Most of what we know about Hilda of Whitby was written in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People by the Venerable Bede. When her father was poisoned, her mother took Hild and her sister Hereswith to live under the protection of King Edwin, who was then Anglo-Saxon over-King of Northumbria. Edwin was baptized by the Italian bishop Paulinus, along with all of his household when Hild was 13. The baptism took place in a building on the site of what is now York Minster. Edwin was killed in battle, however, in an uprising of the Britons from the west a few years later, in 633.
His queen, along with Hild and her mother fled south to Kent, where Hild’s sister Hereswith lived with her family. Roman Christianity was more firmly entrenched in Kent, but we lose sight of Hild until she was 33, when she went back to Northumbria as a nun in a Celtic monastery, under Bishop Aidan from Lindisfarne. Ten years later she founded Whitby Abbey. In the Celtic tradition, both men and women lived there separately, holding everything in common and worshipping together.
Hild was a skilled administrator and teacher. According to Bede, “all who knew her called her mother because of her outstanding devotion and grace.” In 664 a convention gathered at Whitby to address some of the differences which had arisen between Roman and Celtic Christianity. In regard to the day on which Easter should be celebrated and questions about tonsure, Roman traditions won out and some of the monks returned to Iona and Lindisfarne.
Hild remained at Whitby until her death at 66, a very old age in those times. She was canonized as a saint with her feast day celebrated on November 17. As the patron saint of learning and culture, many schools and colleges bear her name.
The story of Hild is told in a masterful way by Nicola Griffith, who grew up in northern England. Her book is entitled simply Hild. Griffith has done a great deal of research into the history of the royal houses of the Seventh century, which came from British or Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Irish, Pict and other assorted backgrounds. It was a brutal time, in which rulers moved among their subjects, collecting tribute and fighting with each other. Though Edwin and his court were baptized, there is little evidence that Christianity changed anything at the time. The rulers who came after Edwin reverted to their previous gods.
Since nothing is known of Hild for many years, Griffith sets her in the context of an ambitious mother who seeks to protect her child by making her into a “seer” for the king. The child Hild is extremely observant of the birds, the weather and knows the strengths and weaknesses of the people around her. She grows up strong, knows many of the languages used in a polyglot culture and learns how to read from a priest who tutors her. She is also beloved of her half-brother, her gemaccae (a girlfriend and weaving partner) and the household she creates around her at a young age. Griffith’s harrowing and beautiful story ends before the death of Edwin the king. Griffith expects to complete two more volumes on Hild’s life.
