1921 EARLY WEST SAXON KINGS 171 571, and it seems likely, therefore, that Cuthwulf lived long before the time of Ceawlin. In this inquiry into the sources of the early West Saxon annals of the period preceding the conversion of King Cynegils, I have merely attempted to collect such indications as may help to illustrate the character of the materials which lay before the ninth-century chronicler. I have, in general, tried to avoid dealing with the dates assigned by the chronicler to the individual entries and with the historical worth of the entries themselves. There is, to all appearance, a connexion of some kind between the entries relating to Kent (449-88) and Sussex (477-91), and those relating to the commencement of Wessex and the reigns of Cerdic and Cynric (495-560). Not only are there curious resemblances in the general ideas and the wording of these entries, but there is also a puzzling conformity in the arrange- ment of their dates ; * and a suspicion may arise that the chronicler, having hit upon 449 as the date for the invasion of Kent and 560 as the date for Ceawlin's accession, was influenced in some degree by a desire to distribute his materials as evenly as possible between those dates. G. H. Wheeler. 1 Chadwick, p. 36 and p. 24 n. I do not share Mr. Chadwick's suspicion of what he calls the etymological element in these annals. I think that the local names are derived from old poems or versified records with the rest of the entries to which they belong, and that many of these local names existed only in the poet's imagination ; compare Mr. Stevenson's remarks on the temporary character of the name ' Fethanleah ', ante, xvii. 637 n.
