The Life of Bede

In dealing with the history of Northumbria as is natural that Bede's information is most varied and copious. Much would doubtless be preserved in the records of the Church of Lindisfarne, perhaps also in his own monastery. We know that the monasteries kept calendars, in which the death days of saints and others were entered. And that these were used as materials for history. Few lives afford less material for the biographer than Bede's. Few seem to possess a more irresistible fascination. Often, as the simple story has been told, the desire to tell it afresh appears to be perennial,. Yet it is perhaps as wholly devoid of incident as any life could be