QUEEN EMMA AND THE VIKINGS by HARRIET O'BRIEN

Author:HARRIET O'BRIEN
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Published: 2010-08-22T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

Image and Empire

There was, the old monk recalls, much hushed respect, even a sense of awe. Everyone who had gathered at the Church of Christ was very aware of the commanding presence of the Lady. And everyone, ecclesiastic and lay, wondered at her wealth and wisdom. She did, in fact, confer a great many riches on this church but the arm bone of St Bartholomew was her finest and most exotic gift.

The elderly ecclesiastic walks slowly along the cloisters on the north side of Christ Church Cathedral in Canterbury. He is recounting to one of his younger brethren a story from a long time ago. The aged monk, Edwin, joined the holy order here as a child, several decades before England was invaded by Duke William of Normandy, and his experiences are of great interest to his companion Eadmer, who has literary ambitions and intends to become a chronicler.

Like many ecclesiastics of his generation, born just prior to the conquest, Eadmer is anxious to learn about the old times and to preserve this history – since the Normans took control of the country some fifteen violent years ago the Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastics have been fearful that their culture and collective memory will be wiped out. Eadmer has been listening intently to the old man’s recollections. Among his tales, memories of that other conqueror, King Cnut, and his powerful wife, intrigue the younger brother most. In particular, the aged monk witnessed one of the Norman-born Queen’s most colourful acts of patronage and it is this event that he is describing, with evident enjoyment in the drama and detail.1

The story of St Bartholomew’s arm, says the old monk Edwin settling into a narrative flow, actually starts far from England. Some time ago, a terrible famine was expected in Apulia, a fair distance south of the holy city of Rome. Fearing the worst for the people of this province, the bishop of the church of Benevento set out to raise money for them in advance of the calamity. He took with him the most precious and sacred treasure belonging to this church, an arm bone of that apostle and unflinching Christian martyr who was flayed alive beside the Caspian Sea in the first century after Christ – namely St Bartholomew. The bishop knew that this relic would fetch a princely sum if only he could find a sufficiently wealthy buyer.

He travelled north, Edwin continues, and was received with courtesy wherever he stayed. And everywhere he went he told his hosts of the impending troubles in his homeland. He gladly accepted from them very many gifts of money and treasures – most of which were at intervals entrusted to his servants to take back to Benevento, it being unwise to journey while burdened with much richness. As he progressed through the land of the Frankish King, the bishop increasingly heard of the piety, wealth and bounty of the Queen of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom, for there was widespread renown about the generosity she showed to Christ’s churches.

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