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Britain's Timeline - Part Three

From Melissa Snell,
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The Manuscripts

Seven major manuscripts and one fragment survived the Middle Ages to make up the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. (One of the documents has since been damaged by fire, making our post-Medieval collection six major manuscripts and two fragments.) They are known by letters of the alphabet, as follows:

    A - The Parker MS
    Version A is also known as C.C.C. Cant. 173 because of its location at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University. The Parker MS is the oldest extant version and is inscribed by one hand up to the entry for the year 891. It may have been written at Winchester, where it could be found from the mid-10th century until the mid-11th century, when it was moved to Christ Church, Canterbury. There alterations and additions were made, some in the same hand that inscribed the F version. Version A extends to the year 1093.

    B - The Cotton Tiberius A vi
    The Cotton manuscripts are so named because they form part of the Cotton collection of manuscripts at the British Museum. Versions B and C are copies made from the same document, now lost, which included a set of annals known as the Mercian Register. This additional material was presented in one block and covered the years 902 to 924. Version B ends at 977.

    C - The Cotton Tiberius B i
    The manuscript of the C version, which extends to 1066, is mutilated, suggesting a crude form of censorship.

    D - The Cotton Tiberius B iv
    Versions D and E are known as the "northern recension" because of their incorporation of additional material concerning northern English history. D has text from the Mercian Register interpolated among its annals (instead of provided in one lump, as in B and C), as well as some information on events in northern England included in no other version.

    E - The Laud Misc. 636
    Located at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Version E is a copy written in one hand through 1121 and kept current until 1154 (the latest of all the manuscripts). Made at Peterborough, it has several additions concerning local history in the earlier portions. Version E includes a well-known account of upheaval during King Stephen's reign.

    F - The Cotton Domitian A viii
    Version F is an abridgement of Version E, with additional material from Version A included. It was probably inscribed in the late 11th or early 12th century, and is presented in both Old English and Latin.

    G - The Cotton Otho B xi
    Almost destroyed by fire in 1731, Version G contained a copy of Version A made in the 11th century. Its contents are known to us from a transcript by L. Nowell made in the 16th century and from Abraham Wheloc's 1644 edition.

    H - Cotton Domitian A ix
    A mere fragment, Version H covers the years 1113 and 1114, and apart from Version E is the only manuscript to extend that late.

Later scholars have translated individual manuscripts and a synthesis of all the manuscripts into modern English. One such synthesis is available for your perusal right here at the Medieval History site:

Read the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Online

If you would like to try your hand at the Anglo-Saxon language, an Old English version is available at the Labyrinth.

More Timelines and Reference Materials

TimelinesOnline TextsEncyclopedias

More Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Resources

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle OnlineAlfred the GreatBede

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