Listen now (6 min) | Ælfgif-who? Newsletter number 26
“ This is the entire extent of the available information on Bebba: a cursory mention in Bede and another in the Historia Brittonum. Neither of these sources are contemporary, though they could feasibly have been based on earlier sources now lost to us. The truth is, it is difficult to confirm or refute this origin of Bamburgh’s place name. Any attempt to recover Bebba from history would rely heavily on conjecture. We might conclude that Bebba must have been a very significant figure indeed to have a fort named after her, and we might put her, along with Æthelflaed, in the category of female military rulers of early medieval England. We could imagine her as a warrior-queen defending her fort, or as a beloved wife who Æthelfrith immortalised in the name of his kingdom’s most important settlement. On the other end of the scale, we must acknowledge that perhaps there is little truth in either Bede’s account or the account of the Historia Brittonum.”
