West-Saxon realm, that Alfred superintended the compilation of the first English national chronicle, in contradistinction to purely local annals. In all probability his was the hand which wrote the history of the Danish invasions. The actual autograph of this first portion of our chronicle has not been preserved; but the Parker MS. [A] is a copy of one of the many transcriptions which by the king's orders were distributed among the different religious houses of England. Another MS. was sent to some northern monastery, possibly Ripon, where a series of Northumbrian annals extending at least from 733 to 806 were incorporated in it and fuller extracts were made from Bede. The scribes of MSS. D and E had a copy of this before them when they were transcribing the past annals of their country for a later age.

But Alfred was not content to collect old records and to bring them up to date with a history of his own times; he provided for the future by appointing an official, or officials, to continue the work. In 893 the Danes broke once more into Wessex and the

...

1 Concerning which Mr. Plummer writes (vol. 2, c ii-c iii): "It is now fully recognized that from the middle of the eighth to the middle of the ninth century there is a chronological dis location running through all our extant chronicles, a majority of the events proving to be two years, and some three years behind the true chronology. This dislocation is purely mechanical and is due to the scribe passing over now and again (as may easily be done) some blank annal against which nothing is recorded . . . the proof of this lies in the fact that we have evidence of the existence of a chronicle in which this dislocation had not taken place."

dependent districts; for the remainder of his reign. the king was too busy to attend to aught else. For twenty years, however, after his death, the impulse which he had given was continued; and the contemporary records of the reign of Edward the elder are of the finest and most authentic nature.

We have now arrived at the interesting question of the Mercian Register. After closing the year 915 (=918 A), two MSS., B and C, introduce a number of annals, extending from 902-924, and dealing mainly with the deeds of Æthelflæd, lady of the Mercians. D, on the other hand, recognizing the crude nature of this insertion, tries to amalgamate it in chronological order with the rest of his text. These records form a little Midland Register of about twenty years. Of the same nature are the second group of northern annals, extending from 901 to 954, which exist fragmentarily in D and E, and are found also in Simeon of Durham in a more elaborate form; these, too, probably originated in a separate document. The existence of two independent contemporary chronicles, dealing with events in middle and northern England, is doubly interesting because they show that attempts at historical writing were being made outside the official continuation of Alfred's work. Unfortunately, however, the impulse was soon exhausted; the various MSS. are obliged to piece out the story of the fifty years following the death of Edward the elder with ballads, notices of deaths, successions, etc., and other scraps. At this point B ceases altogether; A is continued very scantily up to 1001; after that

date the latter, which in 892 had been sent to Winchester, was transferred thence to Christ-Church, where it received a few Canterbury additions, ending up with the Latin Acts of Lanfranc. Before A left Winchester a transcript was made. This is our W, which received no further additions.

The history of the second Danish struggle (9831018) is recorded by MSS. C, D, E in practically identical terms; the source of this work and the place of composition are unknown. The relations between C, D, E now become too complicated to be expressed in any single formula. All we can say is that in some cases two or more of them used common materials. But we have every possible variety of relation between them. A peculiar feature of C is its strongly anti-Godwinist tone, with which one may compare the opposite side as expressed by E and more moderately by D. C ends abruptly in 1066, D ends incompletely at 1079, E alone continues to 1154. In its present form the last-named is a Peterborough Chronicle; it is full of notices bearing on the local history of Peterborough. But a comparison with other MSS., combined with a study of the language of the earlier entries, shows that they are later insertions in a non-Peterborough Chronicle. The original probably had its home at St. Augustin's Monastery, Canterbury, until 1121; in that year it was transferred to Peterborough. There a fresh transcription was made; the local additions being inserted in the process. From the original MS. at St. Augustin's a bilingual epitome was made for the use of the neighbouring monas

tery of Christ-Church; and in this a few local Kentish notices were embodied. This is our F, which ends in 1058.

Here is the tale of the conception and subsequent development of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, as a critical study of the several MSS., which have been handed down to us, reveals it. The table opposite, adapted from Mr. Plummer, shows the precise relationship existing between the extant MSS.

A few words remain to be said concerning the translation. The Parker MS. is the text which I have used, but extracts have been made from the other MSS. wherever the difference of phraseology or fact justified their insertion. As the relative value of the various texts differs considerably, I have judged it necessary to indicate the source from which each annal is derived. Mr. Plummer's critical edition of "Two Saxon Chronicles parallel" (Clarendon Press), has of course formed the basis and guide of this book; and to it I am indebted for the few remarks above on the origin and growth of the chronicles, for many of the notes and for the saving of much labour in making the index.

I have translated word for word in the most literal and exact way, my aim being as much to preserve the spirit as the sense and historical truths of the original. The spelling of proper names always presents a difficulty to the student of early English history. The majority of Anglo-Saxon personal names are dead and must always bear about them the flavour of the past, but more than a few have survived the Norman Conquest and lived on to our own times.

(Established at Abingdon.) (Established at Abingdon.)