Northumberland Yesterday and To-dayTerry, Jean F. (Jean Finlay)
History
Northumberland Yesterday and To-day
Terry, Jean F. (Jean Finlay)
Northumberland (England) -- Guidebooks; Northumberland (England) -- History
Redwald’s friendship, however, does not seem to have been above
suspicion, for we find that Ethelfrith’s bribe had on one occasion
nearly induced him to give up his guest, whose life, however, was
saved by Redwald’s wife who turned her husband from his purpose. In
his exile the thoughts of the young prince often turned towards his
own land; and, once, as he sat brooding over his misfortunes, he
saw in a vision one who came and spoke comforting words to him,
saying that he should yet be king and that his reign should be long
and glorious. “And if one should come to thee and repeat this
sign,” said the stranger, laying his right hand on Edwin’s head
“wouldst thou hearken to his rede?” Edwin gave his word, and the
vision fled. Some little time after this, Ethelfrith of
Northumbria, as the united districts were now called, fell in
battle against Redwald, and Edwin, returning northward, became
ruler of Northumbria, the sons of Ethelfrith fleeing in their turn
before the new king. Edwin wedded, as his second wife, Ethelburga,
daughter of that king of Kent in whose days Augustine came to
England; and being a Christian princess, she brought with her a
priest to her new home in the north. The priest’s name was
Paulinus; and one day he went to the King and, placing his right
hand on Edwin’s head, asked if he knew that sign. Edwin remembered,
and redeemed his promise. He hearkened to the teaching of the
earnest monk, with the result that before long he and his court
were baptised by Paulinus, Edwin’s little daughter, it is said,
being the first to receive the sacred rite.
This was at York; and when the king and queen went to the royal
city of Bamburgh, or to their country dwelling at the foot of the
Cheviots, Paulinus accompanied them; and wherever he went, he
laboured to teach the North-country Angles and Saxons the gospel of
Christ. This country dwelling, to which came Paulinus and his royal
friends, was Ad-gefrin, or Yeavering; and though it is extremely
unlikely that any traces of it could remain until our day, yet
tradition points out a fragment of an old building still standing
there, as a remnant of the royal residence.
In the region of Kirknewton, a pretty little village to the
north-west of Yeavering, where Colledge Water joins the Glen, which
gives its name to the romantic district of Glendale, Paulinus
baptised many hundreds of Edwin’s people; and the name of
Pallinsburn—which is now confined to a house at some little
distance from the burn—enshrines the memory of yet another scene of
the labours of the indefatigable monk.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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