The 7th Century Monk Who Communed with Animals and Saw the Future
On a night sometime in the mid seventh century a young shepherd boy was sitting on a hillside in Northumbria keeping watch while his companions were asleep. Looking at the sky he saw streaming light raining down and the air around him was filled with the sounds of choirs. Straining to see into the light he saw a host of angels come down and lift a human soul and bear it away into heaven, then depart leaving the quiet night, the bleating sheep, and the amazed shepherd boy who vowed himself to return the sheep the next day and enter a monastery.
The departing soul would turn out to be Aiden, Bishop of Lindisfarne, and the young boy would become Saint Cuthbert, one of Britain's most remarkable saints.
If you were to seek Gandalf in real history, Saint Cuthbert is perhaps as near as you could find. Stories of his life abound with fantastical miracles, he was in harmony with the natural world, had animals as his helpers, foresaw the future, healed the sick and even appeared in a vision to Alfred the Great before his defeat of Viking invaders that cemented the very existence of England as we know it.
