent was ofthe Frankish royal house, and we noted above that the FrankishlFrisian element of the English Germanic mix might have been considerable. And in Pope Gregory's letters to the Frankish royal family, he clearly considers the English to be Frankish subjects -- at least to the face ofthe Franks, for he makes no mention of it in his correspondence to any other of the interested parties, least of all to the English king.

66 Theudebert II, king of Austrasia, and Theuderic II, King of Burgundy, had not yet reached the age of majority (being ten and seven respectively) upon the death of their father, Childebert II in 596; thus their grandmother Brunhild was acting as Queen Regent (HF viii.37, ix.2). I have found numerous alternative spellings for the various Frankish names but I have used the om...; found in the Lewis Thorpe translation ofthe Historiae Francorum. Solomon 35 themselves and not the Pope as Bede assumes throughout his Historia; (ii) The English had an interest in Christianity for some time67 but the native British clergy were unwilling to proselytize among them. We read in his letter addressed to the two kings aparibus:

Since Almighty God has adorned your kingdom with rectitude of faith, and has

made it conspicuous among other nations by the purity of its Christian religion,

we have conceived great expectations of you, that you will by all means desire

that your subjects should be converted to that faith in virtue of which you are their

kings and lords. This being so, it has come to our knowledge that the nation of the

Anglii is desirous, through the mercy of God, ofbeing converted to the Christian

faith, but that the priests in their neighbourhood neglect them, and are remiss in

kindling their desires by their own exhortations. On this account therefore we

have taken thought to send to them the servant of God Augustine, the bearer !""

these presents, whose zeal and earnestness are well known to us, with other

servants of God. And we have also charged them to take with them some priests

from the neighbouring parts, with whom they may be able to ascertain the

disposition of the Anglii, and, as far as God may grant it to them, to aid their

wishes by their admonition. (Greg. Ep. vi. 51)

And in a letter to Brunhild that immediately follows, Gregory writes:

67 In September of595, Gregory wrote to Candidus, Presbyter and rector ofthe papal estates in Gaul: "[w] e desire thy Love to procure with the money thou mayest receive clothing for the poor, or English boys of about seventeen or eighteen years of age, who may profit by being give to God in monasteries, that so the money of Gaul, which cannot be spent in our own country, may be expended profitably in its own locality [ ... ] But sinc p such as can be found there are pagans, I desire that a presbyter be sent hither with them to provide against the case of any sickness occurring on the way, that he may baptize those whom he sees to be about to die (Greg. Ep. vi. I 0). It was common practice in the early medieval Church to train slaves in monasteries to serve in missions to their native countries (James 154). This suggests an English interest in Christianity as early as 595 for, as we shall see, the evidence does not support the usual contention that Pope Gregory initiated the process. Solomon 36

The Christianity of your Excellence has been so truly known to us of old that we

do not in _the least doubt of your goodness, but rather hold it to be in all ways

certain that you will devoutly and zealously concur with us in the cause of faith,

and supply most abundantly the succour of your religions sincerity. Being for this

reason well assured, and greeting you with paternal charity, we infonn you that it

has come to our knowledge how that the nation of the Anglii, by God's

pennission, is desirous of becoming Christian, but that the priests who are in their

neighbourhood have no pastoral solicitude with regard to them. And lest their

souls should haply perish in eternal damnation, it has been our care to send to

them the bearer ofthese presents, Augustine the servant ofGod, whose zeal and

earnestness are well known to us, with other servants of God; that through them

we might be able to learn their wishes, and, as far as is possible, you also striv:ng

with us, to take thought for their conversion. We have also charged them that for

carrying out this design they should take with them presbyters from the

neighbouring regions. (Greg. Ep. vi. 52)

This correspondence places Augustine's mission in quite a different light from wha+' 1S been the accepted paradigm since the eighth-century (and perhaps before): that Pope Gregory, and the popes following him, initiated the conversion, and then dictated the course and nature of the northern evangelization. This notion of Gregory as an "ecclesiastical Justinian" (John 24) who centrally directed church policy from Rome and sent Augustine to convert the English and neutralize the anarchist Irish in a single masterstroke does not pass even a cursory examination.

In 597, all Italy with the exception of Rome was ruled by the Langobards -- fervent, hostile adherents of Arianism who were of a far more pressing and immediate concern to the papacy Solomon 37 than the Irish monks "in the ends of the world" who they may have perceived as cutting their hair or celebrating Easter incorrectly (Greg. Ep. vi. I 0). It is clear that the Roman mission to Kent was not a papal initiative, and as James notes, "very few things were in the early Middle Ages

[... J external affairs usually only impinged on them when an appeal was made to them" (155).

Gregory dispatched Augustine to England more as a result of Anglo-Frankish politics than a

"deep desire for the salvation of the English.,,68 Bede tells us that King LEthelberht received ~lis wife the Princess Berthefled69 , a niece of Brunhild, from her parents "on the condition that she should have freedom to hold and practice her faith unhindered with [Frankish] Bishop Liudhard, whom they had sent as her helper in the faith" (1.25). It is probable, being sensitive to Frankish claims of sovereignty and his existing ties to the Frankish royal family, that the king accep~ , the interest in his own realm in Christianity,70 but did not wish to be further beholden to the Frankish

Kings nor invite into his realm an ecclesial power structure under the authority of the Frankish

Church (James 155). Nevertheless, Gregory's letters reveal that he was completely dependant upon temporal authorities such as the Frankish royals to undertake endeavours such as missionary activity as he had neither the resources no! the ability to do so on his own. Gregory freely acknowledges the contribution of the Frankish queen to the English mission:

As to the great favour and assistance wherewith your Excellence aided our most

reverend brother and fellow-bishop Augustine on his progress to the nation of the

Anglii, fame had already not been silent; and afterwards certain monks returning

68 Gregory's direct involvement with the mission consisted of slightly more than a two day investment: of twenty-nine relevant letters, twenty-three were written on 23 July, 596 or 22 June, 601. Of the remaining six, only the last mentions the English mission in anything other than a passing matter (James 155-6).

69 The daughter of Charibert, king of Paris.

70 It could have been his wife, his merchant subjects -- Kent was a rich, maritime kingdom that had extensive contacts with the Christian kingdoms to the south -- or some combination of both. Solomon 38

to us from him, gave us a particular account thereof [ ...] Now of what sort and

how great are the miracles, which our Redeemer has wrought, the conversion of

the above-written nation is already known to your Excellency. On which account

you ought to have great joy, since the succours afforded by you claun to

themselves the larger share herein, it having been through your aid, after God, that

the word of preaching became widely known in those parts (Greg. Ep. ix.62).

In this epistle, Pope Gregory tells Queen Brunhild that she has done more than anyone except

God to convert the English to the Christian faith. Clearly, there may be an element of flattery involved -- the saintly Gregory is hardly above it. 7l l~owever, given the Frankish ties with

England in general and Kent specifically, we must acknowledge a strong probability that the

Franks had a good deal more to do with the conversion of the England than Bede admits, or knows enough about it to admit. This presumption becomes all the more likely when we see the form the English Church was to take.

Of the Nature of Conversion

With S1. Gregory the Great telling us that Queen Brunhild was second only to God in the conversion ofEngland, we must wonder about the role and success of "our brother Augustine" and the Roman strategy in general. Once again, we may turn to the Gregorian epistles for clues.

On 22 June, 601, Pope Gregory advises Augustine to proceed in the following manner:

71 Throughout the seven extant letters of Gregory to Brunhild, he gushes platitudes about her saintly virtue, her pre-eminent wisdom, and the perfection of not only her Christian faith but also that of her Kingdom. Gregory ofTours tells us in great detail of her involvement with: multiple assassinations (of clergy as well as relatives); Arianism (she converted to Catholicism upon her marriage to Sigibert); libel (the abbot who was her accuser was found sans head under mysterious circumstances (the charge he levied was not recorded); and endless plots and intrigues -- Brunhild was notable for treachery even among Frankish rulers. As far as the sanctity of her kingdom ... simply open the Historiae Francorum at random for an answer. While Gregory of Tours is n~ exactly free of bias himself, Brunhild was one ofthe most notorious regents of her day. Solomon 39

Ordain twelve bishops to be under your authority so far as that the bishop of the

city of London ought always hereafter to be consecrated by his own synod and

receive the pall of honour from this holy and Apostolic See which, by God's

authority, I serve. Moreover we will that you send a bishop to York, whom you

shall have see fit to ordain [ ... ] he himself [shall] also ordain twelve bishops, and

enjoy the order of metropolitan [ ... ] Moreover for the future, let there be this

distinction of honour between the bishops of the city of London and the city of

York, that he himself take the precedence who has been first ordained [ ... ] But

you my brother, shall have subject to you not only the bishops you ordain, and not

solely those ordained by the Bishop of York, but as well all the priests of Britain

(Greg. Ep. xi. 39).

Pope Gregory's understanding of Frankish politics and palace intrigue was fonnidable, but his comments reveal that his knowledge and infonnation concerning the socio-political situation in

Britain was seriously lacking. When Gregory instructed Augustine to set up episcopal dioceses

in London and York, he probably did not realize that not only were these cities no longer political centres, but that also, at the turn of the seventh-century, each was probably, "a largely

uninhabited labyrinth of Roman ruins" (James 157). Most likely, Gregory was using impe" 1_ era maps and references as sources, and envisioned an English church based upon an urban structure that reflected his own experience of ecclesiastic organization in the southern

Mediterranean (The Anglo-Saxons 84);72 the problem was that Britain in 601 had yet to redevelop its urban centres. The Irish, who undertook the better part of the day-to-day efforts of

converting the Anglo-Saxons, viewed the situation rather differently and chose to operate from

72 And also according to the principals of spiritual he laid out in Dart II in The Book ofPastoral Rule. See II.I and II.7. Solomon 40 rural sites. Predictably, the English Church was to evolve into something far closer to the Gallo-

Frankish model -- where cities were few and the cultural matrix was similar -- than the Itali ..1

Church (84).73 And given the fact that the papacy could not effectively enforce its will north of central Italy, the notion that the Christian church, as it existed in the British Isles, besieged and isolated for centuries, would suddenly be subject to Augustine's control upon Gregory's order, is ludicrous.

Besides the appalling level of geo-political ignorance, there appears to have been a general unpreparedness and lack of clear direction in the Roman camp regarding the English mission on the part of both Gregory and Augustine. Those who would argue the case for centralized papal direction of Germanic evangelization have often pointed to Pope Gregory's letter to the Abbot Mellitus74 urging a strategy of Christianizing pagan shrines and customs:

Since the departure of our congregation, which, is with thee, we have been in a

state of great suspense from having heard nothing ofthe success of your journey.

But when Almighty God shall have brought you to our most reverend brother the

bishop Augustine, tell him that I have long been considering with myself about

the case of the Anglii; to wit, that the temples of idols in that nation should not be

destroyed, but that the idols themselves that are in them should be. Let blessed

water be prepared, and sprinkled in these temples, and altars constructed, and

73 Campbell attributes the later conflicts between the English and Roman clergy partly to the fact that the English were heavily influenced by the episcopal ideas and culture of Frankish Gaul in addition to the fact that England had far more in common with Gaul than Italy in virtually every way. To the contrary, the Romans under Archbishop Theodore -- himself being from heavily urban Asia Minor and having spent much of his life in and around Rome -- attempted to rigidly apply Gregorian ideas and Mediterranean structure, much of whic'" was not applicable (The Anglo-Saxons 84-5). Though not mentioned by Campbell, we must add a factor of ethno-racial affinity between Anglo-Saxon and Frank that we can be quite sure existed -- as discussed above. All this may suggest a greater Frankish participation in the conversion of the English than is generally known and/or documented.

74 This letter is Greg. Ep. xi.56 and is also preserved by Bede (HE 1.30) Solomon 41

relics deposited, since, if these same temples are well built, it is needful that they

should be transferred from the worship of idols to the service of the true God;

that, when the people themselves see that these temples are not destroyed, they

may put away error from their heart, and, knowing and adoring the true God, may

have recourse with the more familiarity to the places they have been accustomed

to (Greg. Ep. xi. 56).

Historians have traditionally accepted this epistle to be the template for the conversion of the

Germanic peoples, which all subsequent missionaries memorized and followed, with Gregory as the sole visionary who conceived of it. Upon closer inspection, we must take issue with this paradigmatic contention on several points. Bede tells us that this letter "shows most clearly [the]

"holy father Gregory ['so .. ] unwearying interest in the salvation of our nation" (1. 30). By

"unwearying", I imagine that Bede is referring to Gregory's "long contemplation" since his last letter -- approximately three and a half weeks. The reason he had to send this epistle post-haste to Mellitus was to prevent King JEthelberht from implementing the first missionary strategy he recommended in a letter twenty-three days prior, saying:

Make haste to extend the Christian faith among the peoples under thy :iway,

redouble the zeal of thy rectitude in their conversion, put down the worship of

idols, overturn the edifices of their temples, build up the manners of thy subjects

in great purity of life by exhorting, by terrifying, by enticing, by correcting, by

showing examples of well-doing; that so you may find Him your recompenser in

heaven Whose name and knowledge you shall have spread abroad on earth (Greg.

Ep. xi. 47).75

75 Also (HE 1.32). Solomon 42

Unfortunately, Bede does not tell us the king's reaction upon receiving the simultaneous yet contradictory papal advice, and, once again, the surviving evidence is quite inconclusive as to revealing which policy was implemented. The archaeological record does not reflect a rededication of temples to churches (Hooke 27-8, James 156, Wilson 50-5) although the site of

Yeavering in Yorkshire is one possible example76 (Hodges 58; James 156; Wilson 50). We find literary corroboration for the consecration of pagan shrines in Wessex in a letter from Bishop

Aldhelm of Sherborne to Heahfrith, a friend with whem he had spent six years in Ireland.

Aldhelm praises God for the fact that the West Saxons are learning of Christianity in buildings

"where once the crude pillars (ermula) of the same foul snake and the stag were worshipped with coarse stupidity in profane shrines" (North 51). However, I maintain that it is not particularly relevant which Gregorian policy was carried out, because neither one conveys any understanding of the dynamic nor subtleties of the target culture that would allow for a successful evangelization.

The methods of conversion that Gregory recommends are crude, blunt tools he designed and intended to deal with a people and society the totality of his Roman education and experience had conditioned him to think of as primitive and barbaric. Gregory's letter to the king, while respectful, carries an unmistakably patronizing tone, and a general air of condescension. After he instructs LEthelberht to root out paganism by any means necessary-­ quite as one would to a professional thug -- he gives him a scribal pat on the head and tells him to follow any and all of Augustine's instructions, and to do so without question;77 this is of

76 "Dr Hope-Taylor found buildings on the site which may be interpreted as churches, while one ofthem was possibly a pagan temple that was converted to Christian use" (Wilson 50)

77 "Listen gladly to his admonitions, follow them devoutly, keep them studiously in remembrance: for, if you listen to him in what he speaks in behalf of Almighty God, the same Almighty God will the sooner listen to him when he prays for you. For, if (which God forbid) you disregard his words, when will it be possible for Almighty God to hear him for you, whom you neglect to hear for God?" (Greg. Ep. Xi 47) Solomon 43 particular importance, since the end of the world is at hand. Gregory concludes by informing the king that his conversion to Christianity has insulated him from having to deal with, "wars, pestilence" and other assorted catastrophic acts of God, but if these things do occur in his realm then it is simply a sign of the end of the world. And regardless, ifhe converts enough people in his kingdom, there will be nothing to worry about in the afterlife, for the converter, or the converted. In his letter to the Abbot Mellitus, Gregory not only takes a noticeable shift in tone, but he also reveals something ofhis true feelings in regards to his new converts: the Pope says in essence, that exposure to the Christian faith will be too much of a shock for the primitive A.'1glo­

Saxon mind to comprehend all at once, it must be introduced to them in consecrated baby steps.

I paraphrase here, "Let the savages continue to do whatever it is they do, but so long as they do it in the name of Christ, they will be better off than they were before; just saturate the island with holy water and it will all tum out right in the end"; so quoth the Vicar of Christ upon his long reflection.

However, if to be condescending is better than belligerent and offensive, then Gregory was a step ahead of Augustine. It appears that Augustine took his mandate, "to have subject to

[him] all the priests of Britain" quite seriously, and to our modem perception, engaged the

British clergy in a seemingly pointless confrontation and provoked a schism with the native church. On their part, the Britons assessed Augustine as an arrogant man78 when he cursed them and threatened them with death at the hands ofthe English (HE 11.2) upon the conclusion of their meeting near the Gloucestershire/Oxfordshire border ~Hooke 10). When Pope Gregory responded to the list of questions Augustine sent, it is apparent that Augustine gave even less thought and preparation to the mission than did Gregory. It is reasonable to expect that the

78 Pope Gregory himselfwams Augustine as to the dangers of pride (HE 1.31) Solomo'- 44 leader of an evangelical mission charged with converting a nation-race of people would research issues such as, "What is to be the relation between the bishop and his clergy?" and "Since we hold the same faith, why do customs vary in different churches?" (HE 1.27) prior to his embarkation (James 157). Augustine clearly has no experience in these matters and his correspondence appears to indicate that adaptability and initiative when faced with unfamiliar situations were not the blessed saint's strongest qualities. 79 Accordingly, it should come as no surprise to us that the successes that the Roman effort initially achieved in England were incomplete and temporary; for the true model of Germanic conversion, we must look elsewhere.

Of the Method of Converting the Heathen

I have theorized above, that the Roman methods of evangelization in the northern countries were less than successful (at least initially), largely due to presuppositions and arrogance stemming from their sense of cultural superiority; it was for these reasons that others would primarily carry out the conversion ofthe Germanic peoples. I have noted the contribution of Irish monasticism towards the spread of Christianity in England. It is due to the efforts of monks from lona and Lindisfarne that King Oswald ofNorthumbria was swayed to the Christian faith and indirectly, King Cynigilis ofthe West Saxons as well.so Additionally, we have seen

79 To Augustine's sixth question: "Is it permissible for a bishop to be consecrated without other bishops present?" Gregory replies: "In the Church of England where as yet you are the only bishop, you cannot do otherwise than consecrate a bishop without other bishops being present" (HE 1.27)

80 Bede gives a dramatic account of Oswald's victory at Hefenfelth (Heavenfield), and the subsequent conversion of Oswald and Northumbria (as well as what is modem Scotland) by Aidan and the monks oflona and Lindisfame (HE II1.2-6). Bede attributes the subsequent conversion of King Cynigilis and the West Saxons completely to the proselytization ofBishop Birinus (HE III.7). However, we must take issue with this assertion based upon evidence Bede himself provides. Bede tells us that Oswald enjoyed military success (III.2), and achieved "an earthly realm greater than [his ancestors] enjoyed, and "reached a height of power" (II1.6). We know that through Aidan's efforts and friendship he became devoutly Christian, and we also know that Cynigilis accepted conversion, and was baptized, "at that time when the most holy and victorious Oswald was present, and greeted King Cynigilis as he came from the font, and offered him an alliance most acceptable to God, taking him as his godson and his daughter as a wife" (IH.7). I would submit that Cynigilis' conversion Solomon 45 above that it is likely that the Frankish clergy played a great role in the achievements ofthe

Augustinian mission -- fleeting as most of them were -- and Frankish Gaul was a much more immediate and accessible source of influence and inspiration for the newly converted Christians in southern England (it could be seen from Kentish shore) than was Rome. If we are to vie~ cultural bigotry as a reason for Romanist failures, we must conversely view cultural tolerance and affinity as a factor of the Irish success. 81 The Irish did not possess a legacy of imperial primacy, and they came from a societal matrix that shared common elements with the Gerrr.anic peoples. This was probably also a major factor in the success ofthe Frankish clergy in

England,82 and the Anglo-Saxon missionaries among their brothers, "of one blood and one bone"

(St. Boniface, EHD I.748) to the south and to the east.

had more to do with Oswald's earthly power than Birinus' preaching of heaven. There is another item of interest in this chapter of the Historia: Bede tells us that Birinus had corne to Britain at the order of Pope Honorius I: "having promised in his presence that he would sow the seeds of our holy faith in the most inland and remote regions ofthe English, where no other teacher had been before him". It is not a very dangerous assumption to suppose that the Romans wished to counter the influence ofthe Irish itinerant monks who were evangelizing among the Anglo-Saxons with such remarkable success. But then we read, "he was at the Pope's command, but when he had reached Britain and entered the territory of the [West Saxons], he found them completely heathen and decided it would be better to preach the word of God among them rather than seek more distant converts" (IIL7). I have a different interpretation for Birinus' actions. It is a fact that the Roman ministry in Britain was more or less stalled at this time. We also know from the correspondence between Gregory and the Augustinian mission thirty years prior that Roman clergy generally had to be browbeaten and forced into going to England; Birinus was sent under even more uncomfortable conditions than Augustine, and Bede tells us that he was ordered to come. In light of the information that remains, it is logical to assume that Birinus carne to what he viewed as a barbarian hinterland on the edge of the world with extreme reluctance, reached Wessex, and then balked at the thought of venturing past that last outpost of civilization, and probably, royal protection -- even Anglo-Saxon missionaries such as Boniface sought the protection of temporal lords before entering heathen lands. As a Romanist, Bede is most likdy putting the best face he can on Birinus' cowardice and insubordination.

81 The monks of Lindisfame can also claim credit for the conversion of the Mercians, the East Saxons, the South Saxons, and also the leadership of the first Anglo-Saxon mission to the continent: Wilfred, Willibrord, and the other Anglo-Saxon Northumbrians were all pupils of the Irish (The Anglo-Saxons 84). In The Irish Tradition in Old English Literature, Charles Wright points out many similarities between the respective theological interests and interpretations ofthe Germanic peoples and the Goidelic Celts that should be seen in terms of cross cultural literary themes and uses in the early Middle Ages. For similarities in "Celtic" and "Germanic" societies, also see James, 122-9.

82 From Pope Gregory's own testimony. Solomon 46

This study has dealt in detail with the limited role ofthe Roman church in the earliest conversions of the Gennanic peoples, both because ofa cultural chasm and because of the extremely limited power ofthe papacy in the early Middle Ages. The popes ofthe seventh and eighth-centuries had neither the power nor the resources to send massed clerical armies from a pan-European church, unified under Roman doctrine to the English and the Gennans, as Pope

Gregory's mighty successors could to the Scandinavians three centuries later (North 312). We now also know that the Letter of Gregory to the Abbot Mellitus was not a template for the

"Teutonization of Christianity" that would be followed by later clerics and scribal poets. Rather, simply an afterthought born of ignorance that was to have no real impact on anything in the end, and the failures ofthe early Roman missions are the most dramatic proof of this. Thus, at this point in the study we must ask the question: "what was it about the Hibemo-Saxon presentation of an east Mediterranean theology that made it so appealing to the Gennanic peoples?" To do this, it is necessary for us to look at the process of adaptation as it occurred in England and

Gennany to thereby achieve a new perspective on the resulting religious poetry that would emerge from these lands. While it is conventional, and perhaps comforting to believe that the

Catholic Church orchestrated the adaptation, based upon the evidence that we have examined, we must conclude that this is not the whole story. Unquestionably, "the Church" provided the theological and scriptural framework (sometimes), and the papal correspondence admitted!. reveals an underlying pragmatism towards the newly converted peoples (condescending though it may be). However, once the south had made the initial overtures, the north continued the task, adapting the Christian message to answer its own pre-existing cosmological questions; and perhaps it required an insider's knowledge ofthe target Gennanic culture to hear the questions being asked, as well as to provide the answers. For the purpose of investigating the motifs that Solomon 47 were developed, I tum once again to contemporary literary accounts: Bishop Daniel's argwnent to origins in his letter to Wynfrith Boniface prior to Wynfrith's Continental mission and Bede's description ofthe conversion of King Edwin in the Historia.

After acknowledging that Wynfrith is about to undertake a dangerous task, Daniel immediately begins to advise him as to a strategy to convert the Germans so that he might achieve his goal, "with the least possible trouble":

Do not begin by arguing with them about the genealogies of their false gods.

Accept their statement that they were begotten by other gods through the

intercourse of male and female and then you will be able to prove that, as these

gods and goddesses did not exist before, and were born like men, they must be

men and not gods. When they have been forced to admit that their gods had a

beginning, since they were begotten by others, they should be asked whether the

world had a beginning or was always in existence. (EHD I. 733)

Daniel was well aware of the importance of genealogies to the Old Saxons, people his countrymen the Anglo-Saxons considered estranged brethren,83 because their significance was so deeply implanted in the culture ofthe English themselves. In the sub-section above concerning

Germanic paganism, we read how Tacitus recognised the place of genealogies in Germanic

83 The Early English were extremely conscious of their continental origins and their kinship with the Germans ofthe continent, as we read in the previous section. Besides Bene, the Laud Chronicle entry for 449 records that the first Germanic immigrants who migrated to Britain, "came from three nations of Germany, from the Old Saxons, from the Angles, from the Jutes," and notes the fact that the chieftains of these people were Hengist and Horsa. In HE 1.15 Bede (probably the source material for the Laud chronicler) provides us with the additional information that Hengist and Horsa were the descendants of"Wictgils", "Witta", "Wecta", and ultimately, "Woden, from whose stock sprang the royal house of many provinces". Howe writes: "Bede's statement unites continent and island as does his map of migrations and settlement patterns. Genealogy becomes a paradigm of migration because the past must be set in another place" (62). It was this retained sense of kinship and community that was to so passionately inspire the Anglo-Saxons missionaries to save German souls. In the Historia Bede reports that Egbert heard that there were many people in Germany, "of whose stock came the Angles and the Saxons" that were still pagan, and therefore went there, "[to] attempt to snatch some ofthem from Satan and bring them to Christ" (V.9). Solomon 48 culture (Germania 2), and this was to extend far beyond the first century. Indeed, the most frequent allusions in the contemporary literature to the Volkerwanderungen that held such a mythic status in the folk-history of early Germanic cultures are the extant royal genealogies

(Howe 29-30). These genealogies, trace the ruling houses ofthe early English to remote

Germanic forbears, and ultimately to the pagan gods. Bede dutifully reports the ancestry of the

Kentish kings in his process of noting the racial origins of the English people (HE 1.15). And in the Vita Sancti Guthlaci, we read that the early English saint traces his lineage, "through the most noble names of famous kings, back to Icel in whom it began in the days of old" (Hunter

33). Although many elements ofthe genealogies suggest an element of artificiality, they were meaningful to Germanic society more for the impression of antiquity that they imparted than for their historical accuracy (33). Towards the end of his letter, Daniel warns Wynfrith that the pagans, "[will] boast that their gods are legitimate and have held undisputed sway from the beginning [my italics]", as though the two concepts are synonymous to the Old Saxons among whom the younger man will establish his ministry. Clearly, the sense of past antiquity is of great importance but not in of itself, it is part of a larger theme, the nature ofwhich we may also glean from Daniel's words.

In the above citation, Daniel advances the line of reasoning that if the gods were conceived in the same manner as mortal men, then not only must they also be men, but they also must have had a beginning as they were, "begotten by others," Now, once the pagan Germans are, "forced to admit that their gods had a beginning," "they should be asked whether the world had a beginning or was always in existence." We have already seen that to the Germans, the order of creation is an unshakable indicator ofprimacy: that which came into being first, is foremost, and that which creates is superior to that which is created. And as Daniel argues, since Solomon 49 it is a fact that the gods of the Germans are indeed men, for they were "begotten", "before the universe was created there is no place in which these created gods could have subsisted or dwelt." The Bishop Daniel then expands upon this theme:

[b] y universe" I mean not merely heaven and earth which we see with our eyes

but the whole extent of space which even the heathens can grasp in their

imagination. If they maintain that the universe had no beginning, try to refute

their arguments and bring forward convincing proofs; and if they persist in

arguing, ask them, who ruled it? How did the gods bring under their sway a

universe that existed before them? Whence or by whom or when was the first god

or goddess begotten? Do they believe that gods and goddesses still beget other

gods and goddesses? If they do not, when did they cease and why? If they do, the

number of gods must be infinite. In such a case, who is the most powerful among

these different gods? Surely no mortal man can know. Yet man must take care not

to offend this god who is more powerful than the rest (EHD 1.732).

In this citation, Daniel reveals his intimate understanding of the workings of the German mind, and culture, as it existed in the early middle Ages, while also presenting a brilliant argument designed to appeal to their societal concerns. He knows that pagan Germanic theology is well equipped to grasp and comprehend the concept of space and matter; he is just as well aware of their primordial horror of the lack thereof. The notion of mortal existence in a forn11ess, shapeless void is terrifying to the point of being inconceivable to this audience, and Daniel knows that they would not care to even contemplate the possibility of their earliest ancestors -­ whom it was agreed were genuine -- existing in such a state, unless of course the universe existed prior to their deified, yet mortal ancestors. Solomon 50

Germanic society ofthe early Middle Ages was one obsessed with order. The laws, the system of recompense for injury and violence,84 and even the basic cultural matrix evolved if' a manner conducive to the optimum maintenance of order and structure, hence the emphasis upon genealogical hierarchy. Daniel poses the question: "ifthe universe came into being prior to the gods, who then ruled it?" The notion of a realm without a ruler to maintain order would be unthinkable to the Germans on a local, terrestrial level, and Daniel has extended this lack of leadership to encompass all existing matter. This is additional to the question of how the gods could possibly rule over an entity brought into existence before their own creation. This would be a perversion of their most fundamental conception of order -- the primacy ofthat which is eldest -- and the knowledge that the gods were, and are mortal men, serves only to amplify the bishop's argument. By asking, "[W] hence or by whom or when was the first god or goddess begotten", Daniel poses a challenge to the Germans on two levels: Obviously, if the "gods" are mortal, something brought them into being, and this same something, or someone, is superior to the "gods" in both hierarchy and might, simply by virtue of either having been before them in the order of creation, or having been their creator. Therefore: (i) the ancestral histories that they so revere and cherish are both incomplete and inaccurate, and (ii) the true entity that is the Pril_ ..;,

Creator is not being honoured and worshipped, which once again, is a disruption ofthe proper hierarchy, and by extension, order. This is the direction to which Daniel pursues his argument when he states, "man must take care not to offend this [apparently unknown] god who is more powerful than the rest." Concerning the bishop's rejoinders regarding divine procreation, Daniel of Winchester shows himself to be a master logician: lfthe Germans are to maintain that the

84 Contrary to popular belief, the system ofWergild was not designed to facilitate blood feuds; it was structured to make intra-societal violence so materially and collectively expensive, that the kinsmen of the wilder, more reckless elements would restrain them. Theoretically, under such a system people would resort to Solomon 51

"gods" no longer "beget other gods and goddesses," this brings into issue the question ofth".r continued virility and all the associated cultural stigmas regarding fertility and impotence; and this of the beings they proudly claim as ancestors and behavioural models. If the gods do still reproduce, their number must indeed be "infinite," and it would be impossible to determine:

"who is the most powerful among these different gods." Again, the result is hierarchical anarchy, for when one cannot determine identity or quantity, c:der, and structure, are similarly impossible to establish.

Given this close reading of Bishop Daniel's letter to Wynfrith Boniface, it would be reasonable to conclude that Daniel is advising the novice missionary to appeal to the Germanic desire for order and structure; I believe that this interpretation would be correct, yet incomplete.

If we look at the Germanic states of the early medieval period, it is not difficult to see why a theological philosophy presented as an invocation of order would have an appeal to all levels of society, despite the admiration the heroic literature and ethos of the era would evoke for men of later days. Michael Swanton writes:

The creative stimulus of political fragmentation is well known: a social dynamism

generated by tension between small states administratively independent but

sharing a common culture: multiplicit) permitting variation, competition-

encouraging emulation. But any cultural dividend earned by disunity would be

drastically undermined by social losses. The poet's idealized fiction concealed

and transformed a sordid proclivity for mutual extermination [ ... ] The courwMous

vigour so respected by classical commentators like Tacitus, could assume less

admirable qualities when unrestrained (English Literature Before Chaucer 8). arbitration rather than violence. Unfortunately, the desired result was not always the one achieved (Anglo­ Saxon Military Institutions 77; Campbell 131) Solomon 52

The contemporary chroniclers of Germanic society such as Gregory of Tours, the Venerable

Bede, and the compilers ofthe Anglo-Saxon Chronicle graphically display the dismal realities of

Swanton's point. In this context, it would seem that the attraction of alternative Christian valu.;s: stability, peace, and structure, are the foundation ofthe evangelical argument as it has been presented above. However, I contend that the success of the northern missionaries was fou~-led upon a far more complex basis than a straightforward call to a new belief; for while that may have fulfilled the outward desire, it would have failed to address the subconscious, primeval questions motivating that desire.

It is only when one can present answers to such questions superior to those already held, that a society and culture is moved to a "strange doctrine," and a "new way of worshipping the godhead" (HE 11.l3). I quote Bede in this instance, because underlying his unusual phrasing is a point critical to this discussion. Bede openly proclaims his revulsion towards paganism ad nauseam in the Historia. Yet, he describes the Christian faith as: "[a] new way of worshipping the Godhead." This appears to be a strange manner for him to differentiate heathenism -- which he often equates with the worship of Satan -- and Christianity. We must recognize the fact ,.. at the success of the Germanic conversions was essentially based upon convincing the Germans of their prior "confusion" (Daniel'S term), and that the "strange" Christian beliefs, were "dogmas": unquestionable, eternal truths that should have been recognized from the beginning. From the

German perspective, the conversion to Christianity was not an abandonment of the old beliefs and values, but rather a correction and an evolution; ~ adaptation and a fulfilment; a revelation, and above all, a resolution. For us to discover the nature of this hidden, primeval Germanic question, it is fitting to tum to the words of Daniel and Bede, two Germanic Christians from a land not long removed from pagan forms ofworship. Daniel states, "[the pagan] superstitions Solomo:.. 53 should be compared with our Christian dogmas and touched upon indirectly." It is not unreasonable for us to conclude this is what he is doing in his letter as well: making a forward argument, but also alluding to the deeper underlying argument which carries the real force and power. It is perhaps appropriate that we should view his evangelical method in the context of two media familiar to the various projecting and target cultures: (i) as a riddle: a medium where the discovery of a true, hidden meaning is the object of the exercise; or (ii) "the disjecta membra

ofcontemporary Germanic zoomorphic art, or the introverted geometrism of its Celtic

counterpart; both ofwhich are composed of motifs designed to deceive the eye and incorporate

images that have more than one meaning" (English Literature Before Chaucer 9). By this

reckoning, a look at Germano-Celtic proselytization must entail a study not only of the motifs

that were developed, but also equally ofwhat the silences tell us about the influences working on

the Christian message to shape it as godspel -- Good News to its hearers.

We must now inquire as to the nature ofthe cultural question, longing, or fear

implied by Daniel's invocation of structure. The process of finding the solution to any cultural

riddle, or hidden meaning, must begin with a search for contemporary clues, and to this purpose,

Bede's account of the conversion ofKing Edwin is of significant probative value. Coifi,85 King

Edwin's primus pontificarum, initiates the theological debate on an extremely pragmatic and

materialist note by professing his doubts regarding the value ofthe pagan gods: he has been their

most faithful servant, yet others have been rewarded with greater success and fortune.

Resultantly, he is ready and willing to consider embracing "the new teaching," ifthe king d~ems

85 North makes an elaborate and compelling case for Bede having taken the Coifi episode in n.13 from Virgil (Aen. II. 501-2) as well as from a vernacular pre-Christian poetic source. He has found elements ofthe tale in Hrafnkel's saga, the Flateyjarb6k legend ofOlafr Tryggvason's attempt to convert the heathens of Trondhiem in c. 995-8, as well as the description ofthe iEsir-Vanir cult-war in V6/uspci. Furthermore, he also makes an etymological case for the name "Coifi" being derived from a Northumbrian version of Oainn (332-8). IfNorth is correct, Bede's ironic and allegorical sense is even more remarkable, and eloquent, than it is given credit for being. Solomon 54 it '"better and more effectual" (l1.13). This line of reasoning mirrors Daniel's argument in the latter part of his letter:

Do they think the gods should be worshipped for the sake of temporal and

transitory benefits [ ... ]? If for temporal benefit let them say in what respect the

heathens are better off than the Christians [ ... ] This conclusion also must be

drawn: If the gods are onmipotent, beneficent and just, they must reward their

devotees and punish those who despise them. Why then, ifthey act thus in

temporal affairs, do they spare the Christians who cast down their idols and tum

away from their worship the inhabitants of practically the entire globe? And

whilst the Christians are allowed to possess the countries that are rich in oil and

wine and other commodities, why have they left to the heathens the frozen lands

of the north, where the gods, banished from the rest of the world, are falsely

supposed to dwell? (EHD I.73 3)

This argument is highly sensible, but not necessarily Germanic: the appeal to material gain is not only trans-cultural, but also openly stated. We find the first real clue immediately following, in the words of an (unfortunately) anonymous councillor:

Your majesty, when we compare the present life of man on earth with that time of

which we have no knowledge, it seems to me like the swift flight of the single

sparrow through the banqueting-hall where you are sitting at dinner on a winter's

day with your thanes and councillors. In the midst there is a comforting fire to

warm the hall; outside, the storms of winter rain or snow are raging. The sparrow

flies swiftly in through one door ofthe hall, and out through another. While he is

inside, he is safe from the winter storms; but after a few moments of comfon, he Solomon 55

vanishes from sight into the wintry world from which he came. Even so, man

appears on earth for a little while; but of what went before this life or of what

follows, we know nothing. Therefore if this new teaching has brought us any

more certain knowledge, it seems only right that we should follow it. (HE II.I3)

While not as compelling as the prior passage, we are treated to our final insight by Coifi:

I have long realized that there is nothing in our way of worship; for the more

diligently I sought after truth in our religion, the less I found. I now publicly

confess that this teaching clearly reveals truths that will afford us the blessings of

life, salvation, and eternal happiness (II.13).

The truths that Coifi "sought after," but failed to find in his pagan beliefs, lay in discovering the hidden nature of "that time of which we have no knowledge" on a macroscopic scale: the nature of the beginning of beginnings, the desire for origins.

The letter of the Bishop Daniel to Wynfrith Boniface as well as Bede's account 0; the conversion of King Edwin suggest not only that an assertion as to the origin of the universe in a primal event will compel his Old Saxon audience, but also that it is compelling to the early

English themselves. The questions the Germanic mind held as to the origin of the universe, the beginnings of their race, and the nature of God -- the Primary Creator of all things -. ','ere answered in minutia by Christian dogma and Scripture. In a sense, the role the Scriptures play are akin to that of the Fates or the Noms; the reader is given a complete record of the history of the world from creation, and a detailed account of how it will end. Michael Hunter introduces his study on the Germanic sense of the past with the comment:

Nothing is more characteristic of the Dark Ages than the ease with which the

barbarians assimilated Latin culture. Within a century of Augustine's mission to Solomon 56

the pagan English [ ...] Ceolfrith had attempted to make Jarrow a second Vivarium

and Northumbria could boast scriptoria with a uncial hand superior to the

contemporary products of Rome itself [ ... ] Yet the Christianity which thus

introduced the Saxons to Mediterranean classicism did not cut them off from their

cultural inheritance (29).

Integral, and indeed, fundamental to this "cultural inheritance" is a longing to hear many ofthe same messages inherent to the Christian faith: there is a clear, organized pattern to the course of human history; there is an "intelligibility" to the course of human life (Stanley 3), and it was this message ofjoy and security that Daniel, bishop of Winchester instructed Wynfrith Boniface to carry with him to the ancestral English homelands of heathen Germany. Such were the nature of his "Glad Tidings" -- godspeZ.

In the form of biblical Scripture, Christianity revealed a new complexity of patterned structure in the formation and evolution of the world than the Germans could have previously imagined. We have seen the importance ofthe past as a concept, and the desire ofthe Germanic peoples to document their connection to hallowed antiquity in order to find some meaning in the course of their lives in the present. Following their conversion, the most fundamental and omnipresent element characterizing the Germanic approach to the past, would be their utilization of Scripture (Hunter 30). As noted above, the Christian Scriptures are oracles. They are a graven testament to the mighty acts of God, the Original Creator of all things in which one learns of all that needs to be learned (Stanley 2). While the totality of the Christian Bible provided the

Germans with a voluminous history ofthe world from before the dawn of time to the end 01 days, it was the account of the days before the time of Christ that held a special resonance for the early English, and their relations on the continent. Throughout the pre-Conquest period the Solomon 57

Anglo-Saxons studied the Old Testament. To them, it was more than a historical record, as

Hunter says, "it was seen as part of the unfolding of God's purpose: its divine inspiration gave it claims to examination in a Christian context which the profane history of ancient Rome and

Gennany lacked. Every aspect of Anglo-Saxon thought was pervaded with Old Testament precedents and parallels" (30). We have just witnessed this in early English evangelical writings; this principal was to also extend to the genealogies that were of such cultural significance to the Gennanic peoples, and this is not to mention the poetic literature. Originally, the early English (and presumably the Old Saxons) traced their ancestry back to Woden, "from whose stock sprang the royal house of many provinces" (HE 1.15).86 By the ninth century, the biographer of King Alfred traced his lineage and that of all the other Early English royal houses87 to Adam (VAR i.I). Additionally, the second book of the Old Testament was to be recast by the poet of the Old English Exodus as a way of reconciling the heathen past with the Christian present. Howe explains:

This biblical narrative of a dispossessed people's journey to a new homeland was

particularly resonant to the Anglo-Saxons because of their ancestral migration

from continent to island. Indeed, this narrative became exemplary because the

record of conversion -- and thus of the pagan past -- was celebrated in the cultural

memory. Neither able nor willing to discard their continental history, the Anglo-

Saxons recast it as a biblical event that predated the coming of Christ (72).

To our latter-day view, Anglo-Saxon Christiauity of the early medieval Period appears to be, above all, cosmological: "It does not lay particular stress on the Imitation of Christ: it is

86 Caesar also became a son of Woden, and thus an ancestor in East Anglian genealogies (Hunter 39).

87 The six houses are Wessex (Occidentalium Saxonum), Lindsey (Lindisfearna), Kent (Cantwariorum), Mercia (Merciorium), Northumbria (Northahymbrorum), and East Anglia (Estanglorum). Solomon 58 . ddicient in sentiment and pathos" (Stanley 3). While it is very simple for us to dismiss it as a simplistic, redundantly dogmatic religion reflective of both its time and its insular, interpreting culture, that interpretation would itself be over simplistic. While the early English interest in cosmological beginnings was particular to its time, the Anglo-Saxon interpretation ofthe

Christian religion was far from primitive, as can be discerned from some of the extremely complex exegetical arguments we find in many ofthe homiletic writings. To the Anglo-Saxons,

Christian faith and virtue were depended directly upon repeated acts such as attendance at mass, prayer, and penitence, which must never be taken for granted, and thus, were never completed.

In this context, repetition is the key to the maintenance of Christian truth. And therefore, simplicity and repetition were not the signs of a primitive grasp of doctrine, but rather order and clarity (Lees, 56; if any1hing, the lack of sophistication in early medieval Germanic society contributed to the holistic, cosmic character of its theology. Christianity provided, at least initially, their sole basis of scholastic knowledge: besides religion and morality, it was the source of history, science, and geography (Stanley 3).

The attraction of the alternative values inherert to the "strange" Christian message are made clear to us in Bede's account of the conversion episode at the court of King Edwin. In what Swanton aptly describes as: "one of the most elegant and potent similes" in English literature, we are treated to a vivid example ofthe traditional Anglo-Saxon world view throug;h the voice of Edwin's unnamed councillor: The early English knew they lived in a world of peril and "inexplicable events," surrounded by "planes ofcausation they could not affect, events they could not control, forces which could unexpectedly destroy them" (Stanley 4). Life for most members of Germanic society at the turn of the seventh-century was much the same as it was for their Neolithic ancestors: brief, dark, wretched, mysterious, and brutal; this was particularly the Solomon 59

case in anarchic situations such as those often described in the Historiae Francorum and the

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, where nobles were unrestrained by the exterior controls we sometimes

term as laws, or the interior controls we collectively refer to as decency. Accordingly, there was

a "fundamental scepticism" regarding any meaningful purpose human life could possibly have in

such a world. Even in a "heroic" society, the circumstances of existence led even the members

of its upper echelons to question the very activities they most considered heroic:

Man's sole assurance limited to the uniform inevitability of the natural process of

mutability held little to sustain him in the face of adversity. The lot of individual

men, or of mankind as a whole, was ILerely to struggle in the face of adversity, to

do what he can -- until the dragon comes (English Literature Before Chaucer 9).

The tenants of the Christian faith were a welcome comfort to the "bewildered negativism"

(English Literature Before Chaucer 9) ofthis world-view: beyond the circles of the world

worked an ultimate power. All within the circles ofthe world had been fashioned by the Prime

Creator, who from the beginning wove the fabric ofexistence from the threads offate and being.

The Prime Creator was: "visibly active even on the fringes ofthe ultimate mysteries and

darkness. He had introduced definition and form into the original chaos. He had given it an

intellectual light and order which was real, however difficult to discern" (Stanley 4). And

according to this "strange" doctrine, there is a part of man that leaves the body at the moment it

relaxes in death. This part of man, perhaps the inner voice, belongs to that "intellectual" order,

and would go forth to the "light" and exist there without end; long ages after the worm-ravaged

flesh had rotted to dust in a forgotten grave, on a forgotten hill. These were indeed "Good

Tidings" -- godspel.

/ Solomon 60

CHAPTER III ) Order, Disorder, and Modes of Meaning in Old English Poetnr:

Of Creation

In the sub-section above entitled "Of Gennanic Paganism," I noted that the religion of a

society is not necessarily a pinpoint-accurate reflection of its culture; we certainly can apply this

same principal to literature, and thus, by extension, to religious literature. In her introduction to

The Riddle a/Creation, Ruth Wehlau writes:

[By studying] Old English poetry we are able to reconstruct not only a cultural

perspective, but also a world ofexperience. However, Old English poetry does

not function as a mirror, directly reflecting Anglo-Saxon culture. Rather the

poetry itself contains its own codes and systems, its own methodology. It refracts

the language and concepts of a culture through its own lens, creating patterns of

meaning as it does so... these patterns extend from the internal world, the

landscape of mind and body, to the cosmos itself (Wehlau 8).

To foster our understanding ofthis connection between such apparently disparate (and as some

would say, diametrically opposed) concepts as the self and the cosmos, it is important to keep in

mind that for the early English, the universe was not the construct as we now perceive it:

quantified by advances in science and mathematics, and yet rarefied through our understanding

of the vastness of time and space. Rather, as I mentioned in the previous section, the early

medieval universe was, "a constant presence continually maintained through God's active

interest." The cosmology of early English Christian poetry does not represent the universe as the Solomon 61

natural world, but as Creation88, "not as organism, but as artifice." In both contemporary hagiographl9 as well as extant poetry, secular and religious, we find that the forces of nature -­ wind, snow, and storms -- are physical manifestations ofthe will of God in the world of men.

This is a conception of the universe that allows for an intertwining of imagery in ways unfamiliar to the modem mind, but eminently familiar to a Germano-Celtic audience of the early medieval period.90 The "natural world" is seen and felt through the four elements, as experienced in daily life, and explained in medieval scholasticism, but it is also experienced through the works of men, all of which are ultimately brought into being by the will ofthe Prime Creator.91 Although all acts of men are ultimately at the behest of God, there are those endowments bestowed upon a blessed few that enable those pursuits so inspired by God: prophecy, scholarship, and the myriad forms of artistry and creativity that make the time of men in middangeard, short though it is. somewhat less grim. Thus is the world ofmen linked to the ethereal spheres through divine visions and the gifts ofthe arts: music, "poetry,92 weaving and architecture. Old English poetic

language about Creation is thus on occasion, language about poetry. The imagery of Creation presents us with both a poetic theology and a theory of aesthetics" (8).

The course ofour discussion thus far has demonstrated that in the extant poetry, Creation

is of primary significance in all the themes we have identified, therefore, any early Germanic

88 In of this part of our discussion, I have followed Wehlau's practice of capitalizing "Creation"; in the context in which is used here, it is indeed a proper noun.

89 For two excellent examples of this, see Bede's Life afCuthbert and Eddius's Life ofWilfred.

90 Again, I am thinking of contemporary Hiberno-Saxon art, a medium that utilized images incorporative of several simultaneous meanings. Two examples of such art in a Christian context are the illustrations found ;.. the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book ofKells.

91 This applies to those works deemed evil, as well as those reckoned good; for relevant examples, we m<'y reference the Book ofJob.

91 Cynewulf praises God for freeing him from the "shackles" of sin, and being granted the solace of the gift of poetry as an old man (Elene In. 1236-50). Solomon 62 literary reference to Creation need not be viewed through an allegorical filter but should rath(..r be read in its own context. The existence ofthe universe represents a material, and sometimes approachable manifestation of the totality ofthe might of God; each part ofthe existence of the universe is worthy of attention for its own sake because each is representative of the will of the

Prime Creator. "The Song ofthe Three Children" in Daniel 362-408 is an example of this. Tc is derived from a canticle version of the Benedicite in the Latin Vulgate (Daniel 3:57-90) and depicts the various elements of Creation singing the praises of God (Wehlau 9). This is similar in tone and poetic employment to the Old English rendition of The Order ofthe World, where the scribal poet borrows from Psalm18. In this particular example, we see that the Old English passage adapts the scriptural Latin without engaging in allegory. To the contrary, both passages describe God's glory through an enumeration93 of his works: "Each piece of the Creation must be accepted for what is: evidence of God's greatness speaking in praise ofhim"(9).

The Creation is an omnipresent theme in Anglo-Saxon poetry, and I have touched upon the reasons for its appeal to the early English in particular, and the Northern peoples in general.

We find Creation references in biblical poems, gnomic poetry, secular poems, and in the ria,Hes, and: "Like metaphor itself, such passages demonstrate an appreciation and validation of the physical world" (Wehlau 9). Wehlau writes the following as to the importance of Creation in

Anglo-Saxon poetry:

[It is] equivalent only to the saving act of Christ's life and death, because the

Creation, like the incarnation, is evidellce of God's presence. Nevertheless,

93 Of all the speculation regarding Anglo-Saxon poetic and homiletic "borrowings" from Irish sources, the case for the English assimilation of the Old Irish "enumerative style" is possibly the most solid. Many Old English poetic enumerations can be traced directly, or at the very least closely, to Hibemo-Latin monastic, and even Old Irish secular sources. One of the numerous examples of this is the list of the six characteristics of heaven in The Devil's Account of the Next World in the Vercelli IX manuscript (Wright 102). For the history of enumeration in early English and early Irish religious literature in general, see Wright 49-105. Solomon 63

where the incarnation involves the donning offlesh by God himself, and is thus a

physical proof of God's presence as saviour, the Creation is a physical

representation of God's skill as Creator. The Creation is in a sense metonymic

since it forms a connection between man and God, representing God but not

actually identical to him, while the incarnation might be seen as metaphoric since

Christ is both human and divine at the same time (9).94

The role of Creation in early English religious poetry is that of a primal, encompassing manifestation of the might of God. Not only is Creation a force, but is also an event that marks the beginning of days and is the beginning of days. As we see, Creation is abstract; like the recurring contemporary motifs of the riddle, or Hibemo-Saxon interlaced artwork, Creation is

several things at once, all brought into being by God as the All-Father who is the Prime Creator

of Creation. and the prime Creator before Creation, and therefore the architect of all existence,

and all in existence.

This notion of celmihtig God as "Creator," anu "Architect," is an appropriate note upon

which to commence a more intensive discussion of specific examples ofearly English poetry.

The recorded beginning of Anglo-Saxon poetry and the beginning of Anglo-Saxon religious

poetry are synonymous (Stanley 7). Bede tells us that in the year 680 CE in the "monastery of

Streanaeshalch, there lived a brother singularly gifted by God's grace" (iv.24). This monk,

C::edmon, was "gifted" because he was the recipient of a blessed vision or visitation (or both),

after which he was able to give "delightful renderings" ofverse, although Bede reports C::edmon

was illiterate before that moment. The "man" who came to C::edmon in his dream commanded

the monk to "sing about the creation of all things." Now, to receive the divine gift of song in

94 Given the way the adherents to the Arian heresy -- the va"t majority Germans -- chose to interpret this "metaphor" on the humanity and divinity ofChrist, I would agree with this last point. Solomon 64 one's sleep was a familiar story in the early medieval world,95 and this mystical phenomenon seems to be characteristic ofthe insular church.96 Furthermore, Michael Swanton notes that it is interesting that Credmon bears a Brythonic rather than a Germanic name (English Literaturt.­

Before Chaucer 71). It is probable the early English would consider Credmon's "pentecostal" utterances of religious verse, and subsequent composition ofthe same, to be inspired revelations of no less significance than the Pentateuch, or the Book ofPsalms: "Whereas most Old English poems survive in at most one or two copies, Credmon's Creation-Hymn is found in a considerable number of manuscripts with remarkably little textual variation. The 'letter' is now apparently endued with an authority inconceivable in oral tradition" (71).

Given the concerns of early Germanic Christianity, it is not surprising that the first known subject of Anglo-Saxon poetry is a celebration of God the creator. To wit:

Nu sculon herigean heofonrices weard:

meotodes meahte, and his modgepanc,

weorc wuldorfreder, swa he wundra gehwres

(ece Drihten!) or onstealde.

He rerest sceop, eoroan beamum,

heofon to hrofe (Halig scyppend!)

pa middangeard (moncynnes weard).

95 The Historia contains many similar references to humble visionaries "whose souls are abstracted, or conducted elsewhere by heavenly visitants while in a trance or sleeping, which experience inspires at lead greater devotion and sometimes a transformation of life" (English Literature Before Chaucer 71).

96 See n. 91 above. Additionally, Aldhelm relates poetic utterance directly "to the doctrine of Logos, the poet's word inspired by the Word, verbum de Verba" (ibid). Solomon 65

ece drihten, refter teode

firum foldan,

Now we must praise the Architect of the Heavenly Kingdom: the power, thought,

and accomplishment of the Creator and Father of Glory, through which the

Eternal Lord established the beginning of every wondrous thing. For the children

of humanity, the Holy Author and Preserver of the human race first made the

skies as a roof and then he made the world. After that, the Eternal and Almighty

Lord adorned the earth with people. (Creation-Hymn, translation by Charles

Abbott Conway NM 1995).

Now, in the Creation-Hymn, we see a poetic example of our oft-mentioned concept of simultaneous meaning, from the obvious to the submerged. At the first reading of the transla~ion above, the Creation-Hymn is ostentatiously praise of Creation as an event, and of the skill of God as Prime Creator. Upon a slightly closer inspection, the reader will notice that not only does the

Hymn describe Creation as a construction, but it also contains an element specific to Anglo-

Saxon poetry that has no corresponding element in the scriptural and patristic analogues: it describes the process of Creation as a process of construction for the benefit of mankind

(Conway 39-47; Wehlau 20). We have seen the symbolic importance of structure to the early

English. After Credmon instructs us to praise the great works ofthe Architect of Heaven, he tells us that God, as both Father and "Preserver of the human race," first made the sky as a protective enclosure, and then fashioned middle-earth as a dwelling place for the children of men. The

97 I have used the West Saxon version of the Creation-Hymn as opposed to the Northurnbrian version upon which Conway bases his paper, but his arguments still apply as the differences are in spelling, not structure. I have preserved Conway's application of punctuation, as it is inherent to his, and my, interpretation of the poem. Solomon 66

Creation-Hymn conveys the sense that God is not bringing into being, "just any construction, but a house; the architectural metaphors are a means ofportraying God as a protector" (Wehlau

21). In most translations of the Hymn, the Old English word, Uard, is translated along the lines ofthe definition Mitchell and Robinson provide: "guardian" (360), or the ones given by Clark-

Hall: "keeper," "watchman," or "guard."(399). In Conway's translation, the word "architect" is used because, as Conway says, "Bede's auctor suggests something much more like "originator", or "bringer into being", which is in keeping with the theme of the Hymn. The human auctor98 describes and praises the work of the Divine" (Conway 50).

In his commentary on the Creation-Hymn, John Gardner makes this assessment concerning any pretence to sophistication:

[T] he poem is only nine lines long, which means that no cumulative structural or

textural proofs are possible, and it is connected with the legend ofan untutored

cowherd. It can be shown that the hymn lacks the padding and occasional

clumsiness of, say, the metrical Psalms, but its positive virtues, especially its

seemingly sophisticated structure, must be left to individual assessment (Gardner

17).

Although Gardner's comments are technically accurate, his dismissive tone does a disservice to both the Creation-Hymn, as well as its author. In his paper, "Structure and Idea in C{Edmon 's

Hymn", Charles Abbott Conway makes an extremely convincing case for the Hymn not only having the structure of the universe as its narrative subject, but also reflecting this theme b) incorporating a highly intricate structure. It is very likely Abbess Hilda's monastic charges

98Conway's interpretation of auctor as "architect," coincides well with alternate definitions of the word "auctor" found in Cassel's Latin Dictionary such as "ancestor," and, "founder of a family" (66). All these meanings are in keeping with the early Germanic conceptions of genealogy and the godhead I explore in this study. Solomon 67

would have immediately recognized this fact, thus "leading to their conclusion that [the Hymn]

~"."' was [indeed] a Divine gift" (Conway 39). Conway argues the Creation Hymn describes a "thrce­

part process of creation," and bases his argument upon the manner Credmon presents the three

adjectives of time we encounter in the Hymn: aerist, tha, and aefter.99 Generally, translatorr

have depicted the creation sequence Credmon describes as two-fold, translatingfirum as a dative,

while disregarding azfter; this has the effect of saying that God adorned middle-earthfor men.

Conway proposes translatingfirum as an instrumental, which results in God adorning middle-

earth with men, as opposed to for men. This gives us with a rather different reading of the poem.

It reveals, "a logical progression from God's power, thought, and operation in segment 1, to

God's creating heaven and earth for humanity in segment 2, to God's actually putting humanity

on the earth in segment 3" (Conway 41).100 This interpretation illustrates a progressive

relationship between the antithetical concepts of "potentiality and actuality," (42) and their

ability to coexist within the medium ofthe Prime Creator -- the deified incarnation of consilium,

"which is that which takes the bodiless potential of being and gives it essence, from which 1.

takes form and substance" (42). Moreover, since this poem is an invocation ofpraise for the one

God, the Prime Creator, Conway writes the following:

[I] t seeks to aim at an idea of the wholeness of (a) the power to do something, (b)

the ability to think it out, and (c) the realization ofthe project. Structure is vital to

this idea, and I think it bears out the n~tion of an orderly progression in creation.

This is signalled in the temporal sequence, first the heavens as a roof for the

99 "First", "then", and "after".

100 Conway further supports his interpretation through a parallel analysis of Bede's choice of Latin terminology. Solomon 68

world, then the world for hwnanity, then [mally hwnanity. There is a sequence

of causes, each stage in the process being for the next (Conway 42).

Conway goes on to demonstrate that there is an even deeper substructure to this poem by outlining the proportional, nwnerical, verbal, and syllabic relationship in its verses, all of which are appropriate subtexts in a poem presented as an expression of cosmological praise; this is, as

Conway says, an "implicit" mathematical "demonstration of celestial order" (44).

This interpretation of Caedmon 's Hymn is not only in keeping with the notion ofthe creation of the universe being akin to the construction of a house, but also the above point concerning the Anglo-Saxon conception ofthe primal creative process being akin to the animation of matter by an intellectual light. This same process of thought and intellect initiated

Creation, which indeed lends intelligibility to the lives of men during their time upon middle­ earth. The reason for the existence of man within the circles of the world is that the Preserver of the human race "adorned the earth with people". Th:..:...lks to Conway's scholarship, we also see that there is a fundamental, yet submerged enwnerative element in this poem, which coincidentally (and for the purposes ofthis study, happily), Conway likens to the "complex architecture" of "the capitols and carpet pieces of the Lindisfarne Gospels, with their sophisticated interlace motifs, and their careful reiteration of geometric formulas" (47) -- a motif

I have often invoked. The enumerative style is a hallmark ofIrish religious poetry of the early medieval period, and there is even speculation that the eoroan bearnum line is derived from an

Irish devotional poetic source (Wright 85-6). This makes the fact that Credmon bears a Celtic name (though admittedly Brythonic) somewhat more intriguing. 1ol Through the vehicle of his

Hymn, not only does Credmon reveal the power of divine inspiration, but he also outlines the

101 See n. 92. Solomon 69 fundamental motifs ofearly Gennanic theology and poetic literature, not the least ofwhich is the importance of the concept of the home.

Of Hall and Home

This notion of God building a home for "the children of men" out of a special concern for humankind we identified in the Creation-Hymn is a recurring one in early English poetry.

Another example of architectural imagery in relation :0 celestial construction is in Alfred's preface to his translation of Augustine's Soliloquies. However, Alfred uses it as a metaphor for discourse:

Then I gathered for myself staves and props and tie-shafts, and handles for all the

tools I knew how to use, and crossbars and beams for all the structures which I

knew how to build, the fairest pieces oftimber, as many as I could carry. Nor did

I come home with a single load without wishing to bring home all the wood, if I

could have carried it. In each tree I saw something that I required at home. For I

advise each of those who is strong and has many wagons, to plan to go to the

same wood where I cut these props, and fetch for himself more there, and load his

wagons with fair rods, so that he can plait many a fine wall, and put up many 2­

peerless building, and build a fair enclusure with them; and may dwell therein

pleasantly and at his ease winter and summer, as I have not yet done.

(EHD I: 917 trans. Dorothy Whitelock)

Unlike most early medieval writers, Alfred was not an ecclesiastic, nor was he a literary scr~lar.

Perhaps for this reason, he was given to devising metaphors based upon his worldly experience

(McC. Gatch 201). In the above quotation, we observe that Alfred does not simply gather any Solomon 70 timber that happens to be available, but in turn choos:::s particular woods from particular trees in different locations to produce a manner of "woodenjlorilegium"(Wehlau 23). In the passage that follows, Alfred makes mention of a spiritual guide that is most likely God, for it is this guide who will lead the King to eternal salvation (McC. Gatch 207).102 Alfred appears to be saying

(metaphorically) that the wood gathered from the writings of the fathers of the churchl03 will provide the ontimber 104 to construct a "peerless building," that shall serve as a home of comfort and joy during our brief time in middangeard, and will also help prepare the way for the journey of the part of man that will leave the circles of the world following death. lOS The Anglo-Saxons believed, "The word of God 'constructs' the soul" (Wehlau 24), and in his preface, Alfred gives us a rather literal rendition ofthis imagery. In doing so he demonstrates just how important the literal imagery was even to the most secular division of society: "Like the poetry which describes the cosmos as a pleasant home for humankiad, Alfred portrays heaven as a house specially built for and by each person. But the construction is mental, a building of the mind"

(Wehlau 24). This brings us once again to the notion ofmatter animated through intellect. God­

- as Architect and as Creator -- has used his divine intellect to initiate Creation, and thus creMe a green dwelling place of warmth and light for, and adorned with, the children of men. Alfred tells us through metaphor that it is the Christian duty of men to individually emulate Creation, for we

102 We cannot be sure as to the identity of this "guide," as his identity is revealed in the part of the preface that is now lost.

103 The author of the "Preface" makes specific mention of Augustine, Gregory, and Jerome, among others, "[as1the conveyors ofthe promise ofan eternal dwelling" (McC. Gatch 208)

104 "Material"

105 Preparing ourselves for the journey to the Heavenly Kingdom, as well as our eternally dwelling there, are topics explored in JElfric's Life olSt. Thomas, as well as in the Old English Phoenix (McC. Gatch 208; Wehlau 21-3). Solor- ~n 71 were created in the image ofthe Creator; and the burden is upon all of us to use our intellect to construct our eternal homes in the Heavenly Kingdom beyond the circles of the world.

This message would resonate among both the early English, as well as the Germans of the continent they sought to convert. In her paper '''Home' in Old English Poetry", Anita

Riedinger writes: "there are at least fourteen synonyms for 'home' in Old English poetry" (51).

Although the various words carried different situatiorlal connotations, some are geographic in nature, and others are more specifically associated with family: "regardless oftheir other denotations, Bosworth-Toller includes 'home' in the definitions ofall these words; and to the characters of Anglo-Saxon poetry, all could, and usually did, mean 'home'" (Riedinger 51)

Riedinger goes on to say that the Anglo-Saxon word ham derives its etymological origin in the

Indo-European root *kei whose meanings include "lodging place", "beloved", and "dear." This concept of a "beloved" or "dear lodging place", was apparently retained by the Germanic sub­ branch ofthe Indo-European family tree, and was so deeply imbued in the Germanic cultural subconscious, that the word eoel -- "ancestral homeland" -- was a character in the Runic

Alphabet and warranted a verse in the Rune Poem (51-2):

oel byp oferleof reghwylcum men,

gif he mot orer rihtes and gerysena on

brucan on bolde bleadum oftast

The ancestral home is very dear to all men,

ifhe can enjoy there in his house

whatever is right and proper in constant prosperity.

(In. 71-3 Krapp and Dobbie 1931, trans. Riedinger) Solomon 72

Riedinger concludes with this speculation:

Perhaps it was the long period of migrations among the Germanic peoples tt

made home so dear to the Anglo-Saxons, or perhaps it is an innate impulse of

human nature to cherish a peaceful haven, a refuge from the turbulent world.

Whatever the cause, the image of"home" informs life's most important moments,

anchoring concepts ofjoy and sorrow, love and war, birth and death, victory and

defeat, and salvation and damnation iT' the minds ofthe Anglo-Saxons and

permeating their poetry (58)

I agree with all Riedinger says above, however, I feel that there is a further, deeper dimension to this Germanic conception of home relating to issues that I have examined in this study. Now, the

"runes" held a special, quasi-mystical significance to the Germanic peoples, and we see that they had a rune and a word signifying, "ancestral home." The fact that this concept of "ancestral home", and all the other meanings the word eoel connotates,106 were sacred ones to Anglo-

Saxons, penetrates even our modem sensibilities. However, to approach the true, contemporary meaning ofthe term to the Anglo-Saxons, we must understand the significance of what the

"word" conveyed to medieval man. C. Abbott Conway states: "Nowadays we tend to think of the word as the basic element ofdiscourse. However, in medieval theory a word has two functions: it signifies a thought, and it is a quantity of sound"(Conway 43). I have discussed early English conceptions ofthe creative power of both divine thought and mortal intellect. I have also touched upon the structural connotations of mathematically significant word/sound relationships in relation to the Creation-Hymn as well Hibemo-Celtic design, which one mip-ht

106 The definitions of eoel in the Clark-Hall dictionary are: "country", "native land", and "ancestral home" (l08). Solomon 73 say is a contemporary visual counterpart. Geometric pictographs, as well as the vocalized word represent the Germanic runes. I submit, the various definitions of eoel, represent words of creative power, and, all that we have seen Creation represented to the Germanic people. In other words, in the Anglo-Saxon mind, the notions of ancestry, antiquity, and home, were all inextricably linked to the primal event of Creation, as well as the physical representation of the skill of the Prime Creator in both his roles: Protector of men, and cosmic Architect.

We find this enduring early English poetic image of God as architect within the context of both the patristic tradition King Alfred refers to above, and the scriptural source material that served as an inspiration for Anglo-Saxon scribal authors. Again, I turn to Ruth Wehlau's scholarship: "It is an indication of the creativity of the Anglo-Saxon poets that they have often combined this image with other architectural metaphors deriving from Christian sources, thus creating a more complete and sophisticated image structure" (24). In the New Revised Standard

Version of the scriptural text, St. Matthew writes:

Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the scriptures: 'The stone that the

builders rejected has become the cornerstone 107; this was the Lord's doing and it

is amazing in our eyes'''? Matt. 21 :42

Now the author of the Old English Advent Lyrics tells us a good deal about his "imaginative assumptions", as well as his thematic concerns, from the fact that he used the following line from the godspellboc 108 in the opening verse of his poem:

ou eart weallstan pe oa wyrhtan iu

107 According to the linguistic notes in the NRSV, an alternate hanslation for the Koine Greek word used in the text for "cornerstone" is "keystone" (1897).

108 Of course, the Advent poet would have taken this line fr.:lm the Vulgate which reads: Lapidem quem reprobaverunt aedificantes, hic Jactus est in caput anguli. Solomon 74

Wipwurpon to weorce. WeI pe geriseo

pret pu heafod sie healle mrerre.

You are the wall-stone which the builders once rejected from the building. Well

it befits you that you are the head-stone ofthe glorious hall.

(In. 2-4, trans. Bradley)

The Advent poet has adapted a scriptural metaphor originally used by Christ, a religious prophet from the eastern Mediterranean. This passage, "which offers a striking conjunction of divinity and architecture" (Burlin 2), is in keeping with the cultural perceptions so important to the early

Germanic mindset. Gardiner identifies the theme of God as builder as one of seven "controlling ideas" in the three Christ poems (l08). The conception of the recovery of the "rejected wall- stone" originally symbolizing a triumphant resolution for the age-old cultural longings ofthe

Jewish people for messianic deliverance,109 became an extremely popular, and evocative, image in the Christian typology of the early Middle Ages (Burl in 58). The Advent poet has personified the "head-stone" ofthe hall, and substituted it for the "cornerstone". We also encounter this imagery in I Peter 2:4-6 (Budin 58; Wehlau 25):

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious

in God's sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house,

to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through

Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture: "see, I am laying in Zion a stone, a

cornerstone chosen and precious [ ...]"

109 Though this message was originally directed to the Jews of late antiquity, it was interpreted by the early Christhm authors of the four Gospels, and Acts. as a "prefiguration ofthe crucified Saviour" (Burlin 58). Solomon 75

And probably most dramatically in Paul's epistle to the Ephesians 2:19-22 (Budin 58; Gardner

106; Wehlau 25):

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints

and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation ofthe

apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the

whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord in

whom you are also built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

Now the Psalmist phrase "caput anguli", 110 from which the "cornerstone" image was derived, is admittedly architecturally (and perhaps thematically) ambiguous. Burlin takes it to mean, "the front part or most forward part of an angle or a corner", while also saying that Gerhart Ladner demonstrates in his paper, "The Symbolism of the Biblical Corner Stone in the Medieval West," that in early medieval exegesis, the symbolism is " pre-eminently that of a corner-stone of the foundations" (58).

In the Advent Lyrics, we see that the poet-author has assimilated (and incorporated) good deal of the patristic imagery from Paul's epistle. The rejected stone is to be used to bring together the walls of the healle mcerre (glorious hall), and the use of heafod is possibly an oblique reference to the "caput anguli", but is also symbolic of the church, or any social structure based in the hall whom the King, or Christ as King is the head. However, as the English missionaries adapted the Christian theme to suit their cultural needs, so does the Advent poet with the patristic message. Once again, we here encounter a poetic image that may hold simultaneous meanings -- for the Church and the folk who dwell in the "hall" each represent a living body. Over both respective communities is a temporal heafod -- such as Hrothgar -- who

110 "The head of the comer" Solomon 76 is material and present, and an eternal heafod -- like Christ -- who is mystical and ethereal, but equally present, in the hall, or among any gathering of Christians; for he is always present where

Christians are gathered in his name. Or, perhaps, it is more accurate to say, present, but no longer corporeal, for Christ represented the union of God and man on middle-earth, but shed his mortal body to exist in the intellectual plane of thought, which the greatest of English kings,

Alfred, had written of in such eloquent metaphor. Therefore, when our Advent Poet makes his appeal, the now familiar themes of early English poetics become clearly discernable:

Wuldres ealdor.

Gesweotula nu purh searocrreft pin sylfes weorc,

soOfrest, sigorbeorht, ond sona forleet

weall wio wealle. Nu is pam weorce pearf

pret se crreftga cume ond se cyning sylfa,

ond po nne gebete, rHI gebrosnad is,

hus under hrofe.

Lord of Glory. Now, steadfast in truth, sublimely triumphant, make demonstration

of your own workmanship in skilful fashion and forthwith leave wall conjunct

with wall. Now the building is in need of it, that the Craftsman and the King

should come himself and so make good, now it is reduced to ruin, the house

beneath its roof. (In. 8-14, Trans. Bradley)

The initial lines of the Advent Lyrics are an invocation ofpraise for the skill of God the

Architect, in much the same fashion as the verses of the Creation-Hymn, and as we have seen previously, Creation itself is the physical manifestation ofthat skill. The hus under hrofe Solomon 77

("house under the roof') that is now "reduced to ruin", is the "spiritual habitation" (Wehlau 25) of the Christian community now in a state ofmoral crisis, due to the decadence of society. ~ --~ entire thesis of both Gildas and Bede is that the political structure of the kingdom, of which the hall is the central locus, is now corrupt, and must be reformed. This is primarily because the cohesion and the security ofthe community have been compromised, for the roof ofthe hali has collapsed, and exposed the people to the dangers of the outside world; and Credmon has told us that the "roof' image is of cosmic and theological si£:lificance to the Germanic peoples. The most pressing dangers are the elemental forces of the natural world -- once again, the physical manifestations ofthe will, or wrath, of God. In the above passage, Christ is asked to assume his

Germanic role as builder and leader, and his scriptural role as cornerstone, and thus be the flint

unbrcecneIII (In. 6b) that supports the foundation ofthe hall, as well as the foundation stone of the living stones that comprise the Christian community. Christ, "[is the] supreme artisan whose

skill in repairing the house is parallel to that of God creating the cosmos since Christ's role is to renew the fallen creation through the construction of the church" (Wehlau 26). And on the

ambiguities Burlin writes: "[h] owever the Advent poet visualized the cornerstone image, his

allusive phrasing heafod healle mcerre, clearly points to an interpretation of the figure as one for

the founding of the universal church" (Burlin 59).

This concept of the hall we encounter in the Advent Lyrics is so pervasive in Anglo­

Saxon poetry that Kathryn Hume observes:

what is looked to for safety and what is feared as a threat to that security make apt

points of departure for a study of a culture's major assumptions. Moreover,

III "Indestructible flint." Solomon 78

because the hall is the focus for conflicting attitudes, the array of associations

proves useful to a more general understanding of old English poetry (63)

Of course, we have seen that what is celebrated in poetic literature such as the Advent Lyrics and countless other works is not simply the hall as a building -- although the archaeological record reveals these as some of the most impressive structures in Anglo-Saxon society, in both the pagan and Christian periods 112 -- but also its associated social system, and its function as both microcosm, as well as focal point of society.

Of Sin and Chaos

We have seen that Creation, in all its forms, was of great importance to the early English.

It parallels the incarnation of Christ in its hallowing ofthe material as a means for mankind to access the divine. Wehlau explains:

But, unlike the incarnation, the Creation has no concern with individual salvation.

Its existence is proof or pledge of God's might and grace that forms a bond

between the totality of humankind and God. This is the bond that is described by

the Beowulf poet in his relation of the scop' s words in the hall. Grendel's

separation from this kind of salvation, the community of man and God is at the

root of his hatred and attack on Heorot. The Creation is, in some senses a sterner,

more distant sign of God's greatness than individual salvation through faith,

works, or ritual. It is terrifying in its power, a power that is sometimes unleashed,

as described in the numerous passages in Old English poetry that deal with storms

or natural violence. Nevertheless, it is a palpable good, worthy ofpraise, a view

112 Once again, the hall at Yeavering in Northumbria comes to mind. Solomon 79

that is at odds with the ascetic view ofthe world and the body, also found in the

poetry. In Old English poetry this reflects the contradictory impulses that exist

within Christianity as a whole, since the religion has a tendency to both dualism

and materialism. The contradiction is less problematic ifwe maintain the

distinction between individual and collective experience, for while the cosmos as

a whole is proof of God's might and grace, individual human lives can be both

miserable and sinful (Wehlau 9-10).

Wehlau here raises a key issue regarding the misery of human life and the question of sin.

In the conclusion of the prior section, I discussed the early English view of Creation in relation to the afterlife as a comforting message, as well as an answer to a cultural question. However, a fundamentally pessimistic worldview does not necessarily connote a cheerful, or even a passive acceptance of one's lot in life. Moreover, based upon what we know of the living conditions of the vast majority ofthe Germanic popUlation around the time of the conversions, we must expect that they would have had other basic questions regarding the cause of their wretched state of existence. Christian doctrine provided answers to this as well. Stanley writes:

[B] ut even before this intellectual light had first irradiated physical matter and

given shape to the world and a double dimension to men, a secondary principal of

evil had been identified in created things. Thenceforth the history of the world

had been marked by the assaults and the erosion of this evil on the intended :ler.

All men in their turn were infected by this corruption. It was plain to see. Men

were uncertain, unreliable, weak in their pain and misery; and in the end they all

died. All human institutions, achievements, all actions and the very springs of

actions were all tainted. Sometimes it could seem that the accumulation of evil Solomon 80

had been spreading outwards over everything and threatened the very stability of

creation. (4)

The only entity capable of generating an evil so manifest and powerful that it could threaten the matrix of the cosmos, and disrupt the physical proof ofthe skill of the master architect, is Satan, the supreme anti-creator. This is the argument of the author of Christ and Satan, which begins with a description of God, the Prime Creator's construction of the cosmic boundaries, and ends with Satan literally measuring out the boundaries of hell:

pret wean) undeme eorobuendum,

pret meotod hrefde miht and strengoo

oa he gefestnade foldan sceatas.

Seolfa he gesette sunnan and monan,

stanas and eoroan, stream ut on sre,

wreter and wolcn, ourh his wundra miht.

Deopne ymblyt clene ymbhaldeo

meotod on mihtum, and alne middangeard.

He selfa mreg sre geondwlitan,

grundas in geofene, godes agen beam,

and he ariman mreg rregnas scuran,

dropena gehwelcne. Daga enderim

seolua he gesette purh his sooan miht.

Swa se wyrhta purh his wuldres gast Solomon 81

It has come to be no secret to earth's inhabitants that the ordaining Lord was

possessed of power and of strength when he consolidated the plains of the world.

Ofhimself, he established sun and moon, rocks and soil, the tide out upon the

ocean and water and cloud, by means of his potency for marvels. The deep

compass of ocean the ordaining Lord in his powers clean embraces, and all of the

earth in his midst. Of himself, God's own Son can survey the seas and the

continents within the ocean, and he can reckon the rain-showers, every drop. The

final sum of days he himself established by his authentic power. (In. 1-13 Trans.

Bradley)

In the opening passage, the poetic author uses the term meatadll3 in his description of how God

"consolidated the plains of the world". We are also told that the creator is underne --"manifest", or "plainly known" to the to "earth's inhabitants"; and God's identity is further emphasized through the word seolf (self) in line 4. The passage continues, paying special attention to enumeration. God can count the number of drops of rain, and it is he who set the number of days, and in In. thirteen, this concept of "self' is repeated. This opening passage introduces a major theme that will be expanded upon in the rest of the poem: God himself is the Measurer and

Creator of the cosmos, and his identity is evident to all. As is traditional to the genre of Anglo­

Saxon religious poetry, Christ and Satan begins with a praise of God as Creator. Here, the poet uses this conventional beginning for the purpose of emphasizing God's identity, and his role as

Measurer. According to Wehlau, "within Anglo-Saxon culture, measuring is closely related to the divine Creation. It is God as measurer, who has <'iTanged everything by measure, by number, and by weight (Wisdom 11 :21)" (Wehlau 29). In Christ and Satan, Satan attempts to usurp

113 "Measurer" Solomon 82

Christ's role in the hierarchy ofexistence as the Creator and Architect, and thus is attempting to pervert the cosmic order; by doing so he, is bringing dissention into the hall ofheaven and thus representing a denial of origins, which is the theme of the entire Junius group of poems depicting this cosmic conflict. The archetypal struggle betwer:l Christ and Satan is a struggle between order and chaos, "and that single poem that expresses it most directly and inclusively is Christ and Satan itself' (Sleeth 73). Satan has attempted to become Creator. Through his rebellion against God, what he has done is build his home in hell, as Alfred described we do by our actions

(if they are evil). What is more, Satan is forced to measure the boundaries of hell with his hands.

The punishment of Satan for trying to usurp the role of Christ is to spend an eternity measuring both his own limits and the limits of the boundaries of his new home. This punishment is the means through which Christ "reveals himself as Satan's conqueror, thus tying together the themes of identity and conflict that are the focus of the poem" (Wehlau 30). Solomon 83

Conclusion

It is an inescapable fact that to deal effectively and intelligently with any given literary work, or literary genre, the scholar must first deal with the historical circumstances which generated the literature, and in which the literature was generated. This study began with examining the historical paradigm surrounding northern Europe in the early Middle Ages, and specifically the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to the Christian faith. Following my research and discussion of the subject, the conclusions to which I arrived, is that contrary to what scholars, students, and lay-persons commonly believe, the Church ofRome did not oversee the conversion of the English; it was not a result of any master plan conceived by Pope Gregory; it was not directed by a thoughtful and pragmatic Augustine. It is my belief that the extant papal correspondence illustrates the fact that the Romans were completely ignorant ofanything happening north ofthe Channel.

At the turn of the seventh-century, the papacy was a Catholic island in an Arian sea, and even had it been capable ofmounting a massive campaign of conversion, their cultural preconceptions and bigotry would not have facilitated the success of such an endeavour. As it was, the "Augustinian mission" was predominantly Frankish, and the minuscule Roman presence doomed it to failure; Augustine's meeting with the leaders ofthe British church in Oxfordshire dramatically demonstrates this. Undeniably, Pope Gregory was a master strategist and his dealings with the Franks show that he was a politician of consummate subtlety and skill.

However, his desire to convert the Anglo-Saxons did not stem from a "deep desire" to save heathen souls, but rather a political desire to stem Pelagian heresy; not to mention the emOL .:lal Soiomon ~4

desire to bring into the neo-Roman fold what the surviving evidence indicates he considered the province of Britannia.

Even now in the twenty-first century, we are still affected by the paradigms and myths engendered by the historical agendas ofthe of the past sixteen centuries, and as a result, it is easy for us to fall into the trap (albeit a comforting trap) of thinking that the Christianization of the

North was directed by the Roman centre. I am not saying that the Vatican was not a factor.

However, I am saying that they were not the only factor, and for a very long time, they were not even a major factor. The South emanated the Christian message; the North adapted it. The societies of the European periphery seized upon certain aspects of Christian doctrine they interpreted as answers to their pre-existing cultural questions, and this process of alteration fashioned the Christian faith into "Glad Tidings" for the early English, as well as their cousins they left in the eoel, but who they remembered so well. Daniel of Winchester is very important to our understanding of this element of Germanic culture and society, for not only does he explain precisely which themes and motifs are important to the Germanic peoples, but in a sense, his letter is a glossary of the issues that would be addressed by early English religious poets. We also see a very different style of evangelization from Daniel, who tells us that the Northern peoples are capable of being moved and swayed by complex cosmological arguments, and are also worthy of respect.

From both Daniel and the religious poets we learn what conceptual matters most concern and move the English ofthe early Middle Ages: The questions of origin, structure, and the fear of chaos were the themes which dominated the literature, and the society, of the day. Of course, a desire for origins suggests a fear that there are none, and that events are causeless (and therefore, meaningless). That the Anglo-Saxons overemphasize this concept of beginnings Solomon 85

occurring in a primal event, insinuates the importance it held to the Anglo-Saxons, and the compelling nature of this aspect ofthe Christian message. This sense of origin, and fear of chaos, is reflective of the terror of fragmentation in contemporary society. The role of Satan is a personification of this, for the perversion of hierarchy and the denial oforigins graphically represents the anarchy Germanic society was so carefully structured to prevent. Solomon 86

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Abbreviations

ASE Anglo-Saxon England

HE Historia Ecclesiastica

HF Historia Francorum

Greg. Ep. Gregorian Epistles

NM Neuphilologische Mitteilungen

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