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Faith and Fealty
| Article
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10700 |
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Section : |
BOOK WORLD
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1993 |
1,151 Words |
| Author
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Lanae Hjortsvang Isaacson
Lanae Hjortsvang Isaacson, a specialist in Scandinavian
studies and folklore, is research scholar in modern literature
at Stanford University. |
In her newest novel, Hildas sang (Hilda's song), Vebeke Vasbo interweaves history and fiction to create a memorable portrait of Hilda, abbess of Whitby (A.D. 614-680) and an important figure in the early English Church. Drawing on the scant historical record of the Venerable Bede (731), Vasbo tells the story of a young English woman of strong Irish-Christian faith. After her first husband dies, Hilda wins the heart of the great pagan king Penda, only to lose her entire family. She enters the cloister at Whitby, becomes its abbess, and eventually is made a saint. It is a tale filled with passion, tumult, and loyalty to lover, God, and country.
The England Vasbo portrays is far different from today's unified monarchy. Warring factions divide the isle; the kings of Mercia, Kent, Northumbria, Deira, Lindsey, East Anglia, and Bernicia vie for glory. Irish and Roman Christians attempt to consolidate in the midst of a resilient paganism that still commands great allegiance. Oppressed and rebellious minorities--Picts, Scots, Welsh, Irish, and Saxons--strain under the yoke of the dominant and increasingly powerful Angles. In this turbulent era, personal enmities, rivalries, allegiances, and passions play out with graphic brutality.
The novel speaks to our own time and place. The characters, whether of historical provenance or of Vasbo's imagination, are caught in an era of change and conflict. Belief's collide, and people search constantly for a sense of purpose, a safe harbor. Hilda, for example, has ventured a dramatic change of faith, much to the chagrin of her first husband, Eadfrid. A pagan, he longs for the "good old days."
Now Eadfrid wanted to participate in Eostres Feast, and with his wife. Hilda had to realize that in Kneeling before the new god she bore a large measure of guilt for Northumbria's misfortune. She had been completely without criticism in her admiration for the new order, and therefore she had cast the old order overboard, scoring the customs and hard-down experiences of her forefathers and separating from her own father and mother in order to seek a better reward with the new lord… No wonder the gods had taken their victories from them, the good fortune in battle that the gods had formerly bestowed on their forefathers.
The repercussions of such change affect Hilda and all her kin. Everywhere they meet dissension and discord in place of the peace and harmony they sought as social leaders and peers. Even Hilda's final remove to the cloister at Whitby is not without problems: She ends her days fiercely defending
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