Reading the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: Language, Literature, History

364 Pages·2010·3.4 MB·English

by  Alice Jorgensen

READING THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE
STUDIES IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES
Editorial Board under the auspices of the
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York
Elizabeth M. Tyler, University of York
Julian D. Richards, University of York
Ross Balzaretti, University of Nottingham
Previously published volumes in this series are listed at the back of this book
VOLUME 23
READING THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE
Language, Literature, History
edited by
Alice Jorgensen
H
F
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Reading the Anglo-Saxon chronicle : language, literature, history. -- (Studies in the early
Middle Ages ; v. 23)
1. Anglo-Saxon chronicle. 2. Anglo-Saxon chronicle – Language. 3. English prose
literature – Old English, ca. 450-1100 – Criticism, Textual. 4. Great Britain – History –
Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066 – Historiography. 5. Great Britain – History – Norman
period, 1066-1154 – Historiography. 6. Anglo-Saxons – Historiography. 7. Civilization,
Anglo-Saxon – Sources. 8. Transmission of texts – England – History – To 1500.
I. Series II. Jorgensen, Alice.
942'.01-dc22
ISBN-13: 9782503523941
© 2010, Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
D/2010/0095/50
ISBN: 978-2-503-52394-1
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
List of Abbreviations ix
List of Illustrations xv
Introduction: Reading the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 1
ALICE JORGENSEN
Part I: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as Literature
Malcolm and Margaret: The Poem in Annal 1067D 31
THOMAS A. BREDEHOFT
The Production of the Peterborough Chronicle 49
SUSAN IRVINE
Double-Edged Déjà Vu: The Complexity of the Peterborough Chronicle 67
MALASREE HOME
Sentence to Story: Reading the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as Formulary 91
JACQUELINE STODNICK
Rewriting the Æthelredian Chronicle: 113
Narrative Style and Identity in Anglo-Saxon Chronicle MS F
ALICE JORGENSEN
Part II: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as History
The Representation of Early West Saxon History 141
in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
BARBARA YORKE
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Continental Annal-Writing 161
ANTON SCHARER
Marking Boundaries: Charters and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 167
SCOTT THOMPSON SMITH
Geographies of Power in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: 187
The Royal Estates of Anglo-Saxon Wessex
RYAN LAVELLE
Reporting Scotland in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 221
ALEX WOOLF
Part III: The Language of the Chronicle
Coins and the Chronicle: Mint-signatures, History, and Language 243
JAYNE CARROLL
Norse-Derived Vocabulary in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 275
SARA M. PONS-SANZ
Select Bibliography 305
Index of Annals 319
Subject Index 323
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This volume has its origin in a conference held in July 2004 at the Centre for
Medieval Studies, University of York, with the editor as the main or-
ganizer. I would like to thank all those who made the conference a success:
the conference committee who oversaw my efforts, Matthew Townend, Katy
Cubitt, and Julian Richards; the contributors to the conference, some of whom
went on be contributors to this volume: David Dumville, James Roberts, Lorraine
Taylor, Andrew Reynolds, Ryan Lavelle, Barbara Yorke, Jacqueline Stodnick,
Bethany Bateup, Susanne Kries, Janet Bately, Jayne Carroll, Tom Bredehoft, Helen
Damico, Zoya Metlitskaya, Stephen Baxter, Susan Irvine, and Malasree Home; the
session chairs who guided discussion and the delegates who enthusiastically partici-
pated in it; the conference assistants who made everything run so smoothly; the
catering staff of the King’s Manor, whose skills were much appreciated; and, last
but not least, the British Academy and the Royal Historical Society, whose
financial support made the event possible.
The journey from conference to volume has been more prolonged and tortuous
than any of us expected. I am extremely grateful to the contributors to this collec-
tion, whose patience and hard work have been exemplary. Shannon Lewis-Simpson
proofread the essays, and Stephen Graham worked on the bibliography. For advice
and support of all kinds, I would like to thank the series editors; the anonymous
readers, whose detailed comments were invaluable; Simon Forde and a series of
helpful editorial assistants at Brepols; Deborah A. Oosterhouse; Louise Harrison
of the Centre for Medieval Studies, York, who handled financial matters for both
the conference and the editing process; the staff of the library of Trinity College,
Dublin; Matthew Townend, Mary Garrison, Susan Manly, Christine Rauer, Isabel
Davis, Francis Leneghan, and Helen Conrad-O’Briain. None of this would have
viii Acknowledgements
happened without my husband, Andrew Jorgensen. My sons, Hugh and Francis,
did less to expedite the work, but they make it all worthwhile.
All these people deserve credit for this collection. Its flaws are the responsibility
of the editor.
Alice Jorgensen
ABBREVIATIONS
Æthelweard Chronicon Æthelweardi: The Chronicle of Æthelweard,
ed. by Alistair Campbell (London, 1962)
ANS Anglo-Norman Studies
ASC Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
ASCCE The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition
ASE Anglo-Saxon England
ASPR Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records
Asser Asser’s Life of King Alfred; together with the Annals of
St Neots erroneously ascribed to Asser, ed. by William
Henry Stevenson, new impression with an article by
Dorothy Whitelock (Oxford, 1959)
Baker, MS F MS F, ed. by Peter Baker, ASCCE, 8 (Cambridge,
2000)
BAR British Archaeological Reports
Bately, MS A MS A, ed. by Janet Bately, ASCCE, 3 (Cambridge,
1986)
Bately, TTR Janet Bately, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: Texts and
Textual Relationships (Reading, 1991)
BNJ British Numismatic Journal
x Abbreviations
Bosworth Toller J. Bosworth and T. N. Toller, An Anglo-Saxon Dic-
tionary (Oxford, 1898)
Bredehoft, TH Thomas A. Bredehoft, Textual Histories: Readings in
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Toronto, 2001)
Clark, ‘Narrative Mode’ Cecily Clark, ‘The Narrative Mode of The Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle Before the Conquest’, in England Be-
fore the Conquest: Studies in Primary Sources Presented
to Dorothy Whitelock, ed. by Peter Clemoes and Kath-
leen Hughes (Cambridge, 1971), pp. 215–35
Clark, PC The Peterborough Chronicle, ed. by Cecily Clark, 2nd
edn (Oxford, 1970)
Conner, Abingdon Chronicle
The Abingdon Chronicle A.D. 956–1066, ed. by Patrick
Conner, ASCCE, 10 (Cambridge, 1996)
CS Cartularium Saxonicum: A Collection of Charters Relat-
ing to Anglo-Saxon History, ed. by Walter de Gray
Birch, 4 vols (London, 1885–99)
Cubbin, MS D MS D, ed. by G. P. Cubbin, ASCCE, 6 (Cambridge,
1996)
DB Domesday Book, ed. by John Morris, 35 vols (Chi-
chester, 1975–92); cited in the form DB: [County
Name], numerical reference
DOE Dictionary of Old English in Electronic Form A–F, ed.
by Angus Cameron, Ashley Crandell Amos, and Anto-
nette diPaolo Healey (Toronto, 2003), CD-ROM
Dumville, ‘Origins’ David Dumville, ‘The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the
Origins of English Square Minuscule Script’, in Wessex
and England from Alfred to Edgar: Six Essays on
Political, Cultural, and Ecclesiastical Revival, Studies in
Anglo-Saxon History, 3 (Woodbridge, 1992), pp.
55–139