盎格魯撒克遜編年史英文本

1、preparers note: at present there are nine known versions or fragments of the anglo-saxon chronicle in existence, all of which vary (sometimes greatly) in content and quality. the translation that follows is not a translation of any one chronicle; rather, it is a collation of readings from many diffe

2、rent versions.the nine known anglo-saxon chronicle ms. are the following: a-prime the parker chronicle (corpus christi college, cambridge, ms. 173)a cottonian fragment (british museum, cotton ms. otho b xi, 2)b the abingdon chronicle i (british museum, cotton ms. tiberius a vi.)c the abingdon chroni

3、cle ii (british museum, cotton ms. tiberius b i.)d the worcester chronicle (british museum, cotton ms.tiberius b iv.)e the laud (or peterborough) chronicle (bodleian, ms.laud 636)f the bilingual canterbury epitome (british museum, cotton ms. domitian a viii.) note: entries in english and latin.h cot

4、tonian fragment (british museum, cotton ms. domitian a ix.)i an easter table chronicle (british museum, cotton ms.caligula a xv.)this electronic edition contains primarily the translation of rev. james ingram, as published in the everyman edition of this text. excerpts from the translation of dr. j.

5、a. giles were included as an appendix in the everyman edition; the preparer of this edition has elected to collate these entries into the main text of the translation. where these collations have occurred i have marked the entry with a double parenthesis ().warning:while i have elected to include th

6、e footnotes of rev. ingram in this edition, please note that they should be used with extreme care. in many cases the views expressed by rev. ingram are severally out of date, having been superseded by almost 175 years of active scholarship. at best, these notes will provide a starting point for inq

7、uiry. they should not, however, be treated as absolute.selected bibliography: original text - o classen, e. and harmer, f.e. (eds.): an anglo-saxon chronicle from british museum, cotton ms. tiberius b iv. (manchester, 1926) o flower, robin and smith, hugh (eds.): the peterborough chronicle and laws

8、(early english text society, original series 208, oxford, 1941). o taylor, s. (ed.): the anglo-saxon chronicle: ms b (cambridge, 1983) other translations - o garmonsway, g.n.: the anglo-saxon chronicle (everyman press, london, 1953, 1972). highly recommended. contains side-by-side translations of al

9、l nine known texts. recommended reading - o bede: a history of the english church and people , translated by leo sherley-price (penguin classics, london, 1955, 1968). o poole, a.l.: domesday book to magna carta (oxford university press, oxford, 1951, 1953) o stenton, sir frank w.: anglo-saxon englan

10、d (oxford university press, oxford, 1943, 1947, 1971)the anglo-saxon chronicleoriginal introduction to ingrams edition 1823online medieval and classical library release #17england may boast of two substantial monuments of its earlyhistory; to either of which it would not be easy to find aparallel in

11、 any nation, ancient or modern. these are, the recordof doomsday (1) and the saxon chronicle (2). the former, whichis little more than a statistical survey, but contains the mostauthentic information relative to the descent of property and thecomparative importance of the different parts of the king

12、dom at avery interesting period, the wisdom and liberality of the britishparliament long since deemed worthy of being printed (3) amongthe public records, by commissioners appointed for that purpose. the other work, though not treated with absolute neglect, has notreceived that degree of attention w

13、hich every person who feels aninterest in the events and transactions of former times wouldnaturally expect. in the first place, it has never been printedentire, from a collation of all the mss. but of the extent ofthe two former editions, compared with the present, the readermay form some idea, whe

14、n he is told that professor whelocschronologia anglo-saxonica, which was the first attempt (4) ofthe kind, published at cambridge in 1644, is comprised in lessthan 62 folio pages, exclusive of the latin appendix. theimproved edition by edmund gibson, afterwards bishop of london,printed at oxford in

15、1692, exhibits nearly four times thequantity of the former; but is very far from being the entire (5)chronicle, as the editor considered it. the text of the presentedition, it was found, could not be compressed within a shortercompass than 374 pages, though the editor has suppressed manynotes and il

16、lustrations, which may be thought necessary to thegeneral reader. some variations in the mss. may also stillremain unnoticed; partly because they were considered of littleimportance, and partly from an apprehension, lest the commentary,as it sometimes happens, should seem an unwieldy burthen, rather

17、than a necessary appendage, to the text. indeed, till the editorhad made some progress in the work, he could not have imaginedthat so many original and authentic materials of our historystill remained unpublished.to those who are unacquainted with this monument of our nationalantiquities, two questi

18、ons appear requisite to be answered: -what does it contain? and, by whom was it written? theindulgence of the critical antiquary is solicited, whilst weendeavour to answer, in some degree, each of these questions.to the first question we answer, that the saxon chroniclecontains the original and auth

19、entic testimony of contemporarywriters to the most important transactions of our forefathers,both by sea and land, from their first arrival in this country tothe year 1154. were we to descend to particulars, it wouldrequire a volume to discuss the great variety of subjects whichit embraces. suffice

20、it to say, that every reader will here findmany interesting facts relative to our architecture, ouragriculture, our coinage, our commerce, our naval and militaryglory, our laws, our liberty, and our religion. in this edition,also, will be found numerous specimens of saxon poetry, neverbefore printed

21、, which might form the ground-work of anintroductory volume to wartons elaborate annals of englishpoetry. philosophically considered, this ancient record is thesecond great phenomenon in the history of mankind. for, if weexcept the sacred annals of the jews, contained in the severalbooks of the old

22、testament, there is no other work extant,ancient or modern, which exhibits at one view a regular andchronological panorama of a people, described in rapid successionby different writers, through so many ages, in their ownvernacular language. hence it may safely be considered, nor onlyas the primaeva

23、l source from which all subsequent historians ofenglish affairs have principally derived their materials, andconsequently the criterion by which they are to be judged, butalso as the faithful depository of our national idiom; affording,at the same time, to the scientific investigator of the humanmin

24、d a very interesting and extraordinary example of the changesincident to a language, as well as to a nation, in its progressfrom rudeness to refinement.but that the reader may more clearly see how much we are indebtedto the saxon chronicle, it will be necessary to examine what iscontained in other s

25、ources of our history, prior to the accessionof henry ii., the period wherein this invaluable recordterminates.the most ancient historian of our own island, whose work has beenpreserved, is gildas, who flourished in the latter part of thesixth century. british antiquaries of the present day willdoub

26、tless forgive me, if i leave in their original obscurity theprophecies of merlin, and the exploits of king arthur, with allthe knights of the round table, as scarcely coming within theverge of history. notwithstanding, also, the authority of bale,and of the writers whom he follows, i cannot persuade

27、 myself torank joseph of arimathea, arviragus, and bonduca, or even theemperor constantine himself, among the illustrious writers ofgreat britain. i begin, therefore, with gildas; because, thoughhe did not compile a regular history of the island, he has leftus, amidst a cumbrous mass of pompous rhap

28、sody and querulousdeclamation some curious descriptions of the character andmanners of the inhabitants; not only the britons and saxons, butthe picts and scots (6). there are also some parts of his work,almost literally transcribed by bede, which confirm the briefstatements of the saxon chronicle (7

29、). but there is,throughout, such a want of precision and simplicity, such abarrenness of facts amidst a multiplicity of words, such ascantiness of names of places and persons, of dates, and othercircumstances, that we are obliged to have recourse to the saxonannals, or to venerable bede, to supply t

30、he absence of those twogreat lights of history - chronology and topography.the next historian worth notice here is nennius, who is supposedto have flourished in the seventh century: but the work ascribedto him is so full of interpolations and corruptions, introducedby his transcribers, and particula

31、rly by a simpleton who iscalled samuel, or his master beulanus, or both, who appear tohave lived in the ninth century, that it is difficult to say howmuch of this motley production is original and authentic. bethat as it may, the writer of the copy printed by gale bearsample testimony to the saxon c

32、hronicle, and says expressly,that he compiled his history partly from the records of the scotsand saxons (8). at the end is a confused but very curiousappendix, containing that very genealogy, with some brief noticesof saxon affairs, which the fastidiousness of beulanus, or of hisamanuensis, the afo

33、resaid samuel, would not allow him totranscribe. this writer, although he professes to be the firsthistoriographer (9) of the britons, has sometimes repeated thevery words of gildas (10); whose name is even prefixed to somecopies of the work. it is a puerile composition, withoutjudgment, selection,

34、or method (11); filled with legendary talesof trojan antiquity, of magical delusion, and of the miraculousexploits of st. germain and st. patrick: not to mention those ofthe valiant arthur, who is said to have felled to the ground inone day, single-handed, eight hundred and forty saxons! it isremark

35、able, that this taste for the marvelous, which does notseem to be adapted to the sober sense of englishmen, wasafterwards revived in all its glory by geoffrey of monmouth inthe norman age of credulity and romance.we come now to a more cheering prospect; and behold a steadylight reflected on the saxo

36、n chronicle by the ecclesiasticalhistory of bede; a writer who, without the intervention of anylegendary tale, truly deserves the title of venerable (12). witha store of classical learning not very common in that age, andwith a simplicity of language seldom found in monastic latinity,he has moulded

37、into something like a regular form the scatteredfragments of roman, british, scottish, and saxon history. hiswork, indeed. is professedly ecclesiastical; but, when weconsider the prominent station which the church had at this timeassumed in england, we need not be surprised if we find thereinthe sam

38、e intermixture of civil, military, and ecclesiasticalaffairs, which forms so remarkable a feature in the saxonchronicle. hence gibson concludes, that many passages of thelatter description were derived from the work of bede (13). hethinks the same of the description of britain, the notices of therom

39、an emperors, and the detail of the first arrival of thesaxons. but, it may be observed, those passages to which healludes are not to be found in the earlier mss. the descriptionof britain, which forms the introduction, and refers us to aperiod antecedent to the invasion of julius caesar; appears onl

40、yin three copies of the chronicle; two of which are of so late adate as the norman conquest, and both derived from the samesource. whatever relates to the succession of the roman emperorswas so universally known, that it must be considered as commonproperty: and so short was the interval between the

41、 departure ofthe romans and the arrival of the saxons, that the latter musthave preserved amongst them sufficient memorials and traditionsto connect their own history with that of their predecessors.like all rude nations, they were particularly attentive togenealogies; and these, together with the s

42、uccession of theirkings, their battles, and their conquests, must be derivedoriginally from the saxons themselves. and not from gildas, ornennius, or bede (14). gibson himself was so convinced of this,that he afterwards attributes to the saxon chronicle all theknowledge we have of those early times

43、(15). moreover, we mightask, if our whole dependence had been centered in bede, whatwould have become of us after his death? (16) malmsbury indeedasserts, with some degree of vanity, that you will not easilyfind a latin historian of english affairs between bede andhimself (17); and in the fulness of

44、 self-complacency professeshis determination, to season with roman salt the barbarisms ofhis native tongue! he affects great contempt for ethelwerd,whose work will be considered hereafter; and he well knew howunacceptable any praise of the saxon annals would be to thenormans, with whom he was connec

45、ted (18). he thinks it necessaryto give his reasons, on one occasion, for inserting from thesevery annals what he did not find in bede; though it is obvious,that the best part of his materials, almost to his own times, isderived from the same source.the object of bishop asser, the biographer of alfr

46、ed, who comesnext in order, was to deliver to posterity a complete memorial ofthat sovereign, and of the transactions of his reign. to himalone are we indebted for the detail of many interestingcircumstances in the life and character of his royal patron (19);but most of the public transactions will

47、be found in the pages ofthe saxon chronicle: some passages of which he appears to havetranslated so literally, that the modern version of gibson doesnot more closely represent the original. in the editions ofparker, camden, and wise, the last notice of any public eventrefers to the year 887. the int

48、erpolated copy of gale, called bysome pseudo-asserius, and by others the chronicle of st. neots,is extended to the year 914 (20). much difference of opinionexists respecting this work; into the discussion of which it isnot our present purpose to enter. one thing is remarkable: itcontains the vision

49、of drihtelm, copied from bede, and that ofcharles king of the franks, which malmsbury thought it worthwhile to repeat in his history of the kings of england. whatgale observes concerning the fidelity with which these annalsof asser are copied by marianus, is easily explained. they bothtranslated fro

50、m the saxon chronicle, as did also florence ofworcester, who interpolated marianus; of whom we shall speakhereafter.but the most faithful and extraordinary follower of the saxonannals is ethelwerd; who seems to have disregarded almost allother sources of information. one great error, however, hecomm

51、itted; for which malmsbury does nor spare him. despairing ofthe reputation of classical learning, if he had followed thesimplicity of the saxon original, he fell into a sort of measuredand inverted prose, peculiar to himself; which, being at firstsufficiently obscure, is sometimes rendered almost un

52、intelligibleby the incorrect manner in which it has been printed. hisauthority, nevertheless, in an historical point of view, is veryrespectable. being one of the few writers untainted by monasticprejudice (21), he does not travel out of his way to indulge inlegendary tales and romantic visions. cri

53、tically considered, hiswork is the best commentary on the saxon chronicle to the year977; at which period one of the mss. which he seems to havefollowed, terminates. brevity and compression seem to have beenhis aim, because the compilation was intended to be sent abroadfor the instruction of a femal

54、e relative of high rank in germany(22), at her request. but there are, nevertheless, somecircumstances recorded which are not to be found elsewhere; sothat a reference to this epitome of saxon history will besometimes useful in illustrating the early part of thechronicle; though gibson, i know not o

55、n what account, hasscarcely once quoted it.during the sanguinary conflicts of the eleventh century, whichended first in the temporary triumph of the danes, and afterwardsin the total subjugation of the country by the normans, literarypursuits, as might be expected, were so much neglected, thatscarce

56、ly a latin writer is to be found: but the saxon chroniclehas preserved a regular and minute detail of occurrences, as theypassed along, of which subsequent historians were glad to availthemselves. for nearly a century after the conquest, the saxonannalists appear to have been chiefly eye-witnesses o

57、f thetransactions which they relate (23). the policy of the conquerorled him by degrees to employ saxons as well as normans: andwilliam ii. found them the most faithful of his subjects: butsuch an influx of foreigners naturally corrupted the ancientlanguage; till at length, after many foreign and domestic wars,tranquillity being restored on the accession of henry ii.,literature revived; a taste for compos