[149] 489 C [52]. In the Book of Llandaff we have in one place: ‘in confinibus Britannie et Anglie,’ p. 192. Asser never has Anglia.

[150] 467 bis [1, 3], 471 C [10], 473 D [15], 483 A [36], 483 C [37], 484 B, C [39], 489 B [51], 491 B [55].

[151] Beorhtric, 471 D [11]; Æthelwulf, 469 D [153], 470 B [7], 483 E [38]; Æthelbald, 472 D [13]; Æthelberht, 473 C [15]; Æthelred, 475 B [19].

[152] See below, § 49.

[153] 467 [1].

[154] Chron. 886; cf. ibid., 901.

[155] 475 A [19], 476 D [22], 477 C [24].

[156] ‘In sempiterno graphio,’ 470 C [8]; the very same phrase, Cambro-British Saints, p. 100.

[157] 484 A [38]; the true year is 885, v. inf. p. 50.

[158] Dümmler, Gesch. d. Ostfränkischen Reiches, ed. 1. ii. 224.

[159] Bede certainly speaks of Saxons, Angles, Jutes, as being all peoples of Germania, H. E. I. xv. In Alfred’s Orosius Germany includes all between the Rhine, the Danube, the Don, and the White Sea.

[160] 483 A [36], 486 B [44].

[161] 477 E [11].

[162] 470 C [8], 472 D [13], 483 E [38].

[163] 491 A [54].

[164] 483 D [38].

[165] ibid.

[166] 483 D [38].

[167] 484 A [38], 489 B [51].

[168] 483 A [36] bis; ibid., C [37] bis.

[169] 483 A, B [36, 37]; at the beginning of the annal 886 we should probably read: ‘[orientalem] regionem fugiens’; Florence has ‘orientali Francia relicta,’ i. 101. In the division which followed the deposition of Charles the Fat, Arnulf has ‘orientales regiones Hreni’; Rudolf, ‘internam partem regni’ (= þæt middel rice, Chron.); Odo, ‘occidentale regnum,’ 491 A [54]; cf. Chron. 887 and notes.

[170] 479 A [28], 487 B [46], 498 B [67].

[171] 484 A [39], 486 B [44].

[172] 493 E [61], 494 B [62] bis.

[173] 484 A [38].

[174] 473 C [15].

[175] See § 30.

[176] Histoire de France, i. 36: ‘leur indomptable personnalité, toujours prête à réagir contre le despotisme du fait,’ a passage alluded to by M. Arnold, Celtic Literature, p. 102.

[177] 488 A-C [48-50].

[178] Bede, ii. 75, 76.

[179] Chron. ii. 118, 119.

[180] Collected Papers, p. 467; I have to thank my friend Mr. F. Jenkinson, Librarian of the sister University, for reminding me of this passage.

[181] e.g. the Book of Llandaff, which is of the twelfth century, though based on older materials; Brochmail, Elised, Mouric, Ris, Rotri, Teudur, will all be found in the Index.

[182] Digal Rotri, ‘the avenging of Rotri,’ Ann. Cambr. and Brut, sub anno, 880; cf. ibid., 877.

[183] See Chron. 835, and note.

[184] 892 Ann. Cambr.; 891 Brut. He may be the Himeyt who occurs in No. 2 of the ancient Welsh pedigrees, printed from Harleian MS. 3859, in Y Cymmrodor, ix. 171.

[185] Ann. Cambr., Brut., sub anno.

[186] pp. 212, 213; he is mentioned, ibid. 226-231.

[187] ibid., Index; in Cambro-British Saints, p. 22, the name is derived from an eponymous king Gluigius.

[188] pp. 200, 206, 216, 226, 231-236; cf. Pedigree, No. 29, u. s.

[189] Ann. Cambr., sub anno.

[190] Book of Llandaff, pp. 238, 239.

[191] 481 B [32].

[192] 895 Ann. Cambr.; 894 Brut.

[193] Above, § 12.

[194] The special use of the term ‘Saxonia’ occurs only in the biography; but then there was no great occasion to use it in the annals. Conversely, the seven instances in which Welsh equivalents for Saxon place-names are given occur wholly in the annals. But this also is quite natural. In the annals, as we shall see, the writer was translating; and he added explanations to make his text more intelligible to his Welsh readers. For the same reason, and also because of their greater length, the biographical sections give greater scope for the author’s idiosyncrasies both of diction and of style; and therefore they naturally contain a number of peculiarities which cannot be paralleled in the annals.

[195] The biographical sections (B) occupy nearly twice as much space as the annalistic (A). For purposes of statistics it is hard to draw the line exactly between them, because, even in the annals, there are small biographical insertions, and it is difficult to know under which head to class these. The longer anecdotes about Æthelwulf, Æthelbald, and Æthelred I have counted as B. I give a few statistics of the vocabulary. It will be seen that some words of frequent occurrence occur only under one heading, and these taken alone might support the theory of a double authorship; but I do not think they do. See last note. Adunatus, A³, B¹; aedificium (in special sense noted in text), A¹, B³; aliquantulus, A¹, B⁴; animose, A⁶; belligerare, A⁵, B²; curtum, B⁶; incessabiliter, B³; infatigabiliter, A² (the writer is fond of words ending in -bilis, -biliter); licentia (in sense of leisure), B³; more aprino, B¹; more lupino, A¹; more uulpino, A¹; ordinabiliter, B⁶; testudo, A¹, B²; uniuersitatis uia (i.e. death), A⁶, B¹; ultramarinus, A¹, B¹; uita praesens, B¹².

[196] 482 C [35].

[197] i. 321; E. T. ii. 55.

[198] König Ælfred, p. 141.

[199] 486 A [43].

[200] 492 D [58].

[201] ibid.

[202] 495 D [66].

[203] Gesta Pontificum, pp. 389 f.: ‘Fastigium cristallinum rex Ethelwulfus apposuit scrinio, in quo nomen eius litteris aureis est legere.’ In front were ‘ex solido argento iactae imagines,’ i.e. statuettes cast in solid silver; at the back ‘leuato metallo miracula figurauit,’ i.e. scenes representing Aldhelm’s miracles. Does ‘metallo leuato’ mean that they were engraved? or does it indicate ‘champlevé’ enamel? The latter would be another link with Alfred’s Jewel, though the enamel of that is ‘cloisonné.’ Malmesbury speaks in the present tense, so that the shrine had survived to his time; and he must have seen it almost daily. In the Chron. Monast. Casinensis, under the year 1020 we find mentioned: ‘loculus mirificus … argento et auro ac gemmis Anglico opere subtiliter ac pulcherrime decoratus,’ Pertz, vii. 649; cf. ibid., 712: ‘Anglus quidam aurifex.’

[204] e.g. 486 D [45] neque enim … administraret; 488 A [49] qui saepe … sub ipsis; 492 D [59] ueluti gubernator … contendit, &c.

[205] Instances of recurrence at longer intervals: 469 A [4] nobilis ingenio, nobilis et genere; 473 D [16] cum nobilitate generis, nobilis mentis ingenium; 474 A [17] crebris querelis, et intimis suspiriis; 486 C [45] querelabatur et assiduo gemebat suspirio; 496 B [67] in quantum infirmitas et possibilitas atque suppetentia permitteret; 497 A [69] in qu. poss. aut supp. immo etiam inf. perm. Instances of recurrence at short intervals: 485 D, E [43] artes quae nobilibus conueniunt, studia qu. nob. conu.; 485 E [43] et maxime Saxonica carmina studiose didicere; 486 A [43] et max. carm. Sax. memoriter discere, et … studiosissime; 491 C [55] erga studium … sapientiae uoluntatem, erga st. sap. deuotionem; 492 A, B [57] quamuis dissimili modo (repeated); 493 A, B [59, 60] inani poenitentia … inanem poenitentiam … detestabilis poen … sera poen.; 494 B, D [62, 63] iudaico more [= like Judas] (repeated); 495 D, E [66] unicuique secundum propriam dignitatem (repeated). In the long passage about Alfred’s illness this feature reaches the degree of caricature. If my view is right that that passage is a conflation of two traditions relating to the same events, this characteristic also would be accounted for.

[206] Parentheses: 481 B [32] non enim … uidimus; 489 B [51] quia illa ciuitas … parua; 491 A [54] nullus enim … solus. Repetition: 478 D [27] tutissimo terrarum situ; 481 C [32] locus situ terrarum tutissimus.

[207] Ecgberht … and his Coins, Numismatic Chronicle, 3rd Series, xx. 66-87. For a copy of this (too) ingenious essay I am indebted to the kindness of Sir Henry himself. His unfavourable view of the Saxon Chronicle is strongly expressed here and elsewhere.

[208] Foundations of England, i. 257.

[209] See Chron. sub anno, and notes.

[210] ‘Aut cum Paganis sub captiuitate erant,’ 489 C [52].

[211] 469 C [5].

[212] 469 B, C [5] (four times).

[213] 487 C [47]; probably in 473 A [14] Suth-Seaxum should be read for-am.

[214] 484 A [38]. These forms are very common in Ethelwerd, whose work is also based mainly on the Chronicle: ‘quod Huiccum nuncupatur,’ 509 f.; Dorsetum Dux, 511 B; Defenum Dux, 511 C.

[215] 489 B [51], 490 C [54]; in the latter passage he has also Sigona, which is a sort of compromise.

[216] 469 B [219].

[217] 469 D [220] and passim.

[218] 483 A [36], Chron. 881. Florence has ‘exercitus saepedictus,’ which shows that he misunderstood or misread ‘superius’ as ‘supradictus.’ This illustrates the relation of Florence to Asser, as well as that of Asser to the Chron.

[219] See Chron. ii. 95.

[220] 482 C [35].

[221] 469 B [5] Sheppey; 469 C [6] Oakley; 476 C [22] Ashdown; 479 A [28] Exeter; 481 D [33] Selwood.

[222] See above, p. 38, note 3.

[223] 469 B, C [225] Sheppey and London; ib. C, D [6] Surrey, and ‘Mediterranei Britones’; 474 C [17] York; 476 A [21] Reading; 477 D [25] Wilton; 478 D [27] Wareham; 479 A [28] Exeter; 480 B [30] Chippenham; 482 C [35] Cirencester; 483 B [37] Rochester.

[224] Above, p. 44. Other good additions will be found under 853, 871. (I do not include under this head the story of Æthelred and his mass.) But the fact that Asser was occasionally able to make authentic additions no more disproves the greater originality of the Chron. than similar additions in Ethelwerd, who, while following in the main the Chron., evidently had other good sources now lost. On the type of Chron. used by Asser, see Chron. II. lxxxiv.

[225] 492 C [58]: ‘ad quadragesimum quintum [annum] quem nunc agit.’

[226] 496 A [67], from Cura Past. iii. c. 20. [Anglo-Saxon Version, cap. xliv.]

[227] Alfred says that he translated sometimes ‘word be worde,’ word by word, sometimes ‘andgit of andgite,’ ‘sensum ex sensu.’ The exact correspondence is curious.

[228] See above, §§ 24, 25.

[229] u. s. p. 356.

[230] Rev. C. S. Taylor, The Danes in Gloucestershire, pp. 7-9.

[231] 480 C-481 B [30-32].

[232] Ed. Coxe, i. 331, 332.

[233] pp. 339 ff.

[234] ‘Saxones Anglicos Zephyri sub uento morantes,’ p. 350.

[235] AA. SS. July vii. 314 ff.

[236] ‘Priusquam Anglia … Nortmannorum subiugaretur ditioni,’ p. 320ᵇ.

[237] p. 320ᵃ.

[238] Imitatio, i. 3; Eng. Transl. ed. 1863.

[239] p. 320ᵇ.

[240] pp. 317 ff.

[241] Whitaker, u. s. p. 367.

[242] pp. 256 ff.

[243] In the Shrine, pp. 12 ff.

[244] Anglia, iii. 104 ff.

[245] Catalogue of British History, i. 539.

[246] Two Saxon Chronicles, pp. 351 ff.

[247] See below, p. 56, note 4.

[248] Grundriss … der angelsächsischen Litteratur, p. 494.

[249] Gorham, pp. 256, 257.

[250] ibid. 258.

[251] AA. SS. u. s. p. 321ᵃ; Whitaker, pp. 318, 367.

[252] AA. SS. ibid.; Whitaker, p. 367. The Metrical Life seems to make him king of Kent only, ibid. 318.

[253] Whitaker, p. 318.

[254] AA. SS. p. 321ᵇ; Whitaker, pp. 320, 367.

[255] AA. SS. ibid.; Whitaker, p. 321.

[256] Whitaker, p. 343; Gorham, p. 257: ‘on Sc͠es Ælfeges dagen þæs halgen biscopes.’ The absurdity is hardly less if we suppose the earlier Ælfheah to be meant, 934-951. But the title of ‘Saint’ seems to show that the later one is intended. If so, the life cannot at any rate be earlier than 1012. And this alone would be fatal to Ælfric’s authorship, as he was himself a personal friend of this later Ælfheah, and could not possibly have made such a confusion; cf. Wülker, Grundriss, p. 455.

[257] AA. SS. pp. 322ᵇ, 323ᵃ; Whitaker, pp. 328, 346, 368; Gorham, p. 257.

[258] AA. SS. p. 323ᵇ; Whitaker, pp. 329, 346, 368.

[259] AA. SS. p. 325ᵃ; Whitaker, pp. 333 ff., 347 ff., 370 ff.; Gorham, p. 258.

[260] AA. SS. p. 325ᵇ; Whitaker, pp. 335, 349, 372; Gorham, pp. 258, 259.

[261] AA. SS. p. 327ᵃ: ‘panes … quos nonnulli liridas appellant’; Whitaker, pp. 351 ff.; Gorham, p. 259.

[262] AA. SS. pp. 327ᵇ-328ᵇ; Whitaker, pp. 355 ff., 371 ff.; Gorham, p. 260.

[263] 481 A [32].

[264] Bede, ii. 48, 168, 175, 243, 371.

[265] Ebert, u. s. ii. 229.

[266] AA. SS. pp. 323ᵃ, 325ᵇ; Whitaker, pp. 328, 348, 368, 370; Gorham, p. 258.

[267] Gregorovius, Gesch. der Stadt Rom, iii. 206, 207. The Saxon Chronicle dates his pontificate 883-885, another indication that it is a year in advance of the true chronology.

[268] AA. SS. p. 325ᵇ; Whitaker, pp. 335, 349, 372; Gorham, p. 259.

[269] Chron. 885.

[270] ibid. 883; omitted in MS. ‘A’ only. According to Malmesbury, Alfred gave this relic to Glastonbury, Antiq. Eccl. Glast. p. 316 (ed. Gale).

[271] Even Mr. W. H. Simcox, English Historical Review, i. 232; on the ground that the evidence is ‘earlier than much which we accept.’ Even were this so, it does not touch the fact of its being inconsistent with authentic records.

[272] ‘Com þa Guðrum se hæðene king mid his wælreowen here ærest on east dæle Sexlandes.… Ða Ælfred king … þæt ofaxode þæt se here … wæs … swa neh Englelande, he sone for fyrht fleames cepte, and his cæmpen ealle forlet, and his heretogen, and eall his þeode; … ferde þa lutigende geond heges and weges, geond wudes and feldes, swa þæt he … becom to Æðelingege,’ Gorham, p. 239; cf. AA. SS. p. 327ᵃ.

[273] Pauli thinks that the result was partly due to internal treachery, König Ælfred, p. 123; cf. also Asser, 480 B [30] ‘et etiam a Christianis,’ &c.

[274] Professor Earle’s suggestion, who notes that Alfred’s will shows that he had a ‘ham’ at Chippenham; cf. Asser, 480 B [30].

[275] König Ælfred, p. 117.

[276] ‘Butan þam cyninge Ælfrede,’ ‘diese vier Worte klingen in ihrer trockenen Einfachheit unendlich grossartig,’ ibid., 125 note. The same words are used of Hereward, 1071 E, 1072 D; and Pauli has remarked that Alfred’s position in Athelney was not unlike Hereward’s in Ely, p. 129.

[277] Chron. 878, and notes.

[278] Weltgeschichte, VI. ii. 44. Ethelwerd in his Preface says: ‘dilucidius explicare oportet,’ 499 C. If this is his idea of lucidity, what would his obscurity be?

[279] cf. Pauli, u. s. p. 145 note.

[280] On Ethelwerd cf. Chronicle, II. xliv, ci. f., cxxv, 8, 9, 18, 28, 47, 59, 89 f., 174, 178.

[281] sub anno 901.

[282] Pauli thinks he detects traces of a ballad in a passage of Ethelwerd, König Ælfred, p. 119 note; but it is difficult to argue from a writer like Ethelwerd.

[283] Ed. Arnold, p. 147; On Henry of Huntingdon, cf. Chron. II. lvii f., 10, 43, 70, 215, 244 f.

[284] ii. 84.

[285] ‘Incelebres,’ not ‘in celebres.’

[286] S. D. i. 62, 63, 204 ff., 230 ff.; ii. 83, 111.

[287] Gesta Regum, i. 125.

[288] Old English History, p. 130.

[289] Not the cathedral, as I have wrongly said, Chron. II. 94.

[290] S. D. i. 204, 230.

[291] G. R. i. 124-126, 130.

[292] See below, §§ 90, 115.

[293] G. R. i. 132, 133.

[294] See Chronicle, II. cxxvii.

[295] ‘Incurabili morbo languentem … curandum transmisit,’ Higden, vi. 318, 356; Lib. de Hyda, p. 26.

[296] W. M. i. 129; Ingulf, p. 28; Bromton, col. 818; W. Thorn, col. 1777 (hundred et lestes); Ann. Winton. p. 10; Robert of Gloucester, i. 293; Lib. de Hyda, p. 42.

[297] Geoffrey of Monmouth, iii. 5, 13; Layamon’s Brut, i. 269 f.; John of Wallingford, p. 538; Higden, ii. 92 (from Alfred of Beverley). The whole myth is due to a misunderstanding (wilful, probably, in the first instance) of the partial incorporation in Alfred’s Laws of the Mercian code of Offa.

[298] ‘Primus monarcha Anglorum,’ Lib. de Hyda, p. 48, which gives a long comment on this text; cf. Ric. de Cirencest. Speculum Hist. i. 45: ‘primus … monarcha, et ad quem monarchia regni Anglicani totaliter extitit deuoluta.’ Ethelwerd, though so much nearer the time, is not guiltless in this matter, saying that Alfred ‘obtinuit regnum … super prouincias Brittanniae cunctas,’ p. 514 C.