Fictional Abbots
Historian Susan E. Kelly regards the traditional first six abbots as fictional: "There is good reason to think that in most cases their names were simply plucked from early charters available in the abbey's archive, the majority of which would seem to have had no connection with an early minister at Abingdon; there is no very convincing evidence that the historians had access to independent, reliable sources of information. The 'history' of the pre-Æthelwoldian minister seems to a very large extent to represent a fictional reconstruction".
Probably fictional abbots:
| Name | Comments |
|---|---|
| Hæha, also Hean | The legendary first abbot of Abingdon, but, according to Kelly, more probably an abbot of Bradfield, his name having been plucked from a charter dated 704, with others, in order to replace the lost early history of Abingdon Abbey. |
| Cumma | Cumma is mentioned in a forged charter of King Æthelbald, but "no Abbot Cumma is known from other sources". It is, however, generally considered that the village of Cumnor is named after him. |
| Hræthhun | A Hræthhun was styled abbot of Abingdon in a charter dated 811, but the charter was forged, probably using the name of Hræthhun (d. 839/40), bishop of Leicester. Kelly therefore excludes him from the list of Abingdon abbots. |
| Alhhard | Kelly suggests that the name was plucked from the witness list of a charter, with others, in order to reconstruct the lost early history of the Abbey of Abingdon. |
| Cynath | A Cynath, abbot of Evesham, mistakenly listed by the compiler of the De Abbatibus Abbendoniae as an abbot of Abingdon. |
| Godescealc | Godescealc's name occurs in three charters, all of them forgeries, and was later extracted from these documents and used in the construction of a spurious early history of the Abbey of Abingdon. |
Read more about this topic: Abbot Of Abingdon
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“One of the proud joys of the man of letters—if that man of letters is an artist—is to feel within himself the power to immortalize at will anything he chooses to immortalize. Insignificant though he may be, he is conscious of possessing a creative divinity. God creates lives; the man of imagination creates fictional lives which may make a profound and as it were more living impression on the world’s memory.”
—Edmond De Goncourt (1822–1896)