THE ILLUSTRATED AND ANNOTATED EBOOK EDITIONThe Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is one of the most important sets of historical documents concerning the history of the British Isles. Without these vital accounts we would have virtually no knowledge of some of the key events in the history of these islands during the dark ages and it would be impossible to write the history of the English from the Romans to the Norman Conquest. The history it tells is not only that witnessed by its compilers, but also that recorded by earlier annalists, whose work is in many cases preserved nowhere else.Its importance is not limited to the historical information it provides, it is just as important a source for the early development of the English language. The Peterborough Chronicle changes from the standard Old English (Anglo-Saxon) literary language to early Middle English after 1131, providing some of the earliest Middle English text known.The Chronicle is not without literary interest either. Inserted at various points since the 10th century are Old English poems in celebration of royal figures and their achievements: "The Battle of Brunanburh" (937), on King Æthelstan's victory over the combined forces of Vikings, Scots and the Strathclyde Britons, and five shorter poems, "Capture of the Five Boroughs" (942), "The Coronation of King Edgar" (973), "The Death of King Edgar" (975), "The Death of Prince Alfred" (1036), and "The Death of King Edward the Confessor" (1065).The term chronicle is slightly misleading as there is no single master text. At present there are nine known versions or fragments of the original "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" in existence. All of the extant versions vary (sometimes greatly) in content and quality, and crucially all of the surviving manuscripts are copies, so it is not known for certain where or when the first version of the Chronicle was composed. However, it is now generally agreed that the original version was written in the late 9th century by a scribe in Wessex. 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. Some of these later copies are those that have survived. The translation that has been used for this electronic version is not a translation of any one Chronicle; rather, it is a conflation of readings from many different versions containing primarily the translation of Rev. James Ingram from 1828. The footnotes are all those of Rev. Ingram and are supplied for the sake of completeness. Modern readers should approach those notes with extreme care. In many cases the views expressed by Rev. Ingram are long out of date, having been superseded by almost 175 years of active scholarship. At best, these notes will provide a starting point for inquiry. They should not, however, be treated as authoritative.This ebook also includes the complete Parker Manuscript.