Page:The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Giles).djvu/13

Rh in one hand, and is supposed to have been copied about the year 1000, which is not remote from the year 977, at which it ends. The chronicle from which it was directly or indirectly copied was associated with the monastery of Abingdon.

MS. C, in the British Museum (Cott. Tib. B i.), is also connected with the same monastery, and has been called the Abingdon Chronicle. It is written in several hands, but from the regularity of its pages it seems to have been transcribed as a whole. It has many annotations of the XVI. century. A peculiarity of both B and C, showing a close connexion, is that they interpolate bodily a number of annals (from 902 to 924) dealing mainly with the deeds of Æthelfled, a Lady of the Mercians, generally designated as the Mercian Register.

MS. D, in the British Museum (Cott. Tib. B iv.) is written in several hands, and brings the chronicle down to 1079, but a considerable portion, comprising the years 262 to 693, is missing. The lacuna has been filled by insertions made by Joscelin from monastic records in other versions of the Chronicle. The original MS., though by seven or eight different hands, was all compiled in the latter half of the XI. century, with the exception of one late entry of 1130. It agrees mostly with MS. C.

MS. E, in the Bodleian Library (Laud Misc. 636), was formerly in the possession of Archbishop Laud. It extends to the year 1154, though the last leaf is missing. The greater part of it, to 1121, is apparently in one hand, but the latest entries are probably contemporary with the