Cynewulf of Lindisfarne was appointed as
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...
of
Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parishes in England, civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th centu ...
in either 737 or 740. He resigned the see in 779 or 780 and died in 782 or 783.
[Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 219]
In 750 Cynewulf was imprisoned by
Eadberht of Northumbria
Eadberht (died 19 or 20 August 768) was king of Northumbria from 737 or 738 to 758. He was the brother of Ecgbert, Archbishop of York. His reign is seen as a return to the imperial ambitions of seventh-century Northumbria and may represent a perio ...
[Kirby ''Earliest English Kings'' p. 126] for giving sanctuary to Prince Offa during a dynastic clash.
Some 19th-century scholars believed him to be
Cynewulf
Cynewulf (, ; also spelled Cynwulf or Kynewulf) is one of twelve Old English poets known by name, and one of four whose work is known to survive today. He presumably flourished in the 9th century, with possible dates extending into the late 8th ...
, the poet only known through the runic signature appearing in several Old English poems. Besides the fact that the dialect used in these poems shows features of
Northumbrian Old English
Northumbrian was a dialect of Old English spoken in the Anglo-Saxons, Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria. Together with Mercian dialect, Mercian, Kentish dialect (Old English), Kentish and West Saxon dialect, West Saxon, it forms one of the sub-ca ...
, there is no solid proof for this theory.
Citations
References
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780 deaths
Bishops of Lindisfarne
8th-century English bishops
Year of birth unknown
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