BOHN'S ANTIQUARIAN LIBRARY.
Old English Chronicles.
ETHELWERD—ASSER'S LIFE OF ALFRED—GEOFFREY OF
MONMOUTH—GILDAS—NENNIUS—AND
RICHARD OF CIRENCESTER.
GEORGE BELL AND SONS
LONDON: PORTUGAL ST., LINCOLN'S INN.
CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL AND CO.
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO.
BOMBAY: A.H. WHEELER AND CO.
Old English Chronicles,
INCLUDING
ETHELWERD'S CHRONICLE.
ASSER'S LIFE OF ALFRED.
GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH'S BRITISH HISTORY.
GILDAS. NENNIUS.
TOGETHER WITH THE
SPURIOUS CHRONICLE OF RICHARD OF CIRENCESTER.
EDITED, WITH ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES,
BY J.A. GILES, D.C.L.,
LATE FELLOW OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, OXFORD.
LONDON
GEORGE BELL & SONS
1906
[Reprinted from Stereotype plates.]
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
Of the present volume it will be sufficient to inform thereader that it contains Six Chronicles, all relating to thehistory of this country before the Norman Conquest, andall of essential importance to those who like to study historyin the very words of contemporary writers.
We will at once proceed to enumerate them severally.
Chap. I.—ETHELWERD'S CHRONICLE.
The short chronicle, which passes under the name ofEthelwerd, contains few facts which are not found in theSaxon Chronicle its precursor. Of the author we know nomore than he has told us in his work. "Malmesbury callshim 'noble and magnificent' with reference to his rank; forhe was descended from king Alfred: but he forgets his peculiarpraise—that of being the only Latin historian for twocenturies; though, like Xenophon, Cæsar, and Alfred, hewielded the sword as much as the pen."[1]
Ethelwerd dedicated his work to, and indeed wrote it forthe use of his relation Matilda, daughter of Otho the Great,emperor of Germany, by his first empress Edgitha orEditha; who is mentioned in the Saxon Chronicle, a.d.925, though not by name, as given to Otho by her brother,king Athelstan. Ethelwerd adds, in his epistle to Matilda,that Athelstan sent two sisters, in order that the emperormight take his choice; and that he preferred the mother ofMatilda.
The chronology of Ethelwerd is occasionally a year or twoat variance with other authorities. The reader will be[Pg vi]guided in reckoning the dates, not by the heading of eachparagraph, a.d. 891, 975, &c., but by the actual words of theauthor inserted in the body of the text.
I have translated this short chronicle from the originaltext as well as I was able, and as closely as could be to theauthor's text; but I am by no means certain of having alwayssucceeded in hitting on his true meaning, for such is the extraordinarybarbarism of the style, that I believe many anancient Latin classic, if he could rise from his grave, wouldattempt in vain to interpret it.