Chapter 22
Death at Ely AD 679Etheldreda arrived at Ely in the spring of 673. The island had never looked lovelier. The leaves in the wood were the colour of pale green silk. The homesteads were nestling in clouds of apple blossom.
She set about at once to organise her community. Ovin was to be her steward, and the faithful women she had brought from Coldingham were the first to be provided for. Her nephew Aldwulf, King of East Anglia, joyfully visited her, offering to help in any way he could to establish the buildings of her community. Wilfrid, on his way to an important meeting of the Church called by Theodore at Hertford, stopped off and stayed, sending a proxy in his place to a synod that proved to be of a great deal of importance in the future of England’s Church history. He perfor
