Cover Artist chosen for Bearing the Saint!

My young adult historical adventure novel about the Company of Saint Cuthbert, Bearing the Saint, is now in the editorial process at the publisher, Conciliar Press with my editor, Katherine Hyde.

One part of that process is the work of the cover artist. This will be Sarah Marina, whose marvellous work you can see here. I've seen a rough sketch of the cover concept, and I am very excited about it.

Below is a sample of her style, in an unofficial interpretation of the Kings and Queens of Narnia, which she is keeping on an archival page. I chose this one to post here because Sarah says she will be leaning toward this style for Bearing the Saint. I really like how the kings and queens look like real people with individual character to their features, not idealized and Hollywoodized cartoons.




As well as the cover, Sarah will be providing some maps inside the book. Can't wait to see these!

Bearing the Saint is scheduled to be released summer 2010.

Treasure from Saint Cuthbert's Time!

Can't quite get this to fit the page properly, but here is the big excitement-- The Staffordshire Hoard. Found farther south than Cuthbert's country, but this exquisite hoard of gold and silver appears to be from Cuthbert's day.

Which is very exciting for me personally, as anything that draws more attention to Anglo-Saxon times will only be good publicity for my books! :-)

The reason I didn't blog on this the very day of the exciting announcement is that I was in the final stages of completing my young adult novel about the Haliwerfolc of Saint Cuthbert, Bearing the Saint. It's done-- and it's been handed in to my editor. It will probably be released in June 2010. Meanwhile, my picture book, The Ravens of Farne has completed the illustration process by Heather Hayward. It will be published in February 2010.

More blog posts to come soon. Meanwhile, enjoy the video:

Cuthbert's Other Feast Day

Saints often have more than one Feast Day dedicated to them, and Cuthbert has two.
His main feast day falls on March 20th, which commemorates the day of his death.

But we also have another celebration in his honour September 4th. This date commemorates the translation of his relics to their final resting place in the Cathedral Church of Durham:

In 995 Danes again ravaged Northumbria and forced the monks tending his coffin to move it to Ripon. Only two months later they left Ripon and journeyed north.

East of Durham the cart carrying the saint's body stuck fast in the mud of the road. After three days of fasting and prayer St.Cuthbert revealed that he wished his shrine to be at Dunholme, a place unknown. Then it was learned that a great crag in a loop of the River Wear was the place of the dun cow, lost and found, Here at the east end St.Cuthbert was buried exactly where the dun cow had been found at rest, and here was built the present Durham Cathedral. Pilgrims to the shrine attested miracles and each All Saint's Day the body was revealed, yet incorrupt.

In 1104, with the present Cathedral almost complete, monks inspecting the coffin found St.Cuthberts's body still entire and incorrupt, lying on its right side as if asleep.

--from A Brief Life & History of St. Cuthbert, by John Butcher

So once more, Happy St. Cuthbert's Day!

p.s. The Harry Potter fans among you will be happy to know that one of the other saints sharing this date is Saint Hermione.

St. Cuthbert's Banner

An exciting bit of news from Textile artist Ruth O'Leary, who has been commissioned to make a replica of a lost Medieval processional banner dedicated to St Cuthbert, for presentation to Durham Cathedral.

Read her blog post about how she arrives at the design here.


The agency which has commissioned her, The Northumbrian Association, exists to promote Northumbrian culture. Perhaps their biggest focus is on the drive to return the Lindesfarne Gospels to the North East where they were created. They also encourage the celebration of Saint Cuthbert's Day, March 20th, with Northumbrian food and culture.

Saint Cuthbert is the official patron of the Northumbrian Association. Through his prayers may Ms. O'Leary produce a worthy work, and the Northumbrian Association accomplish all their goals.



UPDATE: Ruth O'Leary has a new post with a photo of the mock-up of the banner on her blog.

IN OTHER NEWS: Ravens of Farne is virtually complete, with the final colour illustrations turned in by artist Heather Hayward to the publisher, Conciliar Press. I am thrilled with Heather's vibrant colours and her humorous portraits of the birds that enhance my free-verse text, which re-tells the story of St. Cuthbert and the ravens found in Bede's narrative of his life.

I also took part in a local library reading the other day. My contribution was a scene from my other Saint Cuthbert book, Bearing the Saint. I read a bit where my young protagonist, Edmund, has a run-in with an unfriendly feline, and ends up becoming an errand boy for Bishop Eardwulf.

Read about these upcoming books via the links in the sidebar.

St. Cuthbert Wordle

Saint Cuthbert wordle image made at wordle.net

I have now finished serializing my AGAIN article on Saint Cuthbert. If you haven't been here from the start, you can read the parts in sequence by beginning here.

There will be lots more interesting Saint Cuthbert posts coming in future, but at the moment I will be buckling down to the writing of Bearing the Saint. Meanwhile, here is a Wordle image made from the words in this blog. You can have fun making your own at wordle.net.

And don't forget, if you are on Facebook, you can join our HALIWERFOLC group for updates on this blog, pictures, news, discussion and links about Saint Cuthbert and Northumbria. Just search for HALIWERFOLC on the groups menu at Facebook.

And now I am off to the Ninth Century again. The weather is very bad, wolves are threatening, and cracks are appearing in the unity of the company....

Saint Cuthbert: England’s Saint-- PART SEVEN

CUTHBERT'S LEGACY

Some years ago I visited both Lindisfarne and Cuthbert’s tomb at Durham. The cathedral museum displays his coffin, pectoral cross, vestments and other items. I was struck by the inclusion of so humble an object as a small ivory comb; this would have been a necessary item for a bishop to have on hand so that he might present himself decently to serve the divine offices after vesting. The brilliantly illustrated Lindisfarne gospel book, made at Lindisfarne in the late 7th Century in honor of Cuthbert, is now housed at the British Library in London.

Some 135 churches in Britain bear the name of Cuthbert, as well as others around the world; and both tourists and sincere pilgrims visit his tomb and other holy sites associated with him. Nor is the Orthodox Church in Britain slow to honor this greatest of English saints, and you may find icons of him in many places. Perhaps most amazing of all in this post-Christian era, a long distance walking route today is named Saint Cuthbert’s Way, winding through the Scottish Borders and north England from the former site of the monastery at Melrose, past a cave where Cuthbert’s body was hidden from the Vikings, and across the tidal sands on the path known as the Pilgrim’s Way to Lindisfarne.

As for Cuthbert’s beloved retreat in the Farne Islands, it is now a nature reserve administered by the National Trust, boasting a vast number of species of birds and other wildlife. Among the humblest members of the Northumbrian bishop’s flock, the eider ducks are still known in the area today by the affectionate name Cuddy (Cuthbert’s) ducks.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE STARTING WITH PART ONE

Saint Cuthbert: England’s Saint-- PART SIX

Bronze sculpture of St Cuthbert's "Journey"

Fenwick Lawson carved the first version of this sculpture "Journey" in 1999 from seven elm trees; it is now on Holy Island. After it was exhibited in Durham Cathedral local people raised £200,000 to have a bronze casting, and this is now in Millennium Square Durham. It was unveiled in 2008 by Princess Anne. St Cuthbert's body was at Lindisfarne, but in 875 fearing a Viking invasion monks carried it away, first to Workington, then Whithorn, Crayke, Chester-le-Street, Ripon and finally to Durham where it remained. See Wiki North-east Link and Fenwick Lawson's website Link .

© Copyright David Hawgood and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE BEGINNING WITH PART ONE

A.D. 684 Bishop of Lindisfarne

In A.D. 684, his fiftieth year, Cuthbert’s great fear came at last to pass: he was elected bishop. Only when a large delegation including the king of Northumbria himself sailed to his island hermitage to plead with him did he accept the burden laid on him. Bede tells us that Cuthbert’s manner of life as bishop was to protect “the flock committed to him by constant prayer on their behalf, by wholesome admonition and—which is the real way to teach—by example first and precept later.” But after less than two years he knew it was time to retire once more to his hermitage.

Death and beyond

During a final illness which allowed him, as he had wished, time to compose his soul and instruct his brethren before his death on March 20th, 687, Cuthbert told the monks of Lindisfarne, “....I would much rather you left the island, taking my bones with you, than that you should be a party to wickedness.....” Cuthbert spoke of the sad schisms that had resulted from the clash between Roman and Irish factions, but nearly two centuries later, in A.D. 875, the remaining community at Lindisfarne applied these words in a different way. The island was about to be invaded by Vikings.

Cuthbert had never left his people, even in death. Now they would not leave him. His relics, buried in the monastery church, had been found to be incorrupt and the source of several miracles. The community, both monastics and layfolk, adults and children, took up the saint’s body in its wooden coffin and carried it away, taking other relics as well, including the famous Lindisfarne Gospel book. An arduous pilgrimage in flight from the invaders led them to the brink of despair, and they determined to carry their saint’s body across the sea to sanctuary in Ireland.

But it seems Cuthbert refused to leave the soil of Northumbria. A terrible storm prevented the little ship bearing the coffin from sailing away, and the waves swept the beautiful gospel book overboard. But the company returned to shore with their relics, and the book was recovered, miraculously unharmed. The company, though now much reduced, bravely returned to their journey, persevering for many years—indeed, for generations-- before they settled at last at Durham. There in the 12th century the coffin was opened once more and the saint’s body found to be still incorrupt. Symeon of Durham then recorded the story of the painful and miraculous journey that had come down by word of mouth through the proud descendants of the wanderers.

Go to the CONCLUSION IN PART SEVEN