Editing Athelm (section)

==Background==

Athelm was a [[monk]] of [[Glastonbury Abbey]]<ref name=DNB>Mason "Athelm" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''</ref> before his elevation in 909 to the [[see of Wells]], of which he was the first occupant.<ref name=Handbook222>Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 222</ref> The see was founded to divide up the [[diocese of Sherborne]], which was very large, by creating a bishopric for the county of Somerset. Wells was likely chosen as the seat because it was the center of the county.<ref name=Robinson5>Robinson ''Saxon Bishops of Wells'' p. 5</ref> Some scholarly works suggest that Athelm may be the same person as [[Æthelhelm]], son of King [[Æthelred of Wessex]],<ref name=Dolley75>Dolley "Important Group" ''[[British Museum Quarterly]]'' p. 75</ref> but this is not accepted by most historians.<ref name=AethelredDNB>Miller "Æthelred I" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''</ref> A few sources state that Athelm was [[Abbot of Glastonbury]] before he became bishop,<ref name=DictSaint>Delaney ''Dictionary of Saints'' p. 65</ref> but other sources disagree and do not give him that office.<ref name=DNB/> This traces to later medieval chroniclers, not to contemporary accounts. His brother was Heorstan, who held land near Glastonbury.<ref name=Robinson6>Robinson ''Saxon Bishops of Wells'' p. 6</ref>