Itinerant kings, royal estates and monasteries

The other day I was reading a news article on the movements of itinerant kings among their royal estates and more surprisingly royal farmsteads and it got me thinking. Basically what they were saying is that early medieval kings moved around their kingdom from one royal estate to another, and used these estates and farms...

Books from Lérins?

In the introduction to On the Nature of Things, Kendall and Wallis attempt to trace the origins of Bede's copy of Isidore's On the Nature of Things. They conclude that Bede's copy came from a group of texts labeled H for Hispania and that it arrived in c. 670. They seem to be at a...

Benedict Biscop

I've gained a new appreciation for Benedict Biscop this week after rereading the History of the Abbots and the Life of Ceolfrith, along with Ian Woods' contribution to the new Cambridge Companion to Bede. What follows is a little musing on Biscop and questions his life open up. I used to think of Biscop as...

When Bede Met Adomnan…

One of the events that Bede mentions in the Ecclesiastical History that has always fascinated me is a meeting between Bede and Adomnan in 703. Bede never specifically says that he met Adomnan, but he does report of a visit by Adomnan to Wearmouth-Jarrow in the year before Adomnan's death. We know that Adomnan died...

2009 Jarrow Lecture

This Friday, May 22 will be the annual Jarrow Lecture held at Bede's World/St Paul's Church Jarrow. The speaker this year is Barbara Yorke whose lecture will be on "Rex Doctissimus: Bede and King Aldfrith of Northumbria".  It begins at 7:30 pm and is open to everyone. I am quite jealous. I would go out...

LKM: Bernicia/Bryneich

Bernicia or Bryneich? We know that the name of the kingdom was British and their name for it was Bryneich. No one has put forth a compelling translation for Bryneich. It appears to have been the southern part of Votandini (Gododdin) territory under the Romans, although it may have been independent then just without its...