The Combined Anglo-Saxon Chronicles

This book enables rapid access to the events recorded in any one year in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which was created in the late ninth century. Multiple copies were made and sent to monasteries in England where they were then independently updated, amended and copied, at times resulting in considerable variation in content. Today some nine manuscripts survive in whole or in part to make up what is known as the “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”. It covers the period BC 60 to AD 1154 recording events, people and places, the governance of England including taxation, foreign affairs, natural events relating to famines, farming, climate, eclipses of the sun and moon, and the arrival of comets. Some entries include commentaries by the scribe.

The author provides a narrative in chronological order of the information provided by the extant manuscripts using as his principal source “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”, translated by G N Garmonsway. He further develops and abridges the Garmonsway version to produce one continuous text.

Unique to Guy Points’ presentation is the device of using different print font types in the text to identify each of the source manuscripts. The font index is supplied at the foot of every single page of the narrative. Thus, the year, content and origin can be instantly correlated by eye. This eliminates time-consuming and potentially confusing cross-referencing by paragraph, page and year. Only new and additional information provided in the different manuscripts is added. Where manuscripts disagree over date attribution this is indicated. Some entries have additional information inserted by the author to help identify more precisely some of the individuals, events and geographical locations named.

Overall, the condensed narrative and unique methodology of presentation make the wealth of material in the several manuscripts more easily accessible to everyone.