Old English Chronicle, Volume 1

"The "Old English Chronicles" survive as a group of seven texts of annals structured in chronicle format, similar to Bede's Ecclesiastical History's Recapitulatio, beginning with an annal number followed by information for that year. The importance of these seven groups of texts, composed in Old English and collectively known under the name "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Manuscripts A-G," is strikingly disproportionate to their small size. Indeed, in spite of the constraints of the genre to which these texts belong, they have rightly been described as providing a historical backbone for the period between the arrival of the first Germanic invaders in Britain in the fifth century and events in the early decades of the twelfth century. The Chronicle texts also provide precious information about the development of their language, Old English, into Middle English some decades after the Norman Conquest. At the same time, the wealth of references to towns and cities that they contain makes them a first point of reference for English place-name studies. There never has been a single text, now lost, at the end of the line to carry an exclusive title, whether it be that of a "Saxon" or an "Anglo-Saxon" Chronicle. The text in this edition, covering the years up to 1001 and hitherto called "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Manuscript A," is accordingly given the new name that recognizes its language: "The Old English Chronicle, the A-Text to 1001." Also included in the volume are three related poems: The Death of Alfred and The Death of Edward , two highly political poems cast in the form of obituaries for royal figures, and The Battle of Maldon, one of the richest and most interesting poems in the corpus of Old English literature, despite its incomplete state. Maldon has a claim to being the most "historical" extended poem in the Old English corpus. It narrates a real battle (fought on August 10, 991, between a levy of Englishmen led by Byrhtnoth, ealdormann of Essex, and an army of invading Northmen), and Byrhtnoth, at least, is a well-attested historical figure"--