The history of English and American Literature

Аннотация

There are seven Manuscripts (MSS) of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, they contain only four versions of the Chronicle as three MSS show hardly any variations. All the MSS begin with events, some of them legendary', which could not be recorded in English by contemporaries, since they had taken place - or were supposed to have taken place - before writing became known in England. The chroniclers have borrowed their subject-matter from various Latin Sources of the time there are reasons to suppose that Orosius was one of them. Its difficult to say whan exactly the records become authentic, it may be safely assumed that the events of Alfred’s time were recorded by contemporaries. An additional proof of this fact lies in the detailed description of the events of his reign.