Penda was the last of the great pagan Anglo-Saxon warlords, the culmination of a succession of men who had completely changed the face of the country in the two centuries following the end of Roman rule. The deathless fame that their court scops (Anglo-Saxon bards) promised them in their halls as they gave out gold proved illusory: most of these kings are completely forgotten, the songs sung in their praise falling to silence as they fell into their graves.

Genealogical king lists provide lists of short-lived kings for the better-known kingdoms, although these men have left little more than their names to posterity (and it’s by no means certain that the names that have come down to us were all actually kings, particularly since at the head of most of these king lists is one of the old gods, most often the god of the slain). The battle fame they earned proved as short lived as their kingdoms.            

But Penda’s name does live on. It lives on through his place in the history of Bede proving that attracting the notice of the greatest historian of your day is the best way to ensure post-mortem fame.