The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle | Page 9

and of good sense, and of the good old custom adopted by most
nations of the civilised world -- that of writing their own history in their own language --
was happily exemplified at length in the laborious works of our English chroniclers and
historians.
Many have since followed in the same track; and the importance of the whole body of
English History has attracted and employed the imagination of Milton, the philosophy of
Hume, the simplicity of Goldsmith, the industry of Henry, the research of Turner, and the
patience of Lingard. The pages of these writers, however, accurate and luminous as they
generally are, as well as those of Brady, Tyrrell, Carte, Rapin, and others, not to mention
those in black letter, still require correction from the "Saxon Chronicle"; without which
no person, however learned, can possess anything beyond a superficial acquaintance with
the elements of English History, and of the British Constitution.
Some remarks may here be requisite on the CHRONOLOGY of the "Saxon Chronicle".
In the early part of it (32) the reader will observe a reference to the grand epoch of the
creation of the world. So also in Ethelwerd, who closely follows the "Saxon Annals". It is
allowed by all, that considerable difficulty has occurred in fixing the true epoch of
Christ's nativity (33), because the Christian aera was not used at all till about the year 532
(34), when it was introduced by Dionysius Exiguus; whose code of canon law, joined
afterwards with the decretals of the popes, became as much the standard of authority in
ecclesiastical matters as the pandects of Justinian among civilians. But it does not appear
that in the Saxon mode of computation this system of chronology was implicitly followed.
We mention this circumstance, however, not with a view of settling the point of
difference, which would not be easy, but merely to account for those variations
observable m different MSS.; which arose, not only from the common mistakes or
inadvertencies of transcribers, but from the liberty which the original writers themselves
sometimes assumed in this country, of computing the current year according to their own
ephemeral or local custom. Some began with the Incarnation or Nativity of Christ; some
with the Circumcision, which accords with the solar year of the Romans as now restored;
whilst others commenced with the Annunciation; a custom which became very prevalent
in honour of the Virgin Mary, and was not formally abolished here till the year 1752;
when the Gregorian calendar, commonly called the New Style, was substituted by Act of
Parliament for the Dionysian. This diversity of computation would alone occasion some
confusion; but in addition to this, the INDICTION, or cycle of fifteen years, which is
mentioned in the latter part of the "Saxon Chronicle", was carried back three years before
the vulgar aera, and commenced in different places at four different periods of the year!
But it is very remarkable that, whatever was the commencement of the year in the early
part of the "Saxon Chronicle", in the latter part the year invariably opens with
Midwinter-day or the Nativity. Gervase of Canterbury, whose Latin chronicle ends in
1199, the aera of "legal" memory, had formed a design, as he tells us, of regulating his
chronology by the Annunciation; but from an honest fear of falsifying dates he
abandoned his first intention, and acquiesced in the practice of his predecessors; who for
the most part, he says, began the new year with the Nativity (35).
Having said thus much in illustration of the work itself, we must necessarily be brief in

our account of the present edition. It was contemplated many years since, amidst a
constant succession of other occupations; but nothing was then projected beyond a reprint
of Gibson, substituting an English translation for the Latin. The indulgence of the Saxon
scholar is therefore requested, if we have in the early part of the chronicle too faithfully
followed the received text. By some readers no apology of this kind will be deemed
necessary; but something may be expected in extenuation of the delay which has retarded
the publication. The causes of that delay must be chiefly sought in the nature of the work
itself. New types were to be cast; compositors to be instructed in a department entirely
new to them; manuscripts to be compared, collated, transcribed; the text to be revised
throughout; various readings of great intricacy to be carefully presented, with
considerable additions from unpublished sources; for, however unimportant some may at
first sight appear, the most trivial may be of use. With such and other difficulties before
him, the editor has, nevertheless, been blessed with health and leisure sufficient to
overcome them; and he may now say with Gervase the monk at the end of his first
chronicle,
"Finito