[12] Eadwulf Evil-child alone among the known rulers of Bamburgh before 1067 is not mentioned in the surviving family pedigree reproduced by the twelfth-century historical tract De Northumbria post Britannos.
[21] In the twelfth-century tradition most associated with the tract De primo Saxonum adventu, we are told that after the death of Oswulf, Northumbria was divided into two parts by the English king Edgar the Peaceful .
[b][26][27][28] Eadwulf Evil-child's name is omitted in the variation of this tradition associated with another twelfth-century tract, De Omnibus Comitibus Northimbrensibus, probably because he was not considered by the eleventh century earls to be an important ancestor.
[9] According to the version in the thirteenth-century tract attributed to John of Wallingford, King Edgar made this division during a council at York, in order to prevent the whole area becoming the inheritance of one man.
[36] Although no ancient sources mention what happened to the captured son,[37] it has been speculated that Eadwulf ceded possessions north of the Tweed in exchange for his safe return.
[39] It has been speculated that Eadwulf failed to survive the political turmoil that afflicted England back in 975, during the succession crisis after the death of King Edgar.
[40] It has been suggested that both Eadwulf and Oslac backed the unsuccessful Æthelred the Unready rather than the successful Edward the Martyr as the successor to King Edgar and hence lost their positions.