EDITOR'S PREFACE.
Of the present volume it will be sufficient to inform the reader that it contains Six Chronicles, all relating to the history of this country before the Norman Conquest, and all of essential importance to those who like to study history in 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 of Ethelwerd, contains few facts which are not found in the Saxon Chronicle its precursor. Of the author we know no more than he has told us in his work. " Malmesbury calls him 'noble and magnificent' with reference to his rank; for he was descended from king Alfred: but he forgets his peculiar praise—that of being the only Latin historian for two centuries; though, like Xenophon, Cæsar, and Alfred, he wielded the sword as much as the pen."[1]
Ethelwerd dedicated his work to, and indeed wrote it for the use of his relation Matilda, daughter of Otho the Great, emperor of Germany, by his first empress Edgitha or Editha; 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 emperor might take his choice; and that he preferred the mother of Matilda.
The chronology of Ethelwerd is occasionally a year or two at variance with other authorities. The reader will be
- ↑ Ingram, p. viii, note.
