ABSTRACT
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is an unprecedented event, the fi rst vernacular history to be written in western Europe. Today it survives in seven manuscripts, in versions that are lettered from A to G (although most of G was destroyed in the Cotton Library fi re of 1731). These manuscripts date from the late ninth century (the time at which the annals to about 890 were written into A) to the mid-twelfth century (E continues to 1154). Version A is from Winchester, the oldest and most West Saxon in orientation. B and C are from Abingdon, closer to Mercia. D is from western Mercia, Worcester, though of course under West Saxon control. E is from Peterborough, but copied from a manuscript from (St Augustine’s in) Kent. F is from Canterbury too, written in c. 1100, with Latin versions of each annal.
