164 OSWALD
OSWALD
or later. Nothing is told us of the battle,save that the gallant Oswald when, hemmed inby foes, he fell with his death-wound to theground, implored the mercy of God on the soulsof the soldiers whom he led (Beda, iii. 9, 12).Reginald gives a long account of Oswald’s treeand how it acquired that name (capp. 17, 18).He says also that Whitchurch stands on Maser-felth. Penda, savage in his triumph, cut off thehead and arms of his vanquished foe, and setthem up on stakes or poles as a public spectacle.Within a little while they were taken down, andwere carried into Northumbria. Oswald became,in course of time, one of the greatest of theNorthern Saints. His noble achievements andblameless life, his intense zeal for Christianitygathered around his memory many lovingsympathies. Beda mentions various miracleswhich were ascribed to him by the popularvoice. The wooden cross on Hefenfelth, whichwas standing in the historian’s days, was giftedwith a wonder-working power (Beda, iii. 2).Out of Mercia, story after story came into thenorth, and even Willibrord of Frisia had histestimony to add (Id. iii. ix.-xiii., iv. 14; andReginald, var. loc.)
The headless trunk of Oswald was removed byhis niece, Osthryd, some thirty years after hisdeath, to the monastery of Bardney in Lincoln-shire. The monks, who were not exempt fromtribal and national jealousies, refused to admitit at first within their walls, and ascribed theirsubsequent acquiescence to the appearance of agreat column of light which they regarded as aninterposition from heaven. They received thebones at last and duly enshrined them, hangingup over the coffin Oswald’s royal banner ofpurple and gold which had been brought fromMaserfelth (Beda, iii. 11). They erected alsoa stone cross at the head and feet of the grave(Reginald, cap. 43). Oswald’s tomb was richlyadorned by Offa, king of Mercia (Alcuin, de SS.Ebor. 388-90). In a.d. 909, the remains werecarried from Bardney to Gloucester, whereArchbishop Thomas II., of York, or Thurstan(Mon. Angl. v. e. i. 108) repaired the shrine inwhich they were placed (Reginald, cap. 44).
The hand (or hands), to which Aidan gave apromise of freedom from decay, possibly wonfor Oswald the title of Lamngwiu, i.e. white orfree hand (Nennius, 54). Beda says that theywere carried to Bamborough, and were therereverently enshrined in a silver coffer, whichwas deposited in St. Peter’s church, and that inhis day the promise of Aidan was fulfilled (H. E.iii. 6). Symeon says, in two places (Chron. subanno 774, and H. E. D. i. 1), that the right handwas preserved at Bamborough undecayed, andthat an aged monk of Durham, of the name ofSwartebrand, had frequently seen it; Reginaldtells ns that it was stolen from Bamboroughand carried to Peterborough by a monk of thathouse (cap. 48).
Oswald’s head was taken to Lindisfarne byAidan, and was buried in the cemetery. Reginald(cap. 13) says that it was afterwards removedto Bamborough, and Aelred of Rievaulx told thesame chronicler that it was afterwards takenfrom Bamborough by the direct order of Cuth-bert himself (cap. 49). In A.D. 875, when theincursion of the Danes made the monks of Lin-disfarne wanderers, the skull, with other re-
liques, was placed in Cuthbert’s coffin, and wentwherever it went. The founder of Lindisfa “became henceforth the companion of Linditfarn ’greatest bishop. At the translation of Cuth*bert’s remains in a.d. 1104, the head of Oswald’was found and left with them (Hist Transl). 11828, the last occasion on which Cuthbert’sgrave was opened, Oswald’s skull was still the™(Raines St. Cuthbert,, 187). The mediaevalsculptors always represented Cuthbert as holdi™the head in his hand, as if next to his heart apathetic memorial of undying love and gratitude
The monks of Durham cherished araon*their reliques Oswald’s sceptre and horn ofivory, and a portion of the coat of mail whichhe wore in vain at Maserfield, together with hisbanner or standard (List, in App. to Smith’sBeda). Thrice a year they carried in solemnprocession a figure of Oswald, of silver gilttogether with their most precious treasures(Bites of Durham , 88, 89). On one side of theirconventual seal there was also a representationof Oswald’s head. They picked up somewhere,after the fashion of the time, a Roman gem, afinely cut head of Jupiter Tonans, and theheathen deity did service for their great Chris-tian patron and founder.
Several lives of Oswald are in existence, all ofwhich are indebted to Beda. Reginald of Durhamcompiled a life, in three books, most of which isprinted with the works of Symeon of Durham,by the M. R. It is remarkably diffuse. Reginaldmentions several stories on the authority of(Aelred) abbafc of Rievaulx, and a description ofOswald’s personal appearance as narrated to himby Robert, of S. Peter’s hospital at York, whohad found it in an old book.
Among the Gale MSS. in Trin. Coll., Cam-bridge, there is a MS. Life of Oswald, in thirteenchapters, the first ten of which are copied fromBeda. The eleventh chapter gives the curiousstory of a thief who broke into and plunderedthe church dedicated to St. Oswald at Farnharo,
in Yorkshire, and was struck with blindness.The twelfth chapter is the 44th of Reginald,largelv added to by the record of a miracle saidto have been wrought on a woman who preferredshearing corn to going to Gloucester to see theceremony of the translation of Oswald’s remains.Her sickle stuck fast to her hand.
There is also a MS. life in the library of theDean and Chapter of Peterborough, which iswrongly ascribed by Sir Thomas Hardy toArchbishop Oswald.
Capgrave prints a brief life of the kingderived from Beda. Lr*
OSWALD (2), the traditional founder of the
monastery of Pershore. He is said to have beenbrother of Osric, and nephew of Ethelred, in§of Mercia [Osric]; Mon. Angl. ii. 415.date assigned to the foundation of Pershore i689. Oswald may have been a viceroy or ea oman of part of Mercia or of the H wiccii, anOsric was identical with the Northumbrian 1 aof that name, Oswald may have been the ance ®of the Hwiccian dynasty to which the suquent ealdormen belonged. [HwiCCH.j L *J
OSWALD (3), a West Saxon etheling,^had a struggle for the succession to theof Ine with Ethelhard, who, although o