Alfred and the Danes
bank of the river called Avon in Welsh, and there wintered. And through force of arms and want, as well as through fear, they drove many of the people there to go beyond sea, and brought most of 5the inhabitants of the district under their rule.
At the same time the said King Alfred, with a few of his nobles and some knights and men of his household, was in great distress leading an unquiet life in the woods and marshes of Somerset. For he had 10no means of support except what he took in frequent raids by stealth or openly from the pagans, or indeed from Christians who had submitted to pagan rule.
In the same year the brother of Inwar and Halfdene with twenty-three boats sailed forth from the 15country of Dyfed,[1] where he had wintered and where he had slain many Christians, to Devon; and there, before the stronghold of Cynwit,[2] he with twelve hundred others was miserably cut off in his wrong-doing by the king’s followers, for many of 20the latter had shut themselves up there for safety. But when the pagans saw the stronghold unprepared and unguarded except for defenses built after our manner, they did not venture to storm it because from the nature of the ground the place was very 25secure on every side except on the east, as I myself have seen; instead they began to besiege it, thinking that those men would quickly be forced to surrender
17
