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[[File:Peterborough.Chronicle.firstpage.jpg|thumb|260px|The initial page of the ''[[Peterborough Chronicle]]''.<ref>Bosworth, ''The Elements of Anglo-Saxon Grammarc p. 277.</ref>]]

The '''''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''''' is a collection of [[annals]] in [[Old English]], chronicling the history of the [[Anglo-Saxons]].

The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the ninth century, probably in [[Wessex]], during the reign of King [[Alfred the Great]] (r. 871–899). Its content, which incorporated sources now otherwise lost dating from as early as the seventh century, is known as the "Common Stock" of the ''Chronicle''.<ref name="BlairRBaEE_11">Hunter Blair, ''Roman Britain'', p. 11.</ref> Multiple copies were made of that one original and then distributed to monasteries across England, where they were updated, partly independently. 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 is dated at 60 BC, the annals' date for [[Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain]]. In one case, the ''Chronicle'' was still being actively updated in 1154.

Nine manuscripts of the ''Chronicle'', none of which is the original, survive in whole or in part. Seven are held in the [[British Library]], one in the [[Bodleian Library]] at Oxford, and the oldest in the [[Parker Library, Corpus Christi College|Parker Library]] of [[Corpus Christi College, Cambridge]]. The oldest seems to have been started towards the end of Alfred's reign, while the most recent was copied at [[Peterborough Cathedral|Peterborough Abbey]] after a fire at that monastery in 1116. Some later medieval chronicles deriving from lost manuscripts contribute occasional further hints concerning ''Chronicle'' material.

Both because much of the information given in the ''Chronicle'' is not recorded elsewhere, and because of the relatively clear chronological framework it provides for understanding events, the ''Chronicle'' is among the most influential historical sources for [[British Isles (terminology)#England|England]] between the [[End of Roman rule in Britain|collapse of Roman authority]] and the decades following the [[Norman conquest of England|Norman Conquest]];<ref name="BlairAITASE_355">Hunter Blair, ''An Introduction'', p. 355.</ref> [[Nicholas Howe]] called it and [[Bede]]'s ''[[Ecclesiastical History of the English People]]'' "the two great Anglo-Saxon works of history".<ref name="howe" /> The ''Chronicle''{{'}}s accounts tend to be highly politicised, with the Common Stock intended primarily to legitimise the [[House of Wessex]] and the reign of Alfred the Great. Comparison between ''Chronicle'' manuscripts and with other medieval sources demonstrates that the scribes who copied or added to them omitted events or told one-sided versions of them, often providing useful insights into early medieval English politics.

The ''Chronicle'' manuscripts are also important sources for the [[history of the English language]];<ref name="BlairAITASE_355" /> in particular, in annals from 1131 onwards, the later [[Peterborough Chronicle|Peterborough text]] provides key evidence for the transition from the standard [[Old English]] literary language to early [[Middle English]], containing some of the earliest known Middle English text.<ref name="MS_xxi">Swanton, ''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', pp. xxi–xxviii.</ref>

==Sources and composition of the Common Stock==

=== Place and date of composition ===
Historians agree that the Common Stock of the ''Chronicle'' (sometimes also known as the ''Early English Annals'')<ref>G. O. Sayles, ''The Medieval Foundations of England'' (London 1966), p. 7.</ref> was edited into its present form between 890 and 892 (ahead of Bishop [[Asser]]'s use of a version of the Common Stock in his 893 ''Life of King Alfred''),<ref name="KL_55">Keynes and Lapidge, ''Alfred the Great'', p. 55.</ref> but there is debate about precisely which year, and when subsequent continuations began to be added.<ref>Janet Bately, '[http://digital.library.leeds.ac.uk/id/eprint/223 The Compilation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Once More]', ''Leeds Studies in English'', new series, 16 (1985), 7–26.</ref><ref name="Abels_152">{{cite book |last=Abels |first=Richard |title=Alfred the Great: War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England |pages=15 |year=2005 |publisher=Longman |isbn=0-582-04047-7 |ref=none}}.</ref>{{rp|15}}<ref name=":3" />{{Rp|page=|pages=350–52}}

It is not known for certain where the Common Stock was compiled, not least because the [[Archetype (textual criticism)|archetype]] is lost, but it is agreed to have been in Wessex.<ref name="CampbellTAS158">Wormald, "Alfredian Manuscripts", p. 158, in Campbell et al., ''The Anglo-Saxons''.</ref><ref name="Abels_152" />{{rp|15}}<ref name="KL_412" /><ref name=":6">F. M. Stenton, 'The South-Western Element in the Old English Chronicle', in A. G. Little ed, ''Essays in Medieval History presented to T. F. Tout'' (Manchester 1925) p. 22</ref><ref name="MS_xx">Swanton, ''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', pp. xx–xxi.</ref> The patron might have been King Alfred himself ([[Frank Stenton]], for example, argued for a secular household outside the court),<ref name=":6" /> and [[Simon Keynes]] and [[Michael Lapidge]] commented that we should "resist the temptation to regard it as a form of West Saxon dynastic [[propaganda]]".<ref name="KL_40">Keynes and Lapidge, ''Alfred the Great'', p.&nbsp;55.</ref> Yet there is no doubt that the Common Stock systematically promotes Alfred's dynasty and rule, and was consistent with his enthusiasm for learning and the use of English as a [[written language]]. It seems partly to have been inspired by the [[Royal Frankish Annals]], and its wide distribution is also consistent with Alfredian policies.<ref name="CampbellTASS_144">Campbell, ''The Anglo-Saxon State'', p. 144.</ref><ref name=":3" />{{Rp|page=|pages=347–54}} Its publication was perhaps prompted by renewed Scandinavian attacks on Wessex.<ref name="KL_412">Keynes and Lapidge, ''Alfred the Great'', p.&nbsp;41.</ref>

=== Sources and reliability ===
The Common Stock incorporates material from multiple sources, including annals relating to Kentish, [[South Saxon]], Mercian and, particularly, [[Wessex|West Saxon]] history.<ref name=":1">Lapidge, ''Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England'', p. 35.</ref> It is unclear how far this material was first drawn together by the editor(s) of the Common Stock and how far it had already been combined before the late ninth century: there are no obvious shifts in language features in the Common Stock that could help indicate different sources.<ref>Janet Bately, 'The Compilation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 60 BC to AD 890: Vocabulary as Evidence', ''Proceedings of the British Academy'', 64 (1978), 93—129.</ref> Where the Common Stock draws on other known sources its main value to modern historians is as an index of the works and themes that were important to its compilers; where it offers unique material it is of especial historical interest.

==== The "world history annals" ====
From the first annal, for 60BC, down to 449, the Common Stock mostly presents key events from beyond Britain, a body of material known as the "world history annals". These drew on [[Jerome]]'s ''[[De Viris Illustribus (Jerome)|De Viris Illustribus]]'', the ''[[Liber Pontificalis]]'', the translation of [[Eusebius]]'s ''Ecclesiastical History'' by Rufinus, and [[Isidore of Seville]]'s ''Chronicon''.<ref>Janet M. Bately, 'World History in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'': Its Sources and its Separateness from the Old English Orosius', ''Anglo-Saxon England'', 8 (1979), 177–94.</ref><ref name=":3">Susan Irvine, 'The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle', in ''A Companion to Alfred the Great'', ed. by Nicole G. Discenza and Paul E. Szarmach, Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition, 58 (Leiden: Brill, 2015), pp. 344–67; {{doi|10.1163/9789004283763_014}}.</ref>{{Rp|page=|pages=348–49}} Alongside these, down to the early eighth century, the Common Stock makes extensive use of the chronological summary from the end of [[Bede]]'s ''Ecclesiastical History'' (and perhaps occasionally the ''History'' itself).<ref>Janet Bately, 'Bede and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle', in ''Saints, Scholars and Heroes: Studies in Medieval Culture in Honour of Charles W. Jones'', ed. by Margot H. King and Wesley M. Stevens, 2 vols (Collegeville: 1979), I 233–54.</ref><ref name=":3" />{{Rp|page=348}} Scholars have read these annals as functioning to present England as part of the Roman and Christian world and its history.<ref name="howe" /><ref>Courtnay Konshuh, 'Constructing Early Anglo-Saxon Identity in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles', in ''The Land of the English Kin: Studies in Wessex and Anglo-Saxon England in Honour of Professor Barbara Yorke'', ed. by Alexander Langlands and Ryan Lavelle (Leiden: Brill, 2020), pp. 154–80.</ref>

==== Fifth and sixth centuries ====
[[File:Sixth- and seventh-century battles of West-Saxon kings according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.png|thumb|upright=1.3|Sixth- and seventh-century battles of West-Saxon kings according to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'']]
From 449, coverage of non-British history largely vanishes and extensive material about the parts of England which by the ninth century were in Wessex, often unique to the ''Chronicle'', appears. The ''Chronicle'' offers an ostensibly coherent account of the [[Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain|Anglo-Saxon settlement]] of southern Britain by seafarers who, through a series of battles, establish the kingdoms of Kent, Sussex, and Wessex. This material was once supposed by many historians to be reliable evidence, and formed the backbone of a canonical narrative of early English history; but its unreliability was exposed in the 1980s.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sims-Williams |first=Patrick |date=1983 |title=The Settlement of England in Bede and the Chronicle |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44510771 |journal=Anglo-Saxon England |volume=12 |pages=1–41 |doi=10.1017/S0263675100003331 |jstor=44510771|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>Barbara Yorke, 'Fact or Fiction? The Written Evidence for the Fifth and Sixth Centuries AD', ''Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History'', 6 (1993), 45–50.</ref> 

The historian [[Ken Dark]] argues that a ninth-century text is only reliable for the fifth and sixth century if it is based on written sources dating to the period, and as there is no reason to believe that any substantial texts were written at that time, there is no reason to trust entries in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' for this period.<ref>Dark, ''Britain and the End of the Roman Empire'', pp. 43-44</ref>

The earliest non-Bedan material here seems to be based primarily on royal genealogies and lists of bishops that were perhaps first being put into writing around 600, as English kings converted to Christianity, and more certainly by the end of the reign of [[Ine of Wessex]] (r. 689–726).<ref>David N. Dumville, 'The Anglian Collection of Royal Genealogies and Regnal Lists', ''Anglo-Saxon England'', 5 (1976), 23–50.</ref><ref name=":4">David N. Dumville, 'The West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List and the Chronology of Early Wessex', ''Peritia'', 4 (1985), 21–66 [repr. David N. Dumville, ''Britons and Anglo-Saxons in the Early Middle Ages'' (Aldershot: Variorum, 1993), item VIII.</ref><ref name=":3" />{{Rp|page=349}} Such sources are best represented by the [[Anglian king-list|Anglian King-list]] and the probably derived [[West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List]]. Detailed comparison of these sources with the Common Stock has helped to show the degree of invention in the Common Stock's vision of the fifth and sixth centuries. For example, perhaps due to edits in intermediary annals, the beginning of the reign of [[Cerdic of Wessex|Cerdic]], supposedly the founder of the West-Saxon dynasty, seems to have been pushed back from 538AD in the earliest reconstructable version of the List to 500AD in the Common Stock.<ref name=":4" /> 

At times, invention, usually through [[Folk etymology|folk-etymological]] [[Origin myth|origin-myths]] based on [[Toponymy|place-names]], is even more obvious. For example, between 514 and 544 the ''Chronicle'' makes reference to Wihtgar, who was supposedly buried on the [[Isle of Wight]] at ''Wihtgaræsbyrg'' ("Wihtgar's stronghold") and gave his name to the island. However, the name of the Isle of Wight derives from the Latin ''Vectis'', not from ''Wihtgar''. The actual name of the fortress was probably ''Wihtwarabyrg'' ("the stronghold of the inhabitants of Wight"), and either the Common Stock editor(s) or an earlier source misinterpreted this as referring to Wihtgar.<ref>Ekwall, ''Dictionary of English Place-Names''.</ref>

==== Seventh and eighth centuries ====
In addition to the sources listed above, it is thought that the Common Stock draws on contemporary annals that began to be kept in Wessex during the seventh century, perhaps as annotations of Easter Tables, drawn up to help clergy determine the dates of upcoming Christian feasts, which might be annotated with short notes of memorable events to distinguish one year from another.<ref name=":5">Kenneth Harrison, ''The Framework of Anglo-Saxon History to A.D. 900'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976).</ref><ref name=":3" />{{Rp|page=348}} The annal for 648 may mark the point after which entries that were written as a contemporary record begin to appear, and the annal for 661 records a battle fought by Cenwalh that is said to have been fought "at Easter", a precision which implies a contemporary record.<ref>F. M. Stenton, ''Preparatory to Anglo-Saxon England'', ed. by D. M. Stenton (1970), pp. 116–26 [repr. from

'The Foundations of English History', ''Transactions of the Royal Historical Society'', 4th series, 9 (1926), 159–73].</ref><ref name=":5" />{{Rp|page=|pages=132–35}}<ref name="YK_128">Yorke, ''Kings and Kingdoms'', p.&nbsp;128.</ref><ref name="MS_xviii">Swanton, ''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', pp. xviii–xix.</ref> Similar but separate sources would explain the dates and genealogies for [[Northumbria]]n and [[Mercia]]n kings.<ref name="MS_16">Swanton, ''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', p. 16.</ref>

The entry for 755, describing how [[Cynewulf of Wessex|Cynewulf]] took the kingship of [[Wessex]] from [[Sigeberht of Wessex|Sigeberht]], is far longer than the surrounding entries, and includes direct speech quotations from the participants in those events. It seems likely that this was taken by the scribe from existing saga material.<ref>Greenfield, ''A New Critical History'', p. 60.</ref><ref>Thomas A. Bredehoft, ''Textual Histories: Reading in the ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’'' (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001).</ref>{{rp|39–60}}

==== Ninth century ====
From the late eighth century onwards, a period coinciding in the text with the beginning of Scandinavian raids on England, the Chronicle gathers momentum.<ref name=":1" /> As the ''Chronicle'' proceeds, it loses its list-like appearance, and annals become longer and more narrative in content. Many later entries contain a great deal of historical narrative in each annal.<ref name=":2">Crystal, ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia'', 15.</ref>

==Development after the Common Stock==
After the original ''Chronicle'' was compiled, copies were made and distributed to various monasteries. Additional copies were made, for further distribution or to replace lost manuscripts, and some copies were updated independently of each other. It is copies of this sort that constitute our surviving ''Chronicle'' manuscripts.

The manuscripts were produced in different places, and at times adaptations made to the Common Stock in the course of copying reflect the agendas of the copyists, providing valuable alternative perspectives. These colour both the description of interactions between [[Wessex]] and other kingdoms, and the descriptions of the Vikings' depredations. For example, the Common Stock's annal for 829 describes [[Egbert of Wessex|Egbert]]'s invasion of [[Northumbria]] with the comment that the Northumbrians offered him "submission and peace". The Northumbrian chronicles incorporated into [[Roger of Wendover]]'s thirteenth-century history give a different picture, however: "When Egbert had obtained all the southern kingdoms, he led a large army into Northumbria, and laid waste that province with severe pillaging, and made King Eanred pay tribute."<ref name="MS_60">Swanton, ''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', pp. 60–61.</ref><ref name="CampbellTAS139">P. Wormald, "The Ninth Century", p. 139, in Campbell et al., ''The Anglo-Saxons''.</ref>

Similar divergences are apparent in how different manuscripts copy post-Common Stock continuations of the ''Chronicle''. For example, [[Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia|Ælfgar]], earl of [[East Anglia]], and son of [[Leofric, Earl of Mercia|Leofric]], the earl of Mercia, was exiled briefly in 1055. The [C], [D] and [E] manuscripts say the following:<ref name="MS_184">Translations from Swanton, ''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', pp. 184–18.</ref><ref name="CampbellTAS222">Campbell et al., ''The Anglo-Saxons'', p. 222.</ref>

* [C]: "Earl Ælfgar, son of Earl Leofric, was outlawed without any fault ..."
* [D]: "Earl Ælfgar, son of Earl Leofric, was outlawed well-nigh without fault ..."
* [E]: "Earl Ælfgar was outlawed because it was thrown at him that he was traitor to the king and all the people of the land. And he admitted this before all the men who were gathered there, although the words shot out against his will."
The 1055 campaign involving Ælfgar and Welsh King [[Gruffydd ap Llywelyn|Gruffudd ap Llywelyn]], as recorded in manuscripts [C], [D], and [E], offers examples of how scribes shaped narratives to align with regional or political agendas. Besides [C] emphasizing Ælfgar's innocence, his collaboration with Gruffudd, who is portrayed as a key ally and titled as a Welsh king, is also extensively mentioned. Conversely, [E] omits Gruffudd's title and focuses on Ælfgar's alleged treachery, framing both figures as aggressors in the Hereford campaign.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thomas |first=Rebecca |date=2024 |title=Chronicling Gruffud Ap Llywelyn in the eleventh century |url=https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/uwp/whis/2024/00000032/00000002/art00002 |journal=[[The Welsh History Review]] |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=233–263 |via=Ingenta Connect}}</ref> 

[[Cardiff University]] historian Rebecca Thomas states this ideological framing aligns with [E]'s broader "pro-Godwine" perspective (referring to the Anglo-Saxon Godwine family dynasty to whom [[Harold Godwinson|King Harold II]] belonged) . Meanwhile, [D] minimizes details of Gruffudd's involvement in the campaign, offering a more subdued account that excludes his royal title and reduces his role to a supporting figure.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thomas |first=Rebecca |date=2024 |title=Chronicling Gruffud Ap Llywelyn in the eleventh century |url=https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/uwp/whis/2024/00000032/00000002/art00002 |journal=[[The Welsh History Review]] |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=233–263 |via=Ingenta Connect}}</ref>

Scribes might also omit material, sometimes accidentally, but also for ideological reasons. Ælfgar was Earl of Mercia by 1058, and in that year was exiled again. This time only [D] has anything to say: "Here Earl Ælfgar was expelled, but he soon came back again, with violence, through the help of Gruffydd. And here came a raiding ship-army from [[Norway]]; it is tedious to tell how it all happened."<ref name="MS_184" /> In this case other sources exist to clarify the picture: a major Norwegian attempt was made on England, but [E] says nothing at all, and [D] scarcely mentions it. It has sometimes been argued that when the ''Chronicle'' is silent, other sources that report major events must be mistaken, but this example demonstrates that the ''Chronicle'' does omit important events.<ref name="CampbellTAS222" />

== Errors in dating ==
The process of manual copying introduced accidental errors in dates; such errors were sometimes compounded in the chain of transmission. The whole of the Common Stock has a chronological dislocation of two years for the period 756–845 due to two years being missed out in the archetype.<ref>Simon Keynes, '[https://dk.robinson.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/ASCdiagram2015november.pdf The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Hypothetical Reconstruction of its Development from the Alfredian "Common Stock" of c. 892]' (2015).</ref> In the [D] manuscript, the scribe omits the year 1044 from the list on the left hand side. The annals copied down are therefore incorrect from 1045 to 1052, which has two entries.<ref name="MS_xiv">Swanton, ''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', pp. xiv–xvi.</ref>

A more difficult problem is the question of the date at which a new year began, since the modern custom of starting the year on 1 January was not universal at that time. The entry for 1091 in [E] begins at [[Christmas]] and continues throughout the year; it is clear that this entry follows the old custom of starting the year at Christmas. Some other entries appear to begin the year on 25 March, such as the year 1044 in the [C] manuscript, which ends with [[Edward the Confessor]]'s marriage on 23 January, while the entry for 22 April is recorded under 1045. There are also years which appear to start in September.<ref name="MS_xiv" />

==Surviving manuscripts==
[[File:ASC.svg|thumb|right|350px|A map showing the places where the various chronicles were written, and where they are now kept<ref name="MS_xxi" />]]Of the nine surviving manuscripts, seven are written entirely in [[Old English language|Old English]] (also known as Anglo-Saxon). One, known as the ''Bilingual Canterbury Epitome'', is in Old English with a translation of each annal into [[Latin]]. Another, the ''[[Peterborough Chronicle]]'', is in Old English except for the last entry, which is in early [[Middle English]]. The oldest (Corp. Chris. MS 173) is known as the ''Winchester Chronicle'' or the ''Parker Chronicle'' (after [[Matthew Parker]], an [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], who once owned it), and is written in Old English until 1070, then Latin to 1075. Six of the manuscripts were printed in an 1861 edition for the [[Rolls Series]] by [[Benjamin Thorpe]] with the text laid out in columns labelled A to F. He also included the few readable remnants of a burned seventh manuscript, which he referred to as [G], partially destroyed in a fire at [[Ashburnham House]] in London in 1731. Following this convention, the two additional manuscripts are often called [H] and [I].<ref name="MS_xxi" />

The surviving manuscripts are listed below; though manuscript G was burned in a fire in 1731, and only a few leaves remain.<ref name="MS_xxi" />

{|class="wikitable"
! Siglum !! Chronicle name !! Library !! Shelfmark
!Source
|-
|A || ''Winchester'' (or ''Parker'') ''Chronicle'' || [[Parker Library, Corpus Christi College]] || 173
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 173: The Parker Chronicle |url=https://parker.stanford.edu/parker/catalog/wp146tq7625 |access-date=2025-06-21 |website=Parker Library On the Web - Spotlight Exhibits |language=en}}</ref>
|-
|B || ''Abingdon Chronicle I'' || [[British Library]] || [[Cotton library|Cotton]] Tiberius A. vi
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cotton MS Tiberius A vi|url=https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100060436894.0x000001 |access-date=2025-06-21 |website=iiif.bl.uk}}</ref>
|-
|C || ''Abingdon Chronicle II'' || British Library|| [[Cotton Tiberius]] B. i
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius B. i {{!}} EM1060: The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060-1220 |url=https://em1060.stanford.edu/manuscript/london-british-library-cotton-tiberius-b-i |access-date=2025-06-21 |website=em1060.stanford.edu |language=en}}</ref>
|-
|D || ''Worcester Chronicle'' || British Library|| Cotton Tiberius B. iv
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius B. iv {{!}} EM1060: The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060-1220 |url=https://em1060.stanford.edu/manuscript/london-british-library-cotton-tiberius-b-iv |access-date=2025-06-21 |website=em1060.stanford.edu |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Anglo-Saxon Chronicle |url=https://anglo-saxon-chronicle.com/ASC_Manuscript_D_Cotton_Tiberius_B_iv.php |access-date=2025-06-21 |website=anglo-saxon-chronicle.com}}</ref>
|-
|E || [[Peterborough Chronicle|''Peterborough'' (or ''Laud'') ''Chronicle'']] || [[Bodleian Library]] || Laud misc. 636
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=MS. Laud Misc. 636 - Medieval Manuscripts |url=https://medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/catalog/manuscript_7423 |access-date=2025-06-21 |website=medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Bodleian Library MS. Laud Misc. 636 |url=https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/87d8c5b2-28de-4fe5-944c-67f0849b8fdb/ |access-date=2025-06-21 |website=digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk |language=en}}</ref>
|-
|F || ''Bilingual Canterbury Epitome'' || British Library|| [[Cotton Domitian]] A. viii
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cotton MS Domitian A viii|url=https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100060431512.0x000001 |access-date=2025-06-21 |website=iiif.bl.uk}}</ref>
|-
|G or A<sup>2</sup> or W|| A copy of the ''Winchester Chronicle'' || British Library || [[Cotton Otho]] B. xi + Otho B. x
|<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |title=Anglo-Saxon Chronicles Now Online |url=https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2016/02/anglo-saxon-chronicles-now-online.html |access-date=2025-06-21 |website=blogs.bl.uk |language=en}}</ref>
|-
|H || ''Cottonian Fragment'' || British Library|| [[Cotton Domitian]] A. ix
|<ref name=":7" />
|-
|I || ''An Easter Table Chronicle'' || British Library|| [[Cotton Caligula]] A. xv
|<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cotton MS Caligula A xv|url=https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100058106204.0x000001 |access-date=2025-06-21 |website=iiif.bl.uk}}</ref>
|-
|}

==Relationships between the manuscripts==
[[File:ASC schematic.svg|thumb|right|500px|The relationships between seven of the different manuscripts of the ''Chronicle''. The fragment [H] cannot be reliably positioned in the chart. Other related texts are also shown. The diagram shows a putative original, and also gives the relationships of the manuscripts to a version produced in the north of England that did not survive but which is thought to have existed.]]
The manuscripts are all thought to derive from a common original, but the connections between the texts are more complex than simple inheritance via copying.<ref>Janet Bately, ''[http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/85353/ The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: Texts and Textual Telationships]'', Reading Medieval Studies, Monograph 3 (Reading: Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Reading, 1991); ISBN 0704904497.</ref> The diagram at right gives an overview of the relationships between the manuscripts. The following is a summary of the relationships that are known.<ref name=MS_xxi />
*[A<sup>2</sup>] was a copy of [A], made in Winchester, probably between 1001 and 1013.
*[B] was used in the compilation of [C] at [[Abingdon Abbey|Abingdon]], in the mid-11th century. However, the scribe for [C] also had access to another version, which has not survived.
*[D] includes material from [[Bede]]'s ''[[Ecclesiastical History of the English People|Ecclesiastical History]]'' written by 731 and from a set of 8th-century [[Northern Annals|Northumbrian annals]] and is thought to have been copied from a northern version that has not survived.
*[E] has material that appears to derive from the same sources as [D] but does not include some additions that appear only in [D], such as the [[Mercia]]n Register. This manuscript was composed at the [[Peterborough Cathedral|monastery in Peterborough]], some time after a fire there in 1116 that probably destroyed their copy of the ''Chronicle''; [E] appears to have been created thereafter as a copy of a [[Kent]]ish version, probably from [[Canterbury]].
*[F] appears to include material from the same Canterbury version that was used to create [E].
*Asser's ''Life of King Alfred'', which was written in 893, includes a translation of the ''Chronicle'''s entries from 849 to 887. Only [A], of surviving manuscripts, could have been in existence by 893, but there are places where Asser departs from the text in [A], so it is possible that Asser used a version that has not survived.{{refn|For example, Asser omits Esla from Alfred's genealogy; [A] includes Esla but [D] does not.<ref name=KL_228-229>Keynes and Lapidge, ''Alfred the Great'', pp.&nbsp;228–229, n.&nbsp;4.</ref>|group=notes}}
*{{anchor|chronicle}}[[Æthelweard (historian)|Æthelweard]] wrote a translation of the ''Chronicle'', known as the ''Chronicon Æthelweardi'', into Latin in the late 10th century; the version he used probably came from the same branch in the tree of relationships that [A] comes from.<ref name=MS_xix_2/>
*Asser's text agrees with [A] and with Æthelweard's text in some places against the combined testimony of [B], [C], [D] and [E], implying that there is a common ancestor for the latter four manuscripts.<ref name=EHD_113-4/>
*At [[Bury St Edmunds]], some time between 1120 and 1140, an unknown author wrote a Latin chronicle known as the ''[[Annals of St Neots]]''. This work includes material from a copy of the ''Chronicle'', but it is very difficult to tell which version because the annalist was selective about his use of the material. It may have been a northern [[recension]], or a Latin derivative of that recension.<ref name=MS_xix_2>Swanton, ''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', pp. xix–xx.</ref>

All the manuscripts described above share a chronological error between the years 756 and 845, but it is apparent that the composer of the ''Annals of St Neots'' was using a copy that did not have this error and which must have preceded them. Æthelweard's copy did have the chronological error but it had not lost a whole sentence from annal 885; all the surviving manuscripts have lost this sentence. Hence the error and the missing sentence must have been introduced in separate copying steps, implying that none of the surviving manuscripts are closer than two removes from the original version.<ref name=EHD_113-4>Whitelock, ''English Historical Documents'', pp.&nbsp;113–114.</ref>

==History of the manuscripts==
===A: Winchester Chronicle===
[[File:ASC Parker page.png|thumb|right|250px|A page from the ''Winchester'', or ''Parker'', ''Chronicle'', showing the genealogical preface]]

The ''Winchester'' (or ''Parker'') ''Chronicle'' is the oldest manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' that survives. It was begun at [[Old Minster, Winchester]], towards the end of Alfred's reign. The manuscript begins with a genealogy of Alfred, and the first chronicle entry is for the year 60 BC.<ref name=MS_xxi /> The section containing the ''Chronicle'' takes up folios 1–32.<ref name=ker57/> Unlike the other manuscripts, [A] is of early enough composition to show entries dating back to the late 9th century in the hands of different scribes as the entries were made.<ref name=EHD_109-12/>

The first scribe's hand is dateable to the late 9th or very early 10th century; his entries cease in late 891, and the following entries were made at intervals throughout the 10th century by several scribes. The eighth scribe wrote the annals for the years 925–955, and was clearly at Winchester when he wrote them since he adds some material related to events there; he also uses ''ceaster'', or "city", to mean Winchester.<ref name=EHD_109-12>Whitelock, ''English Historical Documents'', pp.&nbsp;109–112.</ref> The manuscript becomes independent of the other recensions after the entry for 975. The book, which also had a copy of the [[Doom book|Laws of Alfred]] and [[Ine of Wessex|Ine]] bound in after the entry for 924, was transferred to Canterbury some time in the early 11th century,<ref name=MS_xxi/> as evidenced by a list of books that Archbishop Parker gave to Corpus Christi.<ref name=ker57>Ker, ''Catalogue of Manuscripts'', p. 57.</ref> 

While at Canterbury, some interpolations were made; this required some erasures in the manuscript. The additional entries appear to have been taken from a version of the manuscript from which [E] descends.<ref name=EHD_109-12/> The last entry in the vernacular is for 1070. After this comes the Latin ''Acta Lanfranci'', which covers church events from 1070 to 1093. This is followed by a list of [[pope]]s and the Archbishops of Canterbury to whom they sent the [[pallium]]. The manuscript was acquired by Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury (1559–1575) and is in the collection of the [[Parker Library, Corpus Christi College]].<ref name=MS_xxi />

===B: Abingdon Chronicle I===
The ''Abingdon Chronicle I'' was written by a single scribe in the second half of the 10th century. The ''Chronicle'' takes up folios 1–34.<ref name=ker249>Ker, ''Catalogue of Manuscripts'', p. 249.</ref> It begins with an entry for 60 BC and ends with the entry for 977. A manuscript that is now separate (British Library MS. Cotton Tiberius Aiii, f. 178) was originally the introduction to this chronicle; it contains a genealogy, as does [A], but extends it to the late 10th century. [B] was at Abingdon in the mid-11th century, because it was used in the composition of [C]. Shortly after this it went to Canterbury, where interpolations and corrections were made. As with [A], it ends with a list of popes and the archbishops of Canterbury to whom they sent the pallium.<ref name=MS_xxi />

===C: Abingdon Chronicle II===
[[File:Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - C - 871.jpg|thumb|right|200px|A page from the [C] Abingdon II text of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''. This entry is for 871, a year of battles between Wessex and the Vikings.]]C includes additional material from local annals at Abingdon, where it was composed.<ref name=MS_xxi/> The section containing the ''Chronicle'' (folios 115–64) is preceded by King Alfred's [[Old English]] translation of [[Paulus Orosius|Orosius]]'s world history, followed by a [[menologium]] and some [[Gnomic poetry|gnomic verses]] of the [[Physical law|laws of the natural world]] and of humanity.<ref>Ker, ''Catalogue of Manuscripts'', pp. 251–52.</ref> Then follows a copy of the chronicle, beginning with 60 BC; the first scribe copied up to the entry for 490, and a second scribe took over up to the entry for 1048.<ref name=MS_xxi/>

[B] and [C] are identical between 491 and 652, but differences thereafter make it clear that the second scribe was also using another copy of the ''Chronicle''. This scribe also inserted, after the annal for 915, the ''Mercian Register'', which covers the years 902–924, and which focuses on [[Æthelflæd]]. The manuscript continues to 1066 and stops in the middle of the description of the [[Battle of Stamford Bridge]]. In the 12th century a few lines were added to complete the account.<ref name=MS_xxi/>

===D: Worcester Chronicle===
The ''Worcester Chronicle'' appears to have been written in the middle of the 11th century. After 1033 it includes some records from [[Worcester, England|Worcester]], so it is generally thought to have been composed there. Five different scribes can be identified for the entries up to 1054, after which it appears to have been worked on at intervals. The text includes material from Bede's ''Ecclesiastical History'' and from a set of 8th-century [[Kingdom of Northumbria|Northumbrian]] annals. It is thought that some of the entries may have been composed by [[Wulfstan II, Archbishop of York|Archbishop Wulfstan]].<ref name=MS_xxi />

[D] contains more information than other manuscripts on northern and [[Scotland|Scottish]] affairs, and it has been speculated that it was a copy intended for the Anglicised Scottish court. From 972 to 1016, the [[Episcopal see|sees]] of [[York]] and Worcester were both held by the same person—[[Oswald of Worcester|Oswald]] from 972, [[Ealdwulf (died 1002)|Ealdwulf]] from 992, and Wulfstan from 1003, and this may explain why a northern recension was to be found at Worcester. By the 16th century, parts of the manuscript were lost; eighteen pages were inserted containing substitute entries from other sources,<ref name=MS_xxi /> including [A], [B], [C] and [E]. These pages were written by [[John Joscelyn]], who was secretary to Matthew Parker.<ref name=ker254>Ker, ''Catalogue of Manuscripts'', 254.</ref>

===E: Peterborough Chronicle===
{{main|Peterborough Chronicle}}
The ''Peterborough Chronicle'': In 1116, a fire at the monastery at Peterborough destroyed most of the buildings. The copy of the ''Chronicle'' kept there may have been lost at that time or later, but in either case shortly thereafter a fresh copy was made, apparently copied from a [[Kentish (Old English)|Kentish]] version—most likely to have been from Canterbury.<ref name=MS_xxi /> The manuscript was written at one time and by a single scribe, down to the annal for 1121.<ref name=ker424>Ker 424–26.</ref> The scribe added material relating to Peterborough Abbey which is not in other versions.<ref name=MS_xxi /> 

The Canterbury original which he copied was similar, but not identical, to [D]: the Mercian Register does not appear, and [[Battle of Brunanburh (poem)|a poem]] about the [[Battle of Brunanburh]] in 937, which appears in most of the other surviving copies of the ''Chronicle'', is not recorded. The same scribe then continued the annals through to 1131; these entries were made at intervals, and thus are presumably contemporary records.<ref name=MS_xxi />

A second scribe, in 1154, wrote an account of the years 1132–1154, though his dating is known to be unreliable. This last entry is in Middle English, rather than Old English. [E] was once owned by [[William Laud]], Archbishop of Canterbury 1633–1645, so is also known as the ''Laud Chronicle''.<ref name=MS_xxi /> The manuscript contains occasional glosses in Latin, and is referred to (as "the Saxon storye of Peterborowe church") in an antiquarian book from 1566.<ref name=ker424/> According to Joscelyn, Nowell had a transcript of the manuscript. Previous owners include [[William Camden]]<ref>Harrison, "William Camden and the F-Text", p. 222.</ref> and [[William L'Isle]]; the latter probably passed the manuscript on to Laud.<ref>Howorth, "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", p. 155.</ref>

===F: Canterbury Bilingual Epitome===
The ''Canterbury Bilingual Epitome'' (London, British Library, Cotton Domitian A.viii, folios 30-70): In about 1100, a copy of the ''Chronicle'' was written at [[Canterbury Cathedral|Christ Church, Canterbury]],<ref>Gneuss, ''Handlist'', p. 63.</ref> probably by one of the scribes who made notes in [A]. This version is written in both Old English and Latin; each entry in Old English was followed by the Latin version. The version the scribe copied (on folios 30–70<ref name=ker187/>) is similar to the version used by the scribe in Peterborough who wrote [E], though it seems to have been abridged. It includes the same introductory material as [D] and, along with [E], is one of the two chronicles that does not include the "Battle of Brunanburh" poem. The manuscript has many annotations and interlineations, some made by the original scribe and some by later scribes,<ref name=MS_xxi /> including [[Robert Talbot (scribe)|Robert Talbot]].<ref name=ker187>Ker, ''Catalogue of Manuscripts'', p. 187.</ref>

=== A<sup>2</sup>/G: Copy of the Winchester Chronicle ===
Copy of the ''Winchester Chronicle'': [A<sup>2</sup>] was copied from [A] at Winchester in the eleventh century and follows a 10th-century copy of an Old English translation of Bede's ''Ecclesiastical History''.<ref name="ker57"/> The last annal copied was 1001, so the copy was made no earlier than that; an episcopal list appended to [A<sup>2</sup>] suggests that the copy was made by 1013. This manuscript was almost completely destroyed in the 1731 fire at [[Ashburnham House]] in [[Westminster]], where the [[Cotton Library]] was housed.<ref name=MS_xxi /> Of the original 34 leaves, seven remain, ff. 39–47 in the manuscript.<ref name=ker231/> 

A transcript had been made by [[Laurence Nowell]], a 16th-century antiquary, which was used by [[Abraham Wheelocke]] in an edition of the ''Chronicle'' printed in 1643.<ref name=MS_xxi /> Because of this, it is also sometimes known as [W], after Wheelocke.<ref name=MS_xxi /> Nowell's transcript copied the genealogical introduction detached from [B] (the page now British Library MS. Cotton Tiberius Aiii, f. 178), rather than that originally part of this document. The original [A<sup>2</sup>] introduction was later removed prior to the fire and survives as British Library Add MS 34652, f. 2.<ref>Raymond J. S. Grant (1996), ''Laurence Nowell, William Lambarde, and the Laws of the Anglo-Saxons'', Atlanta, Ga.: Rodopi, p. 25</ref> The appellations [A], [A<sup>2</sup>] and [G] derive from Plummer, Smith and Thorpe, respectively.<ref name=ker231>Ker, ''Catalogue of Manuscripts'', p. 231.</ref>

===H: Cottonian Fragment===
The ''Cottonian Fragment'' [H] consists of a single leaf, containing annals for 1113 and 1114. In the entry for 1113 it includes the phrase "he came to Winchester"; hence it is thought likely that the manuscript was written at Winchester. There is not enough of this manuscript for reliable relationships to other manuscripts to be established.<ref name=MS_xxi /> Ker notes that the entries may have been written contemporarily.<ref>Ker, ''Catalogue of Manuscripts'', p. 188.</ref>

===I: Easter Table Chronicle===
''Easter Table Chronicle'': A list of ''Chronicle'' entries accompanies a table of years, found on folios 133–37 in a badly burned manuscript containing miscellaneous notes on charms, the calculation of dates for church services, and annals pertaining to Christ Church, Canterbury.<ref name=ker174>Ker, ''Catalogue of Manuscripts'', p. 174.</ref> Most of the ''Chronicle'''s entries pertain to Christ Church, Canterbury. Until 1109, the death of [[Anselm of Canterbury]], they are in English. All but one of the following entries are in Latin.<ref name=ker175>Ker, ''Catalogue of Manuscripts'', p. 175.</ref> 

Part of [I] was written by a scribe soon after 1073,<ref name=MS_xxi /> in the same hand and ink as the rest of the Caligula MS. After 1085, the annals are in various contemporary hands. The original annalist's entry for the [[Norman conquest of England|Norman conquest]] is limited to "Her forðferde eadward kyng"; a later hand added the coming of [[William the Conqueror]], "7 her com willelm."<ref name=ker175/> At one point this manuscript was at [[St Augustine's Abbey]], Canterbury.<ref name=MS_xxi /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/cotton/cotframe.htm |title=Cotton Catalogue |access-date=11 April 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070423110959/http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/cotton/cotframe.htm |archive-date=23 April 2007 |url-status=dead }} See Caligula A.15, under "Provenance", which gives a description of the manuscript and some of its history.</ref>

===Lost manuscripts===
Two manuscripts are recorded in an old catalogue of the library of Durham; they are described as ''cronica duo Anglica''. In addition, Parker included a manuscript called ''Hist. Angliae Saxonica'' in his gifts but the manuscript that included this, now Cambridge University Library MS. Hh.1.10, has lost 52 of its leaves, including all of this copy of the chronicle.<ref name=EHD_113-4/><ref name=Hh_1_10>{{cite web | url = http://www.le.ac.uk/english/em1060to1220/mss/EM.CUL.Hh.1.10.htm | title = Cambridge, University Library, Hh. 1. 10 – The Production and Use of English Manuscripts:1060 to 1220 | access-date = 23 July 2011}}</ref>

==Use by Latin and Anglo-Norman historians==
The three main [[Anglo-Normans|Anglo-Norman]] historians, [[John of Worcester]], [[William of Malmesbury]] and [[Henry of Huntingdon]], each had a copy of the ''Chronicle'', which they adapted for their own purposes.<ref name=ASE_36>Lapidge, ''Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England'', p. 36.</ref> [[Symeon of Durham]] also had a copy of the ''Chronicle''.<ref name=EHD_113-4/> Some later medieval historians also used the ''Chronicle'', and others took their material from those who had used it, and so the ''Chronicle'' became "central to the mainstream of English historical tradition".<ref name=ASE_36/>

Henry of Huntingdon used a copy of the ''Chronicle'' that was very similar to [E]. There is no evidence in his work of any of the entries in [E] after 1121, so although his manuscript may actually have been [E], it may also have been a copy—either one taken of [E] prior to the entries he makes no use of, or a manuscript from which [E] was copied, with the copying taking place prior to the date of the last annal he uses. Henry also made use of the [C] manuscript.<ref name=EHD_113-4/>

The [[Waverley Abbey|Waverley Annals]] made use of a manuscript that was similar to [E], though it appears that it did not contain the entries focused on Peterborough.<ref>Whitelock, ''English Historical Documents'', p. 119.</ref> The manuscript of the chronicle translated by [[Geoffrey Gaimar]] cannot be identified accurately, though according to historian [[Dorothy Whitelock]] it was "a rather better text than 'E' or 'F'". Gaimar implies that there was a copy at Winchester in his day (the middle of the 12th century); Whitelock suggests that there is evidence that a manuscript that has not survived to the present day was at Winchester in the mid-tenth century. If it survived to Gaimar's time that would explain why [A] was not kept up to date, and why [A] could be given to the monastery at Canterbury.<ref name=EHD_113-4/>

John of Worcester's ''[[John of Worcester#Chronicon ex chronicis|Chronicon ex chronicis]]'' appears to have had a manuscript that was either [A] or similar to it; he makes use of annals that do not appear in other versions, such as entries concerning [[Edward the Elder]]'s campaigns and information about Winchester towards the end of the chronicle. His account is often similar to that of [D], though there is less attention paid to [[Saint Margaret of Scotland|Margaret of Scotland]], an identifying characteristic of [D]. He had the Mercian register, which appears only in [C] and [D]; and he includes material from annals 979–982 which only appears in [C]. It is possible he had a manuscript that was an ancestor of [D]. He also had sources which have not been identified, and some of his statements have no earlier surviving source.<ref name=EHD_113-4/>

A manuscript similar to [E] was available to [[William of Malmesbury]], though it is unlikely to have been [E] as that manuscript is known to have still been in Peterborough after the time William was working, and he does not make use of any of the entries in [E] that are specifically related to Peterborough. It is likely he had either the original from which [E] was copied, or a copy of that original. He mentions that the chronicles do not give any information on the murder of [[Alfred Aetheling]], but since this is covered in both [C] and [D] it is apparent he had no access to those manuscripts. On occasion he appears to show some knowledge of [D], but it is possible that his information was taken from John of Worcester's account. He also omits any reference to a battle fought by [[Cenwealh]] in 652; this battle is mentioned in [A], [B] and [C], but not in [E]. He does mention a battle fought by Cenwealh at [[Wirtgernesburg]], which is not in any of the extant manuscripts, so it is possible he had a copy now lost.<ref name=EHD_113-4/>

==Editions and translations==
=== Early history ===
One early edition of the ''Chronicle'' was [[Abraham Wheelocke]]'s 1644 ''Venerabilis Bedae Historia Ecclesiastica'', printed in Cambridge and based on manuscript G.<ref name="EHD_129" /> An important edition appeared in 1692, by [[Edmund Gibson]], an English jurist and divine who later (1716) became [[Bishop of Lincoln]]. Titled ''Chronicon Saxonicum'', it printed the Old English text in parallel columns with Gibson's own Latin version and became the standard edition until the 19th century. Gibson used three manuscripts of which the chief was the ''Peterborough Chronicle''.<ref>The title in full is ''Chronicon Saxonicum; seu Annales Rerum in Anglia Praecipue Gestarum, a Christo nato ad Annum Usque MCLIV. deducti, ac jam demum Latinitate donati. Cum Indice Rerum Chronologico. Accedunt Regulae ad Investigandas Nominum Locorum Origines. Et Nominum Locorum ac Virorum in Chronico Memoratorum Explicatio''. A detailed description of a first edition is listed at {{cite web|url=http://www.lawbookexchange.com/oct02/law-books-oct02-2.html |title=Law Books – October 2002 List |access-date=2 March 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071128043121/http://www.lawbookexchange.com/oct02/law-books-oct02-2.html |archive-date=28 November 2007 }}</ref> It was superseded in 1861 by [[Benjamin Thorpe]]'s [[Rolls Series]] edition, which printed six versions in columns, labelled A to F, thus giving the manuscripts the letters which are now used to refer to them.

[[John Earle (professor)|John Earle]] edited ''Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel'' (1865).<ref>{{cite book|author=John Earle|title=Two of the Saxon chronicles parallel: with supplementary extracts from the others|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FT0LAAAAYAAJ|year=1865|publisher=Clarendon Press}}</ref> [[Charles Plummer (historian)|Charles Plummer]] revised this edition, providing notes, appendices, and glossary in two volumes in 1892 and 1899.<ref>{{cite book|author1=John Earle|author2=Charles Plummer|title=Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel: Text, appendices and glossary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V7osAAAAMAAJ|year=1892|publisher=Clarendon Press}}</ref><ref name=EHD_129>Whitelock, ''English Historical Documents'', p.&nbsp;129.</ref> This edition of the A and E texts, with material from other versions, was widely used; it was reprinted in 1952.<ref name=EHD_129/>

=== Modern translations ===
The standard modern English translations are by [[Dorothy Whitelock]], who produced a translation showing all the main manuscript variants,<ref>Whitelock, ''English Historical Documents'', 2nd edition, 1979, pp. 145–261</ref> and [[Michael Swanton]].<ref>Swanton, ''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles'', 2nd edition, 2000</ref>

Rositzke published a translation of the [E] text in ''The Peterborough Chronicle'' (New York, 1951).

=== Modern editions ===
Beginning in the 1980s, a set of scholarly editions of the text in Old English have been printed under the series title "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition". They are published by [[D. S. Brewer]] under the general editorship of [[David Dumville]] and [[Simon Keynes]].<ref name=":0">Cyril Hart, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/43630068 "Some recent editions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle"], ''Medium Ævum'', vol. 66, no. 2 (1997), pp. 293–301.</ref>{{refn|WorldCat lists an additional volume, number 11, ''The Northern Chronicle'', but this does not appear to exist and is never cited by historians.|group=notes}} As of 2021, the volumes published are:

* 1. Dumville, David ed., ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 1 MS F'', facsimile edition, 2003
* 3. Bately, Janet ed., ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 3 MS A'', 1986
* 4. Taylor, Simon ed., ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 4 MS B'', 1983
* 5. O'Brien O'Keeffe, Katherine ed., ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 5 MS C'', 2000
* 6. Cubbin, G. P. ed., ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 6 MS D'', 1996
* 7. Irvine, Susan ed., ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: 7. MS E'', 2004
* 8. Baker, Peter ed., ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 8 MS F'', 2000
* 10. Conner, Patrick ed., ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 10 The Abingdon Chronicle AD 956–1066 (MS C with ref. to BDE)'', 1996
* 17. Dumville, David and Lapidge, Michael, ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 17 The annals of St Neots with Vita Prima Sancti Neoti'', 1996

The Collaborative Edition did not include MS G because an edition by Angelika Lutz, described by [[Pauline Stafford]] as "excellent", had recently been published.<ref>Stafford, ''After Alfred'', p. 34; Lutz, ''Die Version G''</ref>

Other modern scholarly editions of different ''Chronicle'' manuscripts are as follows. The [C] manuscript has been edited by H. A. Rositzke as "The C-Text of the Old English Chronicles", in ''Beiträge zur Englischen Philologie'', XXXIV, Bochum-Langendreer, 1940.<ref name="EHD_129" /> A scholarly edition of the [D] manuscript is in ''An Anglo-Saxon Chronicle from British Museum Cotton MS., Tiberius B. iv'', edited by E. Classen and F. E. Harmer, Manchester, 1926.<ref name="EHD_129" /> The [F] text was printed in F. P. Magoun, Jr., ''Annales Domitiani Latini: an Edition'' in "Mediaeval Studies of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies", IX, 1947, pp.&nbsp;235–295.<ref name="EHD_129" />

=== Facsimiles ===
* [https://parker.stanford.edu/parker/catalog/wp146tq7625 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle A]
* [http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?index=0&ref=Cotton_MS_Tiberius_A_VI Anglo-Saxon Chronicle B (Cotton MS Tiberius A VI)]
* [http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?index=0&ref=Cotton_MS_Tiberius_B_I Anglo-Saxon Chronicle C (Cotton MS Tiberius B I)]
* [http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?index=0&ref=Cotton_MS_Tiberius_B_IV Anglo-Saxon Chronicle D (Cotton MS Tiberius B IV)]
* [http://bodley30.bodley.ox.ac.uk:8180/luna/servlet/view/all/what/MS.+Laud+Misc.+636?os=0&pgs=250&sort=Shelfmark%252Csort_order Anglo-Saxon Chronicle E]
* [http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Cotton_MS_Domitian_A_VIII&index=0 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle F (Cotton MS Domitian A VIII)]
* [http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=cotton_ms_domitian_a_ix_f009r Anglo-Saxon Chronicle H]

An earlier facsimile edition of [A], ''The Parker Chronicle and Laws'', appeared in 1941 from [[Oxford University Press]], edited by [[Robin Flower]] and [[Albert Hugh Smith|Hugh Smith]].<ref name="EHD_129" />

== See also ==
* {{Portal-inline|Anglo-Saxon England}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=notes}}

==References==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name="howe">{{cite journal |last=Howe |first=Nicholas |author-link=Nicholas Howe |year=2004 |title=Rome: Capital of Anglo-Saxon England |journal=[[Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies]] |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=147–72 |doi=10.1215/10829636-34-1-147 |s2cid=170978121}}</ref>
}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book |last= Bately|first= Janet M.|title= The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition. Vol. 3: MS. A. |year= 1986| location=Cambridge |publisher=D.S. Brewer |isbn=0-85991-103-9| ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last= Bosworth|first= Joseph|title= The Elements of Anglo-Saxon Grammar|year= 1823| location=London|publisher=Harding, Mavor and Lepard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CRMAAAAAYAAJ| ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last= Campbell|first= James|author2=John, Eric |author3=Wormald, Patrick |author3-link=Patrick Wormald |title= The Anglo-Saxons|year= 1991|location=New York|publisher= Penguin Books|isbn=0-14-014395-5| ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last= Campbell|first= James|title= The Anglo-Saxon State|year= 2000|publisher= Hambledon and London|isbn=1-85285-176-7| ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Crystal |first=David |title=The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language |year=1995 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=0-521-59655-6| ref=none}}
* {{cite book|last=Dark |first=Ken  |title= Britain and the End of the Roman Empire|publisher=Tempus Publishing |location=Stroud, UK|year=2000|isbn=978-0-7524-2532-0}}
* {{cite book |last= Ekwall|first= Eilert|title= The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names|year= 1947|location=Oxford|publisher= Clarendon Press|oclc=3821873| ref=none}}
* {{cite book|last=Gneuss|first=Helmut|author-link=Helmut Gneuss|title=Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A List of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100|series=Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies|volume=241|year=2001|publisher=Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies|location=Tempe|isbn=978-0-86698-283-2| ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Greenfield |first=Stanley Brian |title=A New Critical History of Old English Literature |year=1986 |publisher=New York University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-8147-3088-4| pages=60| ref=none}}
* {{cite journal|last=Harrison|first=Julian|year=2007|title=William Camden and the F-Text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle|journal=[[Notes and Queries]]|volume=54|issue=3|pages=222–24|doi=10.1093/notesj/gjm124| ref=none}}
* {{cite journal|last=Howorth|first=Henry H.|year=1908|title=The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: Its Origin and History|journal=[[The Archaeological Journal]]|volume=65|pages=141–204|doi=10.1080/00665983.1908.10853082|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k6A8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA141| ref=none|url-access=subscription}}
* {{cite book |last= Hunter Blair|first= Peter|author-link=Peter Hunter Blair|title= An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England|year= 1960|location=Cambridge |edition= 3rd |publisher= Cambridge University Press| ref=none}} (2003 edition: {{ISBN|0-521-83085-0}})
* {{cite book |last= Hunter Blair|first= Peter|title= Roman Britain and Early England: 55 B.C. – A.D. 871|year= 1966| location=New York|publisher= Norton|isbn=0-393-00361-2| ref=none}}
* {{cite book|last=Ker|first=Neil Ripley|author-link=Neil Ripley Ker|title=Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon|year=1957|publisher=At the Clarendon|location=Oxford| ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last= Keynes|first= Simon|author2=Michael Lapidge|title= Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and other contemporary sources |year= 2004 |location=New York |publisher= Penguin Classics |isbn=0-14-044409-2 | ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Lapidge|first=Michael|title=The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England|year=1999|location=Oxford|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|isbn=0-631-22492-0| ref=none}}
* {{cite book|editor-first=Angelika|editor-last=Lutz |title=Die Version G der Angelsächsischen Chronik : Rekonstruktion und Edition Die Version G der Angelsächsischen Chronik : Rekonstruktion und Edition  |publisher=W. Fink |location =Munich, Germany|language=German, Old English |year=1981|isbn=9783770520213}}
* {{cite book|last=Plummer|first=Charles|author-link=Charles Plummer (historian)|title=Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel|year=1885| ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last= Savage|first= Anne|title= The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles|year= 1997|location=Gadalming|publisher= CLB|isbn=1-85833-478-0| ref=none}}
* {{cite book|last=Smith|first=Albert Hugh|title=The Parker Chronicle (832–900)|series=Methuen's Old English Library, Prose Selections|volume=1|year=1935|publisher=Methuen|location=London| ref=none}}
* {{cite book<!--|authorlink=Pauline Stafford-->|first=Pauline|last=Stafford|title=After Alfred: Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and Chroniclers 900-1150  |publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, UK|year= 2024|isbn=978-0-19-287136-7}}
* {{cite book |last= Swanton|first= Michael|title= The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle|year= 1996| location=New York|publisher= Routledge|isbn=0-415-92129-5| ref=none}}
* {{cite book|editor-first=Michael|editor-last=Swanton|editor-link=Michael Swanton |title=The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles |publisher= Phoenix|location =London |year=2000|orig-date=1st edition 1996|edition=revised paperback|isbn=978-1-84212-003-3 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book|last=Thorpe|first=Benjamin|author-link=Benjamin Thorpe|title=The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle|series=[[Rolls Series]]|volume=23|year=1861|publisher=[[Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts|Longman]]|location=London| ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Whitelock|first=Dorothy|title=English Historical Documents v. 1 c. 500–1042|year=1968|location=London|publisher=Eyre & Spottiswoode| ref=none}}
* {{cite book|editor-last=Whitelock|editor-first=Dorothy|editor-link=Dorothy Whitelock|title=English Historical Documents, Volume 1, c. 500–1042|edition=2nd |year=1979|orig-date=1st edition 1955 |publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn= 978-0-415-14366-0 |ref=none}}
* Wormald, Patrick (1991). "The Ninth Century." In Campbell et al., ''The Anglo-Saxons'', 132–159.
* {{cite book |last= Yorke|first=Barbara|title= Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England|year= 1990|location=London|publisher= Seaby|isbn=1-85264-027-8| ref=none}}

==External links==
{{Wikisource|Anglo-Saxon Chronicle}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/657 The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''] at [[Project Gutenberg]] – Public domain copy.
* [http://www.bartleby.com/211/0701.html ''The Chronicle''] from ''[[The Cambridge History of English and American Literature]]'', Volume I, 1907–21.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20180416233524/http://asc.jebbo.co.uk:80/ XML Edition of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''] by Tony Jebson.
* [https://dk.robinson.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/ASCdiagram2015november.pdf Infographic on transmission of the ''Chronicle'' by Simon Keynes]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=5q0zAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA501 Published Wheelocke transcript of mostly-lost Anglo-Saxon Chronicle G]
* [http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=add_ms_34652_f002r Scans of introduction detached from Anglo-Saxon Chronicle G]
* Several poems in versions of the ''Chronicle'' are edited, annotated and linked to digital images of their manuscript pages, with modern translations, in the ''Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project'': https://oepoetryfacsimile.org
* [https://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/concern/works/vt150s16z William Lambarde copy] of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' (1536–1601) located at the [[Library of Trinity College Dublin]] [IE TCD MS 631]

{{Heptarchy}}
{{Old English prose}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Chronicles about England in Latin]]
[[Category:Cotton Library]]
[[Category:Medieval English historians]]
[[Category:Old English chronicles]]