Wednesday 17 October 2012

St Etheldreda the Virgin

Hnaef in one of his Book of Common Prayer modes. He tells me that it's the Feast of St Etheldreda the Virgin.

Apparently she died c.678, and was translated in 695, 1106, 1252. That would be into Anglo-Saxon, Middle and Modern English, I guess?

7 comments :

  1. Wikipaedia says she started of as Æthelthryth, then known as Etheldrda, then Audrey. Is that the three translations? I mean, how mny tanslations can a girl have?

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    1. I think your reasoning is sound. It's a tawdry thing to do, constantly renaming someone like that.

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  2. Mind you, her father was called Anna, so what chance did sh hve?

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    1. He was originally called Beowulf. It must have been a shock to his wife, that day when she caught him in her tiara.

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  3. Angela has a point, even now she could not be translated into Dunelm or Ebor or Cantuar

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  4. 'Tawdry' is a corruption of her name. anyone fighting for Hereward against the Normans had to swear allegiance to her. Bill the bastard really bought into her power; so much so that when attacking Hereward he built a tall wooden tower and put a witch on top of it to curse and moon at his enemies. Hereward's men took advantage of the distraction and the wind blowing in the correct direction they set fire to the rushes causing the Normans to flee. Alas, their heavy armour didn't help on marshy ground. When Hereward was eventually defeated William wouldn't go anywhere near the relics of Audrey but threw an offering in gold at the reliquary from a safe distance.

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    1. Hereward wasn't so much defeated as bought off, wan't he?

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