history of the kings of britain sparknotes

In addition, the manuscripts are important sources for the history of the English language in particular, the later Peterborough text is one of the earliest examples of Middle English in existence. Much of the information given in the Chronicle is not recorded elsewhere. Taken as a whole, however, the Chronicle is the single most important historical source for the period in England between the departure of the Romans and the decades following the Norman conquest. There are also places where the different versions contradict each other. There are occasions when comparison with other medieval sources makes it clear that the scribes who wrote it omitted events or told one-sided versions of stories. These manuscripts collectively are known as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Almost all of the material in the Chronicle is in the form of annals, by year the earliest are dated at 60 BC (the annals' date for Caesar's invasions of Britain), and historical material follows up to the year in which the chronicle was written, at which point contemporary records begin. The oldest seems to have been started towards the end of Alfred's reign, while the most recent was written at Peterborough Abbey after a fire at that monastery in 1116. Nine manuscripts survive in whole or in part, though not all are of equal historical value and none of them is the original version. In one case, the Chronicle was still being actively updated in 1154. Multiple copies were made of that one original and then distributed to monasteries across England, where they were independently updated. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great (r. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The initial page of the Peterborough Chronicle

History of the kings of britain sparknotes