ST. HILDA.

BY ALEX. D. H. LEADMAN, F.S.A.1

THIS noble and illustrious princess, of whom every Yorkshireman and Yorkshirewoman may justly be proud, was born in 614. Her saintly life and learning have found her a deserved place in some calendars of our early English Church. Her father was Hereric, nephew of Edwin, first Christian King of Northumbria. Hereric married Bregusuid, of whose family we know nothing. The offspring of this marriage was first a daughter, Heresuid, secondly a younger daughter, Hilda, and thus in the veins of these sisters flowed the royal blood, Hilda and her sister being grand-nieces of the King.

For some reason of policy or evil design Hereric was kept in confinement by Cerdic or Ceretic, the King of Elmete, and there he ended his days by poison. It was probably to avenge Hereric's death that "Edwin seized on Elmete, and expelled Ceretic its King." All this took place during Hilda's infancy, so that she never remembered her father's face, or knew his paternal love.

1 I have to thank my friend Rev. Canon Fowler, D.C.L., F.S.A., for translating the offices of St. Hilda, and for several valuable notes.

2 Bede, Book IV, ch. 23. The edition of Bede used is that edited by Moberly (Clarendon Press, 1869).

3 Hild, A.S., and Hildr, Old Norse, only met with in poetry, mean battle. It was the name of one of the Valkyrias (choosers of the slain), who were regarded as the handmaids of Odin. It is rare as a prefix in Norse names, but frequent in Old High and Low German; of men, Hildir, Hildibrand, Hildigrímr, Hildefrith, Hildewine; of women, Hildr, Hildiríthr. Again it often forms the latter part in female names, and is often spelt or sounded without the aspirate, Ashildr, Brynhildr, Geirhildr, Grímhilldr, Ragnhildr. The Old Norse Gunnr, and A.S. Guthr, appearing in the names Gunnhildr and Guthmund (protection in battle), have the same significance (Cleasby and Vigfusson's IcelandicEnglish Dictionary s. v. Hildr and Gunnr, and index to Cartularium Saxonicum).

VOL. XVII.

Hilda's heritage-all in Denmark; Hillersjo, formerly Hildishögh, Hilda's houe, in Sweden; and Hildarheimr, now Hildrum, Hilda's home, in Norway. Hilda is a Latinised form of Hild, which means "battle.' To call a girl battle seems strange, but does not alter the fact. To give such names to girls was a favourite habit of the AngloSaxons (Rev. W. W. Skeat, Notes and Queries, 8th S. VIII, 72). Also among other northern nations to bestow on their children the names of their favourite idols was a very old custom (as seen from both sacred and profane history).

4 Bede, IV, 23. Nennius (Monumenta Historica Britannica), p. 76.

D

Dr. Young hints that the following incident occurred during Bregusuid's pregnancy, and that Hilda was a posthumous' child. It seems unnecessary to maintain either one or the other of these suppositions, for the dream would apply in any case. The story, as told by Bede, is that whilst her husband was absent Bregusuid had a remarkable dream. She was wandering about in quest of him, but disappointment awaited her on every side, "she was seeking for him most carefully, and could find no sign of him anywhere; but after having used all her industry to seek him, she found a most precious necklace set with jewels under her garment, which, whilst she was looking on it very attentively, cast such a light as to spread itself through all Britain."

Applying the moral of the dream to her daughter Hilda, the latter became the hope of her life, the star of the night of that dark widowhood which she was so cruelly destined to bear. Nor was she disappointed.

When Edwin was placed on the throne of Northumbria in 6163 Hilda was two years old, yet how she spent her time for some ten years we know not, but in all probability she was brought up amid the worship of the gods of her forefathers, Thor and Woden, idols of wood and stone. Next we hear of her as a girl of thirteen, at the royal court of Edwin, perhaps soon after that mysterious visit to Edwin, whose misfortunes had well-nigh crushed his spirit, when Paulinus came about 625, and had that memorable conversation with him in which he offered him a safer place of retreat than any other friend could.

"Who comes with functions apostolical?

Mark him of shoulders curved and tall,
Black hair and vivid eye and meagre cheek,
His prominent feature like an eagle's beak,-
A man whose stature does at once appal,

And strike with reverence." 115

Such is the picture a Christian poet has painted of Paulinus, and there is no doubt that Hilda would often hear the voice of this great missionary of the North, of "tall stature, stooping form, black hair, and meagre visage, with thin, hooked nose, yet of venerable and majestic aspect." It was from his lips that Hilda heard of Jesus Christ, of a future life, a heavenly kingdom, a crown of glory. Along with King

1 Dr. Young's History of Whitby (1817), Vol. I, p. 133.

2 Bede, Book IV, ch. 23.
3 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says 617.

4 Bede, Book II, ch. 12.

5 Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Sonnets, XV.

6 Bede, Book II, ch. 16.

Edwin and the rest of the court at York, at that joyful Eastertide, 12th April, 627,' Hilda received the Sacrament of Baptism, and from that hour a benign light was sprung, which, in future years, was to shed its rays over all Northumbria, for Bede says she had "embraced the faith and mysteries of Christ, at the preaching of Paulinus of blessed memory, the first bishop of the Northumbrians."

Her sister, Heresuid, had married Æthelric, and was left a widow sometime before 647. They had a son, Aldwulf, who was King of the East Anglians, and died in 713.3

Between 627 and 633 it may be presumed that Hilda lived at the court of her royal grand-uncle. During that year Edwin was killed in battle at Heathfield, supposed to be Hatfield, near Doncaster, on October 12th, 633, the cause of Christianity in the North was temporarily overthrown, Paulinus with the widowed Queen Ethelburga sailed to Kent, all which events were a great shock to Hilda. Yet amid all the general apostacy she kept her faith, did not fly with the rest, or renounce her faith, but quietly retired into her nephew's kingdom, East Anglia, hoping that some chance would allow her to get to the monastery of Chelles, in France, a house distant some ten miles from Paris, where her widowed sister Heresuid was patiently "waiting for her everlasting crown."

She passed a year at Aldwulf's court preparing for this change, but it was not destined to take place. She then seems to have gone back to Northumbria, where Bishop Aidan, who had returned from at long journey, heard of her intentions, and, forming a life-long and mutual friendship, persuaded her to assume the religious life."

She may have listened to ministrations of that good man, James the Deacon, who preached in Yorkshire.

8

She was 33 years old when she assumed the veil and, called home by Aidan, she received a hide of land, a place for one family, on the north bank of the river Wear, where Monkwearmouth now stands. Here, with a few females as companions, she remained in seclusion

1 Ibid., ch. 14. According to Nennius (pp. 75, 76) 12,000 were baptised at the same time as King Edwin. The Britons called Paulinus Rum map Urbgen, and tried to make out he was of British origin (Nennius, pp. 75, 76).

2 Bede, Book IV, ch. 23. 3 Ibid., Book IV, ch. 23. Archæological Journal, III, 353. 4 Bede, Book II, ch. 20. 5 Ibid., Book II, ch. 20. 6 Ibid., Book IV, ch. 23. called Cale in the original. 7 Ibid., Book IV, ch. 23. 8 Ibid., Book II, ch. 20

Yorkshire

Chelles is

9 Ibid., Book IV, ch. 23. "A passage in Venerable Bede's History has been supposed to refer to this place (Monkwearmouth), and to afford the earliest glimpse of its history. He tells us that St. Hilda, after remaining a whole year in East Anglia, and intending all the while to leave her own land and become a nun in the monastery of Chelles, at the end of that time was recalled to her native North by Bishop Aidan, 'who gave her the land of one family in the north district of the Wear (ad septentrionalem plagam Wiri fluminis), where for a year she led a monastic life, with very few

3

for one year. Then she removed to Heruteu, or "The Island of the Hart,"1 at the mouth of the Tees, a place then almost surrounded by the sea, but now the modern Hartlepool. Here, that servant of Christ, Heiu, presided over a nunnery, but shortly left for a similar post at Tadcaster, whereupon Hilda became abbess of Heruteu about 650. Her rule over the house of Heruteu' was marked by the introduction of a regular system, in which she had been instructed by the very many learned men with whom she had met. Bishop Aidan and many other divines admired her innate wisdom and devotion to God. But an important event was soon to bring Hilda's life into prominence. A few years rolled by. In 655, on Sunday, 15th November, Penda," the heathen King of Mercia, was laid low on the field of Winwoed, the cause of Thor and Woden was lost for ever; and the victorious Oswy, King of Northumbria, made a vow that if the "triumph of Christ prevailed"

associates.' An entirely apocryphal Life
of St. Bega confounds that Saint with St.
Heieu (Hartlepool), and makes her the
founder of a religious house on the north
side of the Wear. This, however, we may
dismiss as purely mythical. But that St.
Hilda, before her removal to Hartlepool,
spent a year in some kind of monastic
establishment in the north district' of
the Wear there can be no reasonable
doubt, though there is not a particle of
evidence to identify the site of that house
with that of the later foundation of
Benedict Biscop. An annotator of
Leland (Collectanea, iv, 39) remarks that
'there is an humble church between the
mouths of the Tyne and Wear, dedicated
to the Blessed Hilda, and farther (longius)
distant from the Wear than the Tyne.
It is situated on a certain point vulgarly
called Sowter [Souter Point]. Probably
here was formerly the little monastery of
Bega. No church, we have strong reason for
believing, ever existed near Souter Point,
and the only church dedicated to St.
Hilda between the Tyne and the Wear
is that of South Shields, for many centuries
a chapelry to the mother church of Jarrow.
The dedication can scarcely be accounted
for, except on the assumption that the site
of this church is in some way connected
with the home occupied by St. Hilda,
before her removal to Hartlepool. It is
also worthy of remark that the town of
Shields was long best known as 'St.
Hild's.' There is great probability in the
suggestion made by Mr. Surtees that the
church of South Shields is not perhaps
without some claim to be considered as
the humble church' of St. Hilde, which

2 Ibid., Book IV, ch. 23. The first Northumbrian lady who had been conse crated to a religious life by Bishop Aidan. It must be noted that Bede never describes Hilda as a virgin, but speaks of her as "noble by birth," and "living most nobly in the secular habit." When she retired to monastic life he writes of her as "a woman devoted to God," and "a most religious servant of Christ." In the Office of St. Hilda she is called "a virgin but not a martyr." Appendix.)

(See

3 Bede (Book IV, ch. 23) calls the place Kælcacaestir.

4 Heortea or Hereteu. Bede, Book III, ch. 24.

5 Bede, Book III, ch. 24. AngloSaxon Chronicle, sub anno 655.

he would consecrate his daughter Aelfleda (then scarce a year old) to the service of God, and in addition grant lands to build and endow monasteries. This amounted to twelve portions, each consisting of twelve hides of land.1

2

Shortly after this battle little Aelfleda, scarce a year old, was put under the care of Hilda, who two years later (657) removed with her royal pupil and ten nuns to a place called Streoneshalc, a cliff on the coast of Yorkshire, near where the Esk joins the sea, where she had obtained possession of ten hides of land. "The bay of the Light-house," Bede calls it. "The Hall of Streona," say others; and the "Dunum Sinus" of Ptolemy."

None of these names are at all satisfactory. Streon or Streona may be a personal name, but as to the affix no solution has yet been arrived at. Here two or more portions of land were granted to Hilda, and here under her own superintendence arose a monastery with its various offices, built of wood-split trees-moss, rushes, or straw to fill up the crevices, and sand for the floor." Such would be the first church-the houses of residence and the offices very little better. Neither did it occupy the site of the present well-known ruins, but was built on a level space, girt in for many hundred yards by precipitous cliffs, called "Almary Field," below which is the great "Kitchen-midden," which fixes the site of the domestic offices. In

1 Ibid.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid. "Comparata possessione decem familiarum in loco qui dicitur Streanæshalch, ibi monasterium construxit," or as it is in the Anglo-Saxon version, "Seo .... gebohte tyn hyda lond hire in æhte in thære stówe, seo is cweden Streoneshealh, thær heo mynster getimbrode" (Bede's Ecclesiastical History, E. E.T.S., p. 236).

4 Ibid., Book III, ch. 25.

5 Dunsley Bay is three miles northward. The nearest approach to the meaning is from heugh or haugh-a crag—a glen with steep sides. The name is variously written Streoneshalch, Streaneshale, Strænæshale, or Streneshalh. Streone may be a nick-name, or, as Freeman says, a surname, "Edric Streone," or, as found in the Liber Vita, a prefix Streonberct. The late Rev. Canon Atkinson, in his Handbook for Ancient Whitby and its Abbey (London and Whitby, 1882), in a footnote on p. 24, says, "Thus Streones-healh, or Streónesheal, or Streones-halch (equivalent terms), would literally mean the cave or hollow of strength."

Whitby Chartulary, Vol. I, p. xvii.

8 Ibid.

10

9 Ibid., Vol. I, p. xv. "In loco qui olim Streoneshalc vocabatur, deinde Prestebi appellabatur, nunc vero Witebi vocatur" (Ibid., Vol. I, p. 1).

10 Ibid., Vol. I, p. xv. On the south side of the Abbey a slope leads to the edge of the cliff, and here was an extensive "kitchen Midden." Diggings have revealed birds' bones, oyster, whelk, and periwinkle shells, bones and skulls of oxen, sheep, goats, and tusks of wild swine, etc., etc. In 1867 a bone comb was found, imperfect, but bearing part of a runic inscription quite distinct, read and completed thus :-(go)d usmæ us. god aluwaludo helipa cun (niæs ussæs). God bless us. God Almighty help our kin (Stephens' Runic Monuments, Part III, p. 180). This very comb may have been used by St. Hilda! Also a leaden bulla *