A New Heaven and A New Earth: St Cuthbert and the Conquest of the North
Ebook
The Harrying of the North...
In 1069 Northumbria is in revolt against Norman rule. William the Conqueror’s brutal reprisal devastates the province and brings untold suffering to its people. Caught between the Northumbrian rebels and their new Norman masters, the Community of Saint Cuthbert at Durham is struggling to survive.
But the mysterious influence of the Saint brings aid from the furthest corners of the kingdom—and from some of the least likely of his followers:
- Thorgot, an Anglo-Norse adventurer from Lincoln on the run from the Normans
- Edith, the repudiated wife of Durham’s dean
- Aldwyn, a visionary monk of Winchcombe
Extraordinary twists of destiny draw the three together to bring about a new order from the ashes of the old. By the time the foundation stone is laid for a new cathedral at Durham, their lives have changed for ever and the survival of the shrine is assured.
A gripping story of violence, heartbreak and redemption that brings the trilogy of novels about Northumbria’s warrior saint to a dramatic conclusion.
A new heaven and a new earth is the final novel in Katharine Tiernan’s trilogy about St Cuthbert, perhaps the most enduring of the Northumbrian saints. The first novel, Cuthbert of Farne, deals with the saint’s life and death. Place of repose follows the monks who have fled Lindisfarne in 793, when the Vikings attacked the monastery, taking Cuthbert’s remains with them. A new heaven and a new earth centres around the lives of three characters strongly committed to the cult of Cuthbert. Always throughout the novel, there is the mysterious presence of Cuthbert even in death.
Each book closely follows the accounts of Bede in his Ecclesiastical history of the English people or, in this final novel, Simeon of Durham’s History of the Kings of England and History of the Church of Durham. Katharine Tiernan has sensitively fleshed out her historical figures, placing them in the events of the time. Aldwyn is the visionary monk while Thorgot was the practical one. Their lives are intertwined in seeking to preserve and further the stories of Cuthbert’s life and faith. The other two main characters are the dean of the shrine and his wife, Edith who is mentioned once as the dean’s wife by Simeon.
The story begins a few years after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Tiernan’s characters are caught up in the Norman determination to make their presence felt in their newly conquered territory, destroying buildings, driving out the native people and taking the land to build their motte and bailey castles. Aldwyn and Thorgot re-establish monasteries at Jarrow and Monkwearmouth. Following the murder of the Norman bishop of Durham and the succeeding unrest in 1079, William’s brother, Odo, imposes the new teaching of the Pope. The Community of Cuthbert struggles to survive as they are married priests and must either separate from their wives or leave the priesthood. The growing desire for pomp and wealth by the ‘new’ church authorities leads the Norman bishop of Durham to make plans for the building of a new church which ‘will be built according to St John’s vision of the New Jerusalem’ (Revelation 21:1-2 and 15-17). The foundation stone is laid in 1093. Throughout the novel, the presence of Cuthbert pervades the lives of those drawn to follow Cuthbert and the members of the Community who have inherited the care of the shrine from the first monks who left Lindisfarne with his body to find a safe resting place.
At the end of the book is a brief outline of the lives of the three characters who share the narrative and also Simeon of Durham, as well as a short bibliography and a timeline from 687 to 1104.
To borrow from the BBC Radio 4 book programme, this is ‘a good read’ which sets the story of Cuthbert in the historical events of the time, and reminds us of the importance of saints, even in death, in the lives of Christians during this period of history. While this narrative can stand on its own, I enjoyed reading the first two books to gain a fuller picture of the growth of the cult of Cuthbert.
Tiernan has an unusual ability to project herself into the heads of her characters. We hear their different voices: Edith’s chatty exuberance, Thorgot’s earthiness, and Aldwin’s more Latinate cadences. We see Thorgot’s spiritual struggles as he has to learn humility as a novice, and Edith’s black misery at her husband’s rejection.
Tiernan wears her considerable erudition lightly, and the reader is guided gently through the transformation from a Saxon Church to one more directly controlled from Rome. But her writing is also very much anchored in the physical world. Birds sing, food has a scent and flavour, and the wind is bitingly cold. This longer and more complex work marks Tiernan’s debut as a significant historical novelist.
- Title: A New Heaven and A New Earth: St Cuthbert and the Conquest of the North
- Author: Katharine Tiernan
- Publisher: Sacristy Press
- Print Publication Date: 2020
- Logos Release Date: 2023
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781789591279, 9781789591255, 1789591252, 9781789591262, 1789591260, 1789591279
- Resource ID: LLS:9781789591279
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2023-06-28T21:00:51Z
Katharine Tiernan is a Northumbrian by birth and spent many childhood afternoons on the shores of Lindisfarne. She studied English Literature at York University and worked as a teacher and community artist. By the turn of the millennium, both Katharine and her Australian husband were hankering for the wide-open spaces of the north and moved back to Northumberland. Her novels, set in the Anglo-Saxon world of early Christianity, reflect her interests in literature, spirituality and the inspirational landscapes of the north.