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A review by octavia_cade
The Ecclesiastical History of the English People/The Greater Chronicle/Letter to Egbert by Judith McClure, Roger Collins, Bede
3.0
You know, I really enjoyed the first half of this. I expected to give it four stars, but it went on and on and, with the best will in the world, I do not give the tiniest shit about the various methods of dating Easter. I especially do not care when the bunfight of who is dating Easter better is elucidated, over and over again, in excruciatingly painful detail. (I can't believe people actually cared about this. No, scratch that. I absolutely can believe it, but it doesn't make me any more sympathetic. Surely the point is that they're celebrating it at all?)
Bede deserves credit as one of the great chroniclers of the time, and one who determined to do his best to make an actual rigorous history, rather than a poorly researched collection of myths. I'd say that it was hardly his fault that his history became so repetitive, but then he is deciding what to leave in and what to leave out, as well as the general focus of the Ecclesiastical History overall so he does bear some responsibility. People fight and convert and die, or fight and backslide and die, on a numbingly frequent basis, and by the end of the book I just wanted it to be over. I think it's fair to say, too, that the second half is less well put together than the first, which helped to lessen my interest I think.
Bede deserves credit as one of the great chroniclers of the time, and one who determined to do his best to make an actual rigorous history, rather than a poorly researched collection of myths. I'd say that it was hardly his fault that his history became so repetitive, but then he is deciding what to leave in and what to leave out, as well as the general focus of the Ecclesiastical History overall so he does bear some responsibility. People fight and convert and die, or fight and backslide and die, on a numbingly frequent basis, and by the end of the book I just wanted it to be over. I think it's fair to say, too, that the second half is less well put together than the first, which helped to lessen my interest I think.