THE POSSIBLE BEGETTER OF THE OLD ENGLISH 

 BEOWULF AND WIDSITH 



I. NORTHUMBRIA IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY 



The seventh century was a glorious era for Northumbria. The 

 two kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia, the southern and the north- 

 ern, were united by the Bernician king, ^thelric, in 588. To him 

 succeeded his son, ^thelfrith, in 593. At this time, of the three 

 great provinces of Britain — Kent, Northumbria, and Mercia — it 

 was Kent that was the most powerful. But soon Northumbria 

 began to rise into prominence, ^thelfrith won a signal victory 

 over the forces of the united Irish and Welsh in 603 at Degsastan, 

 probably just north of the Scottish border; and the resistance of 

 the Welsh to the Northumbrians was completely overcome at the 

 battle of Chester in 614. On the death of ^thelfrith in 617, 

 Edwin, of the rival house of Deira, became the ruler of the two 

 provinces, being then thirty-two years of age. Five years after- 

 ward he had become the sovereign or overlord of all England save 

 only Kent ; and the king of Kent was his brother-in-law after 625. 

 In 627 he made a profession of Christianity, under the influence of 

 his wife, .^thelberg, and the Roman missionary of the north, 

 Paulinus. This conversion, however, at once roused the enmity 

 of the heathen English, and Edwin was finally slain by the Mer- 

 cians under the ferocious Penda in 622. After an interval of a 

 year, the sovereignty of Northumbria passed over to Bernicia 

 in the person of Oswald, who, after a residence in lona, and per- 

 haps Ireland,^ assumed the rule over Northumbria in 634. At the 

 battle of Heavenfield, now St. Oswald's, seven or eight miles north 

 of Hexham, he gained a decisive victory over the Welsh in 635, 

 It was he who brought Aidan into Northumbria, and established 

 his as Bishop of Lindisfarne. Like Edwin, though perhaps less 

 effectually, Oswald held the primacy of England, and was even 

 known as 'emperor of the whole of Britain.'^ He, too, fell in 

 battle against the same Mercian king, Penda, from whom Edwin 

 had met his doom. This was in 642, after a reign of eight years. 



^ Plummer 2. 99. 

 ^ Reeves, p. 113. 



