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Published On: Aug 10, 2006 08:55 PM
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Published On: Aug 10, 2006 08:55 PM
Asatour '06 Venerable Frickin' Bede!
So as I mentioned in my last entry, I made it to
Durham after many fairly mild misadventures, and am now settled into the castle.
Across the green from the castle is Durham cathedral.
Even after all the hardships I endured on the way here, I arrived too early for the conference registration. I was able to check into my room, however, and after climbing up many flights of stairs to room 36, I dropped my bags, picked up my camera, and headed to the Cathedral.
(I'm going to be blatantly honest here. I've now visited the Cathedral twice, as it was also a conference trip today. The descriptions ahead are from both of those visits, rather than just from my initial visit.)
The cathedral was apparently built somewhere around 1067, as was the castle. While photo-taking was not allowed inside it, I do have some photos from outside. When I first arrived at the cathedral, I turned left and headed into a small chapel. A square granite (?) tomb sat to my right, and I wandered over. Yep, practically the first thing I looked at inside the cathedral was the tomb of the Venerable Bede, the man who changed the way history is recorded (He did indeed change history). I was so amazed at this; I didn't realize he was buried here, and I've had a ton of respect for the work he did ever since I learned of him in high school history class. I literally thought, "Oh my gods! It's the Venerable Frickin' Bede!"
A robed lady (I have no idea what you call the people who work in an Anglican cathedral) informed me that at one point they were going to knock that small chapel down, in order to have a new main entrance to the cathedral. The plan was changed, luckily. Of course, if Bede were buried there at that time, they would have just moved him.
Later, I visited the shrine to St. Cuthbert, who was the head of the Society of St. Cuthbert, and spent most of his life doing holy work on Lindisfarne. He died, if I'm recalling at all correctly, in the late 800's, so he wasn't originally buried inside the cathedral, but they transplanted him inside, where he is now buried with the head of St. Oswald, who lost it while fighting the heathen. I have to admit to feeling a little uncomfortable in that shrine after reading that, but apparently St. Oswald's head had no issue with my presence, since there were no draugr manifestations.
In the cathedral library, the staff had put out some of their ancient manuscripts, to be viewed by the conference attendees. They were beautiful, untouchable, and mostly uninteresting to me because they were... well, they were Christian texts. Yawn. A couple of nights later I was able to view some incunabula in the University library, and these were much more interesting to me -- I was able to peruse a copy of the Saemunder Edda published in 1781! It was amazing.
Also in the Cathedral library, in the section that was once the monks' dormitory, was a selection of artifacts that had been collected there -- stonework like gravestones, as a majority, and some old wooden coffins that had been burned from logs like Native American dugout canoes. There were Viking gravestones of the hogback variety, slightly swayed up in the center, but not so much as a modern round-topped gravestone. At either end were carved the figures of bears, and some of them had very clear muzzles on their muzzles. There are some obvious possible implications there, but I don't know exactly why they were muzzled.
I'm going to wrap this article up now. I've pretty much gone over the cathedral for you. Until next time!
Even after all the hardships I endured on the way here, I arrived too early for the conference registration. I was able to check into my room, however, and after climbing up many flights of stairs to room 36, I dropped my bags, picked up my camera, and headed to the Cathedral.
(I'm going to be blatantly honest here. I've now visited the Cathedral twice, as it was also a conference trip today. The descriptions ahead are from both of those visits, rather than just from my initial visit.)
The cathedral was apparently built somewhere around 1067, as was the castle. While photo-taking was not allowed inside it, I do have some photos from outside. When I first arrived at the cathedral, I turned left and headed into a small chapel. A square granite (?) tomb sat to my right, and I wandered over. Yep, practically the first thing I looked at inside the cathedral was the tomb of the Venerable Bede, the man who changed the way history is recorded (He did indeed change history). I was so amazed at this; I didn't realize he was buried here, and I've had a ton of respect for the work he did ever since I learned of him in high school history class. I literally thought, "Oh my gods! It's the Venerable Frickin' Bede!"
A robed lady (I have no idea what you call the people who work in an Anglican cathedral) informed me that at one point they were going to knock that small chapel down, in order to have a new main entrance to the cathedral. The plan was changed, luckily. Of course, if Bede were buried there at that time, they would have just moved him.
Later, I visited the shrine to St. Cuthbert, who was the head of the Society of St. Cuthbert, and spent most of his life doing holy work on Lindisfarne. He died, if I'm recalling at all correctly, in the late 800's, so he wasn't originally buried inside the cathedral, but they transplanted him inside, where he is now buried with the head of St. Oswald, who lost it while fighting the heathen. I have to admit to feeling a little uncomfortable in that shrine after reading that, but apparently St. Oswald's head had no issue with my presence, since there were no draugr manifestations.
In the cathedral library, the staff had put out some of their ancient manuscripts, to be viewed by the conference attendees. They were beautiful, untouchable, and mostly uninteresting to me because they were... well, they were Christian texts. Yawn. A couple of nights later I was able to view some incunabula in the University library, and these were much more interesting to me -- I was able to peruse a copy of the Saemunder Edda published in 1781! It was amazing.
Also in the Cathedral library, in the section that was once the monks' dormitory, was a selection of artifacts that had been collected there -- stonework like gravestones, as a majority, and some old wooden coffins that had been burned from logs like Native American dugout canoes. There were Viking gravestones of the hogback variety, slightly swayed up in the center, but not so much as a modern round-topped gravestone. At either end were carved the figures of bears, and some of them had very clear muzzles on their muzzles. There are some obvious possible implications there, but I don't know exactly why they were muzzled.
I'm going to wrap this article up now. I've pretty much gone over the cathedral for you. Until next time!
Posted: Wed - August 9, 2006 at 09:28 PM |
