Chippenham, and sat there one year. And that year a body of pirates drew together, and sat down at Fulham on the Thames. And that same year the sun was eclipsed during one hour of the day.[1]
A. 880. This year the army went from Cirencester to East Anglia, and settled in the land, and apportioned it. And that same year the army, which previously had sat down at Fulham, went over sea to Ghent in France, and sat there one year.
A. 881. This year the army went further into France, and the French fought against them: and then was the army there horsed after the battle.
A. 882. This year the army went up along the banks of the Maese far into France, and there sat one year. And that same year king Alfred went out to sea with his ships, and fought against the forces of four ships of Danish men, and took two of the ships, and the men were slain that were in them; and the forces of two ships surrendered to him, and they were sorely distressed and wounded before they surrendered to him.
A. 883. This year the army went up the Scheldt to Conde, and sat there one year. And Marinus the pope then sent 'lignum Domini' to king Alfred; and that same year Sighelm and Athelstan carried to Rome the alms which the king had vowed to send thither, and also to India, to St. Thomas and to St. Bartholomew, when they sat down against the army at London; and there, thanks be to God, they largely obtained the object of their prayer after the vow.
A. 884. This year the army went up the Somme to Amiens, and there sat one year. This year[2] the benevolent bishop Ethelwold died.
A. 885. [3] This year the fore-mentioned army divided itself into two; the one part went eastward, the other part
- ↑ The eclipse happened on the 14th of March, 880.
- ↑ The account of the death of Ethelwold bishop of Winchester, here inserted in MS. F., is anticipated a century by the carelessness of the scribe: the name of his successor in the Latin puts this beyond all doubt. See A. 984
- ↑ Asser omits the events of A. 884 of the Chronicle, and places those of 885 under that year. At any rate the foreign transactions are rightly so placed.
