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Lappenberg,
34 VORK.
Oswald, King and Martyr. As " his life was distinguished
at once by activity and by a spirit of fervid
Christian beneficence, so his Christian merits and his
martyrdom rendered him a hero of the Christian
world.
Oswald was succeeded in the rule of Bernicia by
his younger brother Oswy. There seems at first to
have been joint sovereignty, over that province and
Deira, exercised by 0sw7 and Oswin, the son of
Osric the cousin of Edwin. A partition was however
soon agreed to, and the latter became king of
Deira. During the first year of Oswy's reign Penda's
policy as regards the mastery of Northumbria appears
to have led him to press forward into Bernicia, and
seize, if it might be, upon the fortress of Bamburgh.
The attem.pt failed. He tore down a number of
timber dwellings in the vicinity, heaped up their
beams and planks and thatch against the gates and
walls of the castle and set fire to them. But the
wind shifted, in answer it was believed to Aidan's
supplications, who watched the progress of Penda's
ruthless efforts from his isle of Lindisfarne. The
sudden change of wind drove the flames back upon
the assailants and so discouraged them that the
attempt was abandoned. Penda soon afterwards
retired from Northumbria.
For some time the two sovereigns of Bernicia and
Deira mutually preserved outwardly peaceful relations.
But it was the calm that precedes the storm.
Each was gathering together his forces for an attack
upon the other. Oswin found that his rival had
i. p. l6i.