Early Medieval Studies in Memory of Patrick Wormald (review)

Most of the thirty-three essays in this substantial volume honoring an outstanding historian were first read as papers at two symposia, one at Kalamazoo, the other at Oxford, following the premature death of Patrick Wormald in September 2004. In view of the large number of contributions, it will be obvious that no more than a brief outline of the individual essays can be given here. One distinctive feature of the volume is worth noting at the outset: in spite of the wide spectrum of their topics, almost all the contributors integrate and discuss aspects of Patrick's work in their essays, a number of them referring to typescript versions of chapters from the second, unfinished, volume of his The Making of English Law.

The introductory section is devoted to Patrick Wormald as he was perceived by those who knew him well. A bibliography of his writings compiled by Sarah Foot is followed by her assessment of "Patrick Wormald as Historian" (an assessment, however, which expressly excludes his legal writings). It is unfortunate that this important chapter is permeated by enthusiasm for the postmodernist themes and views which now tend to occupy many of the younger (and middle-aged) historians—and which played no role in Patrick Wormald's thought-world. Should an evaluation of a scholar's "legacy to the profession" (p. 12), especially of a scholar who is impossible to "pigeon-hole" (p. 27), not at least aim to transcend the limits of the intellectual horizons of one's own generation—difficult as this may be, even for historians? Stuart Airlie draws a vivid and engaging picture of "Patrick Wormald the Teacher," and his depiction of a scholar "concerned to convey the value and interest of human history" often by a dazzling display of "rhetoric, references, evocations and echoes" (p. 33) will evoke in many colleagues from various disciplines and from far afield memories of the Patrick they knew and esteemed. A chapter by Jenny Wormald recalling her life with Patrick concludes the introductory section.

The essays in the main section are grouped under five headings, the first one dealing with "Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Foundations." Here the first two essays take up one of Wormald's scholarly interests. James Campbell offers "Archipelagic Thoughts: Comparing Early Medieval Polities in Britain and Ireland," whereas T. M. Charles-Edwards ("Celtic Kings: 'Priestly Vegetables'?") concentrates on the legal, governmental, and administrative systems of early medieval Ireland. Barbara Yorke ("The Bretwaldas and the Origins of Overlordship in Anglo-Saxon England") takes a fresh look at Bede's famous list of Bretwaldas in HE II.5 and concludes that the system described there of an overlordship of Northumbrian and southern kings over substantial parts of Britain spanned a period of about seventy years in the seventh century, and that before and thereafter Northumbrian kings tended to associate themselves with the northern Celtic kingdoms, whereas southeastern kings sought contact with Francia. Lisi Oliver ("Royal and Ecclesiastical Law in Seventh-Century Kent") looks for a possible influence of Archbishop Theodore's penitential on the laws of the Kentish king Wihtred (usually dated 695). Unfortunately, the relevant Theodorean material does not lend itself easily to such a comparison. All extant versions of this material originated long after the archbishop's death (690) and none was authorized by him. The author does not seem to be sufficiently aware of the problems that are concomitant with this complex textual situation (e.g., p. 98). Furthermore, no attention is given to the fact that of the two books in the version by the Discipulus Umbrensium (on which Oliver bases her discussion) only the first one is a penitential; Book II is a collection of canons. It is simply not correct to treat them indiscriminately and to refer to both as Theodore's "Penitentials." Wihtred's laws are quoted throughout in Oliver's own translation; for purposes of reference to the original (necessary in...