The Battle of Brunanburh
A Casebook

This casebook fills a major gap in our cultural knowledge of the Middle Ages. It gathers together for the first time the key historical and literary primary sources for the study of the Battle of Brunanburh (AD 937); a key moment in the history of the British Isles. 

Produced by an international team of experts, the volume offers the sources in their language of origin – Old English, Old Norse, Welsh, Irish, Latin, Anglo-Norman, Middle English, Early Modern English – with facing-page translations and explanatory notes. Many of the sources are translated here for the first time.

In addition, the volume includes a substantial introduction from Michael Livingston and ten wide-ranging essays that provide cultural contexts and lay to rest many of the most controversial questions about the conflict –  including the key matter of where the battle likely took place, identified here . The essays show the lasting significance of this nation-defining battle – both in terms of history and in terms of its impact across more than a thousand years of literature.

‘The concept of bringing together all available written materials relating to a single significant event in early English history, together with commentary by a range of experts, is extremely worthwhile.’                                     

Donald Scragg, Professor Emeritus, University of Manchester

Contributions by
John K. Bollard, Thomas A. Bredehoft, Paul Cavil, Richard Coates, Robert Payson Creed, Stephen Harding, Marged Haycock, Ulrike Hogg, A. Keith Kelly, Joanne Parker, Robert Rouse and Scott Thompson Smith

Contents

Preface: The Shape of the Volume

·         Introduction: The Roads to Brunanburh (Michael Livingston)

·         Accounts of the Battle 

(This section is the “heart” of the book: editions of the medieval sources central to

studying Brunanburh, with facing-page translations.)

     1.         Armes Prydein Vawr

     2.         Carta dirige gressus

     3.         Rex pius Athelstan

     4.         Anglo-Saxon Chronicle [Versions A and B], Battle of Brunanburh

     5.         Glaswawt Taliessin

     6.         Annales Cambriae

     7.         Æthelweard, Chronicon

     8.         Wulfstan of Winchester, Vita S. Ethelwoldi

     9.         Ælfric of Eynsham, Epilogue to Judges

     10.       Athelstan’s Prayer

     11.       Eadmer of Canterbury, Vita Odonis    

     12.       Anglo-Saxon Chronicle [Version F]        

     13.       Symeon of Durham, Libellus de exordio

     14.       Eadmer of Canterbury, Vita Oswaldi

     15.       Anglo-Saxon Chronicle [Version E]        

     16.       John of Worcester, Chronicon   

     17.       William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum Anglorum

     18.       Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum        

     19.       Geoffrey Gaimar, Estoire des Engleis    

     20.       Symeon of Durham, Historia regum      

     21.       Chronicle of Ramsey       

     22.       Chronicle of Melrose       

     23.       Gwynfardd Brycheiniog, Canu y Dewi

     24.       Roger of Howden, Chronicle    

     25.       Egil’s Saga       

     26.       Roger Wendover, Flores historiarum     

     27.       Matthew Paris, Chronica majora           

     28.       Livere de Reis de Engleterre        

     29.       Bartholomew of Cotton, Historia Anglicana     

     30.       Annals of Winchester     

     31.       John of Oxnead, Chronicle       

     32.       Robert of Gloucester, Metrical Chronicle          

     33.       Annals of Waverley       

     34.       Brut y Tywysogion          

     35.       Brenhinedd y Saesson     

     36.       Peter of Langtoft, Chronicle     

     37.       Stanzaic Guy of Warwick           

     38.       Anonymous Short English Metrical Chronicle        

     39.       Ranulf Higden, Polychronicon    

     40.       Robert Mannyng of Brunne, Chronicle

     41.       Scottish Chronicle (alias Pictish Chronicle)

     42.       John of Fordun, Chronica gentis Scotorum           

     43.       Eulogium historiarum     

     44.       Brut y Saesson   

     45.       Richard of Cirencester, Speculum historiale       

     46.       Pseudo-Ingulf, Chronicle of Crowland    

     47.       Prose Brut        

     48.       Book of Hyde    

     49.       Walter Bower, Scotichronicon    

     50.       Annals of Ulster           

     51.       Hector Boece, Historiae          

     52.       Annals of Clonmacnoise

     53.       Annals of the Four Masters        

• 
  Notes on the Sources

• 
  Essays on the Sources

The Welsh Sources Pertaining to the Battle (John K. Bollard, with Marged Haycock)

Preliorum maximum: The Latin Tradition (Scott Thompson Smith)

The Battle of Brunanburhin Old English Studies (Thomas A. Bredehoft)

The Battle of Brunanburhas a Poem (Robert P. Creed)

Truth and a Good Story: Egil’s Saga and Brunanburh (A. Keith Kelly)

Romancing the Past: The Middle English Tradition (Robert Rouse)

• 
  Essays on the Battle

The Place-Name Debate (Paul Cavill)

Wirral: Folkore and Locations (Stephen Harding)

The Sociolinguistic Context of Brunanburh (Richard Coates)

Brunanburh and the Victorian Imagination (Joanne Parker)

Bibliography

Index

Michael Livingston is Assistant Professor of English at The Military College of South Carolina and author of scholarly editions of Siege of Jerusalem (2004), In Praise of Peace (2005), and The Middle English Metrical Paraphrase of the Old Testament (2011).

John K. Bollard,Independent Scholar of Welsh  •  Thomas A. Bredehoft, West Virginia University  •  Paul Cavill, University of Nottingham   •  Richard Coates, University of the West of England   •   Robert P. Creed, University of Massachusetts-Amherst    •   Stephen Harding, University of Nottingham   •   Marged Haycock, University of Wales, Aberystwyth   •   Ulrike Hogg, National Library of Scotland   •   A. Keith Kelly, Georgia Gwinnett College  •  Michael Livingston, The Citadel   •   Joanne Parker, University of Exeter   •   Robert Rouse, University of British Columbia   •   Scott Thompson Smith, Pennsylvania State University