1921 EARLY WEST SAXON KINGS 167 Cerdic (519-34) Cynric (534-60) Ceawlin (560-92) Ceolwulf Cuthwine (ob. 584) Cadda Cynedls (611-43) Ceol (592-7) Ceolwald Ceolwulf Cuthgils (597-611) I Cwichelm Cenwalh Coenbryht (ob. 636) (643-72) (ob. 661) Cenred Cynebald I (ob. c. 690) Cuthred (ob. 661) ead Ceadwalla Mul Ine (685-8) (ob. 687) (688-726) Ingild (ob. 718) Cynegils Cenferth Centwine Cenfus (676-85) .Ethelbald Bugge iEscwine (674-6) Oswald (ob. 730) these objections, and accordingly, although some details may be doubtful, it is clear that we have been guided by a true instinct in distinguishing the annals of 648 to 728 from the rest of the materials furnished by the Chronicle. The genealogical entries of 648 to 728 are, accordingly, to be regarded as the work of a well-informed contemporary author, and consequently not inferior to any other sources that we possess for the West Saxon history of the seventh and eighth centuries. These genealogical entries, however, cannot be isolated from the annals to which they belong, that is to say, the annals from the conversion of Wessex (635) to the reign of ^Ethelheard (726- 40), or even to the reign of Cuthred (740-54). As the genealogies of iEthelheard and Cuthred are missing, we ought, perhaps, to regard the entries for their reigns as additions by another hand to the work of the author of the genealogies. Professor Chadwick has shown that the annals from 755 to 840, and perhaps to 855, are the work of a writer of the time of King Ethelwulf , and that the compilation of the Chronicle in something like its present form (so far as it relates to Wessex) dates from the same period. 1 It has generally been assumed that the ninth -century chronicler obtained the annals for the period- preceding the conversion of Wessex from the same source as that from which he obtained the annals of 635 to 754, but the annals of the period preceding the con- version include genealogical entries under the years 597 and 611, from the same Cynric. Again, Ceolwulf, the great-great-grandfather of iEscwine, is identified with King Ceolwulf, who died in 611. This is to allow about sixteen years as the average length of a generation. 1 Origin of the English Nation, pp. 25-7.
