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History is not what you thought...
Mar. 9th, 2025 06:15 pmFriday's talk was organised by something called the North-East England History Research Cluster (this, I think) and was announced as the first in a series, of which the second will be about Sam Green. The first topic was a complete contrast, but also a subject I find interesting Rethinking late 1st Millenium Durham & Lindisfarne.
Since the speaker was David Petts, from the Department of Archaeology, and specifically since he was running the recent excavations on Lindisfarne with DigVentures, I was expecting him to focus on the archaeological evidence, which has produced unexpected signs of monastic life on Lindisfarne after the arrival of the Vikings. And that certainly fed into his argument, but the focus was very much on the historical record (and on physical objeects which were already known). He began his story, as is proper, with the life of Saint Cuthbert. I have read a lot of Lives of medieval saints in my time, as a literary genre, but it takes a historical mind to point out that one reason why Cuthbert became so important is that the Synod of Whitby had taken the Northumbrian church into the orbit of Rome, and Irish patrons like Aidan were no longer appropriate - the community on Lindisfarne needed a new patron, and there was Cuthbert, dying just when they needed him.
The 'origin story' of Durham Cathedral is that when the Vikings raided Lindisfarne in 793, the monks gathered up everything portable (including Cuthbert's remains) and fled, initially to Norham, then wandering all over the North, until they finally came to Durham, a previously empty site. Even discounting the miracles by which the saint made it clear that this was his chosen resting place, the decorative details like the maiden with the dun cow, this doesn't entirely work. You wouldn't, for example, run away from the Vikings by retreating a mere 15 miles up a navigable river. Archaeology is turning up evidence of a continued presence on Lindisfarne, but even before the recent dig, catalogues of Saxon crosses have for some time been pointing to continuity.
Back in the autumn, I visited the local museum in Chester-le-Street, and among the things I learned from the presentation there was that the community of Saint Cuthbert had extensive land holdings, and that the period of wandering may have been more a case of visiting their various properties. David Petts said the same thing, though he didn't confirm that Chester-le-Street was one of them: "I haven't given this talk in Chester-le-Street yet," he said. I'd love to be there when he does. What I wrote at the time was:
And I concluded "It's very refreshing to have your perspective so thoroughly shaken up." It is, indeed.
Since the speaker was David Petts, from the Department of Archaeology, and specifically since he was running the recent excavations on Lindisfarne with DigVentures, I was expecting him to focus on the archaeological evidence, which has produced unexpected signs of monastic life on Lindisfarne after the arrival of the Vikings. And that certainly fed into his argument, but the focus was very much on the historical record (and on physical objeects which were already known). He began his story, as is proper, with the life of Saint Cuthbert. I have read a lot of Lives of medieval saints in my time, as a literary genre, but it takes a historical mind to point out that one reason why Cuthbert became so important is that the Synod of Whitby had taken the Northumbrian church into the orbit of Rome, and Irish patrons like Aidan were no longer appropriate - the community on Lindisfarne needed a new patron, and there was Cuthbert, dying just when they needed him.
The 'origin story' of Durham Cathedral is that when the Vikings raided Lindisfarne in 793, the monks gathered up everything portable (including Cuthbert's remains) and fled, initially to Norham, then wandering all over the North, until they finally came to Durham, a previously empty site. Even discounting the miracles by which the saint made it clear that this was his chosen resting place, the decorative details like the maiden with the dun cow, this doesn't entirely work. You wouldn't, for example, run away from the Vikings by retreating a mere 15 miles up a navigable river. Archaeology is turning up evidence of a continued presence on Lindisfarne, but even before the recent dig, catalogues of Saxon crosses have for some time been pointing to continuity.
Back in the autumn, I visited the local museum in Chester-le-Street, and among the things I learned from the presentation there was that the community of Saint Cuthbert had extensive land holdings, and that the period of wandering may have been more a case of visiting their various properties. David Petts said the same thing, though he didn't confirm that Chester-le-Street was one of them: "I haven't given this talk in Chester-le-Street yet," he said. I'd love to be there when he does. What I wrote at the time was:
... because those monks didn't just break their journey in Chester-le-Street, they stayed for over a hundred years. They built a cathedral here, before anyone had even heard of Durham. The earliest translation of the gospels into English was written here by someone called Aldred, who inscribed his glass between the lines of the Lindisfarne Gospels. King Alfred made a pilgrimage here (as did Athelstan, Canute, and several Scottish kings).
And I concluded "It's very refreshing to have your perspective so thoroughly shaken up." It is, indeed.
