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The story of Imma is preserved in book IV, chapter XX of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, a work completed in AD 731. There are also two other, later versions of the story in Old English, both largely dependent on Bede's Latin version, one in the Old English Bede, the other in a homily by AEfric. These Old English versions will be brought into the discussion later on. Meanwhile, the story may be summarized from Bede's primary text.1 Imma, a young Northumbrian aristocrat, is wounded in a battle against the Mercians and left for dead on the field; but he regains consciousness the following day, bandages his wounds, and goes in search of his friends. The Mercians take him prisoner and he is given into the charge of one of King AE[eth]elred's retainers; but once Imma has recovered from his injuries, it proves impossible to restrain him: any bonds placed upon him mysteriously fall away. His puzzled captor asks him whether he 'had about him any loosing spells such as are described in stories' ('litteras solutorias, de qualibus fabulae ferunt, apud se haberet').2 Imma denies any knowledge of 'such arts' ('talium artium'), connecting the effect instead with the activities of his brother Tunna, a priest, who believes he has been killed in the battle and says regular masses for his soul. If he were indeed dead, Imma comments, these rituals would have freed his soul from punishment ('anima mea per intercessiones eius solueretur a poenis'), a remark that reveals Imma's suspicion that it is Tunna's masses that are releasing his living body from its bonds. Bede, as narrator, makes the connection between cause and effect explicit for the benefit of the reader; and within the narrative, when Imma is eventually reunited with his brother, he too has his earlier surmise confirmed: Tunna's masses were said at just the time of day when his bonds had fallen away.
It is obvious that Bede valued this story as a demonstration of the power of Christ's sacrifice to achieve 'the everlasting redemption of both body and soul' ('redemptionem ... et animae et corporis sempiternam');3 but modern scholars have been more interested in the significance of the phrase 'litteras solutorias' in this context. It is clear enough that Imma's...