Frithwald

For other uses, see Frithuwold (disambiguation).

Frithwald (Old English: Friþuweald[1] or Friðewald;[2] d. 762 × 764) was an Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Whithorn. The version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the Worcester Chronicle says that in 735 he succeeded Pehthelm, after the latter's death, as Bishop of Whithorn.[3] The only other source for Frithwald is the entry in versions D and E of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which, sub anno 762, relate that:

Frithwald, bishop at Whithorn, died on the Nones of May [May 7]. He was consecrated at Chester on the eighteenth before the Kalends of September [August 15], in the sixth winter of Ceolwulf's kingship [734/5]; and he was bishop twenty-nine winters[4]
Friþuweald biscop æt Hwiterne forðferde on Nonas Maius, se wæs gehalgod on Ceastre on .xviii. Kalendas September þam .vi. wintra Ceolwulfes rices, 7 he wæs biscop .xxix. wintra.[1]

If the Worcester source is correct, that would put his death in 764; the entry is also sometimes thought to cover the year 763.[5]

  1. ^ a b ASC MS D Archived 19 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine, s.a. 762.
  2. ^ ASC MS E Archived 12 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine, s.a. 762.
  3. ^ Anderson, Scottish Annals, p. 55.
  4. ^ Anderson, Scottish Annals, p. 58.
  5. ^ Anderson, Scottish Annals, p. 58, & n. 1.