ABSTRACT
The greatest prose work of the Old English (OE) period and the best known is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Based as are the earlier entries on the records made from the time when the monks first began to jot down the chief events of each year, and continued into the Middle English period, it affords a complete illustration in itself of the development of OE prose, as well as examples of fine prose writing, while, even if some statements have to be accepted with caution, it will always remain one of our principal historical documents for those times. It may be said that the Chronicle takes a place as prominent in OE prose as Beowulf does in the poetry of that period. The last of the prose works mentioned, the story of Apollonius of Tyre, illustrates the widening of the themes treated in later OE as well as the increasing flexibility of the prose, for it is of Eastern origin, probably Greek.
