The Anglo-Saxon chronicle

"The Anglo Saxon Chronicle is a central text for our knowledge of early English history. It originated, perhaps as a national propaganda excercise, in th Alfredian south-west of England, copies being sent to different regional centres. The text survives, in whole or in part, in eight separate manuscript versions, each reflecting the concerns of the regions and institutions in which they were maintained ... Individual annalists reveal individual characteristics. Inserted in a catalouge of national disasters and triumphs, wars and plagues, are intriguing details such as an unprecedented mortality in the bird population, or a strange sighting of snakes in Sussex. For the majority of years there is a careful record. Entries range from the first halting allusions to incidents half lost in the mists of tiime, to more vigorous descriptions of contemporary affairs, when the laconic dryness of the annalists gives way to impassioned accounts of events of which they felt themselves part. The description of the massacre of monks at Glastonbury reads like an eye-witness account. A balanced obituary of the Conquerer, though full of respect for a man who imposed law and order, is not without scorn for one who did not think it beneath him to count yards of land -- and even pigs."--Inside front cover.