From the Chronicle

Click words to see their glosses. All words are nouns unless otherwise stated in the gloss. Glosses provide the dictionary headword form of the word, followed by its part of speech, and a translation of the headword. Grammatical information about forms of the word used in the text follows the translation.

Anno 449. Hēr Martiānus and Valentīnus onfēngon rīċe, and rīcsodon seofon winter. And on hiera dagum Hengest and Horsa, fram Wyrtġeorne ġe-lāþode, Bretta cynginge, ġe-sōhton Bretene on þǣm stede þe is ġe-nemned Ypwines-flēot, ǣrest Brettum tō fultume, ac hīe eft on hīe fuhton. Se cyning het hīe feohtan on-ġēan Peohta; and hīe swā dydon, and siġe hæfdon swā hwǣr swā hīe cōmon. Hīe þā sendon tō Angle, and hēton him sendan māran fultum; and hēton him secgan Bret-weala nāhtnesse and þæs landes cysta. Hīe þā sendon him māran fultum. Þā cōmon þā men of þrīm mǣġþum Germānie, of Eald-seaxum, of Englum, of Īotum. Of Īotum cōmon Cant-ware and Wiht-ware þæt is sēo mǣġþ þe nū ġīet hætt ‘Īotena cynn’. Of Eald-seaxum comon Ēast-seaxe and Suþ-seaxe and West-seaxe. Of Angle cōmon — sē ā siþþan stōd wēste — be-twix Īotum and Seaxum Ēast-engle, Middel-engle, Mierċe, and ealle Norþ-hymbre.

Anno 455. Hēr Hengest and Horsa fuhton wiþ Wyrtġeorne þǣm cyninge in þǣre stōwe þe is ġe-cweden Æġles-þrep; and his brōþor Horsan man of-slog. And æfter þǣm Hengest fēng tō rīċe, and Æsc his sunu.

Anno 457. Hēr Hengest and Æsc fuhton wiþ Brettas in þǣre stōwe þe is ġe-cweden Crecgan-ford, and þǣr of-slōgon fēower þūsend wera. And þā Brettas þā for-lēton Cent-land, and mid micle eġe flugon tō Lunden-byriġ.

Anno 473. Hēr Hengest and Æsc ġe-fuhton wiþ Wealas, and ġe-namon unārīmedlicu here-rēaf, and þā Wealas flugon þā Engle swā swā fȳr.

Notes from Sweet's Primer

The text is based on the Parker manuscript, ed. Plummer and Earle, Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel (Oxford, 1892). For a discussion of the early entries see F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 1943). pp. 15ff.

  1. Hēr is the usual opening of each annal. It means ‘at this point in the series’, so virtually ‘at this date’.
  2. Wyrtġeorn is the regular development of an earlier O.E. *Wurtigern adapted from the British Uortigern.
  3. Ypwinesflēot is apparently Ebbsfleet in Thanet.
  4. Angle, dative singular of the noun Angel, the continental home of the Angles, probably essentially the same as Angeln, a district of modem Schleswig.
  5. hēton him sendan. him is reflexive: ‘ordered a greater force to be sent to them’.
  6. Bret-weala. The second element, nom. sing. Wealh, meant ‘foreigner’, but acquired the special sense of ‘Briton’.
  7. on West-seaxum. Cf. § 27.
  8. Æġlesþrep is thought to be an early, or alternative, name for Aylesford, Kent.
  9. Crecganford, evidently Crayford.