296 Bcozvulf and Widsith. 



Aldfrith is the conclusion that the two men were approximately 

 of the same age, with Aldhelm probably a little the elder. But 

 we had already seen that Aldhelm was born not later than 639, and 

 Aldfrith not much, if any, later than 642. Closer to the truth than 

 this we shall hardly be able to arrive. 



III. ALDFRITH'S QUALIFICATIONS AS A PATRON OF 

 LITERATURE 



We have now to consider Aldf rith's qualifications for presiding- 

 over a court where learning and literature should flourish. His 

 own learning seems to have been chiefly acquired in Ireland, and 

 perhaps lona. Bede, in his prose life of Cuthbert (chap. 24) , is not 

 very explicit with regard to Aldfrith's place of sojourn, but says 

 he 'was then living as an exile in the Irish islands, in order to 

 gratify his love for literature'; and a little later remarks that 'he 

 had been devoting himself for not a few years^ ('non paucis antea 

 temporibus') to reading in the regions of the Irish, having endured 

 voluntary exile for his love of wisdom.^ These 'regions' and 

 'islands' of the Irish are rather vague,^ and might be interpreted 

 to cover lona for at least part of the time, since Bede always con- 

 siders that island as belonging to Ireland.* Plummer^ is clear 

 that, on the death of Ecgfrith, Aldfrith's return to England was 

 from lona, on the strength of the sentence in the anonymous life 

 of Cuthbert (chap. 28) : 'He was at this time in the island which 

 they call lona.' 



Aldfrith's resort to Ireland for study was by no means 

 unexampled. In fact, during the second half of the seventh cen- 

 tury, especially until the reputation of the Canterbury school under 

 Theodore and Hadrian had waxed great, Ireland attracted Eng- 



^ Or, perhaps, 'for not a few periods.' This might account for occasional 

 visits to England ; see above, p. 292. 



^ Cf . Plummer 2. 197, lines 3-5. See Aldfrith's poem below, and Healy, 

 pp. 468-9. For the schools of Ireland, cf. Healy, passim, and Hyde, chaps. 

 16 and 17. 



^ But see Bright, p. 337. 



* See Plummer 2. 186; cf. 2. 12, 82, 83, 126, 192, 197. 



'^ 2. 260, 263. See also Oman, p. 309 : 'first in Ireland, and then at lona.' 

 For the prediction of an Irish bard that Aldfrith should be buried in lona, 

 see p. 307, note 12, 1. 4. 



