Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Wilfrid/archive1

The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by Karanacs 17:33, 9 June 2009 [1].

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Wilfrid

Nominator(s): Ealdgyth, User:Malleus Fatuorum, User:Ning-ning

• Featured article candidates/Wilfrid/archive1

I am nominating this for featured article because... I think he's ready. Copyedits by Malleus and Ning-ning. More copyediting by both of them. Content checking by Deacon. Enough research to make me sick of the 7th century. I present to you, Wilfrid, saint and well... something else. This isn't your typical otherworldly saint, he's very much the nobleman. Exiled a number of times for clashing with kings, he practically wore a path between England and Rome all by himself. Bishop in a number of places, friend and foe of numerous kings and queens, Wilfrid's very much a larger than life figure. He's also a very very large article, almost 7900 words. 190 footnotes. A source list that would scare me if I had to review it (which, luckily, I don't.) Karan, or Sandy, can you add a co-nom here for Malleus and Ning-ning, please? Ealdgyth - Talk 16:53, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

• Support Congratulations on a very thorough and extensively sourced article! I enjoyed reading the different points of view from various sources on his life. I made some minor adjustments in prose and MOS and eliminated part of the last sentence of the lead that said "most historians ....". "Some historians..." might be more accurate if you want to keep that sentence but I did not think it was an encyclopedic comment, just scholarly opinion from a few sources. At the bottom of the article one historian calls him "Ascetic". Although I don't have a source, I read once about a bishop who travelled with others for protection. Since Wilfrid's own life was sought on one of his travels, his entourage might also have served this purpose. I compared this article to that found in the Catholic Encyclopedia and found them to be comparable regarding factual content. The Wikipedia article did not omit any major facts and provided a more comprehensive account of Wilfrid's life from a variety of viewpoints. This is worthy to be Featured Article. NancyHeise ^talk 19:14, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

thanks Nancy, but you should know the Catholic Encyclopedia, which is the one found all over the internet, was written in 1913 (unless you're looking at the New Catholic Encyclopedia) and I should hope this article is more comprehensive ... As far as the last sentence of the lead, I think it's well substantiated by the sources. The verdict on Wilfrid is pretty uniform, no one says he was a bad man nor that he wasn't ascetic, but he was also proud, and not afraid of controversy. Not worth worrying over though. Ealdgyth - Talk 22:55, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks Ealdgyth, I was looking at the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia, not the New. Your article is much more comprehensive, yes, and very well done. Feel free to revert any of my changes, they are all minor and do not impede my support. NancyHeise ^talk 02:22, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

Support A well-written and impressively-researched article, especially given the relative obscurity of the figure and the comparative difficulty of finding good sources on British figures of the Dark Ages (as opposed to, say, some modern American figure). Ricardiana (talk) 23:43, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

• Image review: images are verifiably in the public domain or appropriately licensed. Jappalang (talk) 05:31, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

• YOu have NO Idea how hard it is to get that stupid thing satisfied for a 7th century saint... Ealdgyth - Talk 12:54, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

• Support and tiny nitpick A nice article, can't be many 7th century saints, bishops or missionaries left (I hope!) Now, just to show how picky FAC can be, in your source Yorke (2003), Martin Carver has his first name preceding surname, every other name in the references has the reverse order, including the otherwise similar Wolfe (2001) which has "in Brown, Michelle P.; Farr, Carol Ann." Can we have it as Carver, Martin please? jimfbleak (talk) 06:57, 5 June 2009 (UTC)
  • never mind, I've fixed it myself

• thanks! Ealdgyth - Talk 12:54, 5 June 2009 (UTC)
• Oh, and we have LOTS of early medieval saints and bishops left... really! I'm not even a quarter of the way done yet... Ealdgyth - Talk 13:32, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

Comment: I've only read the lead so far; here are a few minor prose points for consideration:-

• "Theodore of Tarsus resolved the situation in Northumbria by deposing Ceadda and restoring Wilfrid as the Bishop of Northumbria." The final "of Northumbria" seems repetitive; why not just say "restoring Wilfrid as Bishop"?
• "His diocese was very large however,..." Inelegant. Either insert another comma after "large", or better, delete the however, which isn't really necessary. (Another alternative is "However, his diocese was very large,...")
• Last paragraph: the first and last sentences are related, and should run together. Also, can you do something about the "...Wilfred. Wilfred..." that comes in the middle? And "monasticism" should be linked.

Brianboulton (talk) 10:29, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Last paragraph; didn't edit that because the first sentence, with "historians then and now", is linked to the immediately following reference to Bede, a "then" historian. Ning-ning (talk) 12:13, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Other prose points have been attended to. Ning-ning (talk) 12:16, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.