Winters for our Sins 0

the anarchy, wales, 1140

There is a period in English history that owes its acknowledgment to a series of nine manuscripts called the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Through study of these documents, historians are able to bridge the gap between the abandonment of Roman Britain in year 410 and the arrival of William the Conqueror in 1066 AD. A challenge presents itself in the nature of the annals, as each version of the script belongs to a separate monastery or abbey of Old England. There are places within the Chronicle where one interpretation contradicts its counterpart and experts must turn to other medieval sources for clarity. Despite the subjective contribution of each scribe, the Chronicle is considered the most decisive historical record of that age.

History is filled with pockets of uncertainty. Through investigation, we are able to correlate dates and events until we have sewn archived patchwork into a steadfast timeline. The knowledge granted by this timeline is passed down through our generations until it becomes tradition. Before long, we believe in our traditions without questioning their reliability. It is the responsibility of the historian to ensure that history, in its purest, medieval prose, does not escape tradition. History forgotten to tradition is as history that was never written in the first place.

In England, in Worcester, an Anglo-Saxon monk whose name was simply John had dedicated his life to the Chronicon ex chronicis, a key contribution to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Until his death in 1140, events were described in his life's work as accurately as he might depict them. It is believed that John relied on sources other than his own to complete the vast body of scripture and until recently, all of these sources were lost.

In a letter preserved at the Cathedral Church of Saint Mary and Saint Ethelbert in Hereford and addressed to the Bishop of Herefordshire, a man styling himself as Lupus vir pontifex requests a copy of the late John's Chronicon ex chronicis. The letter is dated to the Winter of 1141. It was assumed that the penman was Bishop Wulfstan II of Worcester who went by the title "lupus", or "wolf", the first portion of his Old English name, and that the date on the parchment was a mistake in the interpretation. Bishop Wulfstan died in 1023 and was buried in the monastery of Ely in Cambridgeshire. He could not have written the letter.

Because of the intricacies of the letter's delivery, historians dismissed the date incongruence and would later dismiss the letter as a possible fault in their trustworthy resources. Its value as lead to a tenth Anglo-Saxon manuscript went unexplored. Only recently, under scrutiny, was a discovery made that "Lupus vir pontifex", the name on the original letter, and "Lupus episcopus", the pen name of Bishop Wulfstan II, did not have the same meaning. "Lupus episcopus" translates to the bishop wolf and "Lupus vir pontifex" translates to the bishop wolf man.

When investigating the origins of Lupus vir pontifex, historians find threadbare ties to the wilderness of southeast Wales in what is now called Monmouthshire and was then titled the Kingdom of Gwent. They attribute the lack of background information to this location as well as the date on the original letter, 1141 AD, which places the Bishop's rule during The Anarchy, or the reign of King Stephen of Normandy.

Gwent was a successor kingdom of Wales, originally a Roman military base and later a fortified network of Norman castles. It was divided into Lordships and each was given to a Marcher Lord responsible for pressing the Welsh border. The lords of each citadel were granted freedom to rule by their own law, invented or adopted from the neighboring Welsh, and were never considered a wholly legal appendage of England. By all descriptions they were dangerous frontier societies, at war and starving for immigration.

This story takes place in the best known location of Lupus vir pontifex, in the moorland of the Welsh Marches, where acidic ecology promotes the complete destruction of Marcher empires. 1140 is a difficult year for England but news has not reached its western border. King Stephen, the Norman King of England, has been imprisoned at Bristol by the Empress Maude and leaves his country in civil war. England is in anarchy and its citizens, given to Bishops and the laws of Christ, perform only for the moral weight of God's eyes. The age of poverty and murder gives no credit to divinity.


Crist and alle his sayntes slept. Mare thanne we cunnen sæin, we tholeden xix wintre for ure sinnes.

Christ and all his saints slept. More than we can say, we suffered nineteen winters for our sins.

-The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

NEXT: WINTERS FOR OUR SINS I