Ewan Clayton introduced Dr. Michelle Brown on Wednesday night

The carpet pages shown here are from the British Library. They may be seen at: http://www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/lindisfarne/carpetpages.html#

Wednesday, May 12 in Kane Hall's room 210 on the University of Washington campus a wonderful person spoke about the Lindisfarne Gospels... Michelle Brown, with the British Library. She was introduced to an eager crowd by Ewan Clayton, a long time friend and well known in the calligraphy circle. Ewan's remarks were sprinkled with humor and antidotal remarks. Making Dr. Brown's talk all the more personal and less a lecture than insight by a noted "friend". Dr. Brown took us back in time to an era less understood than many. She told us the 7th - 8th C is often referred to as the Dark Ages, but it wasn't that it was so dark as it is that our understanding of that era is lacking. She continued with remarks such as history isn't about the past specifically, but about how we are interacting with it now and that there are portals of opportunities.

Her presentation was very interesting to me. I have not had extensive study on the Lindisfarne Gospels and so much of what was said specifically about the gospels was new to me. Some of her more profound points were that despite the perceived "darkness" that we give to the early centuries they were actually very culturally diverse. Travel was much greater than we had previously believed. Oral traditions were giving way to written ones. Previous tribal order was giving way to church and monarchy.

To bring home these points Dr. Brown shared with us how Great Britain's location, surrounded by water put it in a unique position of being easy to leave and to travel to. Ships sailed there from Europe and the Middle East bringing foreign cultures and art to the shores of this small nation from half way around the world.

She also shared that Northumbria (Northern G.B) was a society that had a very extensive oral tradition. Celts whose druid culture had trained members of their culture to be the repository of knowledge, studied for more than 20 years to learn by rote laws, legends and history of the culture. This tradition was being replaced about the time of the Lindisfarne Gospels as writing became recognized as a tangible way to pass on knowledge.

The richness of the text and images were a labor of devotion to God. They represented the dedication of a person whose life was spent in reflection, worship and the rigors of creating this masterpiece. The colors were made by the artist. The blue was made to look like lapis, but was actually an imitation. The knot-work was done without the use of glasses with fine quills and brushes and the detail would make a contemporary calligrapher blind without the use of loupes (magnifiers). The pages are called "carpet pages" because of their resemblance to a prayer carpet. Such carpets were common in this period and used by eastern and western Christians & Islamics . The ornamentation was inspired by Celtic and Christian culture. The spirals represented the swirls of heaven, the sea, and fire. The lettering was Roman in Latin and used Greek letter forms and forms that resembled runes. The pages themselves are each a cross, each different.

Great Britain had a history at this time of being settled by native Picts, and refugees from the main land of Europe. Anglos and Saxons, Franks and Vikings. People were coming to this island empire in search of what everyone seeks... peace, safety, spoils, power, and love. Many newcomers married locals and settled into the daily life of the time. Making this insular community truly diverse, even by today's standards.

Isn't it interesting that while people in the 7th - 8th C lived in different types of shelters, wore clothing that was more coarse, had less knowledge of disease, science and literature; yet gave birth to Beowulf, the Lindisfarne Gospels and world travel. They wrote with a stylus on a flat (wax) surface... let me see, isn't that what we use? Today we call it a PDA. How far have we come? Where are we going?

The whole evening was quite wonderful. A glass of wine shared with friends as we visited; then the carpool ride back to South Center to go our separate ways. But none will be the same. There was a portal, an opportunity to interact with history.

Review by Kathryn Whitacre

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