world and the ‘English’ as successors to Rome in Britain. Although much of book two
is devoted to Bede’s own Northumbria, he also has information on the other kingdoms, highlighting his intention to write a history of the whole ‘English’ people 12 .
He stresses the importance of Britain as the edge of the known world and the
Roman Empire, emphasising that “Britain lies almost under the North Pole”, describing Ireland as the “extreme boundary of the world”. 13 They are “the two remotest islands in the ocean”. 14 He highlights the abundance of Britain, particularly that England bears “A great deal of excellent jet,… when kindled drives away serpents” 15 , showing imagery of the banishment of evil from Eden and classical reading, as Pliny the Elder noted that “The kindling of jet drives off snakes”. 16 Bede’s tale of Hengist and Horsa, two brothers and first leaders of the Germanics, also echoes Livy’s Romulus and Remus founding Rome. 17 In both tales, one brother dies and both pairs claim divine ancestry. 18 This may serve to compare the English to the
Romans, but it may also reflect a historiographical pattern, as the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle holds a similar story regarding Cerdic and Cynric and the arrival of the West-Saxons in Britain. 19 However, Bede does not follow continuing classical traditions of setting out your authority, as Thucydides related his construction “from evidence which… I find I can trust” 20 and admits that his speeches are not accurate, but composed to befit the situation. 21 This is mimicked in Thomas of Monmouth’s hagiography of William of Norwich, in which he declares “Far be it for me to lie in sacred matters”. 22 Bede does not do this, but states his sources in detail at the end
12 Bede, pp. 65-107; Wormold, p. 215 13 Molyneaux, 1301; Bede, pp. 10, 103 14 Bede, p. 155 15 Bede, pp. 9-10
16 Diane Speed, ‘Bede’s Creation of a Nation in his Ecclesiastical History’ in Parergon: Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Medieval and Early Modern Studies , 10.2, (1992), 149; Pliny the Elder, Natural History 36.142, Loeb Classical Library, PLINY THE ELDER, Natural History | Loeb Classical Library (loebclassics.com), [Accessed 26/03/2023] 17 Livy, History of Rome 1.6.4, LIVY, History of Rome 1 | Loeb Classical Library (loebclassics.com), Loeb Classical Library, [Accessed 25/3/23] 18 Bede, p. 27; Livy, 1.pr.7, 1.7.2 19 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, The Avalon Project, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School, Avalon Project - The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle : Sixth Century (yale.edu), [Accessed 25/3/2023] 20 Speed, 140-1; Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.1, Loeb Classical Library, THUCYDIDES, History of the Peloponnesian War | Loeb Classical Library (loebclassics.com), [Accessed 25/3/23] 21 Thucydides, 1.22 22 Thomas of Monmouth, The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich , tr. And ed. A. Jessop and M.R. James (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1896), p. 5
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