Chronicon Æthelweardi. The Chronicle of Æthelweard

Table of contents :
Preface vii
Abbreviations viii
Introduction
I. MS and Edition ix
II. The Author xii
III. Content and Sources xvii
IV. Relationship to Sources and Independent Value xix
V. The Chronological System xxxviii
VI. Language: (a) Latinity xlv
(b) The Forms of non-Latin Names lv
Note on the Text lxi
Latin Text verso 1-56
English Translation recto 1-56
Index of Names 57
Index of Latin words 67

Citation preview

M E D IE V A L

TEXTS

GENERAL EDITORS

V . H. Galbraith,

R. A. B. Mynors,

C. N. L. Brooke

CHRONICO N ÆTHEL WEARD THE CHRONICLE OF ÆTHELWEARD

Chronicon Æthelweardi

Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd London Edinburgh Paris Melbourne Johannesburg Toronto and New York

The Chronicle of Æthelweard

Edited by

A. Campbell Fellow o f Balliol College, Oxford

Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd London Edinburgh Paris Melbourne Johannesburg Toronto and New York

THOM AS NELSON AND SONS LTD Parkside Works Edinburgh 9 36 Park Street London W 1 117 Latrobe Street Melbourne Ci T homas N elson and Sons (A frica ) (Pty) L td

P.O. Box 9881 Johannesburg T homas N elson and S ons (C anada ) L td 91-93 Wellington Street West Toronto 1 T homas N elson and Sons

18 East 41st Street New York 17, N.Y. Société F rançaise d ’É ditions N elson

97 rue Monge Paris 5

©

A. Campbell

1962

CO N TEN TS Preface

vii

Abbreviations

viii

Introduction I ii

in IV V Vi

M S and Editison The Author Content and Sources Relationship to Sources and Independent Value The Chronological System Language : (a) Latinity (b)The Forms of non-Latin Names

Note on the Text

ix xii xvii xix xxxviii xlv lv

lxi

Latin Text

verso i .5 6

English Translation

recto 1 - 56

Index of Names

57

Index of Latin words

67

V

PREFACE complained in 1943 that Æthelweard had not yet found a sympathetic editor. That lack at least I have tried to fill. I hope that my edition will help those who wish to read Æthelweard. I have attempted to show that his Latin has its own syntactic principles, and usually translates if due regard is paid to them. The translation should not be read except in conjunction with the Latin. It amounts in hard passages only to a suggestion of a possible meaning. The non-linguistic matter provided in the intro­ duction has been suggested by the assumption that the interest of Æthelweard, apart from his language, lies mainly in his relationship to the Old English Chronicle. I owe particular thanks to Father P. Grosjean, who with astonishing generosity wrote and placed at my disposal a complete linguistic commentary on Æthelweard. I have also been advised and helped by the general editors of the series, and by (pre-eminently though among others) R. H. M. Dolley, Idris LI. Foster, R. W. Hunt, K . Sisam, G. Turville-Petre, Dorothy Whitelock and C. E. Wright. It is a pleasure to conclude my work by expressing my gratitude to them all. A. CAM PBELL Oxford S ir

F rank

Stenton

ABBREVIATIONS CoTp. Gloss. Lat.

Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum, ed. G. Goetz (7 vols., Leipzig-Berlin, 1888-1923)

Crawford Collection

E.E.T.S.

The Crawford Collection of Early Charters and Documents, ed. A. S. Napier and W. H. Stevenson (Oxford, 1895) Early English Text Society

EHR

English Historical Review Kemble, Cod. Dip. Codex Diplomatics Aevi Saxonici, ed. J. M. OE

Kemble (6 vols., London, 1829-48) Old English

OEC OEG

Old English Chronicle Campbell, A., An Old English Grammar (Oxford,

O lcel ON RS

Old Icelandic Old Norse Rolls Series

1959)

vili

INTRODUCTION I MS AND EDITIONS existence of a chronicle by Æthelweard, whom he calls Elwardus, was known to William of Malmesbury, writing in the early twelfth century. Referring to the Old English Chronicle, he says, ‘ it is better to be silent about Elwardus, a distinguished and out-standing man, who attempted to explain those chronicles in Latin, and whose purpose would have my approval, if his language did not disgust me ’. Further on he expresses the hope that he himself will be carried by the divine grace ‘ past the cliffs of rugged language, against which Elwardus miserably dashed, as he hunted resounding and recondite words V At least when dealing with the royal marriages of the house of Wessex2 and with the story of Sceaf,3 William shows his knowledge of Æthelweard’s work. There seems to be no further evidence for the study of Æthelweard till the sixteenth century. Leland noticed that Æthelweard wrote Saxon history before the Conquest ; 4 Bale, however, placed him in the reign of William II.5 This error Thomas Allen (1542-1632) corrected in a manuscript note on a copy of Bale’s Scriptores, placing Æthelweard in the time of Eadgar, and claiming to have seen his autograph in 1588.6 In 1596, Henry Savile printed Æthelweard’s Chronicle in his Rerum Anglicarum scriptores post Bedam praecipui, 7 stating in his dedicaT he

1 Both passages are in the prologue to Gesta regum. 2 Gesta regum (ed. W. Stubbs), RS, i, §§112, 121, 123, 126, 135 3 ibid., i, §116 4 Commentarii de scriptoribus Britannicis (ed. A. Hali, Oxford, 1709), p. 1 7 1 6 Scriptorum illustrium M aioris Brytanniæ catalogus (Basle, 1557-9), PP* 168 ; Index Britanniae scriptorum (ed. Poole and Bateson, Oxford, 1902), p. 70 6 cf. Hearne’s ed. of Leland’s Itinerary (Oxford, 1712), ix, 206 7 London, 1596, ff. 472-83 ; reprinted Frankfurt, 1601, pp. 831-50 ix

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INTRODUCTION

tion to the queen that he included it because of its antiquity and the nobility of its author, who was related to her ancestors. John Joscelyn made some use of Æthelweard in supplying the lost annals of MS D o f OEC, and he may have used the printed text. In 1848 Henry Petrie reproduced Savile’s text with very brief notes in Monumenta historica Britannica.1 Brief extracts are included in Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores, xiii.2 There are various notices o f Æthelweard in seventeenthand eighteenth-century bibliographical works, but they are of no value. Sir T. D. Hardy first gave good, clear accounts of Æthelweard in the preface to Monumenta historica Britannica (pp. 81-3), and in Descriptive Catalogue of Materials relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland.3 W. Hunt’s article in the Dictionary of National Biography 4 was also sound. Two rough translations of Æthelweard have appeared, one in J. A. Giles, Six Old English Chronicles (1848), the other in J. Stevenson, The Church Historians of England, 11, ii (1854).5 Savile gave no indication of the source o f his text of Æthelweard. Thomas Allen also failed to mention where he saw the MS alleged by him to be the autograph. Nothing is known of any MS except British Museum, Cotton Otho A x. In Th. Smith’s catalogue of the Cottonian MSS 6 the first item in this is said to have been : Fabii Quaestoris Æthelwerdi Chronicon ab initio mundi ad tempora R. Eadgari. Liber vetustus, et pulcherrime scriptus. Wanley added to this only that the MS was membranaceus et 1 pp. 499-521 2 Hanover, 1881, pp. 122-3 3 i (1862), 5 71-4 4 xviii (1889), pp. 35-6 6 These translations are compared and criticised by H. T . Riley in the Gentleman's M agazine, cciii (1857), 120-31. 6 Oxford, 1696, p. 67. In Smith’s time the M S of Æthelweard was bound up with a copy of the Historia Langobardorum (by Paulus Diaconus), and a council of Æthelred otherwise unknown (F. Liebermann, Gesetze der Angelsachsen, i (Halle, 1903), 269).

INTRODUCTION

XI

antiquus in Quarto.1 It was practically destroyed in the fire o f 23 October 1731, but in the nineteenth century the librarians o f the British Museum discovered eighteen very charred fragments of the MS and mounted them on paper. So mounted they are preserved along with some unrelated matter as Cott. Otho A X (the original number of the Æthelweard MS) and Gott. Otho A xii (the original number of the completely destroyed MS of Asser’s Life of Ælfred).2 In 1951 E. E. Barker published the text of the fragments with a valuable introduction in the Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research.3 Apart from the conventions of the sixteenth-century spelling of Latin which Savile adopted, the fragments agree closely with his text, and have even some obvious errors in common with it, particularly cum for tum, fratri for fratris, et for ex, all near the beginning of iv, 3 ; uia for uita, calo for talo, induuntur for inducuntur, smalidas for squalidas, uisus for nisus later in the same chapter ; Cantbricge for Cuat- iv, 4. The fragments show that, in the case of Book iv, the chapterheadings were collected in the MS in a table at the beginning o f the book, whereas Savile disperses them to the various chapters. This would no doubt apply to the other books also. When a title for a chapter is lacking in the table, Savile supplies one. The MS table of chapter-headings for Book iv ends with two headings implying that Æthelweard intended to add chapters on the reigns of Eadweard the Martyr and Æthelred, although the work as preserved ends with the death of Eadgar. The explanation probably is that Æthelweard’s MS of the 1 Hickes, Thesaurus (Oxford, 1703-5), ii, 232 2 The date March 1884 is written on a fly-leaf of Cott. Otho A x, but the mounting seems to have been proceeding earlier, for these fragments of Æthelweard are probably the ones mistaken for fragments of Asser by Sir E. M . Thompson, quoted by Sir H. H. Howorth, Athenaeum, March 1876, p. 426. 3 xxiv (1951), 46-62 ; three ultra-violet light reproductions (Cott. Otho A x, f. i r ; A xii, f. i r and v) made in connection with Barker’s researches are deposited with the M SS.

»• Xll

INTRODUCTION

Old English Chronicle did not provide any matter after the death of Eadgar, and he did not feel equal to original historical composition. The above-mentioned agreement in slight errors is probably sufficient to enable the fragments to be regarded as part of the MS used by Savile, and it follows that the two final chapters were not present in it.1 The fragments are from a MS of the early eleventh century, which may have been the first fair copy made of the work.2 In the present edition of Æthelweard’s Chronicle, words and parts of words legible in the fragments are printed in italics, and any divergences of them from Savile’s text, if more than orthographical, are given in the footnotes.

II

TH E A U T H O R Æthelweard dedicates his chronicle to his relative Matilda, abbess o f Essen, granddaughter of the Emperor Otho I and his English queen,3 and addresses her again in the prefaces to Books ii, iii and iv, and in the body of Book iv. He states that Matilda is descended from King Ælfred and that he him­ self is descended from his brother Æthelred. He describes 1 Barker, op. cit., argues on insufficient grounds that the final chapters were present in Otho A x, and that Savile used another M S. 2 The availability of some fragments of the M S was pointed out by Potthast, Bibliotheca historica, i, 2nd ed. (1896), p. 25. 3 O n the identity of M atilda see R. L. Poole, Studies in Chronology and History (Oxford, 1934), p. 115. Æthelweard does not make it clear that he is addressing a nun, though the end of the preface to Book iv would be very appropriate if addressed to one (tecumque sodas tuas), and it would be a remarkable coincidence if there were contemporary with Matilda of Essen another M atilda descended from Otho I and his English wife. Th e correspondence between M atilda of Essen and Æthelweard is a remarkable example of contact between England and the monasteries of Westphalia : for other signs of such contact see R . Drögereit, Werden und der Heliand (Essen, 1951). Possible repercussions of Æthelweard’s corre­ spondence are suggested by L. Whitbread, E H R , lxxiv, 577fr. Whether Æthelweard himself visited Essen is unknown. His peculiar Latin is not to be explained by the assumption of a prolonged stay abroad : it has no continental peculiarities.

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X lll

himself at the beginning of his work as patricius consul Fabius quœstor Ethelwerdus, and similarly at the end with the omission of consul. It has usually been assumed that Æthelweard was none other than the ealdorman of the name who was prominent in the affairs of Wessex in the time of Æthelred the Unready, and was a man of literary interests. The assumption is chrono­ logically most reasonable. Matilda was born in 949, and was abbess from her youth 1 to her death in 1011, and Æthelweard carried his work down to 975 and meant to carry it further.2 The only known MS was of the early eleventh century. The identification is furthermore favoured by ÆthelwearcTs descrip­ tion of himself as consul, which is the equivalent of eorl in his Latin, for this term was becoming identified with ealdormann in the later tenth century.3 Accordingly, it seems reasonable to identify ealdorman and historian. A considerable amount is known about the ealdorman’s career.4 His only appearance in the Old English Chronicle is 1 She is first given the title of abbess in 974 (T. J. Lacomblet, Niederrhein. Urkundenbuch, i (Düsseldorf, 1840), 71-2). Her association with Essen can be traced back to 966, when Otho gave an estate previously Matilda’s to the foundation (see E. Dümmler, Otto der Grosse (Leipzig, 1876), p. 593). 2 Since he projected a chapter on Æthelred he must have had his work still on hand when that king began to reign in 978. He speaks in his prologue of Arnulf II of Flanders in the present tense. Arnulf ruled from 965 (or possibly 964) to 988, so Æthelweard’s work must belong to the period 978-88, and in view of the reference in the final chapter-heading to the £deeds ’ of Æthelred, a latish date within that limit is to be preferred. 3 As in Battle o f M aldon, 1. 203, where Ealdorman Byrhtnoth is called Æþelredes eorl. O f the other titles adopted by Æthelweard, the name Fabius is fancifully used, as the poets of Charles the Great called themselves Homerus etc. Patricius quœstor answers to the two parts of the name Æthelweard, and amounts to an explanation of the name as something like ‘ noble public servant \ Similarly, in the last line of his work ‘ Eadgar ’ is explained as contim beatam, where the first word is for contus (cf. Aeneid, ix, 510), so the name is explained as ‘ blessed spear \ 4 The chief modern authorities on the lives of Æthelweard and his son are : Napier and Stevenson, Crawford Collection o f Early Charters and Documents, especially pp. 87-8, 118-20 ; D. Whitelock, Anglo-Saxon W ills (Cambridge, !93°), pp. 144-5 ; Robin Flower in the introduction to the facsimile of the Exeter Book (1933), pp. 85-9 ; A. J. Robertson, Anglo-Saxon Charters (Cambridge, 1939), pp. 386-7 ; F. E. Harmer, Anglo-Saxon Writs (1952), pp. 9-10, 20-1, 553, 555 ; also on their association with Ælfric, K . Sisam, Studies in the History o f O ld English Literature (1953), passim. Indebtedness to these authorities will not be mentioned for individual points.

INTRODUCTION

XIV

in 994, when he went with Ælfheah, bishop o f Winchester, to the Danish army, which had just accepted payment for a truce, to bring its leader Anlaf (almost certainly Óláfr Tryggvason) to King Æthelred at Andover. It is not agreed whether Æthelweard had already helped to negotiate the truce with the Danes. A treaty between the Danes and the English belonging to this period is extant,1 and its first provision begins : Firstly : that secular peace stand between King Æthelred and all his people and all the foreign army to whom the king gave the money, according to the agreements which Archbishop Sigeric, Ealdorman Æthelweard and Ealdorman Ælfric made. It has been disputed whether this is the treaty of 994, or belongs to 991, after the battle of Maldon.2 The question is not of great importance for the present purpose : in either event we see Æthelweard deeply involved in the highest national concerns. He was no less active as a patron of vernacular literature and benefactor o f the Church. Ælfric states that he translated the Book of Joshua at his request,3 and addresses to him the introduction to his version of Genesis, reminding Æthelweard that he had asked for a translation of that book as far as the story of Isaac.4 There are two prefaces to Ælfric’s Lives of Saints. In the Latin one, he claims Æthel­ weard and Æthelmær as keen readers o f his translations. In the English one, he reminds them that they have asked him pressingly for such writings. Later he says that Æthelweard asked him to translate the life of St Thomas of India.5 Chance 1 F. Liebermann, Gesetze der Angelsachsen, i (Halle, 1903), 220 2 See E. V. Gordon in Modern Language Review, xxxii, 24fr. ; and more briefly in his edition of the Battle o f Maldon (London, 1939) 3 The O ld English Version o f the Heptateuch, ed. Crawford (E .E.T.S.,

I9 22)> P- 32

4 ibid., p. 76 6 Lives o f Saints, ed. Skeat, ii (E.E.T.S., 1900), 400

INTRODUCTION

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has also preserved a direction by Ælfric to his scribes, which shows that Æthelweard was to receive a personal copy of the first series o f Catholic Homilies, and had asked for four extra homilies to be included in it.1 Æthelweard not only encouraged the writing o f devotional literature, but directly supported monasticism. According to William of Malmesbury,2 he founded the abbey of Pershore, and although this lacks con­ firmation, it is certain that in 987 his son Æthelmær founded the abbey of Cernel with estates passed to him by his father.3 In 1005, after his father’s death, Æthelmær independently founded the abbey of Eynsham.4 Ælfric worked in both of these foundations of his patrons. Æthelweard’s signatures as ealdorman run from 973 to 998.5 In the preceding period, various persons of the name sign as minister, and one of these may be the future ealdorman. Presumably Æthelweard did not long survive the disappearance of his signatures.6 The estates of Æthelweard and his son lay in the south, and we may safely assume that his ealdormanry lay in Wessex. William of Malmesbury calls him ealdorman of Dorset,7 and in a charter of 997 the title Occidentalium prouinciarum dux is added to his signature.8 >

1 Sisam, Studies, p. 161 2 Gesta pontificum, ed. N .E.S.A. Hamilton, RS, p. 298 3 Kemble, Cod. D ip ., no. 656 4 ibid., no. 714 6 T h e earliest is W. de G. Birch, Cartularium Saxonicum (London, 1885-93), no. 1201 (misdated 967), the latest Crawford Collection, no. 8. 6 One of the manumissions of the Bodmin Gospels (Kemble, Cod. D ip ., no. 981) shows that an Ealdorman Æthelweard and his wife Æthelflæd were alive after Burhweald became bishop of Cornwall in or after 1002. This appears to be the earlier Ealdorman Æthelweard, not his son’s son-in-law (see below), for the will of Ælfgifu (in or before 975) suggests that she had a brother Æthelweard, whose wife was called Æthelflæd. I f Ælfgifu was the divorced wife of K ing Eadwig (as M.ss Whitelock conjectures, Anglo-Saxon W ills, p. 119), this might explain 1Æthelweard’s kindness to Eadw ig’s memory (see below, p. xxxvi). 7 loc. cit. 8 Kemble, Cod. D ip ., no. 698. The document is preserved only in the Winchester Cartulary, and it is, of course, open to doubt whether the indications of the provinces of the signatory ealdormen were present in the original copy.

INTRODUCTION

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It is practically certain that Æthelmær succeeded his father as ealdorman. Ælfflæd, widow of Byrhtnoth, in her will of about 1002 leaves Ealdorman Æthelmær an estate at Lawling which was afterwards in the possession of Æthelmær, the son of Æthelweard, when he founded Eynsham in 1005.1 Æthelmær is, no doubt, both the ealdorman mentioned by Ælfflæd and the Ealdorman Æthelmær who led the western thanes to submit to Sveinn at Bath in 1013 (OEC), and who is called Domnaniae comes by Florence of Worcester under that year. He signs as ealdorman in 1002, 1012, 1014 (Kemble, Cod. Dip., nos. 1296, 1302, 1309).2 He is usually assumed to be Æthelmær the Fat, whose son Æthelweard was killed by Cnut’s orders in 1017 {OEC), and whom Florence of Worcester under that year calls Ealdorman Æthelmær.3 In Kemble, Cod. Dip., no. 684, an Æthelmær is described as a relative of the king, which suggests that he also is to be regarded as identical with the son of the chronicler. Æthelmær, the son o f Æthelweard, had a son-in-law Æthelweard, who is mentioned in the foundation charter of Eynsham (Kemble, Cod. Dip., no. 714). It is thought that he may have been the successor to his father in-law’s ealdormanry, for an Ealdorman Æthelweard was expelled by Cnut in 1020 0OEC).4

1 Kemble, Cod. D ip ., nos. 685, 714, and cf. Robertson, Anglo-Saxon Charters, pp. 386-7 2 It may well be, however, that the title dux in the charter of 1002 is a slip, for the signature is immediately followed by that of Ordwulf, a minister who frequently signs in the company of Æthelmær, also a minister, from c. 997 to 1006 (Kemble, Cod. D ip ., nos. 704,715). It might be assumed that this Æthelmær was the son of Æthelweard, and that he became ealdorman after 1006, but this would be too late a date for Ælfflæd’s will, in which Æthelmær is already mentioned as ealdorman. (Queen Ælfthryth, (d. in or before 1002,) is a legatee in the will.) 3 Æthelnoth, archbishop of Canterbury (1020-38), is usually assumed to be another son of Æthelmær, on the authority of Florence of Worcester, who calls him ‘ son of the noble Æthelmær ’ (anno 1020). 4 O n this Æthelweard see further Flower, Exeter Book, pp. 85-9

(2,846)

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III CO N TE N T AND SOURCES There is no known source for the information on the foreign marriages of the West-Saxon house given by Æthelweard in his dedicatory epistle. He opens his first book with some notes on world history. It is not possible to point to a precise source,1 but the relationship to Isidore, Etjm., v, 39, is close. Æthelweard begins to draw on OEC with the baptism of Christ in a . d . 30, and he continues to use it for the notes which follow down to the end of Roman rule in Britain (OEC 409). With the remarks on the still visible traces of the Roman occupation, Æthelweard begins to use Bede, whom he follows till towards the end of chap. 4 [Historia Ecclesiastica, i, 12-15), where he reverts to OEC with the burial of treasure by the Romans (OEC 418), and the mission of Palladius {OEC 430). The rest of the book is from OEC. It ends with the accession of Æthelfrith (OEC 593). The first two chapters of the second book give the story of Gregory the Great and the English slaves, and the mission of St Augustine, his reception in Kent, and the Kentish royal genealogy, m ainly2 according to Hist. Eccl., i, 23, 25-6 ; ii, 1, 5. OEC is then followed from the accession of Ceolwulf (597) to the marriage of Beorhtric (787). The third book follows OEC from the first viking raid (787) to the death and genealogy of Æthelwulf (855). In the fourth book, chaps. 1, 2 and most of 3, follow OEC from the accession of Æthelbald (855) to the visit of the Irishmen to Ælfred (891), where the first hand ends MS A of OEC. From

1 cf. however §E below

(2,846)

2 See, however, below, p. xxxvi. n. 3

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INTRODUCTION

this point it is plain that the form of OEC used by Æthelweard differed from all surviving MSS. It had the appearance of a comet, with which the second hand opens in A, and the following annal (892, altered to 893 in A). The fighting with the Danes in the following year (893, altered to 894 in A) is independently described by Æthelweard. The rest of the campaign (893-5, altered to 894-6 in A) is not described, and Æthelweard gives independent notes till the death of Ælfred. The same independent treatment continues in the reigns of Eadweard, Æthelstan and Eadmund. Contact with OEC is clearly re-established with the death of Eadmund, and continues till the end of the book. It appears from the above paragraph that from 893 to 946 Æthelweard is an independent source, and the information he offers will be considered below. It need for the present only be remarked that his account of the events of 893 appears to be based on a revision of the OEC annal for the year (A894), made to meet political conditions in the reign of Eadweard the Elder, and to glorify that king and his supporter Æthelred of Mercia, while completely suppressing the part played by Ælfred in the fighting of the year. This revised text of OEC seems to have discontinued after 893 in the MS used by Æthelweard, but a concise chronicle dealing largely with northern affairs was inserted, much as the Mercian Register was inserted in the exemplar of MSS B and C. This continued till the death of Eadmund, when entries based on OEC begin again. The MS seems to have ended with the poem on the death of Eadgar (975).

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IV RELATIO N SH IP T O SOU RCES AND INDEPENDENT V A LU E Æthelweard’s dedicatory epistle contains a good deal of information about the West-Saxon house, most of which can be confirmed. Æthelweard is the only independent authority that the wife of Baldwin II of Flanders was a daughter of Ælfred the Great, for William of Malmesbury (Gesta regum, §§121, 123) is clearly indebted to him. We have, however, ample confirmation of the lady’s name and of those of her sons,1 though it is not elsewhere mentioned that she had two daughters also, so Æthelweard can, no doubt, be trusted in the matter of her parentage, especially as one of her sons bore a name famous in the house of Wessex (Æthelwulf). The marriages of the daughters of Eadweard the Elder to Charles the Sim ple2 and to Hugh of Paris are confirmed by the contemporary annalist Flodoard.3 Æthelweard gives these princesses the names Eadgyfu and Eadhild. These are the correct Old English forms of the names Ogive and Ethile by which they are known in French history.4 Æthelweard’s description of Eadgyfu as the abmatertera of Matilda is inexact, 1 Æthelweard’s Ælfthrythe (acc.), Athulfum, Earnulfum appear in the continental forms Elftrudis, Adalolfus, Arnulfus in Folcwin’s Gesta Abbatum Sancti Bertini (finished in 962), see M on. Germ. H ist., Scriptores, xiii, 627. 2 Æthelweard calls this Charles minor, perhaps in confusion, for in iv, 3, in dealing with 885, he applies this title to Charles the Fat to distinguish him from Karulus Medius (Charles the Bald) and Charles the Great. 3 Anno 926 : Hugo, filius Rotberti, filiam Eadwardi regis Anglorum, sororem coniugis Kar oli, duxit uxorem. 4 For Eadgyfu Richer (ii, 6) still has the comparatively correct form Ethgiva, but Flodoard has already Ottogeba. For many other continental forms of the name see Ph. Lauer, Le règne de Louis I V d'Outre-mer, p. 10. There is no confirmation of the name given by Æthelweard to the English wife of Hugh the Great. The conventional French form is derived from Ethilda, the form used by William of Malmesbury (Gesta regum, §126) in his account of the marriages of the daughters of Eadweard the Elder, but this is based on Æthelweard.

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for the word should mean a great-great-aunt on the mother’s side, whereas Eadgyfu was Matilda’s great-aunt on her father’s side.1 The marriage of Eadgyth, daughter of Eadweard the Elder, to Otho I is well known, and the story that Æthelstan sent two of his sisters to Germany for Otho to choose from is found also in the Gesta Ottonis of Hrotsvit (finished 967). The other sister’s name is not given by Æthelweard, and her marriage to a king near the Alps lacks confirmation, except by William of Malmesbury, who knew Æthelweard’s work.2 The passages in Books i and ii in which Æthelweard is drawing upon Bede are of little interest. One curious diver­ gence from Bede, however, is that the genealogy o f Hengest and Horsa (i, 4 ; ii, 2) is given as Woden— Withar— Wihta— Wihtels— Hengest, Horsa, while in Bede (i, 15) it is Woden— Wehta — Witta— Wihtgils— Hengest, Horsa. Wehta and Witta seem contracted to one generation by Æthelweard, and he adds Withar, a Norse divine name not otherwise known in England,3 so that his genealogy differs from all other extant versions.4 The lower part of the Kentish genealogy from Hengest to Æthelberht is given according to Bede (ii, 5), but Æthelweard has assumed that Octa and Oise 5 were alternative names of one man, and so has shortened the genealogy by a generation.6 Æthelweard seems to have misunderstood Bede’s words about Woden, de cuius stirpe multarum prouinciarum regium genus originem duxit (i, 15), as implying that Woden was himself an ancient king. This launches him on a theory (i, 3 ; ii, 2) that 1 M atilda was the daughter of Liudolf, O tho’s son by Eadgyth, the sister of Eadgyfu. 2 O n all the problems surrounding this princess, see R. L . Poole, Studies in Chronology and History (Oxford, 1934), pp. 115-22. 3 O N Vidarr 4 See K . Sisam, Proceedings o f the British Academy, xxxix, 324-5 6 Æthelweard’s form is Ese. While e for oi is normal spelling in his time, the final e originates in a scribal error, but it is found in other copies of the genealogy (see Sisam, loc. cit.), so it goes back beyond Æthelweard to his source. Æthelweard, having the form Ese, substitutes Esingas for Oiscingas. 6 His M S of Bede may have read Octa cognomento Oise for Octa cuius pater Oeric cognomento Oise.

INTRODUCTION

XXI

Woden was a king, who received divine honours after death. Such rationalisation of the heathen faith would no doubt be common. In the same way Othinn is in Snorri ‘ a man far famed for wisdom and for every accomplishment ’.x Æthelweard adds some geographical remarks (i, 2, 4) to Bede’s account of the origin of the invaders of England.12 He adds to the story of St Augustine that miracles occurred at his tomb and were still doing so. These miracles are also vouched for by Wulfstan of Winchester in his Narratio metrica de sancto Swithum.3 In the first block of annals derived from OEC (30-409) Æthelweard deviates little from his source.4 It is added to the note of the death of St John the Evangelist at Ephesus that he rests thirty stades from the city, the conquests of Maximus are grandiloquently extended, and the annal on Severus is carelessly introduced cuius successor, because Æthel­ weard overlooked the fact that the preceding paragraph dealt with a pope not an emperor. There is some misinterpretation : it is assumed that Maximus ruled till 409, and the annal on Eleutherius and Lucius is ill translated, so that the pope and not the king makes the first approaches. 1 Edda, Prologue 2 cf. below, p. xxxv 3 i, 1452—62 ; ed. Campbell, p. 132 ; cf. William of Malmesbury, Gesta pontificum, ed. N .E.S.A. Hamilton, RS, p. 5 4 In comparing Æthelweard and O E C , I take no account of mere omission by Æthelweard, who clearly set out to give a selection of annals only. In other respects I do not press comparison to extremes, but assume that Æthelweard would be capable of making reasonable inferences. For example, at the end of the annal for 755 it is inferred (wrongly) from the succession of Offa that his predecessor Beornred had died ; under 878 it is assumed that, since the Danes advanced to Chippenham in the winter, they would establish winter quarters there. Such points throw no light on Æthelweard’s source. Stylistic variation must also be allowed for. For example, under 787, O E C says that the reeve did not know who the first Danish invaders were. Æthelweard prefers to say that he thought they were traders. This is, however, not evidence that Æthelweard’s version of O E C differed from the extant ones on this point. The thoughts of the reeve, who was immediately cut down by the invaders, could only be a subject for imaginative speculation, and Æthelweard’s verbose chronicle is a more probable source for this than an O E C of any type.

XXll

INTRODUCTION

In the next block of OEC material (418, burial of treasure, to 5935 accession of Æthelfrith) the chief divergences of Æthelweard are : (1) the words a Germania added to 477 (on the arrival of Ælle) ; (2) in 495 it is added that Cerdic and Cynric won their battle with the Britons ; (3) the famous annal for 500 giving a round date for the completion of the West-Saxon conquest is added ; 12 (4) an incorrect statement that Cerdicesford is on the Avon is added to 519 ; (5) in 534 the length o f Cynric’s reign is given as 27 winters, agreeing with OEC, MSS B and C, against A ’s 26. Æthelweard has seriously misunderstood annal 593, which records the deaths o f Geawlin, Gwichelm, and Crida, and the succession of Æthelfrith : he makes Ceawlin die and the other three be his joint successors. In Book ii the main divergences o f Æthelweard from OEC are : (1) under 694 the payment made to Ine by the men of Kent is more precisely defined than in OEC ; 2 (2) under 709 Aldhelm’s see is correctly given as Selwood, while OEC has the meaningless be voestan wuda (corrected only in MS B) ; (3) under 755 the genealogy o f Offa is abbreviated by four generations. Mistakes and misunderstandings are frequent. Errors in names which may be due to Æthelweard or to his copy o f OEC are : 604 Sigebyrht for Sœbyrht ; 680 Heiklege for Hœþfelda ; 728 Osweo for Oswald. In 614, where Æthelweard gives the number o f slain Welsh at 2040, it is uncertain what A originally read (B, C have 2045, E has 2065). There are frequent mistranslations o f OEC : 658 Cemualh et Pionna reges 1 See Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 1943), p. 20 2 A gives the wergild as * thirty thousands ’, using a primitive system of evaluation in which a generally understood unit was not specified (see Stevenson’s edition of Asser, pp. 154-5, f ° r instances). Some later M S S (B, C , F) assume that the wergild was paid in pounds, but Æthelweard assumes the unit to be the ora, a Scandinavian denomination of value divided into sixteen pence, which had become familiar in England by his time, see F. M . Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, p. 502, D. Whitelock, English Historical Documents, c. 500-1042, p. 403.

INTRODUCTION

XXlll

for Cenwalh gefeaht œt Peonnum ; 661 captiuum duxit for gehergeade ; 694 recordati sunt for gepingodan ; 710 Vuthgirete for wip Gerente ; 7 15 Ine et Ceolred construunt pugnam contra adstantes eis for Ine ond Ceolred fuhton ; 750 pro aliqua inuidia reipublicœ for ofermedan, proud (acc. sg. masc. weak). In translating the long and complicated annal for 755 Æthelweard has done much better than any of the post­ conquest chroniclers. He adds a fine Germanic touch to the description of the death of the king : the warriors who attack him in support of the wounded prince are \nori\ obliti . . . minas, not forgetful o f what they had threatened to do, or in the Old English poetic idiom beot hie geheston. There are, however, some faults. He ofslog pone aldorman pe him lengest wunode, ‘ he slew the ealdorman who dwelt with him longest ’, is rendered prisca commotus quendam interemit iniuria ducem. Ond hie naefre his banan folgian noldon, ‘ and they would never follow his slayer ’, becomes (with change to direct speech) nec . . . exequias eius sectari ualemus, because in Old English of Æthelweard’s time banan might be equivalent to older banum, dat. pi., bones. The ambiguity of hiera, their, in indirect speech occasions a mistranslation of ond hie cucedon pat tœt ilee hiera geferum geboden wœre þe œr mid pam cyninge warm, ‘ and they said that that same thing had been offered to their (direct your) companions, who were with the king previously ’. Æthelweard has ‘ tali ’, inquiunt, ‘ et nos admonitu rogabamus nostros consanguineos qui erant socii regis ’. The sentence pa cucedon hie pat hie hie pees ne onmunden, ‘ pon ma pe eowre geferan pe mid pam cyninge ofslcegene warm ’, ‘ then they said that they did not care about this, “ any more than your companions did who were slain with the king ” ’, is totally misinterpreted to mean, * therefore you will remain unhurt if only you depart, nor shall vengeance for those who lie dead with the king be laid to your account ’. In Book iii, which is based on OEC, the chief additions

XXIV

INTRODUCTION

are : (ij two important details are added to the account of the first viking raid in 787 : the name of the slain reeve is given (Beaduheard), and the place is said to be near Dorchester ; (2) the death and burial at Winchester of Hun are added to the account of the battle of Ellendun, 823 ; (3) the genealogy of the West-Saxon house under 855 is revised in its upper part,1 and the story of Sceaf is introduced into it.2 Some small explanatory additions also deserve notice : (1) Ecgferth of Mercia is said to be a son of Offa, 794 ; (2) Carl is more closely particularised as king ‘ of the Franks’, 812; (3) Acleah is called a wood, 855. The name Wihtlaf erroneously replaces Wiglaf, 825, 828. Mistakes of translation are : 800 transeunte Ethelmund duce per quoddam prœdium quod Huuiccum nuncupatur, uolens ad uadum quod dicitur Cynemaresforda for rad Æþelmund aldorman of Hwiccium ofer œt Cynemaresforda ; 827 subiecit . . . Ecgbyrht, rex Merciorum, for geeode Ecgbryht cyning Miercna rice ; 845 Eanulf dux, qui praerat prouincia Sumarsetun, for Eanulf aldorman mid Sumursatum, and similar errors are frequent (e.g. 851, 860). In Book iv, OEC is followed closely to 891, where the first hand ends in MS A. The chief divergences are : (1) in 866 the death o f Æthelbyrht and his burial are noticed, while OEC merely records his brother’s succession ; (2) in the same year the leader o f the Danish invaders of East Anglia is said to have been Igwar ; (3) in 867 the death and burial at Glastonbury o f Eanwulf, ealdorman of Somerset, is noted ; (4) in 870 the burial of Eadmund of East Anglia (St Edmund) at Bury St Edmunds, the burial o f Archbishop Ceolnoth, and the death of Inwær (cf. Annals of Ulster 872) are noticed ; 1 See Sisam, Proceedings o f the British Academy, xxxix, p. 315. In the lower part of the genealogy, Æthelweard substitutes Balder for Bœldœg. This is the only occurrence of the divine name Baldr in England. 2 O n this much discussed legend see particularly R . W. Chambers, Beow ulf : An Introduction (3rd ed., Cambridge, 1959), pp. 68-86, adding to the references Sisam, art. cit., pp. 340-5.

INTRODUCTION

XXV

(5) the long annal 871 shows many additions : the burial of Ealdorman Æthelwulf at Derby is mentioned ; obscure ver­ biage seems to give some extra information about the battle of Basing ; Bishop Heahmund is said to have been buried at Keynsham ; Ælfred is said not to have been present at the battle of Wilton ; eleven (not nine) Danish earls are said to have fallen in the year ; (6) in 874 the foolish thane’s name is given as Ceolwulf, as in OEC, MSS B, C, D, E, while A omits it ; (7) extensive ravaging is said to have taken place round Wareham before peace was made in 876, and in agreement with OEC, MSS B, G, D, E, the giving of hostages by the Danes is mentioned ; (8) the Danes are said to have been based on Gloucester in 877, during their operations in Mercia ; (9) Ealdorman Æthelnoth is said to have been with Ælfred at Athelney in 878, and extra details are given about the fighting in Devon in that year ; (10) in 882 the Danish camp on the Maas is correctly placed at Elsloo ; 1 ( 11 ) in 885 the Danes who remain in France are correctly said to have gone to Louvain,2 and there is much more detail about the fighting round Rochester ; (12) in 887 the form for Chézy is Catsig, an improvement on OEC, MSS A, B, C Cariei (but cf. D, E, F Caziei) ; the Danes have three (not two) camps near Chézy ; Charles the Fat is said to have been deposed seven (not six) weeks before he died ; 3 (13) in 888 OEC has Æþelwold aldormon, but Æthelweard reads Eðelbald Cantiæ præsul ; (14) a fuller account of the Irishmen who visited Ælfred in 891 is offered, and although the story of the death of one of them is, no doubt, due to confusion with the note of the death of the Irish scholar Swifneh, which follows immediately in OEC, Æthelweard can hardly have concocted the whole story about 1 Regino of Prüm, anno 881. 2 ibid., anno 884 3 This is a slight improvement : the period was from a date in Nov. to 13 Jan., 888.

XXVI

INTRODUCTION

the future of Ælfred’s visitors.1 Small explanatory additions are : (i) Winchester is called urbs regia, 860 ; (2) [Louis] is called uterine brother o f Carloman, 885. Mistranslations are in this book fewer : 876 coniecit statum communem cum occidentali exercitu for hiene bested se here . . . Wesseaxna fierde ; 877 the number 120 is rendered by centum, the translator perhaps having in mind the Norse ‘ long hundred ’ ; 881 gehorsod * provided with horses ’ is taken as ‘ put to flight ’ ; 885 quern post subsequitur equidem uterinus frater for ond ane gear er his broður forpferde ; in the same annal the article pere in pere rode del is apparently rendered ter ; 886 gesette ‘ settled ’ is taken as besette * besieged At this point some attempt may be made to decide the nature o f the MS of OEC used by Æthelweard.2 It was clearly closely related to MS A. Points of agreement between Æthelweard and A are : ( 1) under 845 the fight off Sandwich was incorrectly entered in A, and it was repeated under 851 (where the other MSS have it) 3 ; Æthelweard has it under 844 = 845 ; (2) the verb is omitted by both A 4 and Æthel­ weard in the first sentence of 853 : A, Her Burgred Miercna cyning ond his wiotan Æpelwulf cyning pet . . . ; Æthelweard, Burhred rex subsidium ab Ætheluulfo rege ad subiiciendum . . . (3) under 886 A and Æthelweard do not state that the winterquarters of the Danes were at Paris ; (4) A and Æthelweard exhibit a compression of the beginning of the annal for 887, so that the Marne is mentioned once only. It may also be 1 Yet it should be observed that the statement of Æthelweard that they planned visits to Rome and Jerusalem conflicts with that of O E C that they desired to be abroad, but cared not where. 2 The standard discussion of the relationship of the M SS of O E C is the introduction to Charles Plummer, Two o f the Saxon Chronicles Parallel (Oxford, 1892-9) ; see also The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, translated by G. N. Garmonsway (London, 1953), and D. Whitelock, English Historical Documents, c. 500-1042 (London, 1955), pp. 109-16. 3 A t some time the words in question were erased under 845, but they remain largely legible. 4 bæd is supplied above the line in A . O f course, Æthelweard would be aware of the omission. He reproduces it in perverse literality.

INTRODUCTION

XX Vll

mentioned that under 885 A and Æthelweard have the error Stufemup for Sturemup, though B and G have the same mistake.1 Although omission by Æthelweard may not be significant, interesting coincidences with A are the absence of references to the death o f a Danish jarl at Englefield in 871, to the raven-banner in 878, and to the Pope’s gift to Ælfred and Ælfred’s sending o f alms abroad in 883. Since Æthelweard’s MS of OEC was clearly not A itself, the above agreements with A in minute matters can only be explained if we assume that he used a copy made from A either directly or with intervening links. But in it the text of A appeared in a modified form due to revisers deeply interested in West-Saxon genealogy and history. In the first three books of Æthelweard the following are the points which show this West-Saxon interest2 : (1) 495, note of a West-Saxon victory ; (2) 500, the year is given as a round date for the completion of the conquest of Wessex ; (3) 519, the site of a West-Saxon victory is given ; (4) 694, a payment made to Ine of Wessex is more narrowly assessed ; (5) 787, details are added to the account of the first viking raid in Wessex ; (6) 823, the death and burial o f a West-Saxon nobleman ; (7) 855, the legend o f Sceaf is added to the genealogy of the West-Saxon house. On the other hand, the revision of the Mercian genealogy under 755 may be due to Æthelweard, for he certainly revised the Kentish one in the part of his work based on Bede. In the fourth book there is a considerable amount of detail not in OEC concerning the wars of the Danes and the West-Saxons, and concerning the Danish wars on the continent which the West-Saxons followed with such anxious interest. Practically all the independent material is of this type, though the note under 866 that the Danish attack on East Anglia was led by ‘ Igwar ’, and the mention of St Eadmund’s place of burial 1 But in 796 Æthelweard’s M S had the reading ond Merscware, agreeing with all extant M SS except A , which read oþ Merse. 2 Th ey are set out in greater detail above, pp. xxii-iv.

XXVlll

INTRODUCTION

under 870 may be due to Æthelweard, as they reflect an age when the legend of St Eadmund had taken its final form. Some slight points suggest that the revisers sometimes approximated their copy to MSS other than A, when A had omissions and mistakes : (1) 534, Cynric’s reign is given as 27 years ; (2) 709, Aldhelm’s see is correctly given ; (3) 851, the wintering of the Danes is said to have been on Thanet ; (4) 874, Ceolwulf’s name is given ; (5) 876, the giving of hostages by the Danes is mentioned ; (6) 885, the very impor­ tant passage translated Cursu in eiusdem anni . . . ultra partes marinas, although found in no MS of OEC, was in all probability present in an early copy, and omitted by a copyist owing to the fact that it ended with the same words as the sentence preceding it {ofer see gewiton) 1 ; (7) 887, the spelling Catsig. In 796 a common alternative was preferred to A ’s op Mersc. The date of the revision of OEC reflected in Æthelweard cannot be placed long after the date at which the first hand ends in MS A (891), for so much fine extra detail concerning Ælfred’s campaigns would not be remembered past the life-time of the soldiers who fought in those wars. Below it will be suggested that the reign of Eadweard the Elder is the period to which the revision probably belongs. The first two entries after the first change of hand in MS A (the appearance of a comet, completing 891, and the arrival of two Danish hosts, 892 altered to 893) were known to Æthelweard, who gives their substance. The long annal for 893 (altered in A to 894) he knew in an abbreviated form. This abbreviation entirely suppressed the part of Ælfred in the campaigns of the year, the fighting in Devon receiving no mention at all. On the other hand, the reduction of the Danes besieged on an island in the Colne is attributed to the1 1 See F. M . Stenton, ‘ The South-western Element in the O ld English Chronicle \ Essays in Medieval History presented to T. F . Tout (Manchester,

1925), p. 21

INTRODUCTION

XXIX

young Prince Eadweard, who receives praise unparalleled in Anglo-Saxon historiography. Æthelred of Mercia also receives added credit for aiding the prince. Some details are given which are not in the longer version of the annal in OEC : ( i ) at Easter heavy ravaging of Berkshire and Northampton­ shire began ; (2) the island where the Danes were besieged was Thorney ; (3) the Danish fleets, when moved to Essex, concentrated first at Mersea ; (4) the leader of the Danish dash across England to the Welsh border was Hæsten ; (5) two raids on the coast by Sigeferth, a Northumbrian pirate, are mentioned. There can be no doubt that this modification of the important annal for 893 (A 894) stood in Æthelweard’s source chronicle, because he himself could have no conceivable reason for abbreviating the entry by suppressing the part played by Ælfred in the events of the year, nor could there be any reason for the fulsome praise of Prince Eadweard at any time except during his reign. Therefore the revised version of this annal must be regarded as part of a revision of the OEC account of Ælfred’s later wars, intended to be a more fitting introduction to the account o f Eadweard’s conquests. If the Ælfred myth was already arising, the young king, intent on a career of conquest, and eager to look forward rather than back, may well have found it irritating.1 The rest of the OEC account of the reigns of Ælfred and Eadweard was not known to Æthelweard in any form. In fact, as was pointed out above, Æthelweard does not use the OEC again till the death of Eadmund. The gap was made up by a concise chronicle, probably inserted in Æthelweard’s MS of OEC, which contained the following material : (1) Punitive expedition of Æthelnoth to York (otherwise unknown). 1 The absence of all reference to the deeds of Æthelflæd in the O E C account of Eadweard’s wars may be recalled in this connection.

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INTRODUCTION

(2) Death of Guthfrith of Northumbria (cf. Symeon of Durham, RS, i, 71, anno 894). (3) Disturbances in Northumbria (otherwise unknown) ; death of Ælfred ; his burial at Winchester (otherwise unknown). (4) Succession of Eadweard ; his coronation at Pente­ cost (otherwise unknown) ; succession of Archbishop Æthelbald at York (Symeon of Durham, Hist, regum, 900). (5) The battle here called the Holm (cf. OEC 905 ; on the name Æthelweard and Mercian Register agree). (6) Activities of Archbishop Plegmund (otherwise un­ known). (7) Campaign which ended with the battle of Tettenhall, here called Wodnesfeld (OEC 911, Mercian Register 910). (8) Death of Æthelred of Mercia (OEC 912, Mercian Register 911), and his burial at Gloucester (otherwise unknown). (9) Death of Eadwulf of Bamborough {Annals of Ulster, 912 = 913). (10) Entry of a fleet into the Severn {OEC, MS E, 910), and its withdrawal to Ireland (otherwise unknown). (11) Fall of Christmas on a Sunday (915), and very calm winter (otherwise unknown). (12) Death of Æthelflæd {OEC, MS A, 922, MS E, 918; Mercian Register 918). (13) Death of Eadweard, succession of Æthelstan. (14) Account of the battle of Brunanburh, here called Brunandun. (15) Death of Æthelstan, succession of Eadmund. (16) Account of the expulsion of Anlaf and Rægenald from Northumbria, considerably different in date and detail from OEC 944 ; death of St Ælfgifu (otherwise unnoticed).

INTRODUCTION

XXXI

In this material, the accounts of the battles of the Holm and Tettenhall have been approximated considerably to the OEC accounts. On the name ‘ the Holm ’ (not in OEC), Æthelweard’s source is confirmed by the Mercian Register ; on the name ‘ Wodnesfeld ’ it is confirmed by the Annals of St Meots and Florence of Worcester. It added one name (Igwar) not in OEC to the list of Danes slain at Wodnesfeld, and it described the movements of the Danes before the battle more clearly than OEC. From the other entries it will be seen that, apart from universally known facts concerning deaths and successions, the chronicle here used by Æthelweard had a great deal of factual matter, a considerable part o f which is now otherwise unknown. We have seen that in the name given to one great battle of Eadweard’s reign there is coincidence with the Mercian Register ; in the notices of Guthfrith’s death, Æthelbald’s succession at York, and the Severn raid of 914, there is coinci­ dence with the Northumbrian annals partly preserved in MSS D and E of OEC, and in Symeon of Durham. Æthelweard returns to OEC with the death of Eadmund, and for the reigns of Eadred and Eadwig he has no independent information to offer except that Eadwig was called ‘ the Fair ’, and he seems to disassociate himself from all criticism of that unhappy monarch (tenuit . . . regnum amandus).1 He concludes with two poems, one in hexameters, one in a syllabic measure with prevailingly six syllables to the verse and paroxytonic ending.2 These poems deal with the coronation and death of Eadgar, and while not translations, they derive leading thoughts from the OEC poems on the same subjects. Summarising the above paragraphs, one may say that by far the most valuable item in the chronicle used by Æthelweard was its curious revision of the annal for 893 (A 894), with 1 cf. p. XV, n. 7 2 e.g. recolligens mente ; a five-syllable verse is also frequent, e.g. postque spiramen. O n syllabic measures generally see D. Norberg, Introduction à Vétude de la versification Latine médiévale (Stockholm, 1958).

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INTRODUCTION

its evidence for an Eadweardian re-writing of the chronicle o f Ælfred’s final wars. Its numerous small additions to what is known of West-Saxon history seem mostly reliable. Valuable fragments of West-Saxon learned tradition are the giving of 500 as a round date for the completion of the West-Saxon conquest, and the introduction o f the tale of Sceaf into the West-Saxon royal genealogy. Lastly, the brief notices with which it filled the gap in its OEC material after 893 are one o f the instruments with which the history of Ælfred’s later years and of the reign of Eadweard has been reconstructed.1 It cannot be too strongly emphasised that Æthelweard must have used a revision of OEC dating from the period when there were still veterans o f the Danish wars alive to supply additional information. It is out of the question that all the many additional details in Æthelweard’s chronicle could have been remembered nearly a hundred years later.2 It follows that OEC was maintained in a more fluid state than has been generally realised. Plummer’s Ælfredian chronicle in an unrevised state is reflected by MS A and the Abingdon MSS only. MSS D and E reflect one revised version,3 and Æthelweard another. A third one is reflected by the chapters of Asser’s Gesta Alfredi which are based on a MS of OEC. 1 See F. M . Stenton, ‘ Æthelwerd’s Account of the Last Years of K ing Alfred’s R e ig n ’, E H R , xxiv, 79fr. ; W. S. Angus, ‘ The Chronology of the Reign of Edward the Elder ’, E H R , liii, 194fr. 2 O n the other hand, the meagre material added in Books i-iii to West-Saxon history may be largely due to ‘ tradition ’ . O f the seven points collected above (p. xxvii), two, the significance attached to the round date 500, and the story of Sceaf, belong to imaginative antiquarianism rather than to historiography. O f the remaining live points, the localisation of Cerdicesford in Hampshire is incorrect (cf. Index), and the assumption that M u l’s wergeld was paid in solidi of sixteeen pence each cannot be older than the time of Eadgar, when the ora came into use, see p. xxii, note. Tw o more points, the death and burial of Hun, and the death of Beaduheard near Dorchester may have been remembered owing to the existence of tombs commemorating these persons. Lastly, the remark added to the note of a battle in 495, that it was a West-Saxon victory, is mere inference, and may indeed be due to Æthelweard himself. The Annals o f St Neots make the same inference. 3 See Plummer, Two o f the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, ii (Oxford, 1899), pp. lx-lxiii

INTRODUCTION

XXXlll

Asser’s work reached modern times by way of one MS only, and this was destroyed in the Cottonian fire, but Wanley dated it in the early eleventh century, and there is every reason to trust him. No evidence has ever been advanced to make it certain that the work was materially older than the one known MS. On internal evidence it is usually accepted as the work of Bishop Asser of Sherborne, Ælfred’s Welsh confidant, who died in 909. After a remarkably thorough examination W. H. Stevenson, whose attitude towards ‘ Asser ’ was deeply sympathetic, nevertheless admitted that there was ‘ no very definite proof that the work was written by Bishop Asser in the lifetime of King Alfred ’. None can be advanced today, but yet it may well be that the work does belong to the time of Ælfred,1 in which event it would no doubt be of the nature of a command biography. I f this be the case, it must be admitted that Asser gave a picture, not of the king he knew, but of a churchman’s ideal o f a king. Yet whether the biography is by Asser or by an eleventh-century Welsh scholar,2 its main importance is that it gives us a translation of an important section of an otherwise unknown version of OEC, from which many of its chapters are derived. In all, Asser translates OEC from 851 to 887. The version he used had some additions to the material seen in MSS A, B and C, but far less than the version used by Æthelweard. It is of course possible to argue that the additions are due to ‘ Asser ’, and hence that he worked in the ninth century when such material

1 See the admirable survey of the subject by Dorothy Whitelock added to the 1959 re-issue of Stevenson’s edition of Asser 2 It can be regarded as certain that the biography is the work of a Welshman, in view both of the correct spelling of Welsh names and words, the Welsh glosses on place-names, and the considerable knowledge of Welsh history, or alternatively capacity to fabricate Welsh history without con­ tradicting the native chronicles of Wales.

(2,486)

3

XXXIV

INTRODUCTION

would be most readily available.1 But, in view of the fluid state of OEC in Ælfred’s time, it is also possible that we have a mirror of another revised OEC text before us. This is indeed far more likely, for in chapters not derived from OEC the biographer shows an almost total incapacity to produce hard facts, and it is inconceivable that he produced a revision of OEC, making valuable additions on both home and foreign affairs. That such a revision might have been produced we know from Æthelweard, who also shows us that, while it might certainly have been used by a contemporary, it might also have been used in the eleventh century. There is not a great deal of coincidence between the revisions of OEC reflected by Æthelweard and Asser. Both noted the burial-place of Ceolnoth under 870, and both have some extra information about the death of the viking leader who fell in Devon in 878.2 Both may have added a little to the original bare remark of OEC that the Danes had the victory at Basing in 871.3 The two revisions were, however, extremely similar in type, both adding to the recorded details of recent wars, no doubt from the lips of veterans, and both adding to the information on continental affairs, which the West-Saxon historiographers gathered by means not precisely determined. Æthelweard offers quite considerable additions to OEC which are probably due to himself, for they would be foreign to the factual historical writing of the Ælfredian age. From these some idea of his personal interests can be formed. The 1 This can be fairly regarded as the attitude of Stevenson. For example, with reference to the specification of the hour of the day which the biographer adds to the O E C notice of the eclipse of 879, he says (edition of Asser (Oxford, 1904), p. 280) ‘ if it could be proved that the time of day assigned for the eclipse is accurate, it would be a conclusive proof of the authenticity of the Life \ But it would be nothing of the kind, for the text of O E C used might have had it. 2 Both agree that the viking fell before a fortification in which the English forces were besieged. The accounts in other respects widely differ. a Æthelweard’s paulatim suscepere barbari locum and Asser’s quibus . . . diu resistentibus point to ond lange on dæg sige ahton as part of the addition, while Æthelweard’s aspera tenent loca and Asser’s loco funeris dominati sunt reflect ahton wcelstowe geweald.

INTRODUCTION

XXXV

Latinist appears in his praise of Aldhelm, the patron of verna­ cular letters in his appreciation of Ælfred’s Boethius. Family history and genealogy was clearly one of his main interests, as is plain from his introductory epistle, and his revision of Bede’s genealogy of Hengest. The man who took a keen interest in Ælfric’s biographies of saints appears in frequent additions when a saint is mentioned, so we hear of the miracles of St Augustine and St Ælfgifu, and of the death of St Eadmund at the hands of Hingwar. Etymologies of names were clearly of interest to Æthelweard. The derivation of Wippedesfleot recalls to his mind the familiar etymology of Aegean, and he concocts a further parallel, deriving Theseum mare from Theseus. Similarly, the name Escingas borne by the kings of Kent spurs him to mention other names derived from the names of ancient kings (cf. Isidore, Etym., ix, 3, 15). He not infrequently makes geographical additions. Thanet, Thorney and Aller receive brief description, and Ireland is said to have been called Britannis by Julius Caesar. He adds to Bede’s story of the English conquest that the old Anglia, whence the invaders came, had a capital city known to the Saxons as Schleswig,1 and to the Danes as Hedeby,2 and mentions the famous Saxon raids on the North Sea coast.3 Æthelweard 1 This amounts to placing the continental home of the Angles in Angeln, a district in Schleswig between the fjord of Flensburg and the Schlei. In this K ing Ælfred anticipates Æthelweard {King Alfred's Orosius, ed. H. Sweet (E.E.T.S., 1883), p. 19). Bede merely places the contin­ ental Angles between the Jutes and the Saxons (Historia Ecclesiastica, i, 15). 2 In making this distinction, Æthelweard was probably guided merely by the frequence of Scandinavian place-names ending in -by. Adam of Bremen (eleventh century), like Æthelweard, clearly identifies Hedeby and Schleswig; modern excavation suggests Oldenburg, 5 km. from Schleswig, as the site of Hedeby (see W. Biereye, Beiträge zur Geschichte Nordalbingiens im 10. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1909), pp. 9-14). This is confirmed by the runic inscriptions there in memory of soldiers killed at Hedeby (see L. M . Larson, Canute the Great (New York, 1912), p. 30). Chadwick’s suggestion (Origin o f the English Nation 1907 p. 104) that the name Schleswig did not apply then to the same site as today deserves consideration. 3 He says (i, 2) that they extended from the Rhine usque in Doniam urbem, quae nunc uulgo Danmarc nuncupatur. Here urbem is surely an unhappy scribal addition : Æthelweard knew Denmark was not an mbs. (Yet he calls Lindsey an mbs, iii, 4, iv, 3, so perhaps his use of the word is lax.)

XXXVl

INTRODUCTION

had perhaps some interest in the language and beliefs of the Danish invaders. He notes that Deoraby is the Danish name for Northuuorthig, and that the Danish leaders are known as eorlas, improves the form o f several of the Norse names occurring in OEC, and introduces into genealogies the divine names Baldr and Víðarr, which are otherwise unknown in English sources. So it is, perhaps, not an accident that in 877 he translates cxx as centum, for he may well have known the meaning of Old Norse hundrað. It is remarkable to find an English layman of Æthelweard’s period able to write in Latin at all. There is no parallel, and it has been suggested that the chronicler and the ealdorman may not after all be identical, especially as the ealdorman asked Ælfric for translations of Latin works, which would be easy for anyone who could write the chronicle to read.1 Never­ theless, the identification is well supported. It is chronologically sound. None of the high-sounding titles adopted by the chronicler suggests that he was in orders, while one of them, consul, suggests that he was an ealdorman. The highly probable relationship o f the ealdorman to Eadwig would explain the chronicler’s kindly attitude to that monarch, if the identifica­ tion is accepted.2 With reference to the ealdorman’s taste for translations, it may be remarked that the chronicler praises Ælfred’s Boethius, and seems to have preferred the Old English Bede to the Latin text.3 It has been suggested that Æthelweard 1 So Sisam, Proceedings o f the British Academy, xxxix, 320-1 2 See above, p. xv, n. 7 3 This is particularly evident from the words habitante plebe Brittanica incuriose causa firmitatis intra fossam de cuius serie meminimus supra, que a Seuero Casare condita erat (i, 1). This corresponds exactly to a passage in the O E Bede in which the Latin is totally misunderstood ; see Plummer’s note on the end of H ist. Eccl., i, 11. Again, the words astuta gens Scotorum gnara quid faceret pro imminenti muro . . . ferreos in mensura arte mechanica struunt aculeos, superstantesque muro deorsum trahentes auide interimunt (i, 1 ) correspond to the O E Bede closely (see M iller’s ed., p. 46), but the Latin (i, 12) has no reference to the cunning of the Scots, or to the making of the weapons, and does not make clear (though Gildas does) that the defenders were dragged down with the weapons referred to : non cessant uncinata hostium

INTRODUCTION

XXXVll

had been long abroad to account for his mistakes in translating Old English.1 His Latin, however, shows no continental peculiarities, and an alternative suggestion is that the chronicler may have had the help o f a Celtic secretary in writing the chronicle.2 This would explain his errors in translating Old English, and also the peculiar Latinity of his work. This theory receives some support from the form Vurthgern.3 On the other hand, Æthelweard’s interest in the forms of Norse names 4 suggests a Germanic speaker, though there is no objection to assuming that master and secretary adopted a method of work which allowed some of the personality of each to appear in their product. Yet too much weight can be laid on the mistakes in Old English seen in the chronicle. They do not amount to much in proportion to the length of the work, and they have to be set against correct translations of many idiomatic expres­ sions 5 and peculiar forms.6 It is doubtful if there is much more error than can be explained by carelessness similar to that shown in the chronological system, and it should be noticed that Æthelweard is capable of translating the same words right in one place and wrong in another.7

1 So York Powell quoted by Plummer, Two o f the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, ii (Oxford, 1899), p. cii 2 So Sisam, loc. cit. 3 See below, p. lx 4 See below, pp. lix-lx 5 e.g. numerals of the type teoþe healf gear 6 e.g. B tegere, sumorlida 7 e.g. in the annal 887, the words uestigia secant per pontem arcis Parisiace well represent the O E her fo r se here up þurh þ a brycge e t Paris, but just below, in referring to the same event, practically the same O E words are translated consederant ponte in Parisiaco.

tela ; ignaui propugnatores miserrime de muris tracti solo adlidebantur. It cannot be shown that Æthelweard used the Latin text of Bede at all. I f he did so, he was careful to avoid reproduction of its words and phrases. In his version of the story of Pope Gregory and the Angles he diverges from Bede in detail, and may have a second source. Æthelweard’s preference for O E texts would explain why he seems not to use the version of parts of O E C contained in Asser’s biography of Ælfred (see Stevenson’s Asser, p. cxvii).

XXXVlll

INTRODUCTION

V TH E C H R O N O L O G IC A L SYSTE M Æthelweard opens his work with a brief account of the first five ages of the world. In western Christianity the theory was common that there were five world-ages, which ended with the birth of Christ, which inaugurated a sixth.1 The limits assigned to these ages differ a good deal. Æthelweard’s account, however, was very closely paralleled by a short tract no longer extant, but of which two Old English translations survive in British Museum MSS— Cott. Vesp. D vi, f. 6gv (ioth century), and Vit. A xv, f. 8gv (12th century). A closely related Old English text is in MS Harl. 3271, f. I28v (n th century).2 The estimates of the age of the world which accompany the various treatments of the world-ages vary considerably. Æthelweard states that the birth o f Christ was in the year of the world 5495, but the periods which he allows for the five preceding wo rid-ages add up to 5189. When he gives the year of the world to confirm dates (see the dates 705, 800, 905, and cf. 606), he uses a third figure, 5195. Not one of these three figures is that o f either the nearly related texts (which disagree with each other, but probably point to an original 5228), or of any well-known authority. While hardly any two authorities agree on this matter, Æthelweard is exceptional in having three figures, and not pointing out the difference between them. After the birth o f Christ, Æthelweard begins to draw on OEC, but he does not adopt its system o f marginal dates. 1 See e.g. Isidore of Seville, Etym., v, 39 ; Bede, D e temporum ratione, chap. 66. See further M . Förster, * Die Weltzeitalter bei den Angelsachsen ’, Neusprachliche Studien, Festgabe K arl Luick (Marburg, 1925), pp. 183fr. 2 These texts are printed by Förster, op. cit. Förster believed that the two Cottonian texts were derived from Æthelweard, but this would mean the assumption of a later date for Vesp. D vi than that generally accepted (mid-tenth century).

INTRODUCTION

XXXIX

Instead, he states how many years each event occurred after the event mentioned immediately before it. From time to time he indicates which annus domini or annus mundi has been reached. This system enables some gaps to be traced in Savile’s text, but many of Æthelweard’s divergences from the chronology of OEC are to be attributed to displacement or unclear positioning of annals in the MS which he used, or to carelessness on his own part.1 His dates correspond with those of O E C 2 in the first group of entries derived from it : 30 (baptism of Christ), 33 (the crucifixion), 34 (martyrdom of Stephen, conversion of Paul), 35 (Peter at Antioch), 44 (Peter at Rome, now altered to 45 in A), 46 (Emperor Claudius, now altered to 47 in A), 62 (martyrdom of James), 63 (death of Mark), 69 (martyrdom of Peter and Paul). At this point there would seem to be a gap in the text. Annal 69 proceeds : in ipsius quippe anni prœcursu Iohannes . . . edidit librum Apocalypseos. But in A this is under 84 (now altered to 87). This would be fifteen years after 69, and as the next event (death of John) mentioned by Æthelweard is a further fifteen years ahead, the omission was no doubt due to scribal confusion. It may be assumed that 69 was followed by something like Expleto annorum numero quin­ decim and a note of some event placed in 84,® and that the writing of the Apocalypse followed. The death of John is then placed in 99 (agreeing with OEC), and the year 100 is next stated to have been reached. The annals of the following group mostly agree in dating with OEC : 102 (Pope Clement, OEC 101), n o (Ignatius), 166 (Lucius and Eleutherius,12 3 1 Great carelessness on Æthelweard’s part is not to be denied ; e.g. he not infrequently fails to note the transition to a new annal (607, 614, 635, 887), and under 871, when referring back to O E C 845, 866, he fails to allow for the fact that in his system those annals are 844 and 865, but makes them 871 minus 26, and minus 5. 2 In this section of the Introduction, M S A is referred to unless otherwise stated. 3 This would probably be the accession of Domitian, which is in A 83 altered to 84, and which Æthelweard may have telescoped with the following annal (A 84 altered to 87).

xl

INTRODUCTION

OEC 167), 189 (Severus), 381 (Maximus), 409 (fall of Rome), and so to 491 (Ælle and Cissa at Andredesceaster). But OEC 495 (arrival of Cerdic and Cynric) becomes in Æthelweard 494, and the famous additional annal giving 500 as a round date for the completion o f the conquest o f Wessex is given as six years after 494, and is later confirmed as 500 by being related to the accession of Ecgberht in 800. The remaining annals of Book i are dated in agreement with OEC. In Book ii there is perfect agreement with OEC dates down to 682 (victory of Centwine).1 Then there is a serious dis­ turbance. Cædwalla is omitted and Ine is introduced thus : Cuius post biennium regni Ine functus est in regnum Occidentalium Anglorum. It is not clear to what event Ine’s accession is thus related, but fortunately it is also placed 188 years after 500, which agrees with OEC 688. Accordingly, a gap is to be assumed in Savile’s text after 682. After the accession of Ine, Æthelweard’s dates agree closely with those of OEC down to 755 (Cynewulf and Cyneheard), diverging only in 722, which telescopes 721 (murder o f Cynewulf) and 722 (Ine’s war with the South Saxons). But at the end of the book some confusion arises : OEC 773 (battle of Otford) is placed in 772, and so OEC 777 (battle of Bensington) corresponds to Æthel­ weard 776. OEC 780 (continental battles) is put only two years after this, and so is in Æthelweard 778, and hence OEC 784 (death of Cynewulf) and 787 (marriage ofBeorhtric) corre­ spond to Æthelweard 782 and 785. In Book iii the elaborately confirmed annal for 800 occurs early, and by working back from it we find that Æthelweard has escaped from the disorder into which his chronology had fallen at the end of Book ii. The events of 787 are completed at the beginning of the book, and the year is now in correct relation to 800, and correspondence with OEC chronology is 1 The chronological positions of three entries are not indicated (O E C 607, 614, 635).

IN T R O D U C T IO N

x li

perfect up to 833 (battle of Carrum), if a few missing words are supplied in 823. The block of annals OEC 835 (battle of Hengestesdun) to 840 (battle of Carrum), are in Æthelweard dated a year ahead (836-41). But OEC 845 (battle at the mouth of the Parret) is over-corrected, becoming 844. The year of Acleah is made seven years after this, and thus agreement with OEC is restored (851). Yet 853 (Ælfred’s visit to Rome) is put three years after 851, becoming 854. The last annal in the book is OEC 855 (Æthelwulf’s visit to Rome), and is correctly dated (854 + 1 ). It should be noted that Æthelweard used a text of OEC which had the same reading as A in recording the death of Æthelwulf : ondymb ii gear þœs ðe he on Francum com (instead of of Francum). Hence Æthelweard makes Æthelwulf die one year after his return, having spent one year in Rome. The annal is in both OEC and Æthelweard inclusive of the whole period oi Æthelwulf’s travels and death, but because it stands under 855 Æthelweard ends the book with a statement that that year had now been reached. In Book iv, OEC 860 (death o f Æthelbald) is correctly 855 + 5, but the following annals to 870 (death of Eadmund) are a year behind. 871, however, is correctly described as seventy-one years after the accession of Ecgby rht, and there is now agreement with OEC to 887 (siege of Paris).1 But the events of 888 are then placed in eodem anno, so an omission in Savile is almost certain. Words introducing 888 may then be assumed to be lacking.2 It also seems that Æthelweard omitted the unimportant annal 889 without correspondingly modifying his chronology, or alternatively that the entry has been lost in the surviving text. I f these gaps be assumed, Æthelweard and OEC correspond in chronology for 888, 890, 891, 892 (now altered to 893 in A). The following annal (OEC 893, altered 1 There seems to be a gap at the transition from 877 to 878, and the transition from 886 to 887 is not noticed. 2 They, no doubt, recorded the journey of Beocca to Rome.

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INTRODUCTION

to 894 in A) is introduced as the nine hundredth all but seven from Christ’s birth. It is therefore evident that the alteration of the marginal dates 892-3 to 893-4 seen in MS A had not been made when Æthelweard’s MS of OEC or its ancestor was copied, or at least were not followed by the copyist.1 As has already been pointed out, the section of Æthelweard following 893 and extending to 946 is not derived from any known source, so its dates must be considered on their merits rather than compared with those of OEC. The expedition of Æthelnoth is placed two years after the invasion of 892, i.e. 894, the death of Guthfrith of Northumbria follows in 895,2 and Ælfred’s death follows in 899. Æthelweard places the last event on 25 October, a day before OEC. It is evident that his source did not use the indictional year. With Eadweard’s coronation Æthelweard’s chronology is given a fresh start, for he dates it at Whitsuntide 900. This date is now accepted as correct, as is that of 902 for the battle of the Holme, which is the next entry.3 A control equating 905 with annus mundi 6100 follows, and then come certain activities of Archbishop Plegmund placed in 908. The six annals which follow are as calculated from 908 consistently a year early : 9 0 9 = 9 10 (battle of Wodnesfeld), 9 1 0 = 9 1 1 (death of Æthelred of Mercia), 912 = 9 1 3 (death of Eadwulf of Barnborough, confirmed by Annals of Ulster), 913 = 914 (Danes in the Severn), 914 = 915 (Christmas fell on Sunday),4 917 = 918 (death of Æthelflæd). Æthelweard places Eadweard’s death nine years after that o f Æthelflæd. He then says that Æthelstan was crowned in 1 Stenton decides the same, but on rather different grounds, E H R , xxiv, 79-80. 2 Simeon of Durham, H ist, regum (Opera, ed. T . Arnold, R S, ii), notes the death of a Guthred rex in 894, but this is not necessarily to be regarded as the same person. 3 See Angus, E H R , liii, 204fr. ; Wainwright, E H R , lx, 390 4 i.e. Christmas, 914, for the non-indictional year usually starts on Christmas D ay in O ld English chronicles.

INTRODUCTION

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926. It seems likely that his source had the death of Eadweard under 925 and Æthelstan’s coronation in 926, i.e. that it was now a year ahead in its dates.1 Æthelweard places the battle ofBrunanburh thirteen years after 926, and Æthelstan’s death two years after that, so the error of his source must by then have increased to two years in advance (true dates are 937 and 939). Æthelweard’s next entry gives first an account of the expulsion of Rægenald and Anlaf from Northumbria, which belongs to 944, and secondly it notes the death of Queen Ælfgyfu. Then it returns to OEC with its notice of the death of Eadmund and estimate of the length of his reign (6^ years). All this it places seven years after the death of Æthelstan. This is correct for the death of Eadmund (946), and it would seem that Æthel­ weard has telescoped an account of 944 2 from his lost source with OEC 946. Æthelweard now follows OEC. That he was still using a version derived from A is evident, because he has under 955 (death of Eadred) A ’s addition that the king died on St Clement’s day and ruled 9-^ years. Eadwig is then correctly given 4 years,3 and the coronation of Eadgar is also correctly placed (by direct statement) in 973. Finally, in the second of the poems on Eadgar he is said to have ruled over 16 years, an approximation correct to the nearest year (1 Oct. 9598 July 975). Æthelweard contributes little to our knowledge of the chronology of the Old English period. His most valuable contribution to it is his plain statement that Eadweard the 1 Æthelstan was certainly crowned on 4 Sept. 925 ; that Eadweard died 17 July 924, is highly probable, though 925 is defensible. It would be possible to interpret Æthelweard as meaning that Eadweard died in 926, and that Æthelstan was crowned in the same year. 2 This year would also suit the death of Ælfgyfu, the date of which cannot be controlled, see Battle o f Brunanburh, ed. A. Campbell (London, 3 Against M S A , which mistakenly places Eadwig’s death in 958 (for

959)

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INTRODUCTION

Elder was crowned at Whitsuntide 900, from which it follows that Ælfred’s death was in October 899. This is confirmation from a lost source of what is now generally believed.1 Æthelweard cannot have had the date of Ælfred’s death from OEC, which has at this time an indictional year. If Æthelweard’s copy gave the date as October 900, he could not have put Eadweard’s coronation at Whitsuntide 900. If its date was October 901, he could do so still less. He is clearly using a source which like the Mercian Register uses a non-indictional year.2 It would be unwise to use Æthelweard in any attempt to determine how far the original marginal dates of A had been altered at the time when the version of OEC known to Æthel­ weard was made. This version was a fairly thorough revision, using mainly A, but referring to at least one older MS, and it would no doubt have a partly revised chronology. It is, however, interesting to find agreement between Æthelweard and A in some peculiar readings. The most striking of these is the dating of the death of Æthelwulf two years after his departure abroad, instead of two years after his return. Other points of agreement are the exact date given for the death of Eadred, and probably the date 84 for the writing of the Apocalypse. 1 O n the dates involved see especially M . L. R. Beavan, * The Regnal Dates of Alfred, Edward the Elder, and Athelstan ’, E H R , xxxii, 5 1 7ff. O n the accession of Æthelstan see further J. A . Robinson, The Times o f St Dunstan (Oxford, 1923), pp. 27fr 2 There is not the slightest evidence that Æthelweard was aware of divergences of types of year in chronicles, still less that he ever allowed for them in his chronology. His method is merely to reproduce the marginal years of his sources.

INTRODUCTION

x lv

VI

LAN G U AG E (a) Latinity The history of Anglo-Saxon Latinity has two phases, divided by the barren years of the Danish wars, when, to quote King Ælfred, ‘ there were very few on this side of the Humber who could interpret their services into English, or translate even a letter from Latin into English, and I do not think there were many beyond the Humber In the first phase two traditions o f Latinity were established : they may be dis­ tinguished as the classical and the hermeneutic. The great contemporaries Bede and Aldhelm represent these traditions pre-eminently, and their enduring reputations guaranteed that neither tradition should die. The classical tradition of Bede produced a clear Latin, never over-involved, yet not of childish simplicity, using a copious but never obscure vocabulary, and in verse a competent if rather monotonous prosody. The hermeneutic tradition of Aldhelm uses a loosely jointed, indefinitely extended period, often hard to follow, and delights in recondite vocabulary derived from glossaries. Both these characteristics occur in both verse and prose. When English learning revived in the tenth century, both traditions were continued : for example, the Life of Æthelwold by Ælfric is in the tradition of Bede, while the Life of Oswald by the Monk o f Ramsey is in the hermeneutic tradition. O f course all classification involves over-simplification : a work may be in the Aldhelm tradition and yet exhibit clear passages. Yet the two traditions explain most things in Anglo-Latin of the period. But not all. Virgilius Maro of Toulouse had claimed that there were twelve sorts of Latin. The first of these is normal Latin, the others remain nebulous, although Virgilius offers

x lv i

INTRODUCTION

specimen words of each. The Hisperica Famina develop idiosyncrasy of expression and word-formation in wilful deter­ mination that the obstacles to understanding should be all but insuperable. We can infer that in the western world of the early Middle Ages the idea that a writer might have his own peculiar Latin was not strange to men’s minds. There is a personal element in the Latin of Frithegodus, the Canterbury poet of c. 940, for such words as archanus, archangel, dirrachia, dissensions, seem not to have any previous history behind them. The personal element would seem to be particularly great in the language of Æthelweard. The vocabulary of Æthelweard is comparatively simple, but enough Greek words and peculiar Latin words occur in his chronicle to enable a relationship with the glossaries current in the early Middle Ages to be established. If we neglect very familiar Greek words like anax, ogdoi (g.s.m.), stemma, we can point to the following as probably words of glossarial origin : artemon, ship, iv, 3 (880) : the word had been borrowed in late Latin in the sense ‘ sail ’. The sense ‘ ship ’ is indicated by the gloss fasiolus dpréfxcov in a tenth-century glossary (Corp. Gloss. Lat., iii, 509, 8), where fasiolus is a variant of phaselus, bradifonus, slow of speech, iv, 9 : not elsewhere known, and the Greek original is unrecorded. dromon, a light ship : frequent in Æthelweard, though rare in his period, but cf. Isidore, Etym., xix, 1, 14, Corp. Gloss. Lat., V, 523, 37 (tenth century). moneris, ship, iv, 3 (878) : glossaries equate with solitarius, soliuagus (Corp. Gloss. Lat., ii, 372, 61 ; 185, 43) and it is not clear how Æthelweard got the sense ship, though it is good late Greek. nexilitas, involved style, Prol. Pancalus, the Fair, iv, 8 : no doubt translating se Eallfagra ; alleged (by Æthelweard only) to be a nickname of Eadwig.

INTRODUCTION

x lv ii

phagolidorus, eating (i.e. rejoicing in) insult, ii, pref. : many glossaries give this word, ultimately from Jerome’s pref. to Ezech. primna, ship, iv, 3 (891, 892) frequent in glossaries. scarmos a.p., thole, iv, 3 (885) : this is merely a corruption of scalmos, but this corruption was already established in the glossarial literature, see tenth-century glossary in Corp. Gloss. Lat., V, 514, 62. sinclitus, parliament, iv, 3 (891) : cf. Gloss. Ansil. (Glossaria Latina, ed. W. M. Lindsay et ah, i (Paris, 1926), 525) sincletus, senatus Graece, stefos, crown, iv, 5. stomio d.s., estuary, iv, 4 (913) : although the Greek original has not the sense ‘ estuary ’, various glossaries equate the loan-word with ostium {Corp. Gloss. Lat., ii, 69, 30, ninth cen­ tury, 438, 22, twelfth century). suda, rampart, i, 1 (at end) ; iv, 2 (866), 3 (893) : Medieval Greek o o v h a , not found outside Æthelweard in western Latin. Æthelweard has also a number of Latin words which are sound in form, and are recorded in good texts, but are so rare that they perhaps reached him by way of glossaries, e.g. periclitatio, testing, Proh,1 impendiosus, extravagant, iv, 2 (871), attegia, tent, iv, 3 (877), compagus, companion, id. (891). He uses the very ra re word abmatertera inexactly of a great-aunt on the paternal side, Prol. In proportion to the length of his book, the glossarial element in Æthelweard is not great. It does not enable us to point to any extant glossary as having been in his hands. The propordonally large number of words with initial s (five out of thirteen in the above list) suggests that Æthelweard had an alphabetical glossary, and studied 1 But probably used to mean ‘ shipwreck a sense which recurs in post­ conquest Anglo-Latin (see J. H. Baxter and C. Johnson, Medieval Latin Word-List (1934), s.v.)

x lv iii

INTRODUCTION

the s section with especial care ; the many words for ‘ ship * suggest that he had also a class glossary. Æthelweard naturally has many words and meanings of words which are non-classical, but familiar in Medieval Latin, e.g. famen, discourse, iii, 2 (797), fasma, language, discourse, iv, 2 (871), 3 (899), firmitas, fortification, iv, 3 (878), patrinus, godfather, id. (890), suffragium, aid, i, 3. The following less common medieval senses deserve comment : applicium, lodging, encampment, ii, 18 ; iv, 3 (878). arduus, large, frequently of fleets (e.g. iii, 1), once of an army (iv, 3> 893).1 augmentum, descent, iv, 2 (871) : de quibus nos augmentum sump­ simus. calumnia, challenge, objection, iv, 2 (867) : the legal significance is at a minimum ; cf. Niermeyer, Med. Lat. lex. min. (Leiden, I954) s.v. calumnia 5. onerifer, burden-bearing, iii, 1 : perhaps a coinage of Æthel­ weard. parochia, used both in the common medieval sense ‘ bishopric ’, iv, 2 (866), and simply as ‘ district ’, iv, 3 (883). pmcapitulor, to preface to a chapter, ii, pref. : not in Du Cange. præuisor, captain, iv, 2 (871) : similar senses in Baxter, but not elsewhere of a military chief. superstes, chief, iv, 4 (910) : not elsewhere recorded in insular sources. Æthelweard does not exhibit great abnormality in the form of words. The following divergencies from normal form may be observed : actor, iv, 4 (912), is probably an error for exactor, Æthelweard’s term for the officer known as gerefa, reeve ; baptisticus, adj., by baptism, ii, 6 (639), is elsewhere unknown ; classialis, naval, iii, 3 (836), iv, 3 (885), for classicus ; 1 O n the generalisation of adjs. of dimension to mean fi large * or c small cf. E. Löfstedt, Late Latin (Oslo, 1959), pp. 113--14.

INTRODUCTION

x líx

diuictus, i, 3, for deuictus ; foecundia, iv, 5, for foecunditas ; fratruellus, iv, 3 (887), for fratruelis, strictly cousin, but also nephew (the sense here) ; Gallias, acc. pi. fem., frequently for Gallicas ; incurius, i, 3, for incuriosus ; iusiuramentum, iv, 3 (876), for iusiurandum ; obruptio, Prol., for abruptio ; pali, gen. sg., iv, 3 (893), for paludis ; portici, gen. sg., ii, 15, for porticus ; prœsentati, abl. sg., iii, pref., for præsenli or præsentali ; primatis, abi. pi., iv, 4 (at beginning), for primatibus ; rusticanus, iv, 3 (891), for rusticus ; strantur, pres, indie, pass., ii, 18, for sternuntur ; suffultus, noun, support, iv, 3 (893) ; sulto, iv, 3 (893), 4 (902), for exsulto ; usito, iv, 3 (874), 9 (second poem). The spelling cessus, iv, 2 (871, twice), for cœsus suggests Irish influence.1 Æthelweard does not exhibit so marked a tendency as some writers of his period to load his sentences with phrases taken from previous writers. Virgilian phrases occur now and again, e.g. proiicitur ancora ponto, stant in littore puppes (i, 3, cf. Aen. iii, 277), miserrima cedes (id., cf. Aen. ii, 411), crispatur hastilis (iv, 4, 902, cf. Aen. ii, 313). Similarly, there are occasional Biblical phrases, e.g. de uirtute in uirtutem (iii, 3, 814, cf. Ps. 83, 8). One line of Lucan (ii, 51) is directly quoted (i, 4). It is when we come to the structure of his sentences, how­ ever, that Æthelweard offers the most difficulty. Very often he is clear enough to count as a follower of Bede, while in other passages he recalls Aldhelm. We know from internal evidence that he knew Bede, and he expresses his admiration of Aldhelm in noticing his death in his Chronicle. The simple style of Æthelweard hardly needs illustration, but the following will serve to show the kinship with Aldhelm that he can develop in more ornate passages : Regnante Byrhtrico rege piissimo super partes Anglorum occidentales, iam innocentia protensi populi aruis serena 1 The influence of Irish rhetoric appears also in the phrase immobilis occidentalium postis (of King Ælfred, iv, 3, 899).

(2,486)

4

1

INTRODUCTION

cum tranquillitate dabant squalidis sulcos, et oneriferæ boum costae proximo amore colla iugo subdebant (iii, i). Sicuti diuina solet clementer prouidentia ab aeterno cuncta prospiciens non necessitate regere sed potenti intuitu, ipsaque immobilis semper ac uerbo suo ex diuerso elementa disponens, hominumque genus ad ueritatis agnitionem uenire per mortem unigeniti filii sui, cuius sanguine quadrifida mundi spatia liberantur, nunc per seruum suum illustrat tenebras occidentalium in oras (ii, i). But in many passages Æthelweard has a highly individual style, built with elements mostly found elsewhere, but not in the same proportions, so that he can be regarded as creating his own Latin. In these passages the following peculiarities are recurrent. 1. Not infrequently, Æthelweard exhibits somewhat violent asyndeton both of sentences and phrases, e.g. Denique classes eorum eleuant uela, dant uento carinas, procella ingruit tristis, mergitur pars non minima . . . (iv, 3 , 877). littora petunt, proprias sedes (id. 885). aduehitur classis non minima Hæsten (id. 892).1 2. Æthelweard very often adopts a peculiar order of words without any rhetorical advantage, e.g. et contra Occidentalium ineunt exercitum auida bellum manu Anglorum (iv, 3, 871).2 Fueruntque in ter squalidissima eorum dominatione ab Anglis uidelicet certamina tria (id.).3 1 ‘ a large fleet and Hæsten * 2 ‘ they enter into battle against the army of the West Saxons with an eager band \ a ter with tria> ‘ there were nine battles ’ ; in is the prep.

INTRODUCTION

H

abrumpitur opposita supradicti clades exercitus in superiora Sunnan turmae in loco Embenum (id. 884) d qui et in libertate posuerat Anglorum per predestinationem regis Ælfredi, que nunc scolam Romae uidetur, ex ter beatoque munera misit ligno Christi (id. 885. at end).12 sub Acheronteas peregrinam temptant regionem undas (iv, 4, 902). nec usque ad istas motus adhaesit sine littora Anglorum foedere classicus (iv, 5).3 3. Here may be mentioned the peculiar names for the English nations used by Æthelweard, and his fondness for dividing them. He usually avoids the term ‘ Saxons ’ : the West, East and South Saxons are respectively Occidentales, Orientales and Australes Angli. This leads to ambiguity in the case of Orientales Angli. In these compound names Æthelweard freely displays his tendency to separate words which belong naturally together, e.g. the first passage quoted under 2 above. He also frequently in the genitive case transfers the adj. from the English to the thing possessed, e.g. super partes Anglorum occidentales (iii, 1). Interesting variants on the usual forms are aduenit oras in Occidentalium classialis nimium Brittannum exercitus (iii, 3, 836) ; per notheas partes Anglorum (iv, 3, 893). 4. The accusative absolute is a normal construction with Æthelweard, e.g. relicti arma omissa duo subiciunt colla (iv, 3, 882). But the normal ablative is also found, and occasionally we have a mixture, e.g. non spem abiecta (iv, 3, 874) ; accepta . . . non 1 ‘ the hostile pest of the army previously named, the throng, departed into the upper regions of the Somme to Amiens ’. * scolam is the object of posuerat ; with ex ter beatoque cf. in ter . . . dominatione above ; beato goes with ligno. 3 ‘ and (since then) no fleet has remained here (adhœsit), having advanced against these shores, except under treaty with the English’. Probably Æthelweard meant to write oras, and by substituting littora left istas ungrammatical.

lii

INTRODUCTION

exiguam partem (id. 887). The two constructions are strangely interwoven in peractas quidem tribus paginulas superioribus libris (iv, pref.).1 5. Æthelweard has some curiously violent examples of tmesis, e.g. ultra petunt marinas partes (iv, 3, 885) ; petias sub dant (id .) ; costis pentidies (iv, 9) for Pentecoste dies. 6. Æthelweard uses connectives very loosely, e.g. transeunte igitur unius anni meatu (iv, 3, 890) ; namque alter domi uertitur (id. 891) ; obtinuerat namque principatum annos per nouem et semis (iv, 7) ; quin successor eius Eaduuig (iv, 8) ; ergo post annum partiuntur (iv, 3, 885) ; rex ruit, octoginta quippe cum eo decades (id. 878). Other connectives which may be used as pure copulae are ast, autem, certe, denique, enim, etiam, forsan, interea, itaque, {si) quidem, scilicet, uero. Similarly facietenus seems devoid of meaning : facietenus coeperunt regnare (i, 5, 519) ; et sapientes totius partis occidentalis facietenus (ii, 17). So hactenus merely connects : actenus . . . incipiam loqui (iv, 2, 871). 7. Transference of the adjectival part of national names has been noticed above. It is also found in a good many other expressions, e.g. tela adiacentia exercitus (iv, 2, 866) ; de potestate finium sua (iv, 3, 877). Very strange is Apoldre loco condicto, orientali Cantice partem (id. 892) : it seems a mixture of orientali Cantice parte and orientalis Cantice partem (cf. 9 (v), below). 8. Constructions in no way abnormal, but deserving remark are : (i) The use of the abl. of the gerund as a participle equi­ valent is frequent, e.g. simulque pecuniam dando (iv, 3, 876). (ii) The historic infinitive is used four times : ipseque magni filius regis esse Karuli (iv, 3, 885) ; nec umquam adfuisse spes inter eos secunda (id. 887) ; Angli uictorice optinere numen (iv, 4, 909) ; nec ultra dominari (iv, 5). 1 * the three preceding books having been finished in the pages finished ’ . Peractas goes with both phrases.

INTRODUCTION

HÜ

(iii) The supine is used in Romam uestigia legunt . . . petitum (iv, 3, 891).1 (iv) Omission o f the verb ‘ to be ’ is fairly frequent, e.g. furia moti ita ut . . . (iv, 2, 866) ; multi quoque in eadem pugna ruere, fugatique (id. 871). 9. Case syntax is in general very peculiar in Æthelweard : (i) Apposition is frequently used where the genitive would be expected, e.g. aduersus paganos exercitum (iii, 4, 844) ; ad Meresige locum Cantiam (iv, 3, 893) ; in stomio certefluentibus Sefern (iv, 4, 913) ; syncipite rasi corona (iv, 9). (ii) The accusative o f direction without preposition is frequent, e.g. ianuam prosiliuit (ii, 18) ; aduehuntur . . . Cornuualias partes (iv, 3, 891). (iii) Unusual verbal reactions are adhœreo + acc. : adhœrenti notheas . . . partes (iv, 3, 885) ; adiaceo + abl. : adiacentia colie (ii, 7, 648) ; fungor + gen. : fungitur potestatis (i, i, 189) ; insequor + abl. : duce . . . insequitur (iv, 3, 893) ; insto + abl. : instant certamine (iv, 2, 871) ; obliuiscor + abl. : obliti classe (id.) ; obuio + acc. : obuiauitque dromones (id. 882) ; utor + acc. : protensionem . . . uti (iv, 2, 871). Rare classically is deuoueo + ad : ad te deuoueo (iii, prol.). (iv) The case rections o f prepositions fluctuate much ; a selection o f unusual ones follows, but the normal rection of the preposition is generally found as well : cum centurias (iii, 3, 800) ; de Gallias uenerat partes (iv, 3, 893) ; in oras (ii, 1) ; in natalitia (iv, 3, 895 ; 7, 955) ; in solennia (iv, 6) ; usque in tempore (i, 1) ; iuxta Lindissi urbe (iv, 3, 873) ; quadriennio per (iv, 8) ; post decursu (ii, 4) ; prater annis septem (iv, 3, 893). (v) Other instances o f peculiar case syntax are : bella adire Occidentales Saxones, to attack the West Saxons in war (iv, 2, 871) ; post adest quorum rex, and the king was afterwards in their company (iv, 3, 893) ; obuius quorum, meeting with 1 ‘ they direct their course to seek Rome ’. Th e phrase uestigia legunt is not happily used : it should mean ‘ follow the steps ’ (of another).

INTRODUCTION

liv

whom (id. 891) ; quorum undecim consules ruunt, (wars) in which eleven earls fell (id. 871) ; quod caterarum regionum fecere nun­ quam, which they never did in other places (id. 876) ; domi uertitur, he returns home (id. 891). 10. Miscellaneous peculiarities are : (i) Collective nouns often take a plural verb, e.g. iterant . . . Myrcia plebs (iv, 3, 873) ; pars exercitus illius . . . petunt (iv, 4, 913). (ii) The active use of ignotus, ignorant (ignoti futuri, iv, 1, 864) is a classical rarity ; the deponents amplector and populor have also active forms (amplectunt iv, 2, at end ; popularunt iii, 3, 832) ; deponent migror appears beside usual migro. (iii) Protendunt for contendunt (iv, 2, 871) is a rather violent verbal metonymy. (iv) Ob ambitu, in the region of, takes the gen. (ob ambitu London urbis, iv, 3, 872), but in ambitu in a temporal sense takes the acc. (in ambitu letanias, id. 891). (v) Cuius is once substituted for huius : post decursum unius anni ex quo Sigebyrht regnare coeperat, cuius regnum inuadens . . .

(Ü, 17)(vi) The construction of ut citius tam exire (iv, 3, 876) is hardly to be explained, but the sense clearly is ‘ to depart as quickly as possible ’. (vii) Absolute excepto is used as a prep, with gen. and abi., e.g. excepto barbaræ gentis et his (iv, 3, 886). In præsciscitato ergo rex esse se taliter (iii, 3, 836), the absolute participle is syntactically equal to the nom. of an active participle. (viii) The adverbs nimis and nimium are used with purely intensive force ‘ in great degree ’ both with adjs. and verbs, e.g. nimis instructum (ii, i) ; gesta sunt nimis bella (iii, 4, 854) ; factaque est nimium ruina (iv, 3, 871). The Late Latin use of nimius to intensify another adj. is also found : ardua non nimia classis (iii, i).

INTRODUCTION

lv

(ix) Peculiar phrases are : fulciunt arma, they strengthen their armaments (iv, 2, 865), auras dant fuga (iv, 3, 891), fuga dant undos (id. 875). (x) In expressing numerals, Æthelweard uses bis not only for ‘ twice ’, but for the cardinal ‘ two ’. He also uses supra sometimes to mean ‘ in addition sometimes ‘ and more ’. E.g. in i, i, the length of the second world-age is given as nongenti anni. . . et supra bis xl, that is ‘ nine hundred years and in addition forty-two (This is confirmed by precise agree­ ment with the two nearly related OE texts, see p. xxxviii, n. 2.) But in ii, 6 (614), duo millia . . . et quadraginta supra means ‘ 2040 and more ’ (MSS of OEC have 2045 or 2065). Æthel­ weard uses minus freely as a quasi-preposition ‘ less by ’, and is an early source for this afterwards familiar practice. Æthelweard has no tendency towards the rhymed prose so popular with continental Latinists of his period, but he has a very great fondness for the rhythm of the hexameter end in concluding his clauses and sentences. He abounds with endings like certamine læti (iv, 3, 871, sentence-end), territoria passim (id. 875, clause-end). Accordingly, the final word in pertinacia cessit eiusdem (iv, 4, 926) is perhaps a scribal addition. (b) The Forms of non-Latin Names The MS to judge from the surviving fragments used ð but not p. Savile substitutes either d or th for ð, hence variants like Ælfdryde, Ælfthrythe 1 occur in his text. The fragments, however, show that the MS sometimes used th, e.g. Northuuorthige. No instances of þ occur in the fragments, which have uu, or before vocalic u single u, e.g. Hloduuiges, Andredesuuda. Savile occasionally uses w (e.g. Wothen), and though it no doubt usually represents uu of the MS, it is possible that this sometimes had p. Latin case-endings are freely added by Æthelweard to 1 In this section references to the text will not usually be given as the occurrences of the forms are registered in the Index.

Ivi

INTRODUCTION

native personal names, e.g. Eadmundus, Æðelbyrhti, Ælfredo. Yet the uninflected form may be used, not only for the nom­ inative, but also for all other cases, e.g. Æthulffilium suum, cum Cinric filio suo, de Cenuualh regimine. Native case endings occur occasionally, e.g. Stufe et Vuihtgare (dat.), duos duces . . . Oslafet Cnybban, Iguuares, Inès. Ojffa has genative Offœ, Offan, dat. Ojfa ; Penda has acc. Pendan, gen. Penda or Penda. Eaduuerdi, dat., p. 49, is probably an error, though confirmed by the MS. Place-names are very freely used, whatever the syntactic case, in the form of the OE locatival dative, and so are national and tribal names used as virtual place-names, e.g. in loco qui Northuuorthige nuncupatur, locum qui cognominatur Cymenesoran, quod uulgo Sceftesbyrig nuncupatur, dux prouinciœ Defenum,1 excepto prouincia Lidmicon. Uninflected forms may, however, also be used without regard to syntax, e.g. relicto Cyrenceaster, in insula Tenet. Place-names in -ham form the locatival dative in -homme, e.g. Deorhamme, Cagineshamme. The ending of the dative plural appears both in the early form -urn, and the later -on, e.g. Defenum, Bathum, Readingum, -on, Basingon, Liduuicon. The genitival forms Danaa, p. 50, Danaam, p. 37, can only be regarded as due to fanciful form-making on Æthelweard’s part. The river-names Humbre (acc., dat.), Sefern (acc., gen.) are uninflected, as is allowable in OE. Af(e)ne, Auene (acc., gen., dat.), Temese (acc., gen.), Tinan (acc.) are correct OE forms. Latin case-endings are sometimes added to native placenames, e.g. Gleaucestri (gen. against the gender), Lindissi (gen.), Temesa (gen.). In Latinising tribal names Æthelweard adopts Bede’s Cantuarii and Mercii2 and extends the formation in -ii to 1 But also in prouincia Defna (gen. pi.)

2 Unlatinised Merce occurs once.

INTRODUCTION

lv i i

Northanhymbrii beside Northanhymbri. For Bede’s Victuarii he has Vuhtii. The names of the Saxon nations are usually fully Latinised, but otherwise forms in both -e and -an are found, e.g. Ealdsexe, Suthsexan.1 Vuilsata, p. 28, is an eccentric spelling for -sate. It is necessary to comment on the forms of the noninflexional syllables o f native names used by Æthelweard only when these diverge from those usual in OEC. Æthelweard has a marked liking for forms showing the late West-Saxon change of ea to e after c and g, and before c, g and A,2 e.g. Ceduuala, -cester beside -ceaster, -sexan beside once -seaxe, Scef, Sceftesbyrig, Sexburg.3 The name-element Æðel- appears also as Adel- and Eðel-. After 950 Aðel- is a fairly common variant (see OEG, §329.3, footnote), while Edel- is to be regarded as an archaism (id., §203, p. 82, footnote). On Æthered, Æthestan beside Æthelred, Æthelstan, see OEG, §484, footnote 5. Athulf* Æthelm beside Æthelmlf, Æthelhelm are already found in OEC. Æthelweard has once Æthulf, a form also found in late transcripts of charters. He always uses the form Ceolf for Ceolwulf, cf. the place-name Ceolfestun, Kemble, Cod. Dip., no. 816. Cenuulh, once, p., 16 for Cenuualh is probably an error. On Byrnhelm, Byrhtric, for Beornhelm, Beorhtric, see OEG, §305, footnote I. Mercii beside Myrcii reflects the variation of root-vowel between Bede’s Mercii and Myrce, the late West-Saxon form. For Bede’s Iuti, Æthelweard has GiotiA This form arises from a spelling pronunciation of Bede’s form with a rising diphthong iu, which was developed to iu, spelled gio, as is normal in West Saxon, see OEG, §§171-2. This variation is present in O E . 2 See O E G , §312 X is derived from hs. 4 This is equated also with O E E a d u lf 6 Recorded in the forms Gioitos -is

lv iii

INTRODUCTION

OE Wiht, Wight, is roughly Latinised as Wihta (Bede has Veda). Vuhtii, people of Wight, is hardly more than a fanciful form : wiht, anything, has a form wuht, arising in weak stress (OEG, §338, footnote 1), so Æthelweard assumes that the place-name could have similar variety of vowel. Similarly, he has Vuht- in the first element of personal names for Wiht. Beside the OEC form Hreopandune (dat.), Æthelweard has Hripandune. The same root-vowel appears in the mid-eleventh century Harleian MS o f the Life of St Guthlac by Felix (Hripadun, other early MSS Hrypa(n)dun, ed. Colgrave, p. 84). The relationship of the forms is not clear. Æthelweard usually uses Bede’s form Lundonia, but he also has acc. Lundonam, and uninflected London1 (gen., p. 40). This form seems to have adopted the root-vowel of the classical Londinium, cf. Encomium Emmae Londonia. Æthelweard’s form Sefern (twice confirmed by the MS) for OE Seefern is the only evidence in a pre-conquest MS for the form with root-vowel e, though some late transcripts of OE charters have it. See especially M. Förster, Flussname Themse (Munich, 1941), pp. 245-6. For OE Rin Æthelweard uses the classical form, and like Bede he has spelling variants Rhenus, Hrenus. On Eaduuerdus beside Eaduuardus see OEG, §338, footnote 1. Vuexstan for OEC Weoxtan, and fairly frequent Elf- for the name-element, beside usual Ælf-, are mere idiosyncrasies of spelling, e for a occurs sporadically in other elements : Escesdune (beside Æsces-), Escuuine, Egelesthrip, Eglesburh. These may well be due to Savile. Alnea for OEC at Aire would seem to be an error : r has been read as n, and the word has been regarded as a compound of -ea, river. Ignesham can hardly be more than a slip for Egnes-. The Flemish names in the Prologue are correctly Anglicised 1 Savile found this form surprising and read Lundonia.

INTRODUCTION

lix

except Earmentruth, which should be Eormenfiryp. O f other continental names, the form Mahtild occurs in OEC also, and Baiuueri may be compared with Baioeri, Baoweri, found in late MSS of Generatio regum et gentium.1 Catsig is equivalent to OEC, MSS D, E, F Caziei with the substitution of a common OE ending for -ei.2 Æthelweard so changes (and generally improves) the forms of the names of Norse leaders seen in OEC, that it seems likely that he took some interest in the language of the invaders. For Inwar he substitutes Iguuar, which, since ig = i in the OE spelling of his time, well represents the ON form (cf. O lcel Ivan). Sidroc, a name which, although rare, is found also in continental chronicles, is altered to Sihtric, 3 and apparently this equation is correct.4 Godrum, a quite unreal form (influenced by God or god), is altered to Guðrum, a sound form found in many charters and in Florence of Worcester.56 Æthelweard’s alteration of Anwynd (cf. O lcel Onundr) to Annuth was less happy. The obviously distorted Bachsecg he abandoned, and substituted the sound but certainly not equivalent Berse (Olcel Bersir). O f the Danes killed at the Holme, Æthelweard mentions only Haruc. Here OEC Eohric seems incorrectly equated with the name which is in O lcel Hárekr, whereas it corresponds with O lcel Jórekr. O f the Danes killed at Tettenhall, OEC Eowils or Ecwils appears as Eyuuysl, but here Æthelweard was following an independent source, which may have had a variant form of the name. The forms of other Norse names are of little interest. In Ragnald, the ON root-vowel is restored (OE Rœgnald). Vuothen is a compromise already found in one early MS of Bede’s Hist. 1 See M . Schönfeld, Wörterbuch der altgermanischen Personen- und Völkernamen (Heidelberg, i g u ) , p. 42 2 ts = z 3 With Latin nominatival -s, Sihtrix 4 See E. Björkman, Nordische Personennamen in England (Halle, 1910), p. 120 6 See Crawford Collection, p. 75. The underlying O N name is Guthormr.

lx

INTRODUCTION

Eccl. between OE Woden and ON Oðinn. Haithaby represents a Norse form with a diphthong in the first syllable, cf. O lcel Heiðabýr, Adam of Bremen Heideba.1 With Slesuuic, cf. O lcel Slésvík. The names of the Celtic leaders killed in 577 have been subjected to some corruption in Æthelweard. He has -megl for the name-element -mael, so probably his MS of OEC had -mœgl like OEC, MSS B and C, not -mail like A. This suggests that Æthelweard’s MS tended to alter Celtic names, so it is not surprising to find that the names of the Celtic monks in the annal for 891 are not spelled precisely the same in Æthelweard as in any extant MS of OEC. For Vortigern Æthelweard has the forms Vurthgern, Vurthern, acc. Vuirthgernum. The second two forms are no doubt to be regarded as scribal slips. Vurthgern compared with Bede’s Vurtigern shows two Celtic sound-changes, rt > rth, and loss of g between vowels.2 It would seem evident that Æthelweard had heard a Celt pronounce the word, and accordingly partly modified Bede’s spelling.3 1 The O E form is at Hadum 2 -gern = -jern < -iern < igem 3 O nly partly, for by his time initial g would be audible (cf. M od. Welsh Gwrtheyrn).

NOTE

ON

TH E

TEXT

Words and parts of words legible in the fragments of the MS preserved in Cotton Otho A x and xii are printed in italics from the fragments with slight modifications mentioned in the footnotes. All interesting divergences of Savile are given, but not variations due to differences of spelling system, a s j for i, V for u,y for i (e.g. syluas), e for œ or oe, m for n before labials (e.g. immunda). The bulk of the text is given from Henry Savile’s Rerum Anglicarum scriptores post Bedam praecipui, ist edition, London, 1596. Divergences from Savile are mentioned in the footnotes, apart from the following modifications of his spelling system, which are applied silently : (1) Savile prints ii as ij, e.g. filij, subijciunt ; ii is here printed. (2) Savile uses u for the internal and final small letter, V for the initial small letter, V for the capital in any position, e.g. autem, vt, Vulfhere, CAPITVLVM. Here u is used for the small letter, V for the capital, whatever the position. (3) a is printed not only for a, but for the rarer £, as the fragments provide no evidence that Savile is following the MS in distinguishing these symbols. Sometimes the MS doubtless had ç, but Ethelbald, Savile Wintonia, Savile d Igwares, Savile So Savile., fulciant, M S f So Savile, excercitus, M S Again this term means the people of Surrey.

THE CHRONICLE OF ÆTHELWEARD

35

The book begins 1. After the death of King Æthelwulf, his sons were put into power, Æthelbald over the West Saxons, and Æthelbyrht over the people of Kent, and the East, South and Middle Saxons.1 [860] King Æthelbald, however, died at the end of a period of five years, and Æthelbyrht, his brother, succeeded to either dominion. In his days, a very large fleet of the pagans touched land, and they sacked the royal city called Winchester. And Osric, ealdorman of Hampshire, and Æthelwulf, ealdorman of Berkshire, met them, and when battle was joined, they put the pagans to flight, and won the victory. [864, A865] Four years after 'King Æthelbald’s death, however, the pagans established a base on the Isle of Thanet. They promised peace to the people of Kent, and they, on their part, produced money, being unaware of what was to follow. But the Danes broke the treaty, made a sally in the night without exciting notice, and ravaged the whole eastern area of Kent. [865, A866] King Æthelbyrht died after a year, and his body rests in peace in the monastery known as Sherborne. 2. Æthelred succeeded to the kingdom after the death of his brother Æthelbyrht. In the same year, the fleets of the tyrant Inwær arrived in the land of the English from the north, and they wintered among the East Angles. And there they strengthened their arma­ ments, mounted their horses, and concluded peace with the natives. [866, A867] After a year, that army, leaving the eastern area, was transported across the river Humber into the province of the Northumbrians, and to the city of York, which is now called E o fo r w ic by the common people. And there was then internal

CHRONICON ÆTHELWEARDI

36 nam que

c iu ilis

tu n c

dissensio nimis

in ter h a b ita tores terr?e

illius ; in tantum f u r i a m oti ita a u t et regem Osbyrhtum p ro p ria de sede eorum ^pulerint. C o n s ilio q u e fir m a to , p a r ite r omnes quendam s ib i ig n o b ilem e lig u n t regem , nec non tarde a d hoc conuertunt animum, contra tela a d ia cen tia e x e r citu s arma leuare. C en tu ria s congregant non parua s ; u isita n t hostes ia m m o r a n te s in su d a ; a ltern a tim 1 con cita n t ira s ; arma m ouent ; sta t, m iserum , ca d es u tr iu sq u e p o p u li ; ruunt illi c reges ; r e lic ti quipp e eorum p a cem confirm ant Aostili cum exercitu.

I n eodem anno m ig r a u it E a n u l f d u x p r o u in c ia

Sum ersa tu n , episcopus quoque E a lh s ta n u s ,p o s t su ccessio n em , s u i

in parochia quæ Scireburnan uocatur. Ibi et corpus suum nunc requiescit, ducis x,f.2o quippe supradicti in cenobio quod Glastingabyrig n u n cu 86y(A868) p a tu r . E r g o post annum castra m etatus est exercitu s paga­ norum, c u iu s adueetum sup ra memorauimwi, in locu m S n o tin g a h a m , illicque hiem a uerunt, et B u r k r e d , rex Merczorum , cum s u is p r im a tib u s eis consense r u n t 2 m a n en d i sin e 868(A86g) c a lu m n ia . A n n o ig itu r im p leto ip se exercitus eleu a tu r a d E u o ra ca m urbem , et ibi q u o q u e castra m eta ti s u n t tem p ore 869{A87o) hyberno. Iteru m p o s t annum m ig r a n tu r , trans regnum que M e r cio r u m itinera cedunt a d orientalem p a rte m Angi orum , a p isco p a tu s q u in q u a g in ta annos

ib iq u e castra

Aduermy

x,F.6r

m etantur te m p o r e h ie m a li in

loco

T h e o tfo r d a .

Eadm un d u s, b reu i sp a tio a q u ib u s I et interimitur ibi. Cuius corpus iacet mausoleatum in lo c o qui Beadoricesuuyrthe n u n c u p a tu r , obtinueruntque tum b a r b a r i u icto r iæ numen, mox d e fu n c to rege, nam et tforum rex anno in e o d e m o b iit l u n a r . Ceoln othus q u o q n e a rch iep isco p u s in ip s o anno m ig r a u it, et se p u ltu s est in quos o p t a u it b b ellu m rex

a Omitted, Savile b aptauit, Savile 1 This inexact use of alternatim is paralleled, Aldhelm, D e laud. uirg., xix. 2 ius should perhaps be supplied in the Latin.

THE CHRONICLE ÔE ÆTHELWEARD

36

dissension on a large scale among the people of that country. They [were] moved by rage to such a degree that they expelled their king Osbyrht from the throne which was properly his. They agreed their plan, and all unani­ mously elected an ignoble king. And they gave their attention to this matter quickly, that is to take up arms against the weapons of the nearby army. They gathered large contingents, and approached the enemy, who were now lodged within their rampart. One after the other 1 they worked up their fury. When they began fighting, there was, alas, a slaughter of both nations, and the kings fell there. The survivors concluded peace with the enemy force. In the same year Eanwulf, ealdorman of Somerset, passed away, and also Bishop Ealhstan, fifty years after his succession to his see in the bishropric called Sherborne. And there his body now rests, and that of the ealdorman just mentioned in the monastery called Glastonbury. [867, A868] After a year, the army of pagans, whose arrival we mentioned above, laid out a camp in Nottingham, and wintered there, and Burgred, king of the Mercians, and his nobles granted them [the right of] 2 remaining without challenge. [868, A869] At the end of a year, that army went up to the city of York, and there also they laid out a camp in the winter. [869, A870] After a year they moved again, and struck across the kingdom of the Mercians to East Anglia, and there laid out a camp in the winter season at Thetford. And King Eadmund decided on war against them, and after a brief interval he was killed by them there. And his body lies entombed in the place called Bury St Edmund’s. And then the barbarians had the blessing of victory as the death of their king grew near, for their king, Inwær, also died in the same year. Archbishop Geolnoth also passed away in that year and was buried

CHRONICON ÆTHELWEARDI

37 871

urbe

rwrsum u n iu s

a n n i p r o fe ctu s

m e m o r a t u s a d locum R ea d in g o n

barbarorum

C a n tu a r io r u m .

est inde

supra

exercitu s,a et m a xim e O c c id e ntales S a xo n es,

Ig itu r p o s t

cogitans et ia m

plebs

im p iissim a

d ieb u s p e r a ctis

uenerant illo p roten d u n t ante duo consules eorum .

b e lla

trib u s e x

adire quo

Ia m ap para tu

tequestri quem natura negarat o b liti cla sse a u t certe ex p lo ra tio n is r itu tam celeres a u t ceterni n u m in is p e r a ru a silu a sq u e fe r u n tu r .1

Adulfus, et quamuis pauca manus, sed fortia animi receptacula manent ; dirigunt tela, hostes x,F.6y u e r tu u t , opimisque gaudent spoliis. D e n iq u e quadriduanum post a m b itu m E ð e r e d rex adest cum exercita ; n im is in c e n d it u r me dio in e n a r r a b ili s pugna ; m odo h i modo alii rigidis in s t a n t certam ine telis ; ruit d u x A ð u lf u s q u i p a u lo «iotoriam optinuerat ante ; b a rb a ri post uictom ex ista n t. C orp u s quippe supra d ic t i d u cis a b stra h itu r f u r t i m , adduciturque in M e r cio r u m p ro u in cia m in loco q u i N o r th u u o r th ig e b n u n cu p a tu r , iu x ta autem D a n a a m lin g u a m D e o r a b y . Im p leto q u e iterum q u a d rid u o rex Æ ð e r e d cum Æ lf r e d , germ ano suo, arm a insta u ra n t contra omnem p a g a n u m exercitu m c in loco Æ sc e sd u n e , xii,F.ir £'actaque est n im iu m ruina p a rte in utra/que. P o s t tam en rex E ð e r e d u ic t o r iæ obtint stem m a. N o m in a tim igitur instat u t p a n d a n tu r procerum nomina qui i b i c e s s i d / s u n t : B e r s e r e x eorum, ueteranus S ih tr ix con su l e o r u m , iunior q u o q u e S ih t r ix , O sbea rn co n su l , Fræna co n su l , H a r a l d e co n su l , et u t d ic a m tota p u r io r i lli c cecid it barbarorum iu u en tu s , ut nec ante nec p o s t A s t o bu u iu s dux.

tanta r u in a a u d ita est ex quo g en s B r i t a n n ia m o btin u era t b ello S a xo n u m .

I n t e r e a transa ctis quatuordecim d ieb u s

animo iterato

a So Savile, excercitus, M S h Northworthige, Savile c So Savile, excercitum, A IS d caesi, Savile e Haradd, Savile 1 This sentence is a rhetorical expansion of the reference to the Danes riding in O E C . The construction is mixed, and would be clearer without tarn : ‘ swift indeed in the manner of scouts or of the eternal spirit \

THE CHRÔNÏCLE OF ÆTHELWEARD

37

in Canterbury. [871] After the lapse of one year, the army of barbarians mentioned above set out to Reading from thence [i.e. from East Anglia], and above all that most impious people [were] considering attacking the West Saxons with war. And three days after they had come there, two of their earls marched forward. Now by means of the equestrian equipment which nature had denied them, having cast their fleet from mind, they ranged through fields and woods as swift indeed as scouts or as the eternal spirit.1 But Ealdorman Æthelwulf [came] in their way, and although his band was small, their reserves of courage were mighty. They aimed their weapons, put the enemy to flight and rejoiced in the spoils of victory. Then after the passage of four days, King Æthelred arrived with an army, and an indescribable battle broke out violently between them. Now one troop and now another went into action with sharp weapons. Ealdorman Æthelwulf fell, who had won the victory shortly before, and the barbarians were victors. The body of the ealdorman mentioned above was carried away secretly, and was taken into Mercia, to the place called N o r th w o r th ig , but in the Danish language Derby. After four days, King Æthelred with Ælfred, his brother, renewed the fight against the whole pagan force in Ashdown, and losses occurred on a great scale on either side. Afterwards, however, King Æthelred won the crown of victory. Our task is to reveal one by one the names of the leaders who were killed there : Berse, one of their kings, Sihtric the elder, one of their earls, also Sihtric the younger, Earl Osbearn, Earl Fræna, Earl Harold, and as I may say, all the nobler youth of the barbarians fell there, so that neither before nor after has such a slaughter been heard of since the race of the Saxons won Britain in war. Amid these

CHRONICON ÆTHELWEARDI

38 pugrue

in loco

co n sistu n t

moxque

m ix ta

arm a

b a rb a ri lo cu m , s p e m q u e regia, turm a ;

in

B a sin g o n

p ræ n o m im to

q uid em ,

paulatim

suscepere

inter se cudunt ;

sedu citu r

contrario

familia rem

s ib i

ia m prœ uisores aspera tenent lo c a

;

sin e s p o liis

Porro p o s t m enses duos renouât c e r ta m e n xii.F.ii/ rex præfatus Æthered, cum quo frater sum Æ lf r e d , in loco M e r a n tu n e contra passim barbarum exercitu m ,a et in «traque manu cessa b est m u ltitu d o ; b a rb a ri «zVtoriæ obtinent num en. I b i r u it fe r r o interem p tu s H ea h m u n d u s episcop us, suum que corpus ia cet sep u ltum in loco C æ g inesham m e. M u l t i F.48or quoque in eadem p u g n a r u e r e , fu g a tiq u e , de q u ib u s u id etu r im - / pendiosam 2 in h a c breuitate protensionem notm u ti. D e n iq u e uictoriam su m u n t.1

post

deuolutionem

migra u it

præ dictæ

illiu s

rex E ð e r e d de cu iu s radice

teneo

iterato ordine

qugnæ

manifesto

a n n i p o s t p a sch a o r tu m .

N u p e rq u e

consolida re in cip ia m tib i, c o n s o b r in a

M a h t ild i s ueneranda, et u e lu ti aduecta n a u is p e r g u rg ites undarum lo n g in q u a sp a tia tenet ia m p o rtu m ,

x,F.5r p lo r a r a t,

qm

d ilig e n ti tram ite e x -

ita et nos q u a si more nautarum ing redim ur, et u t

ol/im

tib i p e r p risca m breuiter co m m em o ra u i ep istola m , s im ilite r et in p r e fa tiu n c u lis p resen tis

lib e llu li,

nec

inpudenter

iterum

com ­

m em oro, et (q u a m u is prerum po f a s m a t is cursum non necessitate m otus, s e d tue ca rita tis am ore)

3 nunc p le n iu s

ex tem pore g en eris °

n ostri p r o sa p ia retransm itto m editandum , s a tis q uip p e am plecteris stu d iu m

tue sin cerita tis.

A cte n u s d rugositate relicta d c f i l i i s

a So Savile, excercitum, M S b cæsa, Savile c de generis, Savile d hactenus, Savile 1 See Introduction, p. xxxiv, n. 2 2 Not quite grammatical : impendiosam should be neut., but is attracted to agree with protensionem. 3 The meaning is that in reaching the ancestors of himself and Matilda, Æthelweard has figuratively reached port, and will presume to enlarge on family relationships, though he has previously touched upon them.

THE CHRONICLE OF ÆTHELWEARD

38

events they [i.e. the West Saxons] took heart again, and after fourteen days went into position for battle in the place called Basing. They soon joined battle against one another, and the barbarians gradually got control of the field, and conceived among themselves their customary hope ; the royal force was withdrawn, and then the captains [of the barbarians] held the battlefield, and won the victory, but took no spoil.1 Then after two months, the above-mentioned King Æthelred, and with him his brother Ælfred, renewed the fight against an army of barbarians on a wide front at M e r a n tu n , and a multitude was killed on either side. The barbarians won the blessing of victory. Then fell Bishop Heahmund, killed by the sword, and his body lies buried at Keynsham. Many fell in the same battle, and [many were] put to flight, concerning whom it seems extravagant for us to indulge in expansive detail.2 Then after the occurrence of the above-mentioned battle, after the Easter of that year, King Æthelred, from whose root I spring, passed away. Having just retraced my steps, O revered cousin Matilda, I will begin to give you confirmation with added clarity. Just as a ship which has been carried through the turmoil of the waves for great distances, which she has explored on her careful voyage, comes at last to port, so we enter [port] as if in the manner of sailors, and as I formerly stirred your memory by means of my original letter, and similarly also in the introductory passages of this book, so I stir it again without incivility, and now at this moment send again something on a larger scale for your reflection concern­ ing the stock of our family, taking full advantage of the zeal of your sincere self, although I break the course of my work constrained not by necessity, but by love of your loving self.3 So setting aside my less even style, I

GHRONICON ÆTHELWEARDI

39

A ð u lf i in cip ia m lo q u i.

N a m q u e fu e r e num ero f r a t r e s q u in q u e :

p r im u s E ð e ls ta n u s , q u i et regnum o btin u era t s im u l cum p a tr e suo ;

secundus E ð e lb a ld , q u i et O ccid e n ta liu m A n g lo r u m rex ;

tertiu s E ð e lb y r h t, rex C a n tu a rioru m ; o bitu m

qua rtus E ð e r e d , q u i p o s t

E ð e lb y r h ti su ccessit in regnum , q u i et m eus a ta u u s ;

omnes successor p r in cip a tu s to tiu s, q u i et Proptjerea notum t ib i f a c i o h a e , amanda

q u in tu s E lf r e d p o s t

x,f.5z> a tauus

uester.

consobrina M a h t ild is , a ccip ien s ab a n n ili uetustate, et m a xim e

idlo de

breui n ostri gen eris h isto ria m cu ra u i reges usque duos hos,

q u ib u s

deu ou eo ,

nos augm entum g r a tissim a ,

su m p sim u s.

coactus

T ib i

p r o p in q u ita tis

ergo hoc opus

am ore ;

ca teris

a utem , s i cum s u p e r c ilio a m p lectu n t, a n ostris in d ig n i

centwr le g i.

ca n istris ;

iudi-

a lia s ca ritate s u a d e m u s c u n c to s p rep o sita

I g itu r r e c u r r a m u s a d om issam locution em , et a d obitu m

reg is p r œ fa ti E ð e r e d i ;

h u iu s f u e r e regni a n n i q uin qu e ;

se-

p u ltu s quipp e est in cenobio q u od V u in bu rn a n nuncupatur.

3.

C a p itu lu m .

m ig ra tu p o s t fr a tr u m .

H is

1 a in

lo c o

e x e r c itu m a a u id a

Æ lf r e d o p tin u it reg

Ip s e et u ltim u s A ð u lf i f i l i u s regis sup er

x,f.3^ p r o u in cia s B r ita n n ia cunctas. exercitu s

ita p e ra ctis

Readiwgo«, b ellu m

A d u e n it

sine

n u /m ero a s tiu u s

et contra O ccid e n ta liu m

m anu A n g lo r u m ;

su b sid io

a d sun t et h i q u i uastauerant ib id em tem pore longo.

ineuwi q u ib u s

E r a t autem

ex ig u u s tum a A n g lo r u m exercitus b p rop ter absentia m reg is, q u i eodem tem pore exeq u ia s f r a t r is im p leu era t, et qu a m u is n o n p l e n a acies m anu s e d robustus p e c to r e consta t a n im u s, lo n g iu s p e llu n t

a So Savile, excero, M S 1 Translating O E sumorlida.

b cum, M S , Savile

THE CHRONICLE OF ÆTHELWEARD

39

will speak of the sons of Æthelwulf. The brothers were five in number. The first was Æthelstan who had taken up the government at the same time as his father. The second was Æthelbald, who was also king of the West Saxons. The third was Æthelbyrht, king of the people of Kent. The fourth was Æthelred, who succeeded to the kingdom after the death of Æthelbyrht, and who was my great-great-grandfather. The fifth was Ælfred, successor after all the others to the entire kingdom, who was your great-great-grandfather. Accordingly, sweet cousin Matilda, having gathered these things from remote antiquity, I have made communication to you, and above all I have given attention to the history of our race as far as these two kings, from whom we derive our descent. To you, therefore, I dedicate this work, most beloved, spurred by family affection. But as for other people, may they be banned from our feasts as unworthy, if they receive them with scorn ; otherwise, I urge all men that the things put before them be read in love. Therefore let us return to our neglected subject, and the death of the above-mentioned King Æthelred. The years of his reign were five, and he was buried in the monastery called Wimborne. 3. When these things had happened, Ælfred got the kingdom after the death of his brothers. He was the last son of King Æthelwulf [to rule] over all provinces of Britain. An innumerable summer army 1 arrived at Reading, and opened hostilities vigorously against the army of the West Saxons. And the ones who had long been ravaging in that area were at hand to help them. The army of the English was then small, owing to the absence of the king, who at that time was attending to the obsequies of his brother. Although the ranks were not at full strength, high courage was in their breasts,

40

CHRONICON ÆTHELWEARDI

hostes certam ine læ ti.

A tta m e n o p p r e s s i la ssa tu d esistu n t pugnee,

b a rb a ri u t sterilem op tinen t tunc uictoriæ s ta tu m ; p o s t d iffu s i præ das m in a n t , u a sta n t loca .

q u in etia m

F u eru n tq u e in ter a

s q u a lid iss im a eorum d o m in a tio n e ab A n g lis u id e lice t certam ina tr ia , exscepto sup ra m em oratis b e llis , q u o ru m undecim consules

x,F.3r

ru un t , quos i l l i

‘ eorla s 5 / solen t

nom inare , et rex eorum u n u s .

D e n iq u e in eodem anno A n g li O c c id e n t a le s p a cem stru u n t cum illi s .

M ig r a tu s q u e est num erus tunc usque a d con sessu m exer­

citu s b barbarorum in R e a d in g u m , et usque a d ob itu m Æ ð e r e d i reg is et Æ A îr e d i f r a t r is c illiu s successionem , annorum septuagessim u s

unus

regnum ;

ex

quo

aum

eorum

q ua dra g in ta siq u id em

O ccid en ta les A n g l i c iu ilia

E cg by rh t

r e x d con tin u era t

et septem e x quo M y r c i i et

b e lla gessere

in

cognom inato

E lle n d u n e ,1 et E c g b y r h t rex su m p s it uictoriæ nu m en .e

loco

D e in d e

f u e r e a n n i u ig in ti s e x e x quo p u g n a g esta est in loco P ed red a n ; deinde u ig in ti a certam ine q u od g estu m est iu x ta condensum q u o d A c le a

n u n cu p a tu r ;

deinde ab

x,f.7r O r ie n ta liu m A n g lo r u m

longa

anni /

aduectu p a g a n o ru m

q u in q u e ,2 nec non

tum a p p lica tu s eorum in R e a d in g o n

in p a r te s

3 d is c r im in a tio

locum .

P o stq u e

872 u n iu s a n n i decursum ex quo uenerant R ea d in g o n castra m eta ti

s u n t ob a m b itu L o n d o n f u r b is , a st M y r c ii confirm ant cum eis 873 f e d e r i s p a ctu m stip en d ia q u e sta tu u n t.

P o s t annum b a rb a ri sedes

m u ta n t confinium iu x ta L in d is s i urbe in T u r ce sig e g condicto loco ; 874

ite r a n t p a cem fæ d e r is Myrcia p le b s cum

eis.

p o s t c i r c u l i u n iu s b a rb a ri sedes m ig ra n t tandem locu m ,

regemque

A m b itu m a n n i H reop a nd u n e

B u r h r e d u m de regno p e llu n t e x tr a ocea n u m .

a inter, Savile h So Savile, excero, M S c fratri, M S , Savile d wanting, Savile € nomen, Savile f Lundoniæ, Savile 9 Turcessige, Savile 1 48 would be exact. 2 O n these figures see Introduction, p. xxxix, n. i 3 The familiar connective nec non seems carelessly used, as the sentence is negative.

THE CHRONICLE OF ÆTHELWEARD

40

and rejoicing in battle they repel the enemy some distance. However, overcome with weariness, they desist from fighting, and the barbarians won a degree of victory which one might call fruitless. Afterwards, they dispersed, carried off plunder, and ravaged places. And in their hateful period of ascendancy there were three time three battles [fought] by the English, not including those mentioned above, and eleven of their consules fell, whom they usually call earls, and one king. Then in the same year the West Saxons made peace with them. Then down to the encampment of the army of barbarians at Reading, and to the death of King Æthelred and the succession of Ælfred his brother, the number of years seventy-one had passed since their grandfather King Ecgbyrht had taken the kingdom under control, and forty-seven since the Mercians and West Saxons waged civil war at the place called E lle n d u n ,1 and King Ecgbyrht enjoyed the blessing of victory. Further­ more, the years were twenty-six from when a battle was fought at the Parret, twenty from the fight which took place by the forest called A c le a h , and from the arrival of the pagans in the territories of the East Angles five years,2 and 3 their arrival in Reading [was] then no distant land­ mark in time. [872] After the lapse of one year from when they come to Reading, they laid out a camp near London, but the Mercians settled with them an agreement in treaty-form, and fixed cash payments. [873] After a year the barbarians changed their encamp­ ment to the area near Lindsey in the place called Torksey. The Mercian people renewed their peace treaty with them. [874] After the revolution of one annual circle, the barbarians at length changed their encampment to Repton, and expelled King Burgred from his kingdom across the sea. Already the days (2,486)

10

CHRONICON ÆTHELWEARDI

41

la m decies b is et duo supra annorum ca lcu la n tu r d ies e x a quo p a te r n a

tenebat

M e r cio r u m

x,f.7î> it in e r a

arua.

regna.

Q u ip p e

p roiecta

p a ce

p o p u la n tu r

R e x p ræ d ictu s non spem b a b iecta

legit / desiderando

C h r is ti

Rom am ,

migraturque ibi, suu m qu e corpus m a u soX to digno conditum ia cet in tem plo Christi g en etricis sanctæ , q u æ 1 nunc A n g lo ru m scholae usitawi nom en. T em p o re

875 eodem C e o l f p o s se d it regnum M e r c io r u m .

D e n iq u e p o s t annum

F.480D b a rb a ri in sortes s ib i d u a s d iu id u n t regnum . P a r / tem sumpsit d u x barbarorum H e a lfd e n e womenN o r ð a u h y m b r ioru m . H ib e r n o ibi sedilia tempore cu d it iu x ta n o m in a tu m fluuium T in a n , ib id em q u e u a s ta n t territoria p a s s im , a st creb riu s inducunt P i h t is b e llu m C u m b risq u e. Oscytel quoque et G u ð ru m et A n n u th . { h i i c tres reges eorum) cum im m enso exercitu d de loco H rip a n d u n e a d cognom inatum locum G ra n ta n b ricg e . . . , e

Porro in i/wius a n n i a sta te e x iit Æ lf r e d rex cum classico exercitu mare, obuiamque ei barbara classis, dromones ardui numero septem ; pugna init, Dani fugæ dant undas, capitur unus dromon a rege. Siquidem post annum tyrannus Healfdene Northanhymbriorum sortitus est regnum, subiectis cunc­ tis. Et in ipsius anni decursu exercitus, qui in Grantan­ bricge fuerat, coniecit statum communem cum occidentali exercitu,2 quod ante non usi sunt, iuxta oppidum quod Vuerham nuncupatur, depopulataque est ab eis pars maior prouinciæ illius. Quin etiam rex pactum cum eis pacis confirmat, simulque pecuniam dando. Ipsi uero dant obsides ei, electi qui tum in exercitu uidebantur obtutu regum eorum, eique statuunt iusiuramentum in eorum armilla sacra, quod cæterarum regionum fecere

sta tum q ue f t

876

cere

ib i m enses duodecim .

a et, M S , Savile b spe, Savile c hi, Savile d So Savile, excercitu, M S e N o gap in M S or Savile 1 qua is attracted in gender and number to schola. 2 The precise meaning is doubtful, but O E C is clearly mistranslated, see Introduction, p. xxvi.

THE CHRONICLE OF ÆTHELWEARD

41

were added up to twenty-two years from when he ruled his ancestral realms [first]. They [i.e. the Danes] broke the peace and ravaged the fields of Mercia. The above-mentioned king did not lose hope in Christ, but began to travel, desiring [to reach] Rome, and died there. His body, placed in a worthy tomb, lies in the church of Christ’s holy mother, which 1 now has the name ‘ English schools ’. At that time Ceolwulf held the kingdom of the Mercians. [875] Then after a year the barbarians divided up the kingdom for themselves into two shares. A leader of the barbarians by name Healfdene took the area of the Northumbrians. There he made encamp­ ments in winter time near the river called Tyne, and there they ravaged the country all round, and made war quite often on the Piets and the Strathclyde Britons. Oscytel, Guthrum and Annuth (these were three kings of theirs) went from Repton to the place called Cam­ bridge, and were encamped there twelve months. Then in the summer of that year Ælfred went out to sea with a naval force, and a barbarian fleet met him, tall swift ships in number seven. The battle began, the Danes fled over the water, and one ship was captured by the king. [876] After a year, the tyrant Healfdene divided the kingdom of the Northumbrians, having subdued all men. And in the course of that year, the army which had been in Cambridge encamped in the same position as the West-Saxon army,2 a thing which they had not previously done, near the town called Wareham, and the greater part of that province was ravaged by them. Moreover the king made a treaty of peace with them, and gave them money at the same time. They themselves, as a matter of fact, gave him hostages, who then seemed choice men in the regard of their kings, and they made an oath to him upon their

42

877

878

GHRONICON ÆTHELWEARDI

nunquam, ut citius tam exire oris eorum. Ast transgredi­ untur pacem subitoque frangunt pactum, et in sequenti anno prouinciam expanso agmine uisitant Defenum, ibique castra metantur tempore hyberno in urbe Exancestre. Denique classes eorum eleuant uela, dant uento carinas, procella ingruit tristis, mergitur pars non mi­ nima, centum numero carinae supremae, iuxta rupem quae Suuanauuic nuncupatur. Fraude constituunt ite­ rata pacem barbari mente, obsidesque dantur plusquam quaerebantur, Elfredi quippe regi opimi de potestate finium a sua promittunt abstrahere pedem ; sicque fe­ cere, Merciorum regna uastando pellunt ingenuos pas­ sim, ategias figunt in oppido dicto Gleaucestre b uario ictu. Ergo in illius anni . . . c praetextum fregerunt praeordinatum cum Occidentalibus Anglis plebs spurcis­ sima pactum orco firmo, appliciumque sumunt hyemale in loco Gippanhamme. Ast multos equitando per aduerterent ceruices, quoad haud habuere incolae dominatu insopituri,1 citius eorum cuncti mentes uertunt. Tum alios impia potestate trans pellunt Gallias mare in oras. Ælfred siquidem rex arctius tunc habebatur quam decuit. Dux quoque Æthelnoth prouinciae Sumorsetun exiguo cum agmine sylua in quadam morabatur. Construxeruntque firmitatem quodammodo in insula Æthelingaige, quæ uidetur sita in palude. Rex uero praedictus contra barbaros non sinebat quotidiano certamine, cum sola prouincia Sumersætun ; nec aliae tunc ei adiutrices excepto his qui regio pastu utebantur famulis. In eodem

a firmium b Glenucestre c N o gap in Savile 1 Prefix is added to sopio (cf. indormio), and the verb is given middle force.

THE CHRONICLE OF ÆTHELWEARD

42

sacred armlet, a thing they never did elsewhere, to leave their [i.e. the West-Saxon] shores as soon as possible. But they contravened the peace and suddenly broke the agreement, and [877] in the following year entered Devon on a wide front, and there laid out a camp in winter-time in the city of Exeter. Then their ships raised sail, and put to sea, but a grim tempest fell on them, a large part [of the fleet] was lost, in number a hundred tall ships, near the cliff known as Swanage. The barbarians made peace treacherously, being in the same frame of mind as before, hostages were given more than were asked, and the leaders promised King Ælfred to withdraw from the jurisdiction of his boundaries. They acted accordingly, and they ravaged the kingdom of the Mercians, drove away the natives everywhere, and with one involved movement encamped in the town called Gloucester. So in [the course] of that year . . . [878] That very foul people broke the agree­ ment made under strong oath with the West Saxons, and made their winter quarters in Chippenham. By riding through [the lands of] many, they would have subjected them, [but] so far as the inhabitants were not [already] quiescent1 under their domination, they all quickly changed their minds. Then they [i.e. the Danes] with cruel force expelled others across the sea to the shores of Gaul. King Ælfred, indeed, was then in greater straits than was befitting. Æthelnoth, the ealdorman of Somerset, also lurked in a certain wood with a small force. And they made something of a fort in the island of Athelney, which lies in a marsh. The above-mentioned king did not, in truth, cease from daily battle against the barbarians with the help of the men of Somerset only. He had then no other reinforcements except servants who had royal maintenance. In the

43

CHRONICON ÆTHELWEARDI

anno aduectus est Healfdene, Iguuares tyranni frater, cum triginta moneribus in occidentales Anglorum partes, obseditque Oddan ducem prouinciæ Defenum in quodam castro, incenderuntque Martem intus et foras ; bar­ barum rex ruit, octoginta quippe cum eo decades.1 Postremo uictoriæ obtinent locum etiam Dani. Interea post pascha illius anni coaptauit bellum Ælfred rex aduersus exercitus, qui in Gippanhamme fuere, in loco Ethandune, uictoriæque obtinent numen. Post autem pugnae solutionem barbari pacem promittunt, inducias petunt, non negant obsides, iusiurandum confirmant, rex eorum scilicet suscipit baptismatis fontem, quem su­ perstes de lauacro sumit rex Ælfred in Alnea insula paludensi. Dux pariter Æthelnoth abluit post lauacrum eundem in loco Vuedmor, illicque ei praebuit rex Ælfred 879 honores magnifice. Deinde post annum, ex quo exer­ citus paganorum ab urbe exierat Gleauceastre, profectus est in oppidum Cyrenceastre, ibique metatus tempore hibernali. Et in ipsius anni decursu obscuratus est sol. 880 Post annum igitur ex quo iubar omiserat Phoebus, eleuatus est praedictus exercitus relicto Cyrenceaster ad xii,F.4r Orientalium Anglorum partes, castra, metatique sunt ibi, omnesque h a b ita to r e s i l l i n s terrae sub iugo im p e r ii s u i duxere. P era ctiq u e jtmt quatuordecim a n n i tunc ex quo h y e m a u e r u n t barbari in a m is terræ þ m d ic tæ et eq uestra ti. P o r r o in eodem anno , p o s tq u a m sub iecta esset eis te llu s p rœ d icta , artemon p e tu n t Gallias partes, statum firmant in Gent loco con­ dicto ipsi eidem qui castra metabantur quondam in loco 881 Fullanhamme.2 Scilicet post annum ulterius progredi petunt, agmina Francorum e contra insiliunt armis,

1 O E C has ‘ 800 men, and 40 men of his body-guard \ 2 Æthelweard omitted to mention the arrival of these under 879.

THE CHRONICLE OF ÆTHELWEARD

43

same year, the brother of Healfdene and of the tyrant Inwær arrived with thirty ships in the country of the West Saxons, and besieged Odda, ealdorman of Devon, in a certain fortress, and within and without battle raged. The king of the barbarians fell, and eight hundred men with him.1 In the end the Danes held the field of victory. While these things were going on, King Ælfred after Easter ofthat year joined battle at Edington against the army stationed at Chippenham, and they [the West Saxons] enjoyed the blessing of victory. After action was broken off, the barbarians promised peace, asked for a treaty, gave hostages and swore an oath, while their king accepted the water of baptism, and King Ælfred, acting as witness, received him from the font in Aller, the marshy island. Ealdorman Æthelnoth, also, purified him at Wedmore after baptism, and there King Ælfred showered honours upon him. [879] Then after a year from when the army of pagans left the city of Gloucester, it set out for the town of Cirencester, and encamped in the winter season. And in the course of the same year, the sun was darkened. [880] After a year from when Phoebus lost his brightness, the abovementioned army left Cirencester, and departed to the country of the East Angles, and laid out a camp there, and brought all the inhabitants of that land under the yoke of their overlordship. And then fourteen years had passed since the barbarians wintered in the fields of the above-mentioned country, and were provided with horses. Then in the same year, after the country in question was subjected to them, the ones who formerly laid out a camp at Fulham 2 sought Gaul by ship, and stationed themselves in the place called Ghent. [881] After one year they sought to go farther, the forces of the Franks sprang in arms against them, and enjoyed

CHRONIGON ÆTHELWEARDI

44

xíí,f.4i/ 882

883

F.481r

uictoriæque fu n g u n tu r numen, barbaro e x e r c it u a f u g a t o .1 Postque circulum u n iu s a n n i transiit praedictus exercitus in jwperiora territoriib Mæsæ, et castra m etditi sunt in loco Escelun. In eodem anno exiuit nauigio rex Æ lf r e d , obuiauitque dromones c qua tuor ; ab eo su p era ti truncantur duo ;

r e licti arm a om issa

duo s u b ic iu n t c o lla .

Anno

ig itu r

transeunte p r o f e c t u s est supra d ictu s exercitu s a sup ra in S c a ld p a rro ch ia s a d lo cu m . C u n d a ð , ib iq u e h iem a le su m u n t m e ta tu m .

unius, a b ru m p itu r opposita supra dicti clades exercitus in superiora Sunnan turmae in loco 885 Embenum, ibique castra metatur spatio hibernali. Ergo xii,F.5r post annum partiuntur in sortem sibi arua telluris ip siu s 2 in du&y p a r te s , unam ad h o fe n u m , alteram a d H ro fecestre p a rte m u id e lic e t p ertin en tem , obsederuntque op p id a p m d ic t a . N e c non alia sibi stru u n t u ilia ca stra . E t ia m defectus d o m in a tu r a cco lis pmcis, u s q u e dum a d u en isset rex Ælfred o c c i d e n t a l i cum m anu. S u p era ta /andern lu es in m u n da ; a u x ilia q u œ r u n t, rex iu s s it Sarauara3 d u ci , eq u is non e x ig u is 4 littordi p e tu n t , p r o p ria s sedes. Q u id a m eorum u ltra p e tu n t m a rin a s p a rte s. C u rsu in e iu s d e m a n n i p ræ sen tis ofoidatum cum renouant A n g lis o m issi , b isq u e numerant fraude p r a d a s in anno telluris in condenso adhaerenti notheas fluuio partes Tamesi.6 Petias sub dant plebs immunda quae tum Orientales continebat Anglos, repente extraneum xii,F.5» petunt uestigio cursum ad locum Beamfleote. I b iq u e 884

Im p leta q u e serie a n n i

a So Savile, excer . . ., M S b territoriis, Savile c dromonos, Savile 1 Wrongly translated, see Introduction, p. xxvi 2 i.e. they had previously taken chattels, but now shared land by lot to colonise. 3 The meaning of Sarauara is quite uncertain, cf. Index. 4 Æthelweard takes behorsude, recorded only in this entry of OEC> to mean ‘ provided with horses ’, Asser, more probably, as ‘ deprived of horses \ adhærenti . . . Tamesi are in the absolute construction, and adhærenti governs the acc., cf. Introduction, p. liii

6

THE CHRONICLE OF ÆTHELWEARD

44

the blessing of victory, putting the barbarian army to flight.1 [882] After the passage of one year, the abovementioned army crossed into the upper Meuse territory, and laid out a camp at Elsloo. In the same year King Ælfred boarded ship, and met four light vessels. Two were overcome by him and destroyed. The remaining two laid down their arms and submitted. [883] When the year was passing away, the above-mentioned army set out up into the districts by the Scheldt to Condé, and took a winter station there. [884] When the course of one year was completed, the hostile pest of the above-mentioned army, of the throng, departed into the upper regions of the Somme to Amiens, and there laid out a camp in the winter season. [885] After a year they divided by lot among themselves the fields of the country itself 2 into two parts, one adjoining Louvain and the other Rochester, and they besieged those towns. They also built other small camps for themselves, and already lack [of men] was the lot of the natives, until King Ælfred arrived with a West-Saxon force. At last the foul plague was overcome. They [i.e. the English] sought help, and the king gave his orders to the leader of the men o f . . .3 With many horses 4 they [i.e. the Danes] sought the shore and their proper stations [i.e. their ships.] Some of them sought places beyond the sea. In the course of this same year under discussion, those left behind renewed their exchange of hostages with the English, and by deceit had to their account twice in the year raids in the afforested parts of the country where the river Thames touches its southern shores.5 The foul people who then held East Anglia gave support, and suddenly made an expedition outside their own boundaries to Benfleet. There the allied force was

CHRONIGON ÆTHELWEARDI

45 lu rid o

m otu,

partitur

p e tu n t

ultra

p a rte s m arin a s.

socia

m a n u s , q uid a m

m anent , qu id a m

Ita q u e classem m ittit in eodem

anno in orien tales p a rte s A n g lo r u m rex p r e fa tu s , etia m Æ lf r e d , sta tim q u e aduectu

in eorum occursum a f u e r e

m uðan

s c ilic e t

sexd ecim

num ero

a rm is, fe r r o truncantur m a g istri.

k a r in a ;

in loco S tu fe -

u a sta n tur

quidem

Cœ tera c la s s is p ir a tic a cursu

1 unda coacta r u tila n t arm a ; p o s t g ra d u m b a rb a ri uictoriæ jftzndunt. I n eodem anno magnificu s o b iit Karolus, rex xii,F.6r Francorum, extin/ctus nece ante unius circulum anni, quem post subsequitur equidem uterinus frater, qui tum præfueraí Gallias fines super occidentales.2 A m b o q u e fuere filii H lo d u u ig e s , cu iu s ante regim en fuerat totum , extrem a ia m series f u e r a t uitæ in orbitu s o lis p r a d ic to ,3 ip seque m a g n i f i l i u s regis esse K a r u li , q uip p e cu iu s in m atrim on ium b d u xera t o bu ia

u eh itu r i l l i s ;

f ili a m

rex A ð u lf u s

in sistu n t rem is ;

A n g lo r u m A

A st

deponunt

in

m otione

sca rm os ;

illiu s

f a c t u s est cum barbarorum c la s s ia li non im p etu p a ru o

anni

5 litto ra

com plens V eteranum ° S a x o n u m , b isq u e in eodem p a r e n t tem pore b e lla .

V ictores p o s t ex ista n t S a xo n es.

certam ine s im u l. m inor

totas

A d fu e re q u e tum F r i s i i

I n eodem anno su ccessit in regnum K a r u lu s

occidenta les

sup er

G a lli a

p a rte s

et

usque

ad

mare protensa, et ut dicam proaui sui passim xii,F.6ti potestatem, e x c e p to e prouinciae Liduuicon ; cuius 6 p a te r //Zoduuius frater Karuli medii,7 cu iu s f ilia m duxerat in T y ren u m d

a occursim, Savile b So Savile, matronium, A 1S c Veteranorum, Savile d Tyrrhenum, Savile e So Savile, exscep-, M S 1 Lit. ‘ thole-pins ’, used as pars pro toto, cf. Introduction, p. xlvii. 2 There is some misunderstanding of O E C here, for Charles (i.e. Carloman) succeeded his brother Louis, and the statement that both had been emperors of the west is taken to mean apparently that Louis had ruled western Gaul before his brother’s death. 3 i.e. 879 4 Æthelweard confuses Charles the Bald, d. 877, and his son Louis the Stammerer, d. 879, the father of the Louis and Carloman under discussion, with Charles the Great, d. 814, and his son Louis the Pious, d. 840, who in fact * had the entire empire \

THE CHRONICLE OF ÆTHELWEARD

45

divided by a grim quarrel, some remained, some sought places beyond the sea. And in the same year the abovementioned King Ælfred sent a fleet to East Anglia, and as soon as they arrived, ships sixteen in number met them at the mouth of the Stour. These were cleared by force of arms and the officers were put to the sword. The rest of the pirate fleet came on its course in their way. They plied their oars, and then dropped their rowing-gear.1 The clashing weapons shone on the sea. Finally the barbarians achieved victory. In the same year died Charles the Magnificent, king of the Franks, killed by a violent death before the completion of one year [of his reign], and his uterine brother, who at that time had been ruling the western part of Gaul, succeeded him.2 And both were sons of Louis, who had the entire empire previously, and his ultimate days were at the time of the above-mentioned eclipse.3 And he was the son of Charles the Great, whose daughter Æthelwulf, king of the English, had married.4 And in the course of that year an onset was made which raged along the coasts of the Old Saxons with a naval [force] of the barbarians,5 and fighting took place twice on the same occasion. Finally the Saxons were the victors. Frisians were also present in the battle on that occasion. In the same year Charles the Lesser succeeded to the government over all the western parts of Gaul, and [countries] extending to the Tyrrhene Sea, and as I may say over the dominions of his great-grandfather in all directions, except the province of Brittany. And his 6 father Louis was the brother of the middle Charles,7

5 The phrase non impetu paruo is virtual subject, and equal to impetus non paruus. 6 i.e. Charles the Lesser (the Fat) 7 Charles the Bald, d. 877

46

CHRONICON ÆTHELWEARDI

coniugium Athulf,

Et hi utrique fuere Hloduuius filius erat K a r u li m a g n i,

rex A n g l o m m .

f i l i i H lo d u u ii, s c i l i c e t

K a r u lu s P i p in i f i l i u s m agnus.

I n eodem anno m ig r a u it beatus

p a p a M a r in u s ,a q u i et in lib erta te p o su era t A n g lo r u m p e r p r e destinationem regis Æ lf r e d i, que nunc scola m R o m a uid etu r, e x t e r 1 beatoque m unera m is it lig n o b C h r is ti in quo s a lu s r u tila t m undo.

Q u ip p e in illiu s a n n i m eatu p r e d icta lu es

f a d u s , regem contra in s iliu n t te lis

886 annum

Æ lfr e d u m .

2 ru m p u n t

D e n iq u e p o s t

in feriores p a rte s G a llia s p e tu n t ,3continuoque s e d ilia cu d u n t

4 a rege Ælfredo urbs Lundonia ; et quem ingenio, quem xii,F.7r occurs« non s u p e r a M c r zt ciuilis discordia s a u a , hu n c ut iu x ta flu u iu m S ig n a p r a tem pestate hibern a .

In terea o b s id e tur

r e d e m p to r e m s u s c e p e r e cu n cti et m a x im e g en u s S a x o n u m , e x ­ cepto c ba rba ra d g en tis et h is q u i sub m anu eorum tum ca p tiu i tenebantur.

E tia m p o s t m anus ca teru a confirm atas ib i co n sti­

tu itu r d u x Æ ð e r e d

6a

rege p refa to cu stod ien d i a rcem .6

S iq u id e m

[887] exercitus f q u i tum p o p u la b a tu r G a llia s p a rte s u estig ia seca n t p e r

p o n tem arcis P a r is ia c a , totam que iu x ta S ig n ia m u a sta n t usque a d M a te r n e et super uerticem ip siu s usque a d C a ts ig , ib iq u e con stituun t ter hiberneos sta tu s.

I n eodem anno o b iit et K a r u lu s A

eius in regnum hebdomadas septem ante obitum patrui sui. Tum partitur regnum in quinque, regesque totidem xii,F.7» f u n c t i in eodem. Attamen p e r m is s u f i u n t Earnulfi cuncta, nec non p r o m ittu n t se esse eius sub manu d o m in iiq u e rex F ra n co ru m , E a r n u lfu s quoque su ccessit f r a t r u e llu s

a Martinus, Savile b biguo, Savile c So Savile, exsep-, M S d So Savile, barberæ, M S e Æthred, Savile f So Saviley excercitus, M S 1 Mistranslated, see Introduction, p. xxvi 2 i.e. the Danes of East Anglia 3 Not the Danes of East Anglia, but those besieging Louvain (see under 885). 4 Error for ‘ settled \ 5 cf. above, note p. 13 6 Charles the Fat, d. Jan. 888. The years of the Ælfredian part of O E C are indictional, and Æthelweard does not modify them.

TH E

C H R O N IC LE

OF Æ T H E L W E A R D

46

whose daughter Æthelwulf, king of the English, married. And they were both the sons of Louis, and Louis was the son of Charles the Great, and Charles the Great was the son of Pippin. In the same year, the blessed Pope Marinus passed away, who set free the school of the English, which is now at Rome, by previous arrange­ ment with King Ælfred, and who on three occasions 1 sent gifts made from the blessed cross of Christ, in whom the salvation of the world beams forth. In the course of the same year, the pest we spoke of above 2 broke the treaty and attacked King Ælfred in arms. [886] Then after a year they3 sought the lower parts of Gaul, and forthwith established themselves by the river Seine before winter time. Meanwhile the city of London was besieged 4 by King Ælfred, and all men and especially the race of the Saxons, excepting the barbarian race and those then held captive in their power, received the man as their saviour whom savage internal war could overcome through neither guile nor open challenge. Ealdorman Æthelred was set up there by the above-mentioned king to guard the citadel,5 after the ranks of the garrison had been strengthened. [887] The army which was then ravaging Gaul cut its way through the bridge of the fortress of Paris, and ravaged the whole nearby Seine country as far as the Marne, and beyond the upper part of this as far as Chézy, and there they made three winter camps. In the same year Charles,6 king of the Franks, died and Arnulf, his nephew, had succeeded to the kingdom seven weeks before the death of his uncle. Then the empire was divided into five, and a corresponding number of kings were active in it. Yet everything was done by Arnulf5s permission, and they [the kings] promised to be under his control, and [to be] supporters

CH RO NICON Æ T H E L W E A R D I

47 iuuantes

ideo, quoniam non

n u llu s to r u m .

essent s icu t ip se sulco de p a tern o

H a b ita u itq u e p o s t f u n c t io n e m

reg n i in p a r te

o rien ta li f lu u i i H r e n i, H r o d u lfu s uero m ed ia s p a rte s reg n i, O d d a quoque occidentalem p a rtem , B eo rn g a r etia m cum V u ið a L o n g o ­ bardorum regnum obtinuere a d iscrim ine I o u e i a m o n tis, illic q u e c iu ilia coaptarunt b e lla , p e r s e q u itu r b p le b s p le b e m , sæ p iu s uertuntur utrorum que arua, nec um quam secunda.

a d fu isse sp es in ter eos

P orro in eodem anno quo b a r b a r i consederant p o n te

F.48™ in P a r is ia c o ,1 dux E ð e lh e lm c / diocesseos A n g lo r u m pro pom pulo accepta a rege pecuniæ non exiguam partem adiit XliyF.ZV Romam. . . . d In eodem anno obiit / E ð e l s u uith r e g in a . Æthered quoque archiepiscopus transiit in illius anni decursu ner non E ð e lb a ld p Cantiæ præsul. . . A Trans890 eunte ig itu r unius anni meatu a b b a s B y r n h e lm R o m a m p ro p o p u lo elem osinam d u x it, et m a xim e O ccid en ta liu m A n g lo r u m regis que

Æ lfr e d iJ

Tum

et

O rco

tra d it sp ira m en

G uðrum ,

B o rea liu m rex A n g lo ru m , q u i et E ð e ls ta n a lauacro b a p tism a tis sum pserat nomen a suo p a trin o , rege Æ lfr e d o , cu iu s consessus m axim e fu e r a t in ter O rien ta les A n g lo s , quoniam ib i et sta tu m tenuerat p rim u m .

I n eodem anno eleuatus est supra m em oratus

e x e r c itu s s de S ig n a am ne h a d locum q u i uu lg o d icitu r S a n d

cuius s itu s inter B r ita n n o s et F r a n c o s uidetur. / xii,F.2r Q u o r u m in occursu Brittanni inshtot armis, obtinentque uictoriæ num en, c o s q u e persecuti sunt in m æ a n d r u m cu ­ iu s d a m amnis, ibique non p a u c i m erg u n tu r lymphis. Post 891 etiam spatio unius anni, cateruæ supra d ic ti exercitu s e u is it a n t orienta/^ F rancorum p a rtes. R e x E a r n u lfu s o b u iu s quorum Laudan,

equestris tandem in b u it certam en, antequam uenere g u rg ite cla sses.

' Iouii, S a v ille b prosequitur, S a v ile c Æ the!helm, S a v ile d N o g a p s in S a v ile e Athelbald, S a v ile f Elfredi, S a v ile 9 So S a v ile , excercitus, M S h Signahamme, A I S , -hamne, S a v ile 1 A curious variation from the statement at the beginning of the annal that they went through the bridge. The latter agrees with O E C > which has practically the same words in both places.

TH E

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OF Æ T H E L W E A R D

47

of his government, because they were not from the male line as he was, not one of them. And after taking up the government, he resided on the east side of the river Rhine, but Rudolph got the middle parts of the empire, Odo the western part, and Berengar and Guido the kingdom of the Lombards from the boundary of the Alps, and there they waged civil war, one people harried the other, often the lands of both were in confusion, nor was the outlook ever favourable in their territories. Then in the same year in which the army settled on the bridge at Paris,1 Ealdorman Æthelhelm went to Rome on behalf of the people of the church of the English, having received a large sum of money from the king. . . . [888] . . . in the same year Queen Æthelswith died. Arch­ bishop Æthelred also died in the course of that year, and Æthelbald, ealdorman of Kent. . . . [890] With the expiry of the course of one year, Byrnhelm took alms to Rome for the people, and above all [those] of the West Saxons and of King Ælífed. And then Guthrum expired, the king of the Scandinavian English, who had also taken the name Æthelstan from the font, [receiving it] from his godfather King Ælfred. And his settlement lay principally in East Anglia, for there he had had the first colony. In the same year the above-mentioned army moved from the river Seine to the place called in the vulgar tongue St Lo, of which the position is between the Bretons and Franks. At their meeting with these people, the Bretons gave battle and won the blessing of victory, and they pursued them to the winding course of a certain river, where many were drowned in the waters. [891] After an interval of one year, the bands of the above-mentioned army entered the eastern empire of the Franks. King Arnulf, meeting them, began a battle of the mounted [arm], before their fleets arrived

CH RO N ICO N Æ T H E L W E A R D I

48

M a n u s F rancorum orien ta lis aderant i b i , S a x o n es qu ip p e B a i uuerique ; fid e

anno

auras dant f u g e p a g a n i. in

eodem H ib e r n ia

A b s tr a h u n tu r tum fe r u e n te s

stirp e

tres u ir i le c ti.

F u r tim

consuunt lem bum ta u rin is b y rsis, a lim en tu m s ib i ebdom adarium a sub p le n t, eleuant dies p e r uela s e p t e m

totidem que

noctes, adue-

in primna C o r n u u a lia s p a rte s. R e lic ta classe non xii,F.3r armis 1 ductam , nec copiosis scilicet lacertis, nutu p o tiu s sed cuncta tuentis, Ælfredum adeunt, reg em Anglorum ; in quorum aduectum cum rege pariter sinclitus ouat. D e in d e Romam uestigia leg u n t u t s o liti crebro Christi m a g istr i p e ­ titu m . M e n te s ab inde H ie r o s o lim is ire p ræ ten du n t ; protinus eorum m igrat em inentior u ita b ; unus q u ip p e f r a t e r cu sto d ia huntur

cernit r e liq u ia s s u i c o m p a g i so c ii ; non m in im a f a c t a N a m q u e a lter

nec non m ir a c u la q uidem

b reu iario in hoc f a s

2 dom i

tium que in fert nom ina

esset prcedicere tota.

uertitur p u lu erem concutieris ta lo ,c a b sen ­

sic :

D u f s la n p r im u s , M a c b e a t h a ú i q u e

secundus, M a g ilm u m e n tertius, a rtib u s fr o n d e n s , litte ra d octus,

Etiam in eodem anno p o s t p a s c h a in am bitu letanias cometa apparuit stella, quam nonnulli existimant rusticanorum esse temporum ante fluentium omen ; sed in hoc ratio probatissima philosophorum uidetur : cuius praedicta demonstrant futura, sicut in multis expertum est. D e in d e p o s t annum ex quo b e lla gessere barbari contra regem E a r n u lfu m , q uin B o n o n ia m petunt, ib iq u e construunt cla ssem , primnas d dant uentis, uolant rostra a d m agister in sig n is Scottorum .

xii,F.3z; 8g2

A n g lic a s p a rtes in L im n eo p o rtu .

C o n stitu u n t p u p p e s A p o ld r e

a So Savile, -darum, M S b uia, M S , Savile c calo, M S , Savile d primna, Savile e a Poldre, Savile 1 So arma is used Aeneid, v, 15 ; vi, 353. 2 Compar, alter like eminentior above, is inexact.

TH E

C H R O N IC LE

48

OF Æ T H E L W E A R D

on the sea. A force of East Franks was there, also Saxons and Bavarians. The pagans took to flight. In the same year three chosen men, on fire with belief, withdrew from the Irish nation. They sewed a boat from bull’s hide in secret, they provided a week’s food for themselves, they kept sail up seven days and seven nights, and they arrived in their boat in Cornwall. Leaving their boat, which had not been brought by tackle 1 nor by ample shoulders, but rather by the nod of him who sees all things, they went to Ælffed, king of the English. And the witan rejoiced equally with the king at their arrival. Then they directed their course to seek Rome as Christ’s teachers are wont frequently to do. Their minds proposed going thence to Jerusalem. Soon the more eminent of them departed this life. One brother set apart under guardianship the relics of his companion and associate, and it would be right to describe in this compendium all the great miracles performed. Another2 returned home, shaking the dust from his feet, and thus stated the names of the absent ones : first Dubhslaine, second Macbeathadh, and third Mælinmhein, a man blossoming in the arts, learned in literature, an eminent teacher of the Irish. And in the same year after Easter about Rogation time the comet star appeared, which some rustics think to be a reflection of sorry times in the past ; but in this the best proven method of calculation of the philosophers is seen : they point to the things it foretells as about to be, as has been borne out in many cases. [892] Then after a year from when the barbarians made war against King Arnulf, they went to Boulogne, and there built a fleet, and set their sterns to the wind. The vessels sped to England and into the harbour of the Lympne. The ships were stationed at the place called Appledore in ( 2 ,4 8 G )

11

CH RO NICON Æ T H E L W E A R D I

49

loco condicto, orien ta li C a n tiæ p a rtem , destruuntque ib i p r isc o opere ca strum ,propter quod rustica m anus exig u a quipp e intrinsecus

erat,

castra confirm ant. I n h u iu s a n n i s c ilic e t decursu aduehitur cla ssis non minima Hæsten a in oras f l u u i i T em ese p arcemque fundant in Cantiæ fines in cognominato Mid893 deltune loco, castra metantur hyeme tota ibi. Factusque XjF.mi numerus tunc annorum a g/oriosa natiuitate salu atoris nongentesim us praeter annis septem. P a s c a li q u c post anni illius eleuatur exercitu s,* qui de Gallias uenerat p a rte s, subsequendo latebra s cuiusdam im m a n is syluæ quae uulg o A nd red esu ud a nuncupatur, protensione su n t O ccid en ta les A n g lo s usque, ast p e d e te n û m a d sita s j&rouincias uasta n t, id illic q u e hiberna,

est H a m tu n scire et B c a r r u c s c ir e .

P ra n o ta ta q u e s u n t h a c c lito n i

tum E a d u u e r d i, E lfired i f i l i i regis : notheas p a rte s A n g lo r u m . A n g lo s .

ia m f u e r a t exercitando c p e r

S e d p o s t ind u cu n tu r d et O ccid en ta les

F i t in occursu m in a cib u s strid en s ag m ine d e n s o F e a r n -

contra insiliunt facta iuuentus, armis irrepti sultant liberati rite clitonis aduentu, ueluti x,F.nr suetam aduectæ post pradam p a sto r is su ffu ltu pascua bi­ bentes. V uln era tur ib i tyrannus, iuu a n tu m s q u a lid a s e turmas transpel/nni fiu u iu m T e m e s a ad partes boreae, /nterea tenentur obsessi Dani in Thornige in s u la p a l i . S u b sid iu m clito n i praebu it rex E ð e r e d , L u n d o n ia seilicei ab urbe p r o fe c tu s . Obsecrant p a c is barba ri ia m que fa d e r is q u e sintum ; obsides dantur ; adfirm ant iure exire re g n o p r a f a t i reg is ; actus et ham m e loco.

N e c m ora,

° O n the syntax, cf. Introduction, p. liii (9, ii) * Tæmese, Savile c So Savile, excercit-, M S d induuntur, A IS, Savile suualidas, A IS, Sauile

TH E

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OF Æ T H E L W E A R D

49

east Kent, and there they destroyed a fort of primitive structure, because there was [only] a small band of rustics in it. They made their winter quarters at that place. In the course of this year a fleet and [with it] Hæsten arrived by the banks of the river Thames, and they built a fort in the bounds of Kent at the place called Milton and there they laid out a camp for all winter. [893] And now the number of years 900 was complete except for seven from the glorious birth of our Saviour. Afterwards at Easter of that year the army which had come from Gaul, following the thickets of a huge wood called Andred by the common people, spread as far as Wessex, and gradually wasted the adjacent provinces, that is Northampton­ shire and Berkshire. These matters then came to the notice of Prince Eadweard, the son of King Ælfted. He was at that time moving forces through the southern part of England [? or through Sussex]. Later, however, they [the Danes] penetrated Wessex. He [the prince] came clashing in dense array into collision with the foemen at Farnham. There was no delay, the young men leaped against the prepared defences, and having slipped on their armour they duly exulted, being set free [from care] by the prince’s arrival, like sheep brought to the pastures by the help of the shepherd after the customary ravaging. The [barbarian] king was wounded there, and they drove the filthy bands of his supporters over the river Thames to the areas of the north. Then the Danes were held besieged in Thorney, an island of marshy land. King Æthelred set out from the city of London, and gave the prince help. The barbarians asked for peace, and for conditions set out by treaty. Hostages were given. They undertook to go from the realm of the king mentioned above under

50

GH RONICON Æ T H E L W E A R D I

sermo s im u l una com plentur. A n g lo ru m

eoas sub sta tu

D e n iq u e p a r te s p ro ficiscu n tu r in

illo

m an en tis exercitu s,a q u ip p e

in

reg im en quondam E a d m u n d i sa n cti regis, eorum que naues cir-

ad Meresige locum Canx,f.4v tiam 1 uelis secundum.2 I n eiusdem a n n i ergo statuta 3 F.482r a b r u m p itu r HTesten a r d u o cum manu a B c a m f l e o t e lo / co, p e r M a s q u e Merciorum partes p o p u la tu r sœuus quoad Brittannum fin e s uenere ; q u ib u s dat subpetias exercitu s a adhcerens tunc c lim a te in eoo, N o r ð h im b r iu s q u e m odo eodem . Æ ð e lm cum d u x prœ clarus p u b lic e p a r a u i t b eq uestri, nec non Æ ð e ln o ð duce una A n g lo ru m cum occid en ta li in seq u itu r exer­ citu ; post adest quorum rex E ð e r e d M y r c io r u m , su b sta n s cum im petu m agno .4 In ic iu n t b e lla alterna c e r ta m in e c p le b iu m cum uolant a d eos de L im n eo p o rtu

u t r a r u m q u e , iuuentus A n g li d tum uictoriæ p o s t op tinen t locu m . G esta h a c quippe in B u ttin g tu n e prredicantur a p r is c is .

P m te r e a

Danis ; confirmant iterati pacem/ haud negant obsides, promittunt se ire regione x,F.4r ab illa. In eodem anno Danaa sud a in Beamfleote loco, experto nutu ab incolis, ruit ; annilem d iu id u n t in ter se thesaurum. His ita g e stis S ig e fe r ð p ir a t ic u s de N o r th h im briorum Avehitur a r d u a cum cla sse, p e r litto ra u a sta t b is tempore in uno, uela p o s t u ertit a d proprias sedes. R e p le tis q u e 894 an n is d u o b u s ex quo immens u en e rat a B o n o n ia classis arce n isu s e cernitur in a p tu s siq u id em

a So Savile, excercitus, M S b paratu, Savile c alterna stat certamine, Savile d On the construction, see Introduction, p. liii (9, i) * uisus, M S , Savile / Slightly irregular ; since iterati is passive it does not make a perfect substitute for adv. iterato. 1 On the syntax, see Introduction, p. liii. Mersea Island is actually off Essex, not Kent. 2 A very violent transference of the adj. of uelis secundis to aeree with locum. 3 The apparently fern, statuta would seem to be a nonce formation. 4 On impetus, army, see Encomium Emmae reginae, ed. A . Campbell (Camden Third Series, lxxii, 1949), p. 20

TH E

C H R O N IC L E

OF Æ T H E L W E A R D

5O

obligation. Deed anclj[word together were completed at the same time. They set out then for East Anglia, the former realm of blessed King Eadmund, under the protection of the army stationed in that area, and their ships sped round from the harbour of the Lympne to [meet] them at Mersea, a place in Kent,1 and they made a good voyage.2 In the course3 of the same year Hæsten made a rush with a large force from Benfleet, and ravaged savagely through all the lands of the Mercians, until he and his men reached the borders of the Welsh ; the army stationed then in the east of the country gave them support, and the Northumbrian one similarly. The famous Ealdorman Æthelhelm made open preparation with a cavalry force, and gave pursuit together with the West-Saxon army under the general­ ship of Æthelnoth. And King Æthelred of the Mercians was afterwards present with them, being at hand with a large army.4 They launched mutual strife with a clash of the two nations, the young Englishmen on that occasion kept possession of the field of victory in the end. These events, which occurred at Buttington, are vaunted by aged men. Furthermore, their effort was evidently an ineffective one for the Danes. They confirmed peace again, they did not refuse hostages, they promised to leave that region. In the same year the rampart of the Danes at Benfleet fell down, having received a downward push from the natives, who divided ancient treasure among themselves. When these events had so happened, Sigeferth the pirate arrived from the land of the Northumbrians with a large fleet, ravaged twice along the coast on that one expedition, and afterwards sailed back to his own land. [894] Then, when two years were complete from when a huge fleet arrived from the fortress of Boulogne

51

GHRONICON Æ T H E L W E A R D I

conducta in L im n is a

1 oppido

A n g lo r u m , ab o ccid en ta li p r o ­

fe c t u s est p a rte tunc A n g lo ru m Æ ð e ln o ð d u x .

A d i t in hostes

E u o ra ca urbe , q u i non p a ru a territoria p a n d u n t 2 in M y r c io r u m regno lo ci in p a rte o ccid en ta li S ta n fo rd a .

H o c est in ter flu e n ta

syluæ, quæ uulgo Geostefne c nuncupatur. Transeunte etiam anni unius decursu obiit et Guthfrid, rex Northhymbriorum, in natalitia sancti Bartholomæi apostoli Christi ; cuius mausoleatur Euoraca corpus in urbe in basilica summa. Interea bis binis post annis, facta est discordia nimis et maxime, ex quo supra dictus obierat rex, inter Anglos, quæ tum manebant loca per Northhymbriorum foetidus turmas.3 Denique in eodem anno magnanimus transiit de mundo Ælffedus, rex Saxonum, immobilis occidentalium postis, uir iustitia plenus, acer in armis, sermone doctus, diuinis quippe super omnia documentis imbutus. Nam ex Latino rhe­ torico fasmate in propriam uerterat linguam uolumina, numero ignoto, ita uarie, ita præopime, ut non tantum expertioribus sed et audientibus liber Boetii4 lachrymosus quodammodo suscitaretur motus. Septima namque die ante solennia sanctorum omnium obierat anax, cuius requiescit urbe in Wintana corpus in pace. Dic modo lector, ‘ Christe redemptor, animam eius salua \ 4. Successor equidem tum monarchiae Eaduuerdus post filius supra memorati regis coronatur ipse stemate regali a primatis electus pentecostes in die, iam defluente siquidem annorum numero centeno ex quo proauus continebat Ecgbyrht praesentia eius regna. In eodem am nis V u eolod et condensa b

895

899

900

Limnas, S a v ile condenso, S a v ile c Ceoftefne On the construction, see Introduction, p. liii (9, i) 1 The river Lympne is here confused with the town of the same name. 2 Literally ‘ opened o u t5 3 fo e tid u s belongs to rex , turmas echoes A n g lo s , and q u a anticipates its gender. a

d

TH E

C H R O N IC L E

OF Æ TH ELW EARD

5 1

bound for Lympne, a town1 of the English, Ealdorman Æthelnoth set out from Wessex. In the city of York he contacted the enemy, who possessed 2 large territories in the kingdom of the Mercians, on the western side of the place called Stamford. This is to say, between the streams of the river Welland and the thickets of the wood called Kesteven by the common people. [895] When the course of one year was at an end Guthfrid, king of the Northumbrians, died on the nativity of St Bartholomew, the apostle of Christ [24 Aug.]. And his body is entombed in the city of York in the high church. [899] Then after four years from when the above-mentioned hateful king died there was a disturbance on a very great scale among the English, that is the bands who were then settled in the territories of the Northumbrians.3 Then in the same year, there passed from the world Ælfred, king of the Saxons, unshakable pillar of the people of the west, a man full of justice, active in war, learned in speech, steeped in sacred literature above all things, for from the ornate Latin tongue he turned unknown numbers of books into his own language with such variety and richness, that not only for scholars, but for any who might hear it read, the tearful passion of the book of Boethius would be in a measure brought to life. The king died on the seventh day before the festival of All Saints [25 Oct.], and his body rests in peace in the city of Winchester. Only say, reader, ‘ Saviour Christ, save his soul \ 4. Then Eadweard, successor to the monarchy, and son of the above-mentioned king, was crowned with the royal crown on Whitsunday, having been elected by the chief men, [900] when the hundredth one of the years was passing, from when his great-grandfather Ecgbyrht enjoyed royal authority in his own person.

52

CH RO NICON Æ T H E L W E A R D I

anno Athelbald in Lundonia arce præsulatum sumpsit Euoracæ urbis. Factusque uidetur numerus annorum ab aduentu Christi, humana sumpta carne, nongentesi­ mos mus pleniter ordo. Impletoque post annorum bis ritu, bella parantur Holme in loco contra orientalem 1 quippe citius cladem post dies quinque festa puerperae sanctae,2 coniiciunt peltas, enses uibrant, in utraque manu cris­ patur hastilis crebro, ibidemque ruit Sigeuulf dux, Sighelmque, tota pars Cantiæ nobilitatis paene, nec non Haruc rex barbarum ibi suspenditur Orco. Ast duo Anglorum lanugine clitones tenera linquunt ibi auras suetas, sub Acheronteas peregrinam temptant regionem undas, habundansque simul proceritas ex utraque parte. Barbari namque post existunt uictores, sultandoque ob905 tinent locum. Denique post triennium a conditione mundi tum transmeatus est numerus annorum sex millia 908 centum. Post triennium uero archiepiscopus Plegmund enceniauit in Vuintonia urbe arduam turrim, quæ tum nouiter fuerat sita in honore genetricis dei Mariæ. Pontifex praefatus in eiusdem anni scilicet decursu pro populo Romam quin eleemosynam duxit, Eaduuardo 909(^910) quoque pro rege. Annum post unum barbari pactum rumpunt Eaduuardum regem aduersus, nec non contra Ætheredum, qui tum regebat Northhymbrias partes, Myrciasque. Vastantur passim Myrciorum arua a tem­ pestate praedicta et penitus usque ad Afne fluenta, ubi inchoat Occidentalium terminus Anglorum nec non F.482K Myrciorum. Deinde transuehuntur occidentales / in

1 i.e. the Danes of East Anglia 2 The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, 8 Dec., would seem to be intended, see Wainwright, E H R , be, 390-1.

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OF Æ T H E L W E A R D

52

In the same year Æthelbald in the fortress of London undertook episcopal authority over the city of York. And the year-number completed since the arrival of Christ, who assumed human flesh, was fully the 900th successive one. [902] When the customary passage of the year had been twice completed, hostilities soon developed at the Holme against the eastern enemy1 five days after the feast of the Holy Mother.2 They clashed shields, brandished swords, and in either hand the spear was much shaken. And there fell Ealdorman Sigewulf, and Sigehelm, and a part of the Kentish gentry nearly all-inclusive ; and Haruc, king of the barbarians, was there let down to the lower world. Two princes of the English, soft of beard, then left the air they breathed ever before, and entered a strange region below the waves of Acheron, and so did much of the nobility on either side. In the end the barbarians were victors, and held the field with exultation. [905] Then after a period of three years the number of years 6100 was passed from the foundation of the world. [908] After a period of three years Archbishop Plegmund dedicated a very high tower in the city of Win­ chester. Its foundations had been laid a little before that time in honour of Mary, mother of God. In the course of the same year the bishop just mentioned conveyed alms to Rome for the nation and also for King Eadweard. [909 = 910] After a year the barbarians broke the peace with King Eadweard, and with Æthelred, who then ruled the Northumbrian and Mercian areas. The fields of the Mercians were ravaged on all sides by the throng we spoke about, and deeply, as far as the streams of the Avon, where the boundary of the West Saxons and Mercians begins. Then they were transported across the river Severn into the west country,

C H R O N ICO N Æ T H E L W E A R D I

53

partes per fluuium Sefern, illicque uastarunt non minix,ff.9-ioí/ mas prædas. A s t ubi p ed em retraxere, domi ouantes s p o liis o p im is p a rte in eoa. flu u ii S efern etia m tra n sm ea b a n t p on tem ordine

litterato

qui

uulgo

C u a t b r ic g e a nuncupatur.

turmæ

q u ip p e acie tendebant repente o b u io

S ta tu ta

s im u l M y r cio r u m

nec attenta in V u o dn esfeld a cam po , Angli uicto ria opX m ere num en , Danorumque fugatur excitus telo oppressus. Facta hæc memo­ rantur quinta in die mensis Augusti. Ibidemque ruunt reges tres e o r u m turbine in eodem (uel certa m ine dicere f a s est) sci licet H e a lfd e n e , E y u u y s l quoque , n ec non Ig u u a r relicta t y r a n n id e tum a d a u la m p ro p era u it in fe r n i , maioresque natu g io (= g u ) eorum , duces ac n o b iles simul. Namque post annum mix,FF.9-ior grauit de mundo Æ ð e r e d , M y r c io r u m su p erstes , sep u ltusq ue q i 2( =913) est in arce d icta Gleaucestre in pace, B ie n n ii quipp e transeunte sta tu obiit A ð u l f in N o r ð h y m b r iis o ris , qui tum præerat O c c id e n t a liu m q u e .

In sistu n t pugnee

9i3(= 9r4) actori o p p id i B e b b a n b u rg h con d icti.

tur in

oras cla s s is

A n g lo ru m

mora,

E tia m p o s t annum a d u eh i-

ardua

«imis in

flu e n tib u s S e fe r n ,

9i4(=9i5)

giy{=9i8)

stom io

certe

nec graue b ellu m p o rrig itu r ibi anno in eodem. D e n iq u e pars exercitu s illius maior nec non Hiberniam petunt, Britannidem o lim a Iulio magno Caesare uocatam . In terea post tempora anni u n iu s in die dom inico accidit n a tiu ita s C h r is ti. F a cta q u e est tr a n q u illita s hyberni eiu sd em ta n ta , u t nec ante nec p o s t quit m em orare q u isp ia m . T r ie n n io post, iam com pleto Æ ð e lfle d m undo d em igrat, regia soror, tumulatur cuius corpus Gleaucestri in

a Cantbricge, A IS, Savile

TH E

C H R O N IC L E

OF Æ T H E L W E A R D

53

and there they ravaged great ravagings. But when rejoicing in rich spoil they returned towards home, they were still engaged in crossing to the east side of the river Severn over a p o n s to give the Latin spelling, which is called Bridgnorth by the common people. Suddenly squadrons of both Mercians and West Saxons, having formed battle-order, moved against the opposing force. They joined battle without protracted delay on the field of Wednesfield ; the English enjoyed the blessing of victory ; the army of the Danes fled, overcome by armed force. These events are recounted as done on the fifth day of the month of August. There fell three of their kings in that same ‘ storm ’ (or ‘ battle ’ would be the right thing to say), that is to say Healfdene and Eywysl, and Inwær also hastened to the hall of the infernal one, and so did senior chiefs of theirs, both jarls and other noblemen. [910 = 911] After a year Æthelred, lord of the Mercians, passed from the world and was buried in peace in the fortress known as Gloucester. [912 = 913] When the established period of a biennium was expiring, Eadwulf died in the lands of Northumbria. He ruled as reeve of the town called Bamborough. [913 = 914] After a year a very large fleet arrived at the shores of the English, in the estuary and the streams of the Severn, but the fighting was not seriously protracted there in that year. Then the major part of that army went to Ireland, formerly called B r ita n n is by the great Julius Cæsar. [914 = 915] Then after the seasons of one year, the nativity of Christ fell on a Sunday. And the calmness of that winter turned out so great as nobody can remember, either before or after. [917 = 918] When a period of three years was complete Æthelflæd, the king’s sister, passed from the world, and her body was buried in the fortress of

54 9s6(Aqss )

939(=937)

941 {—939)

948(^944, 946)

CH RONIGON Æ T H E L W E A R D I

arce. Nono etiam anno post transacto migrat et Eaduuerd, rex Anglorum. Hic finis, hic nomen nec non pertinacia cessit eiusdem. 5. Anno etiam in quo imperii functus fuerat stefos Æthestan rex robustissimus, transacti sunt anni a gloriosa incarnatione saluatoris nostri D C C C C, supraque uiginti et sex. Igitur post annos tredecim facta est pugna immanis barbaros contra in loco Brunandune, unde et uulgo usque ad præsens bellum praenominatur magnum. Tum superantur barbarae passim turbae, nec ultra do­ minari ; post quos ultra pellit oceani oris, nec non colla subdunt Scoti, pariterque Picti ; uno solidantur Brittannidis arua, undique pax, omniumque foecundia rerum, nec usque ad istas motus adhaesit sine littora Anglorum foedere classicus.1 Biennio post migrat de mundo rex uenerandus Æthestanus. 6. Namque post illum Eadmund omissa successit in regna. Post anni ergo septimi cursum Vulfstan episcopus duxque Myrciorum2 expulerunt quosdam desertores, Ragnald uidelicet et Anlaf de Euoraca urbe, praefatoque regi in potestate subdunt. In eodem uero anno obiit et regina Elfgyuu,® Eadmundi regis coniux, postque sancti­ ficatur. In cuius mausoleo, (coopérante deo) usque ad praesens innumerosa equidem miracula fiunt in coenobio, quod uulgo Sceftesbyrig nuncupatur. Reuolutione sci­ licet in eadem obiit et rex Eadmund in solennia Augustini minoris, qui et apostolus Anglorum. Continuitque reg­ num sex annos et semis.

a Elfgyun 1 See Introduction, p. Ii 2 It is quite uncertain who is meant by ealdorman of Mercia at this time.

TH E

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Gloucester. [926, A925] When the ninth year after­ wards was completed, Eadweard, king of the English, died. This was the end : here ended his name and his perseverance. 5. In the year in which the very mighty king Æthelstan enjoyed the crown of empire, 926 years were passed from the glorious incarnation of our Saviour. [939=937] After thirteen years a huge battle was fought against the barbarians at B r u n a n d u n , wherefore it is still called the ‘ great battle ’ by the common people. Then the bar­ barian forces were overcome on all sides, and held the superiority no more. Afterwards he [i.e. the king] drove them off from the shores of the ocean, and the Scots and Piets both submitted. The fields of Britain were consolidated into one, there was peace everywhere, and abundance of all things, and [since then] no fleet has remained here, having advanced against these shores, except under treaty with the English.1 [941 = 939] After a period of two years Æthelstan, a king worthy of honour, left the world. 6. After him Eadmund succeeded to the relinquished kingdom. [948 = 944, 946] After the passage of the seventh year, Bishop Wulfstan and the ealdorman of the Mercians 2 expelled certain traitors, that is to say Raegnald and Anlaf, from the city of York, and reduced them to sub­ mission to the king mentioned above. And in the same year Queen Ælfgifu died, the wife of King Eadmund, and afterwards she was held to be a saint. And at her tomb, with the help of God, down to the present day, very many miracles take place in the monastery known by the common people as Shaftesbury. King Eadmund also died in the same year on the festival of St Augustine the Less, who is also the apostle of the English [26 May]. He exercised rule for six years and a half.

55

CH RO N ICO N Æ T H E L W E A R D I

7. Cuius successor extitit Eadred in regnum, suus quippe frater. Cui Northhymbrii subiiciuntur cuncti, nec non Scoti iusiuranda confirmant immutabilemque F-483rp55 fi/dem. His ita prætextis, non tempore post longo in pace migrat et ipse in natalitia beati papæ Clementis atque martyris. Obtinuerat namque principatum annos per nouem et semis. 8. Quin successor eius Eaduuig in regnum, qui et præ nimia etenim pulchritudine Pancali1 sortitus est 959 nomen a uulgo secundi. Tenuit namque quadriennio per regnum amandus. 9. Denique Eadgar coronatur in regnum, rex admir­ abilis. Annis sextenis siquidem per regna meatus, Bisque dies numero tenuit minus obice septem,2 (Argiuæ hebdomadas gentis posuere magistri, Septimanas recitant post quas nunc uoce Latini. Tingite nunc calamo, Musæ, propriumque uocate Carmen, et ignoto uentis a properate secundis. Cum placido steterint fontes, aperite poetam.) Fungitur interea regno post anax in arce, Akimannisb castrum a priscis iam nomine dicta, Nec Bathum ab aliis non pro feruentibus undis. Costis pentidies fuerat quam quondam honore Bradifonus 3 domino Moyses sacrarat amore.4 Aduenit et populus pariter sine nomine turmæ, Quin etiam ferro syncipite rasi corona. 973

Porro a natiuitate domini saluatoris transactus est tunc annorum numerus nongentesimus et supra septuagesimus adhærensque ternus. a uestri b Kim annis 1 secundi agrees with Pancali instead of nomen. 2 These lines are obscure, and the sense of minus obice uncertain, but the point is that Eadgar ruled sixteen years in all, and that fourteen years passed before his coronation at Bath.

TH E

C H R O N IC L E

OF Æ T H E L W E A R D

55

7. His successor to the kingdom was Eadred, his brother. And to him all the Northumbrians submitted, and the Scots swore oaths and immutable faith. [955] These things having happened so, he himself departed in peace on the natal day of the blessed Clement, pope and martyr [Nov. 23]. He had held the kingdom nine years and a half. 8. H is s u c c e s s o r in th e k i n g d o m w a s E a d w i g , a n d h e fo r h is g r e a t b e a u t y g o t th e n i c k - n a m e 1 ‘ A l l- f a i r ’ fr o m th e

com m on

p e o p le .

[9 5 9 ]

He

h e ld

th e

k in g d o m

c o n t i n u o u s l y fo r fo u r y e a r s , a n d d e s e r v e d to b e lo v e d .

9. Then Eadgar was crowned to rule, an admirable king. Movement through his realms [was his] in truth for sixteen years. The time reached twice seven [years] . . . by number2 (The teachers of the Argive race established ‘ hebdomades ’, which Latinists now at later date speak of as ‘ septimanae ’. Lend ink from your pen, O Muses, call the song your own, and hasten with winds favourable to the ignorant man. Reveal the poet, while your fountains are undisturbed) and afterwards the prince became active in the government in the city called by the name A cem annesceaster by men of old, and by others Bath for its boiling waters. It was the day of Pentecost, which Moses slow of speech 3 in honour to the Lord formerly sanctified with love.4 The people came too, both crowds without name, and a troop shaven upon their heads with steel. Then the number of years 973 was completed since the birth of the Lord and Saviour. 3 Th e allusion is to Ex. 4:10, where Moses says he is slow of speech ( L X X ßpabvyXcxjaaos). 4 See Ex. 34:22, etc.

56

F.483D

C H R O N ICO N Æ T H E L W E A R D I

Sibi proles Eadmundi summa (Properat equidem,a numero bis denis Super augent nouem) seculi prisca Recolligens mente, ingenia forsan Addens et recentib temporis noua, Ter monadis decem 1 Numero fluente coronatur anax. Interea denis, sex et supra Regimen sub ipso c Contentum rite Stipulator 2 passim praestiterat illi elementorum Postque spiramen reddit authori Telluris insultus,3 marcescens ab ea Lumina cernit altitonantis, Omissa tandem luce corrupta, Anglorum insignis rex Eadgarus. A Caesare quidem nominato mense Iulio (uulgus usitare solet Potius pestis sublimare sollers uisum humanus Quam magis diuorsi4 ab alto cuncta cernenti reddere uota) In cursu ogdoi transeunte diei Auri largus exanime corpus relinquit Monarchus Brittannum Nobilis, ex stirpe frondens Saxonum, Eadgarus anax ; namque 5 sermone Latino Fausti contim nuncuparunt beatam.6 Fabii quaestoris patricii Etheluuerdi foelicitur explicit liber quartus. a Properate quidem b recenti for recenti re c ipse inexactly used for se 1 Eadgar was crowned at the age of 29, having ruled 13 full years (1 O ct. 959-11 M ay 973).

TH E

C H R O N IC LE

OF Æ T H E L W E A R D

56

The noble child of Eadmund (he hastens on, in truth ; in his number [of years] nine increase twice ten) recalling to himself in his mind things of old time, and adding acumen, and things new in time while still fresh, was crowned king at the passing number of ten [years] and three single [years].1 For ten and also six years the ruler2 of the elements had granted him on all sides a reign justly content under himself. And afterwards Eadgar, the dis­ tinguished king of the English, gave back his spirit to the maker of the world, and fading away from it [i.e. from the world], and having at last left this corrupted light, he saw the light of him who thunders on high.3 In the month named July after Caesar (the crowd, the human plague, is skilled to exalt the visible, rather than to pray more to him who sees all from above),4 in the passing course of the eighth day, the noble monarch generous with gold left his lifeless body, he who sprang from the race of the Saxons, Eadgar the king : 5 in the Latin tongue his fortunate [people] gave him the name of contim bea tam .6 The fourth book of Fabius Æthelweard (i.e. noble quaestor) ends happily.

2 The word stipulator is commonly glossed trymmend , ‘ affirmer but Æthelweard understands this as ‘ dresser of the ranks ‘ commander 5 (cf. B a ttle o f M a ld o n , L 17). 3 In this difficult passage insultus is not translated, as its sense is obscure. 4 The word diuorsi disturbs the metre, and should probably be omitted ; it is not translated. For the idea of these lines, cf. the remarks on Woden above, p. 7. 6 The words B rittan n um and namque should be omitted for metre. They are not translated. (relinquit monarchus makes an accentual group.) 6 See Introduction, p. xiii, n. 3

IN D E X OF NAMES For alphabetical arrangement Vu and uu come under w, and ð as th . The dates given in the Index (in italics) are as nearly as possible correct, and often diverge from those of O E C and Æthelweard. The addition of the singular endings of the Latin second declension to native masculine personal names is not noticed in the Index. It should be remembered that the locative and the uninflected forms of place-names, and the uninflected form of personal names may be used in any syntactic case (cf. p. lvi). Numbers in brackets indicate the number of references on a page. Abram

3,

Abrahæ

3, Abraham {both

Æthelbyrht passim 35, Eðelbyrht 39 (2), king o f the West Saxons, 860-866 Æðelfled 53, the Lady o f the Mercians, daughter o f king Ælfred, d. gi8 Æ thelfrith 14, king of the Northumbrians, 5g 3 ~ 6 i 6 Æthelheard 21, king o f the West Saxons, 726-740 Æðelm see Eðelhelm Æthelnoth 42, 43, 50, 5 1, an ealdorman,

forms genitival) Acemannesceaster see Akimannis cas­ trum Acheronteas acc. pi. fern. 52, adj.

of Acheron Aclea

loc. 32, 40, unidentified place in

Surrey Adam 3 (2), Adam Adam’s Grave see Vuothnesbeorhge, Wodnesbyrg Adrianus 27, pope, d. Ægeo abl. 11, Aegeus Ægeum nom. sg. neut. 11, adj. Aegean Ægypto abl. 3, Egypt Ælf- see also ElfÆlfred passim 1-2, 32, 37, 38, passim 39-51, Elfred 39, 42, 49, king of

late ninth century 27, king o f the Northumbrians, 7 9 0 -7 9 6 Æthelred 47, archbishop o f Canterbury, d. 888

Æthelred

Æthelstan 31, Ethestan 30, Eðelstan 39, sub-king o f Kent and the south­ east under Æ th elw u lf doubtfully his brother or son, but regarded as his son by Æthelweard { c f Plummer, T w o o f the Saxon Chronicles ii, 7 5 -6 ) Ætheluulf see Athulf Æthered, Ethered 1, passim 35-40, king o f the West Saxons, 8 6 6 -8 71

the West Saxons, 8yi-8gg

Ælfthrythe

acc. 2,

abl. Ælfdryde 2,

a daughter of King Ælfred Ælle i i (2), 29, a Saxon invader of Britain, king of the South Saxons Ælle 13, king of Deira, about 560-550 Ælle (36), king of the Northumbrians, killed 867, alluded to as ignobilem

Æthered 46, 52, 53, Ethered 49, 50, ealdorman o f the Mercians, son-in-law o f king Æ lfred, d. g n Æthestan 54 (2), Ædestan 2, king

regem Æsc 10, i i (2), Ese (cf. p. xx, note 5) 18 (2), a son of Hengest Æscesdune loc. 37, Escesdune 19,

o f England, g24 {? g 2 5 )-g 3 g

855-860

Afene acc. 19, Lower Avon, W ilts . Afne gen. 52, River Avon, Warwickshire, etc. Akimannis castrum 55, Bath Aldelm 21, bishop o f Selwood, famous writer, d. 70g Alnea loc. 43, Aller, Somerset { c f Iviii) Andred 22, Andredesleage loc. 11, Andredesuuda nom. 49, Forest o f

13, passim 17-18, 29, king of Kent, 560-616

Andredesceaster

Ashdown, Berks Æscwine see Escuuine Æthel- see also Athel-, EthelÆthelbald 21, 24, Athel- 22, king

of the Mercians, killed 757

Æthelbald, Ethelbald passim 35, Eðel- 39, king of the West Saxons, Æthelbyrht

Andred {the Weald)

57

11,

Pevensey

IN D E X OF NAMES

58

Angeltheu 25, an ancestor o f O f f a Angli 17, 50, 53, gen. -orum 17, 18, 28, 35, 41, 45 >48 (2), 5 1) 53 > 54 (3), dat. -is 18, 44, English Anglia 9, abl. 8, 9, the continental

West Saxons

Anglos acc. 17, Angles Anglos acc. 51, Danes settled in England Anlaf 54, A n la f son o f Sihtric {see Campbell,

‘ Battle

o f Brunanburh,' p . 5 1 ) a Scandinavian chief \ active in 875 { O E C Anwynd) Antiochenae gen. sg. fem. 4, adj. o f Antioch Apocalypseos gen. 4, the Apocalypse Apoldre loc. 48, Apple dore, Kent Aquilonales Brittannos acc. 30, 32, the Welsh o f approximately modern Wales Argiuae gen. sg. fem. 55, adj. Argive Arnulf see Eamulf Athelbald 52, archbishop o f York, conse­ crated goo Athelingaige loc. 42, Athelney, Somerset Athulf I, 2, passim 30-33, 35, 39 (2O

41,

45, 46, Æthulf 29, Ætheluulf 32, Atheluulf 32, king o f the W es , Saxons, 839-855

Athulf

35, 37, Adulf 37, an ealdorman, killed 871 Athulf 53, reeve o f Bamborough, d . 5 1 3 {more usually Eadwulf ) Athulf 2, Flemish prince, grandson o f king Æ lfred Auene loc. 12, River Avon, H ants . Augustinus passim 17-18, 28, archbishop o f Canterbury, d. about 607 Australes Angli 29, acc.-es-os 21, 25535) gen. -ium -orum 29, South Saxons

Bury

St

Beaduheard 27, a reeve, killed in 78g Beamdune loc. 18, unidentified place Beamfleote loc. 44, 50 (2), Benfleet, Bearrucscire

loc. 49,

gen.

35, Berk­

shire

Bebbanburgh 53, Bamborough Beda 11 , a Saxon invader o f Britain { O E C Bieda) Beda 22, the Venerable Bede, d . probably 735 Bedcanforda loc. 13, unidentified place {O E C Biedcanforda ; Savile's Bedanperhaps implies a groundless identification with Bedford ) Bensingtun 13, 25, Benson, Oxon Beo 33, an ancestor o f Æ th e lw u lf .Beorgforda loc. 22, unidentified place Beorhtfrid 21, Northumbrian ealdorman, early eighth century Beorngar 47, Berengar, M argrave o f F riu li, claimant to the Italian crown, assassinated g24 Beornred 24, king o f the M ercians, de­ posed 75 7 Beornulf 28, 29, king o f the M ercians, killed 825 Beornulf 32, king o f the M ercians, 8 4 0 852 {error f o r Beorhtwulf ) Beranbyrig loc. 13, B a r bury, W ilts Berengar see Beorngar Berse 37, a Scandinavian killed in 870 {cf. p . lix) Bieda see Beda Birinus see Byrinus Boetii gen. 51, Boethius

Bononiam

acc. 48,

-a abl.

50,

Boulogne

Borealium Anglorum

gen. 47,

Danes

settled in England

Bradanforda

Saxons

loc. 19,

Bradford-on-Avon,

Bridgnorth see Cuatbricge Britannidem acc. 53, alleged

Æ th elw u lf { c f

p . xxiv)

29, king o f Kent, submitted to the West Saxons, 825 Baldwin 2, marquis o f Flanders, son-inlaw o f king Æ lfred Basingon loc. 38, Basing, Hants Bathancestre loc. 13, Bath Bathum loc. 55, Bath Beadanheafde loc. 20, unidentified place

name o f

Ireland

Britonum gen. 4,8,

Brittonum

10,

Ancient Britons

Brittanica

Baldred

36,

W ilts

Australes Saxones 9, South Avon see Afne, Auene Axanminster 24, Axminster Aylesbury see Eglesburh Aylesford see Egelesthrip Baiuueri 48, Bavarians Balder 33, an ancestor o f

loc.

Edm und's

Essex

home o f the Angles

Anglia 9, England Anglicas acc. pi. fem. 48, adj. English Anglorum gen. 30, 39, 47, 48, 52, dat., abl. -is 40, 44, English, used o f

Annuth

Beadoricesuuyrthe

abl. sg. fem. 6, adj.

o f the Ancient Britons Brittanni {once with -t-) acc. -orum, dat., abl. -is, passim Ancient Britons

Brittanni

47,

acc.

B ritish ,

-os, gen. 5-22, 33,

Britannos

47,

Bretons

Brittannia {22 occurrences with -tt-, two with -t-) acc. -iam, gen. -iæ passim 1-19, acc. -iam 27,28,37, gen. -iæ 28,33,39, abl.-ia 29, Britain Brittannidis gen. 54, Britain

IN D EX OF NAMES Brittannos

acc. 32,

gen. -um

50,

North W elsh, see Aquilones Brittanni Brittannos acc. 28, West Welsh o f Devon and Cornwall Brittannum gen. 56, people o f Britain Brond 33, an ancestor o f Æ th elw u lf Brunandune loc. 54, alternative name, not used elsewhere, f o r the site o f the battle o f Brunanburh Burghelm 28, ealdorman, killed 821

Burhred

32, 36, 40,

dat. -e

32,

king o f the M ercians, 8 52-8 74 Bury St Edmund’s see Beadorices-

uuyrthe Buttingtune

loc. 50,

Buttington, M o n t­

gomery

Byrhtric 25, 26, 27 (2), king of the West Saxons, 786-802 Byrinus 19, abl. -o 19, bishop o f the W est Saxons, d. about 650 47, abbot, late ninth century

Bymhelm

Cægineshamme loc. 38, Keynsham Cæsare abl. 56, Iulio Csæare 53, Caesare Gaio Iulio 5, J u liu s Caesar Caluariae gen. 4, Calvary Cambridge see Grantanbricge Cantiam acc. 27, 50, gen. -iae 35, 47, 49 (2), 52, abl. -ia 10, Kent Cantuarii 8, 20, 29, gen. -ium 25, -iorum 28, 29, 30, 39, dat. -iis 35, men o f Kent Cantuarii nom. pi. masc. 18, adj. Kentish

Cantuariorum urbem acc. 3 1-3 2 , abl. -e 37, Canterbury Carolus see Karulus Carrum loc. 30, 31, Carhampton, Somerset

Catsig 46, Chézy Ceaulin passim 13-14, 29, 33,

o f Cecrops West Saxonsy

685-68 8

Cenred 33 (2), fa th er o f Ine Cent n 'y 17, 29, 31 (2), Kent 10, 13, Kent Centuuine 20, king o f the West Saxons, 6 76 -6 8 5

Cenuualh

passim 19-20, king o f the West Saxons, 6 4 3 -6 72 Cenuualh 20, error f o r Æscwine Geolf 18 king o f the West Saxons,

597-611

27,

Ceolnoth

36,

archbishop o f Canterbury,

d. 870

Ceolred

21,

king o f the Mercians , 7 0 3 -

716

Ceoluuald 33, an ancestor o f Æ th elw u lf Ceolwulf see Ceolf Ceostefne loc. 51, Kesteven, Lines Cerdic passim 11-12, 20 (2), 24, 25, 28, 33, a Saxon invader o f Britain Cerdicesforda loc. 12yplaced by Æ thelweard on the Avon, hence identified by him or his source with Charford, H ants, but the latter is perhaps too f a r fro m Netley, Hants ( c f O E C 508) Cerdicesoran loc. 11, 12, unidentified place Charles see Karolus, Karulus Cinegels 18, 19, Cinegils 19, king o f the West Saxons, 6 1 1 -6 4 3 Cineuulf 21, unknown person, a prince according to Florence o f Worcester, d . 72 1 Cinric see Cynric Cippanhamme loc. 42, 43, Chippen­ ham, W ilts Cissa ii , a Saxon invader o f Britain Claudius Caesar 4, Emperor Claudius, d .5 4 Clemens 5, an early pope, d. about 100 Clofesho loc. 28, fam ous but unidentified meeting-place f o r synods Cnybban acc. 13, Cnybba, a Kentish commander, killed 568 Coelestino abl. 10, pope, d, 432 Columba 13, saint, d. 5 3 7 Comegl 13, a British king, killed 5 7 7 Condidan 13, a British king, killed

Cornuualias

acc. pi. fern. 48, adj.

Cridda 14, unknown person, d. 5 3 3 Cuatbricge loc. 53, Bridgnorth, Salop Cuichelm 14, unknown person, d. 5 3 3 Cuichelm 18, 19, a West-Saxon prince

or jo in t king (see Stenton, ‘ Anglo-Saxon England ’, p . 65), d . 636 Cumbran gen. 22, Cumbra, a WestSaxon ealdorman, mid eighth century Cumbris dat. 41, Strathclyde Britons Cundað 44, Condé Cutha 13, 14 (2), a Saxon invader o f Britain

Cuthred

22,

king o f the West Saxons,

7 4 0 -7 5 6 king

of

the

Northumbrians,

7*9-737

Ceolf

ruler set up in M ercia by the

Cornish

Cecrope abl. 18, Cecrops Cecropidae 18, descendants Ceduuala 20, king o f the

21,

41,0

Danes

577

a Saxon

invader o f Britain

Ceolf

Ceolf

59

error f o r Cenwulf, king o f the Mercians, 7 3 6 -8 2 1 Ceolf 28, king o f the M ercians , 8 2 1-8 2 3

Cuthred Cuthrid

28, 19,

king o f Kent, 738 -8 0 7

dat. Cuthride

19,

West-Saxon prince or jo in t king, d. 661 Cuthulf 13, son o f Cuthwine Cuthuuine 13, 33, son o f Ceawlin

a

6o

IN D EX OF NAMES

Gymenesoran

loc. 11, place later known as the Owers, south o f Selsey B ill, now covered by the sea Cyneheard 23, 25, a West-Saxon prince, killed 78 6 Cynemaeresforda loc. 28, Kempsford, Glos Cyneuulf 25, 25, Cynulf passim 22, 25, Cenulf 24, king o f the West Saxons, 7 5 7 -7 8 6 Gynric 33, Ginric passim 11-12 , a Saxon invader o f Britain Cynulf 28, king o f the Mercians, 7 9 6 -8 2 1 (usually C en w u lf) Cyrenceaster 43, -ceastre 19,

loc. Cirncestre 13, Cyrenceastre 43,

Cirencester, Glos

Dani 9 (2), Danes Dani acc. -os, gen. -orum, dat., abl. -is, 26-53 passim, abnormal gen. Da­ naam 37, Danaa 50, Scandina­ vian invaders, regardless o f race

Danmarc 6, Denmark Defna 28, Defenum 31, 43, gen. and dat. o f O E Defnas, men o f Devon, but both used as gen., o f the men o f Devon ;

Defenum 42, used as acc., Devon Deoraby 37, Derby Deorhamme loc. 13, Dyrham, Glos Doniam acc. 6, catted a city, but identi­ fied with Denmark, cf. xxxv, note 3

Dorceastre loc. 19, Dorchester, Oxon Dorceastre loc. 27, Dorchester, Dorset Dorset 30, Dorset Dorsetum 31, o f the men o f Dorset (dat. used as gen.)

Dufslan Eadburh

48,

an Irish monk

25,

daughter o f Offa, wife o f

K ing Byrhtric

Eadbyrht 22, king o f the Northumbrians, 737-758 Eadgar passim 55-56, king o f England, 959-975 Eadgyde 2, daughter o f K ing Eadweard, wife o f Otto I , d. 9 4 6 (oblique fo rm used as nom.) Eadgyfu 2, daughter o f K ing Eadweard, wife o f Charles the Simple Eadhild 2, daughter o f K ing Eadweard, wife o f Hugh the Great Eadmund 36, 50, king o f the E ast Angles, 855-8 70 Eadmund passim 54,56, king o f England ,

939-948

Eadred 55, king o f England, 9 4 6 -9 5 5 Eaduuerd, Eaduuard 49, passim 51 -54, Eadwerd 2, king o f England, 899-924

925)

Eaduuig

55,

king o f England, 955~959

Eaduuine

29,

king o f the Northumbrians,

6 16 -6 3 2

Eadwulf see Athulf Eafa 33, an ancestor o f Æ th e lw u lf Ealdferth 21 , king o f the Northumbrians, 68 5-70 4

Ealdsexe

9, O ld Saxons, but used in the O E idiom o f their country, L a t. Saxonia

uetus Ealhere 31, an ealdorman, killed 853 Ealhmund 33, an ancestor o f Æ th e lw u lf Ealhstan 31,36, Ælhstan 29, bishop o f Sherborne, d. 867 2, daughter o f Baldw in I I o f Flanders, granddaughter o f K in g Æ lfre d Eanulf 24, an ancestor o f Offa Eanulf 31, 36, ealdorman o f Somerset, d. 867 Earmentruth 2, daughter o f Baldw in I I o f Flanders, granddaughter o f K in g Æ lfred Earnulf 46 (2), 47, 48, king o f the E a st Franks, d. 899 Earnulf 2, Flemish prince , grandson o f K in g Æ lfred Earnulf 2, marquis o f Flanders , 9 65

Ealhswid

(■? 9 64 ) - 9 88 East Angles see Orientales Angli, Eoi Angli East Saxons see Eastsexan, Orientales Angli, Orientales Saxones Eastsexan 7, gen. -sexena 30, E a st Saxons

Ebbsfleet Ecgbyrht

see

Hipuuines Fleot

21,

Northumbrian saint, died 729, called a bishop by Æthelweard, probably follow in g the O E Bede Ecgbyrht 22, archbishop o f York, conse­ crated 734 Ecgbyrht passim 27-30, 33 (2), 40, 51, gen. Ecgbyrhtes 28, king o f the West Saxons, 802-839 Ecgferth 19, king o f the Northumbrians 670 -68 5 Ecgferth 27, king o f the M ercians, 7 9 6 Effeso abl. 4, Ephesus Egelesthrip 10, unidentified place, pos­ sibly Aylesford, Kent Eglesburh 13, Aylesbury, Bucks Elesa 33, an ancestor o f Æ th e lw u lf Eleutherius 5, an early pope, usually Eleutherus Elfgyuu 54, wife o f K in g Eadmund, d. about 944 (see p. x liii) Elfred see Ælfred Ellendune loc. 29, 40, regarded as identical with Wroughton, W ilts Embenum loc. 44, Amiens Eoforwic 35, York Eoi Angli E a st Angles, implied in phrase

partes Anglorum eoas 50

61

IN D EX OF NAMES Eomer 25, an ancestor o f Offa Eoppa 33y an ancestor o f Æ th elw u lf Eormenrices gen. 18, an ancestor o f

Galliarum the

kings o f Kent

Escelun loc. 44, Elsloo Escesdune see Æscesdune Escuuine 20, king o f the

West Saxons,

Esingas

18, name f o r the kings o f Kent { c f p . XX, note 5) Esla 33, an ancestor o f Æ th elw u lf Ethandune loc. 43, Edington, W ilts Ethel- see also ÆthelEðelbald 47, an ealdorman, d. 888 {said by Æthelweard to have been ealdorman o f Kent) Ethelbyrht 27, king o f the E a st Angles, beheaded 794 Eðelhelm 47, Æðelm 50, ealdorman o f W iltshire, d. 897 Ethelhun 22, an ealdorman, mid eighth century Ethelm 30, an ealdorman, killed 840 Ethelmund 28, an ealdorman, killed 802 Ethelred 21, king o f the Mercians, 6 7 4 704 Ethelstan 47, baptismal name o f Guthrum (q.v.) Eðelsuuith 47, cf. 32, sister o f K ing Æ lfred, wife o f K ing Burgred, d. 888 Etheluuerd 1 (2), 56, the author o f the work here edited {see pp. x ii-x v i) Ethered see Æthered Euoracam acc. 35, 36, gen. -ae 52, abl. -a 22, 51 (2), 54, York Exancestre loc. 42, Exeter Eynsham see Ignesham Eyuuysl 53, a Scandinavian killed in g i o {cf. p . lix )

i,

gen. Fabii

Gaul, the West Frankish

Gallias acc. pi. fem. 10, 42, 43, 45, 46, 49, adj. Gaulish, o f the West Frankish empire {cf. p. xlix)

6 7 4 -6 7 6 Ese see Æsc

Fabius

2,

empire

56,

name as­

sumed by Æthelweard Fearmegl 13, a British king, killed 577 Fearnhamme loc. 49, Farnham, Surrey Fethanleage loc. 14, unidentified place Fin 33, an ancestor o f Æ th elw u lf Fræna 37, a Scandinavian killed in 870

Francos acc. 47, gen. -orum 28, 32, 43, 45, 46, 47, Franks Frealaf 33, an ancestor o f Æ th elw u lf Freauuine 33, an ancestor o f Æ th elw u lf Frisii 45, Frisians Frithogar 33, an ancestor o f Æ th elw u lf Frithouuald 33, an ancestor o f Æ th elw u lf Frithouulf 33, an ancestor o f Æ th elw u lf Fullanhamme loc. 43, Fulham , M id d le ­ sex

Gafulforda loc. 28, Galford, Devon Galli 25, Franks Galliæ gen. 45, also in pi., gen.

Gallos acc. 5, Gauls Geat 33, an ancestor o f Æ th elw u lf Gent 43, Ghent Geraint 21 (translation only), a British king, c f p . x xiii

Germaniae

gen., abl. -ia, 1-19

passim,

Germany

Germanus

7,

German, used as a rhetorical

collective

Geuuis 33, an ancestor o f Æ th elw u lf Gio ta abl. 8, the continental home o f

the

Jutes

Giotos acc. 9, abl. -is 8, Jutes Glastingabyrig loc. 36, Glastonbury Gleaucestre loc. 13, 42, 43, 53, -cestri 53, Gloucester Goduulfe 33, an ancestor o f Æ th elw u lf { O E dat. used as nom.)

Gothis abl. 5, 10, Goths Grantanbricge loc. 41 (2), Cambridge Gregorius 17, 18 (2), 28, abl. Gre­ gorio 17, 28, Pope Gregory the Great, d. 604

Guido see Vuiða Guthfrid 51, king

o f the Northumbrians; i.e. the Scandinavian settlers in North­ umbria, d. 895 {cf. p . x lii, note 2) Guthlac 21, saint, d. 7 14 Guthrum 41, 47, a Scandinavian king, founder o f the Scandinavian state o f East A nglia, d. 8go

Haesten

49, 50,

a Scandinavian invader,

arrived 8g2

Haithaby 9, Hedeby Hamtune loc. 30, Southampton Hamtunscire loc. 22, gen.

35,

Hampshire

Hamtunscire loc. 49, Northamptonshire Harald 37, a Scandinavian killed in 870 Haruc 52, a Scandinavian killed in go2 {cf. p . lix)

Heahmund

38, bishop o f Sherborne, killed

870

Healfdene

41 (2), 43, a Scandinavian invader, first mentioned in 870, later colonised Northumbria Healfdene 53, a Scandinavian killed in

910 Hengest 8, 9, passim 10-11, 12, 18, 27, 28, a Jutish invader o f Britain Hengestesdune loc. 30, Hingston D ow n, Cornwall

Herebyrht 30, an ealdorman, Hethlege loc. 20, Hatfield, p . x xii)

killed 841 Herts { c f

62

IN D EX OF NAMES

Hiberniam

acc.

53,

abi.

-ia

48.

Ireland

Hierosolymitanae

gen. sg. fern. 4, adj.

o f Jerusalem

Hierusalem gen. in function 3, Hierosolimis acc. in function 48, Jerusalem Hild 20, abbess o f Whitby, d. 680 Hipuuines Fleot 10, Ebbsfleet, Kent Hispanum acc. sg. neut. 5, adj. Spanish

Hisrahelitici

gen. sg. masc. 3, adj.

Israelitish

Hloduuiges

gen. 45, Louis the Stammerer,

d. 87g, but confused with Louis the Pious

Hloduuius 46 (2), Louis the Pious y d, 840 Hloduuius 45, Louis the German, d. 8 76 Holme loc. 52, unidentified place in Kent Horsa 8, 9, passim 10, 12, 27, 28, a Ju tish invader Hengest

Hreni

gen. 47,

of

Britain ,

abi.

brother

Rheno

of

6,

River Rhine

Hreopandune loc. 24, 40,

Hrip- 41,

Rep tony Derbyshire Hrodbyrht 2, Robert o f Paris , killed 323 Hrodulf 47, R u d o lf count o f Upper Burgundy y 8 8 8 -g ii {or g 12)

Hrofesceastre loc. 31,

Hrofecestre 44,

Rochester

Hugoni dat. 2, Hugh the Great, d. 956 Humbre acc. 35, abl. 29, River Humber

Hun

29,

ealdorman o f Somerset, killed

825

Huuiccum loc. of name of tribe used for their territory 28, land o f theHwicce Iacobus 4, St Jam es y brother o f Christ Icel 25, an ancestor o f O f f a Ida 12, king o f the Northumbriansy 5 4 7 5 5 9 (or 560) 13, son o f Tffe, patronymic o f Æ lle o f Northumbria Ignatius 4, bishop o f Antioch , d. about 1 1 6 Ignesham 13, Eynsham , Oxon Iguuar see Iuuar Iguuar 53, a Scandinavian killed in g i o Ine passim 20-21, gen. Ines 33, king o f the West Saxons , 6 8 8 -72 6 Ingild 33y an ancestor o f Æ th elw u lf Iohannes 4, St John the Evangelist Iordanis gen. 3, River Jordan Iouei montis gen. 47, Alpine range Italum acc. sg. neut. 5, adj. Italian Iulio see Caesare Iupitereos montes acc. 2, A lps Iuuar 36, gen. Iguuares 35, 43, a Scandinavian invader, d . 870

Iffing

Jutes see Giotos

Karolus

(magnificus) 45, Carlomany king o f Aquitaine and Burgundy y d. 884

Karulus, Carolus 28, 45 (here confused with Charles the Bald), 46 (2), Charles the Greaty d. 814

Karulus (medius)

32, 45,

Charles

45, 46,

Charles the

the

Baldy d. 8 7 7

Karulus (minor) F a t y d. 888

Karulus (minor)

2,

Charles the

SimpUy

d .g 2 g

Kempsford see Cynemaeresforda Kent see Cent, Cantia Kesteven see Ceostefne Keynsham see Caegineshamme Latini 55, acc. -os 9, users o f Latin Latino abl. sg. masc. 51, neut. 56, adj. Latin Leonis gen. 27, 32, Pope Leo I l f d. 8 1 6 Liduuicon loc. of name of nation used of their country 45, Brittany Liganburh 13, Limbury, Beds Limneo portu abl. 48, 50, harbour or estuary o f River Lympne dat. 51 {Savile Limnas), town o f Lympney Kent y confused with the River Lympne Lindesse 31, Lindissi 40, Lindsey , Lines Lofenum loc. 44, Louvain

Limnis

London

40,

acc.

Lundonam

io,

London

Longobardorum gen. 47, Lombards Louis see Hloduuius Lucanus 9, Latin poet, d . 65 Lucium acc. 5, imaginary king o f Britain Ludeca 29 (footnote), king o f the M e r dans y 8 2 5 -8 2 7

Lundonia

46, abl. 31, 49, 52,

London

Macbeathath 48, an Irish monk Maesae gen. 44, River M euse Maeterne acc. 46, River M arne Magilmumen 48, an Irish monk Mahtildis 38, 39, dat. Mahtildi (2), M a tild a y a relative o f the author,

1 efi

p . x ii

Marcus 4, St M a rk the Evangelist Mariae gen. 52, St M ary Marinus 46, pope, d. 884 Mauritius 10, error repeated fro m

OEC f o r M arcian , emperor o f the E a st , 4 5 0 458

Maximus Caesar

5,

rebel emperor, 3 8 3 -

388

Medii Angli 9, M id d le Angles Medii Angli 29, acc. -os -os

35,

incorrect term f o r the people o f Surrey Merantune loc. 23, perhaps M erton , Surrey

IN D EX OF NAMES Merantune loc. 38, unidentified place Mercredesburnanstede 11 , unidentified place

Meresige loc. 50, Mersea Island, Essex Merscuuari 27, loc.-um 31, dwellers in {Romney) Marshy used o f their territory Middeltune loc. 49, M ilton Regis, Kent Moysi gen. 3, M oses Muca 28, ealdorman, killed 821

Myrcia nom. sg. fern. 40, acc. pi. fern. -ias 52, adj. M ercian Myrcii 40 (2), Mercii 9, 19, Merce 27, gen. Myrciorum, Merciorum passim 21-54, M ercians {used o f their country 27)

Natanleod 12, a British king, killed 508 Noæ gen. 1, N oah Northanhymbra, -e 13, Northumbrians {once gen., once acc. in territorial sense)

Northanhymbrorum gen. passim 9-41, Norðan- 41, Northumbrians Norðhimbrius 50, acc. pi. fem. Northhymbrias 52, abl. pi. neut. Norðhymbriis 53, adj. Northumbrian Northhymbrii 55, acc. -ios 29, gen. -iorum passim 21-51, Northhimbriorum 50, Nordhymbriorum 35? Northumbrians {used o f their territory 5°) Northmanni 9, Norwegians Northuuorthige loc. 37, Derby Nothei Angli South Saxons, perhaps implied in phrase notheas partes Angloium 49 Nottingham see Snotingaham Nunna 21, a king {perhaps o f the South

Offae

27,

63 dat. Offae

25,

king o f

the Mercians, 7 5 7 -7 9 6

Orchadas acc. 4, Orkneys Orientales Angli 18, acc.-es-os East Saxons

Orientales Angli 9, 29, acc. -os -es 35> 44> 47> gfn. -ium -orum 29, 40, 43, abl. -ibus -is 31 ; implied in phrases : orientalem partem An­ glorum 36, similarly 45 ; abbreviated to Orientalium 29 ; E ast Angles Orientales Franci East Franks, implied in phrase manus Francorum orientalis 48 Orientales Saxones 9, E ast Saxons Osbearn 37, a Scandinavian killed in 870 Osbyrht 36, king o f the Northumbrians, about 850-869 {deposed), killed 867 41, a Scandinavian chief, active in 875 Oslaf 13, a Kentish commander, killed5 6 8 Osmod 25, an ancestor o f Offa Osric 21, king o f the Northumbrians, 7 1 8 -7 2 9 Osric 23, 24, a West-Saxon ealdorman {late eighth century) Osric 31, an ealdorman {mid ninth century) Osric 35, an ealdorman, perhaps the same as above, though this one leads the men o f Hampshire, the above those o f Dorset Osuuald 29 (2), king o f the North­ umbrians, 6 33 -64 1 Osuueo 19, 29, king o f the North­ umbrians, 654-670 Osuueo 21, error f o r Oswald, a WestSaxon prince, d. 730 Ottanforda loc. 25, Otford, Kent Owers, the see Cymenesoran

Oscytel

Saxons) contemporary with Ine

Paladius

Occidentales Angli acc. -es -os, gen. -ium -orum, abl. -ibus -is, passim 1852 ; also implied in various phrases : partes Anglorum occidentales 26, Anglorum cum occidentali exercitu 50, ab occidentali parte Anglorum 5 1 ; abbreviated to Occidentalium 53 ; West Saxons

Occidentales

Saxones

9,

37,

West

Saxons

Occidentalium Brittannum

gen. 30,

Welsh o f Cornwall 18, an ancestor o f the kings o f Kent Odda 47, Odo, count o f Paris, d. 8g8 Oddan acc. 43, Odda, ealdorman o f Devon {active 878, only known fro m Æthelweard) Oddonem acc. 2, Emperor Otho I Offa 25, a king o f the Angles on the Continent, ancestor o f Offa o f M ercia

Ochta

Offa

24, 25, 27,

gen. Offan

25,

10, Palladius, missionary to the Irish {early fifth century) Pancali gen. 55, A ll-fa ir, K ing E a d w i f s nickname Parisiacae gen. sg. fem. 46, abl. sg. masc. -co 47, adj. o f Paris Parret see Pedredan Pathmos 4, Patmos Paulus 4(2), gen. Pauli 4, St Paul Pedredan loc. 34, Pederydan 19, River Parret, but apparently believed by Æthelweard to be a town Pedredanmuthan loc. 31, mouth o f the River Parret

Penda 19, acc. Pendan 19, gen. Penda 19, Pendæ 21, king o f the Mercians, d. 654

Penselwood see Pionna Peohtas 2 1, Piets {see also Picti) Petrum acc. 20, baptismal name Cædwalla

Petrus 4 (2), S t Peter Pevensey see Andredesceaster

of

64

IN D EX OF NAMES

Pibba 25, an ancester o f Offa Picti 4, 6 (2), 54, dat., abl. -is 13, 18, Pihtis 41, Piets (see also Peohtas) Pionna 19, see footnote ad. loc. and pp. x x ii-iii

Plegmund 52,

archbishop o f Canterbury, elected 8go Port 30, Portland Posentesbyrg loc. 19, unidentified place Prend 27, Eadbyrht Præn , king o f Kent,

796-798

Pryfetesflodan loc. 22,

River

Privett,

Hants

Quantauuic

31,

Raeduuald 29,

Quentavic

king o f the E ast Angles ,

fl. c. 600

Ragnald 51,

Rægnald , son o f Guthfrith {see Campbell, ‘ Battle o f Brunanburh ’,

p- 5 1 )

Readingum 40,

-on 37, 40 (2), loc. o f ancient tribal name used as name o f town, Reading Rheno see Hreni Robert see Hrodbyrht Rochester see Hrofesceaster

Roma 5, acc. -am 6 (2), 21, 32 (2), 4 1»47 (2), 4 8>52, gen. -æ 5, 10, loc. -æ 4, 33, 46, Rome Romana nom. sg. fern. 27, gen. sg. fern, -æ 5, abl. sg. fern, -a 10, adj. Roman Romani 18, gen. -orum 4, 5, 10, abl. -is 6, Romans Romulo abl. 18, Romulus Rudolf see Hrodulf

Sæbyrht see Sigebyrht Sand Laudan 47, S t Lo Sanduuic 31, Sandwich, Kent Sarauara 44, obscure, but since apparently a West-Saxon contingent is intended, the word is probably a compound in -ware, the meaning is perhaps ‘ men o f Salisbury * {efi Lat. Sarum) Saxones 7, 8, 9, 25, 45, 48, gen. -urn 6, 37, 46, 51, 56, Saxons {but p . 46 genus Saxonum translates O E C Angelcyn) Saxonia 7, abl. 7,9, the Continental home o f the Saxons

Saxonico abl. sg. masc. 9, adj. Saxon Scald 44, River Scheldt Scani 33, Skaney Sceapige loc. 30, 32, Sheppey, Kent Scef 33 (2), S c e a f an ancestor o f Æ thelw u lf

Sceftesbyrig loc. 54, Shaftesbury, Dorset Scireburnan loc. 35, 36, Sherborne, Dorset

Scoti {four times with - t - , five with -tt-) 6 (2), 54, acc. -os 7, 10, gen. -orum 6, 48, abl. -is 18, Scots {always in Æthelweard the Irish , except possibly in the story o f the afflictions o f the Britons , where the Scots come fro m the west, but unlike Bede Æthelweard does not rule out that they came over the sea) Scotia abl. 13, Ireland Scotus 7, Scot, used as a rhetorical col­ lective Scyld 33, an ancestor o f Æ th e lw u lf Sealuudscire loc. 21, Selwood, Somerset Searaburh 13, Salisbury Seccandune loc. 24, Seckington, W ar­ wickshire Sefern 53 (2), River Severn Seueriam acc. sg. fern. 6, adj. o f the Emperor Severus

Seuerus 5,

abl. Seuero Cæsare 6,

Emperor Septimius Severus, d. 2 1 1 Sexburh 20, ruling queen o f the West Saxons, 672 Sigebyrht 18, error f o r Sæbyrht, king o f the E a st Saxons, fl. c. 600

Sigebyrht 22 (2), gen. -es 23, abl. -e 25 (in form OE dat.), king o f the West Saxons, deposed 757 Sigeferth 50, a pirate , active 8gg Sigeuulf 52, an ealdorman, killed in go2 Sighelm 52, an ealdorman, killed in go 2 Signæ gen. 46, abl. -a 47, River Seine

Signiam acc. 46, country o f the River Seine Sihtrix 37, name o f two Scandinavians killed in 870 { c f p . lix)

Simon 4, St Simon the Apostle Slesuuic 9, Schleswig {cf. p . xxxv) Snotingaham 36, Nottingham Solomonis gen. 1, Solomon South Saxons see Suthseaxe, Australes Saxones, Australes Angli, Nothei Angli Stanforda loc. 51, Stamford , Lines Stephanus 4, S t Stephen Streoneshealh 20, Whitby Stuf 12, dat. Stufe 12, a Saxon in­ vader o f Britain

Stufemuðan loc. 45,

mouth o f the River Stour {the spelling with - f - is peculiar to certain chronicles, see p . xxvii) Sueui 9, acc. -os 9, Svebi {perhaps confused with Swedes)

Sumorsæton 29, Sumærsetun 31, Sumersætun 36, Sumorsetun 42, Sumersetun 42, o f the men o f Somerset {dat. used as gen.)

Sumurtun 21, Somerton, Somerset Sunnan gen. 44, River Somme Suthriæ gen. 29, 30, 32, Surrey Medii Angli)

{cf

IN D EX OF NAMES Suthseaxe 24, -sexan 9, 25, -sexena 30, South Saxons Suuanauuic 42, Swanage, Dorset

gen.

Tamesi abl. 44, River Thames Tatuuine 22, archbishop o f Canterbury, d. 734 Temese 29, 31, 32, 49, -æ 49, River Thames {O E oblique fo rm used as acc. and gen.)

Temesemuthan

loc. 31,

mouth o f the

River Thames

Tenet 31, 32, 35, Thanet, Kent Tetuua 33, an ancester o f Æ th elu u lf Thames see Temese, Tamesi Thanet see Tenet Theodori gen. 20, archbishop o f Canterbury, d. 690

Theotforda loc. 36, Thetford , Norfolk Theseo abl. 11, Theseus Theseum nom. sg. neut. 11, adj. o f Theseus

Thingferth see Tingferd Thornige loc. 49, Thorney,

near Iver, Bucks {see Stenton, E H R xxvii, 5 1 2 - 1 3 ) Tinan acc. 41, River Tyne Tingferd 24, father o f Offa Turcesige loc. 40, Torksey, Lines Tusci 18, acc. -os 5, Tuscans Tusco abl. 18, Tuscus Tylem acc. 4, Thule Tyrenum acc. sg. neut. 45, adj. Tyr­ rhene

Valentinus

10, Valentinian, emperor o f the West, 4 2 5 -4 5 5 Veteranum Saxonum gen. 45, O ld Saxons (i.e. Saxons o f the Continent) Vubbandune loc. 13, unidentified place { O E C Wibban-) Vuedmor 43, Wedmore, Somerset Weohstan see Vuexstan Vueolod 51, River Welland Vuerham 41, Wareham , Dorset Vuermund 25, an ancestor o f Offa West Saxons see Vuestsexe, Occiden­ tales Angli, Occidentales Saxones Vuestsexe 11, -an 9, Westsexan 13, West Saxons {or their territory) Vuexstan 28, an ealdorman, killed 802 Whitby see Streoneshealh

65

Vuhtgar

12, dat. Vuihtgare 12, a Saxon invader o f Britain Vuhtii 8, men o f Wight Vuhtleg 25, an ancestor o f Offa Vuicta 9, 18, an ancestor o f Hengest Vuig 33, an ancestor o f Æ th elw u lf Vuiganbeorge loc. 31, perhaps W igborough, Somerset (but c f Whitelock , Anglo-Saxon C h r o n i c l e 42) Vuigferd 23, a West-Saxon thane {late eighth century)

4

Vuihtam

acc. 12 (2),

abl. -a

8,

Wight

Wihtgar Vuihtlaf

Vuhtgar 29, 30, error fo r

see

W ig la f king

o f the Mercians , 827-840

Vuilsætæ 28,

dat. (as gen.) -um 28,

men o f Wiltshire

Vuinburnan loc. 39, Wimborne, Dorset Vuintana abl. 29, 51, Winchester Vuintona abl. 32, Winchester Vuintonia 35, abl. -a 24, 52, W in­ chester

Vuipped

11,

alleged to be the name o f a

Saxon soldier

Wippedesfleot 11, unidentified place Vuiða 47, Guido , duke o f Spoleto, E m ­ peror 891, d. 894

Vuithar

9, Wither 18, an ancestor o f Hengest {cf. p . xx) Vulfheard 29, 30, an ealdorman, d. 840 Vulfhere 19, 20, king o f the Mercians ,

657-674

o f York, d. 9 5 6 Adam 's Grave, W ilts {Henry o f Huntingdon has form s derived from O E -byrg) Vuodnesfelda loc. 53, Wednesfield, Staffs

Vulfstan 54, archbishop Wodnesbyrg loc. 14,

Vuothen 9, 12, 13, 18 (2), 25, 33, Vuoddan 7, the heathen god Wodeny euhemerised (7, 9) as a barbarian king , appears in most genealogies

Vuothnesbeorhge loc. 21, Adam 's Grave, W ilts {cf. Wodnesbyrg) Vurthgern 10, Vurthern 7, Vuirthgern 10, King Vortigern Vuthgirete 21, form due to misunder­ standing, see p . xxiii

Vuyhtels

9,

Wihtgels

18, father

Hengest

York

see

Eoforwic, Euoracam

of

IN D E X

OF L A T IN

WORDS

This Index contains mainly the Latin words and expressions discussed in the Introduction, where references to the text are given. A few unusual meanings are given from the text. abmatertera xlvii actenus lii actor xlviii adest liii adhaereo liii adiaceo liii adire liii alternatim 36 ambitus (in phrases) amplector liv anax xlvi anilis, old 39, 50 applicium xlviii arduus xlviii artemon xlvi ast lii attegia xlvii augmentum xlviii autem lii baptisticus bis lv bradifonus

facietenus lii famen xlviii fasiolus xlvi fasma xlviii firmitas xlviii foecundia xlix forsan lii fratuellus xlix fungor liii

liv

Gallias (acc.pl.fem.) igitur lii ignotus liv impendiosus xlvii impetus, army 50 in liii incurius xlix insequor liii insopiturus 42 insto liii interea lii ipse 56 itaque lii iteratus 50 iusiuramentum xlix iuxta liii

xlviii xlvi

calumnia xlviii certe lii cessus xlix classialis xlviii compagus xlvii cuius (for huius) cum liii de liii denique lii deuoueo liii diuictus xlix do (in phrases) lv domi (loc.for acc.) dromon xlvi

migro liv mino, carry off 40 moneris xlvi

liv

namque lii nexilitas xlvi nimis liv nimius, -um liv liv

enim lii ergo lii etiam lii exactor xlviii excepto (with gen. or abl.)

obliuiscor liii obruptio xlix obuio liii obuius liii ogdoos xlvi onerifer xlviii orbitus, eclipse 45

liv

67

xlix

68

IND EX OF L A T IN W ORDS

pali (for paludis) xlix Pancalus xlvi parentes, relatives 24 parochia xlviii patrinus xlviii per liii periclitatio xlvii phagolidorus xlvii populor liv portici (gen. sg.) xlix post liii præcapitulor xlviii præmuneratus 7 præsciscitato liv præsentati (abi. sg.) xlix praeter liii praeuisor xlviii primatis (abi. pl.) xlix primna xlvii protendo liv quidem lii quippe lii

recenti 56 rusticanus xlix scarmos xlvii scilicet lii sinclitus xlvii siquidem lii statuta 50 stefos xlvii stemma xlvi stipulator 56 stomio (dat. sg.) xlvii strantur (près, indic., pass.) suda xlvii suffragium xlviii suffultus, support xlix suito xlix superstes, chief xlviii supra lv uero lii urbs xxxv-vi usito xlix utor liii

xlix

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