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142 The Adornment of Virgins: Æthelthryth and Her Necklaces MÁIRÍN MACCARRON Bede uniquely honoured Æthelthryth of Ely by praising her life in prose and verse in the Historia Ecclesiastica. He related that Æthelthryth preserved her virginity during two marriages, including twelve years as King Ecgfrith of Northumbria’s queen, before finally receiving her second husband’s permission to enter the monastic life. She spent a year at the monastery of Coldingham before returning to East Anglia, where she founded the monastery of Ely, which she ruled as abbess until her death in 679.1 This paper will examine Bede’s prose account of Æthelthryth’s final illness, when she suffered from a tumour on her neck (HE 4.19). This passage has given rise to quite diverse interpretations.2 The paper will argue that the key to understanding the meaning of Æthelthryth’s tumour is in Æthelthryth’s reported speech on the subject. After presenting Æthelthryth’s physician’s account of her final illness and the discovery of her bodily incorruption at her translation, including the post-mortem healing of the wound that the physician had made when lancing her tumour, Bede included Æthelthryth’s reaction to her suffering and explanation of it: Ferunt autem quia, cum praefato tumore ac dolore maxillae siue colli premeretur, multum delectata sit hoc genere infirmitatis, ac solita dicere: ‘Scio certissime quia merito in collo pondus languoris porto, in quo iuuenculam me memini superuacua moniliorum pondera portare; et credo quod ideo me superna pietas dolore colli uoluit grauari, ut sic absoluar reatu superuacuae leuitatis, dum mihi nunc pro auro et margaretis de collo rubor tumoris ardorque promineat.’ (HE 4.19) [It is also related that when she was afflicted with this tumour and by the pain in her neck and jaw, she gladly welcomed this sort of pain and used to say, ‘I know well enough that I deserve to bear the weight of this affliction in my neck, for I remember that when I was a young girl I used to The Adornment of Virgins 143 wear an unnecessary weight of necklaces; I believe that God in His goodness would have me endure this pain in my neck in order that I may thus be absolved from the guilt of my needless vanity. So, instead of gold and pearls, a fiery red tumour now stands out upon my neck.’] Bede’s presentation of Æthelthryth’s speech is the most didactic piece in the chapter and reveals that she understood and explained to everyone around her (including the reader of the Historia Ecclesiastica) why she had received the tumour on her neck, and rejoiced that she had to bear it. Her interpretation, as reported by Bede, is very much in line with biblical and patristic thinking on the subject of female adornment and also finds parallels in contemporary Anglo-Saxon sources. The paper will begin by examining attitudes to adornment – physical and spiritual – in patristic exegesis, before turning to the theme in Anglo-Saxon sources, and conclude with an analysis of Æthelthryth’s statement. It is with great pleasure that I present this paper to Dr Jennifer O’Reilly, to whom I am greatly indebted for many enlightening discussions of Bede’s aims, objectives and influences in the Historia Ecclesiastica while working under her supervision on my doctorate.3 Dangers of Adornment Christian writers disapproved of the outward adornment of women from the very beginnings of Christianity. A concern for worldly things was regarded as inappropriate for Christian women and could distract them from more important concerns. Those who become preoccupied with the desire for riches and temporal gains are the opposite of the Lord’s bride, and in biblical terms are presented as the harlot or wanton wife, who is often attired in beautiful clothes with gold jewellery. Through her regard for worldliness, she ignores the wishes of her espoused Lord and, turning her back on their marriage, loses what the Lord had given her and her chance of eternal life. On this subject Ezekiel wrote that the harlot trusted in her beauty and abused the clothes and other beautiful things that the Lord had given her, which she subsequently lost (Ezekiel 16:15–18; cf. Isaiah 1:21– 22). In the Book of Revelation the great harlot is described as ‘clothed round about with purple and scarlet, and gilt with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of the abomination and filthiness of her...

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