Brother Eadulf - Background and History

Background and History

A Saxon by birth from Seaxmund's Ham (today "Saxmundham") in the Kingdom of East Anglia (Eadulf refers to himself as an "Angle", while almost everybody else refers to him as "Saxon", much to his annoyance), Eadulf was raised as a hereditary gerefa, or reeve, of his people. Eadulf was converted to Christianity by an Irish monk named Fursa sometime before the novels begin and subsequently studied first at Durrow then medicine at the great medical school of Tuaim Brecain in Ireland. He then undertook a pilgrimage to Rome to understand the differences between the ideas of the Church of Rome and those of the Church of Ireland, remaining there studying for two years and returning as a follower of Rome. In the novel Absolution by Murder, which is set during the Synod of Whitby, Brother Eadulf is part of the deputation from Canterbury to the Synod, where he meets Sister Fidelma for the first time. After the Synod's conclusion, both join a party to Rome. After the events of Shroud for the Archbishop in Rome, Fidelma returns to Ireland while Eadulf remains in Rome as secretary to the new Archbishop of Canterbury Theodore of Tarsus. Later, he is sent to Cashel as Theodore's emissary and is reunited with Fidelma in The Subtle Serpent. After the events of that novel, he returns to Cashel with Fidelma and in subsequent novels they become almost inseparable companions and collaborators.

Eadulf and Fidelma's intellectual and personal relationship develops throughout the series, despite another separation in which Eadulf (reluctantly and partly at Fidelma's insistence) intends to return to Canterbury. However, he almost never makes it back to Britain, as at the abbey of Fearna he is charged with rape and murder and almost hanged (a predicament from which Fidelma rescues him barely in time). Eadulf convinces Fidelma to accompany him to Canterbury, and after concluding his business with Archbishop Theodore, he returns to Ireland with Fidelma. In 667, they enter into a trial marriage of a year and a day, during which their son Alchu is born. In February 668, Eadulf and Fidelma celebrate a permanent marriage (see A Prayer for the Damned).

Unfortunately, as time passes, Eadulf's devotion to the world of the Faith begins to clash with Fidelma's growing ambition to pursue a secular life devoted to the law. A serious emotional and physical breach is made between them when Fidelma announces her decision to renounce her religious vows and Eadulf sadly realizes that he cannot change her mind (see The Dove of Death and The Chalice of Blood). The Chalice of Blood concludes with Fidelma telling Eadulf that she has made her decision about her future and now he must come to a decision about his own, which he does ... accepting her decision and supporting her, but still remaining a Brother.