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Acknowledgments
I am unreservedly grateful to Thijs H. Porck, Randy C. Bax, Leonard Neidorf, Chenyun Zhu, and Manxi Zhang for many fruitful discussions and insightful feedback on the earlier drafts of this note. My thanks are also owed to ANQ’s anonymous reviewer(s) for the helpful comments. This study is funded by the China Scholarship Council (CSC) and the Centre for the Arts in Society, Universiteit Leiden (LUCAS).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. On the latest study of the background of the “Common Stock” of Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, or the “Alfredian Chronicle”; cf. Stafford (39–51). The text of the entry for 755 (757) is cited throughout from the edition of CitationBately, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle MS A (36–38).
2. See for example, CitationBell, “Cynewulf and Cyneheard in Gaimar” (42–46); CitationMagoun, “Cynewulf, Cyneheard and Osric” (361–376); CitationMoorman, “The ‘A.-S. Chronicle’ for 755” (94–98); CitationLancaster, “Kinship” (230–250); CitationTowers, “Thematic Unity” (310–316); CitationBattaglia, “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 755” (173–178); CitationWaterhouse, “Theme and Structure” (630–640); CitationWrenn, “A Saga of the Anglo-Saxons” (208–215); CitationKleinschmidt, “The Old English Annal” (209–224); O’Brien O’Keeffe, “Heroic Values” (107–125); CitationBremmer, “Germanic Context” (445–465); CitationNiles, “The Myth of the Feud” (163–200); Leneghan, “Alfredian Context” (71–104).
3. On its analogues in Old English and Old Icelandic literature, see Hill, Warrior Ethnic (74–92); CitationMcTurk, “Icelandic Sagas” (81–127); CitationHeinemann, “Landnámabόk” (57–89). For relevant comments on the divided loyalty, see O’ Brien O’Keeffe, “Heroic Values” (110–111). Recent discussion of divided loyalty in the High Middle Ages, see CitationPeters, “‘Gespaltene Treue’” (283–347). On the gloss “wifcyþþe”, see Scragg, “Wifcyþþe” (179–185).
4. See Sheppard (32–38); Bredehoft (39–60); Yorke, “Representation” (141–159); Leneghan, “Alfredian Context” (71–104).
5. Yorke (158); On the Alfredian preoccupations with the editing; cf. Bredehoft (39–60).
6. “Postea ab illo obsidetur clitone, nam nunciatum est ei cum quadam meretrice morando in loco qui dicitur Merantune. [Afterwards he was besieged by that prince, for he (the king) was reported to him (the prince) to be staying with a certain loose woman in a place called Merton.]” Cf. CitationCampbell (23).
7. See, for example, Niles, “The Myth of the Feud” (194); White, “Kinship and Lordship” (2); CitationHill, Warrior Ethic (81).
8. For the translation, see CitationShort (102).
9. Bremmer raises another hypothesis that she might be a woman “who bore the brunt of male conflicts, falling prey to the conspiracy of men thirsting for power”, see Bremmer, “Germanic Context” (456).
10. My thanks to Dr. Thijs H. Porck at the Center for the Arts in Society, Universiteit Leiden for offering me this point of view.
11. See CitationKaske, “Sapientia et Fortitudo” (423–456); Hill, “The Crowning of Alfred” (471–476). A typically binary topos in the European literature from the Late Antiquity onwards. See CitationCurtius (183–184).
12. “Hu þa kyningas þe ðone anwald hæfdon ðæs folces Godes & his ærendwrecum hirsumedon; & hu hi ægðer ge hiora sibbe ge hiora sido ge hiora anwald innanbordes gehioldon, & eac ut hiora oeðel rymdon; & hu him ða speow æðer ge mid wige ge mid wisdom… [and how the kings who had power over the nation in those days obeyed God and his ministers; and they preserved peace, morality, and order at home, and at the same time enlarged their territory abroad…]” see CitationSweet (1).
13. On translation, see CitationKeynes and Lapidge (70–71).
14. The ealdorman Cumbra is probably one of those standing in the witness list of King Cuthred’s charters. In S 257, there is a certain “Combran” who acted as “præfectus regis” of Cuthred, Sigeberht’s predecessor. See https://esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk/charter/257.html.
15. A quality that is highly recommended in one of Alcuin’s letters addressed to king Æthelred of Northumbria, Cynewulf’s near-contemporary, see CitationDümmler (50–51), : “Bona vero sunt opera, per quae ascendere in caelum possumus…misericordia in homines…Regis est omnes iniquitates pietatis suae potential obprimere; iustum esse in iudiciis, pronum in misericordia – secundum quod ille miseretur subiectis, miserebitur ei Deus…” [The good works through which we can ascend to heaven are…mercy toward men…It is for the king to crush all injustices by the power of his goodness, to be just in judgments, quick to mercy (for God will have mercy on him as he has mercy on his subjects)…] For the translation, see CitationAllott (21–22).
16. Based on one of the charters (S 262) given by Cynewulf to the church of Wells, this West Saxon king complains about the “vexatione inimicorum nostrorum Cornubiorum gentis” (Lat harassing of our enemies, the race of the Cornish men). It can be thus inferred therefrom that these Britons mentioned in the 755 entry are primarily Cornish people. For the translation, see CitationWhitelock (516); For comments on this charter, see CitationFinberg (117).
17. Noticeably, “unheanlice” is a word in rare application. Another appearance of this is in the text of Old English Dialogs of Gregory the Great. In Prose 5: “Soþlice þæt þæt ic nu secgean wille, ic geleornode of gesegene sumes bisceopes mines efenhadan, se on munuchade manega gear lifode on Anchonitana þære byri 7 þær his eawfæste lif unheanlice adreah. [Truly I will tell now that I learnt from the conversation of a certain co-bishop of mine, who lived many years in monastic order in the town Acona. There he adequately led a devout life.]”. Even though the precise meaning of “unheanlice” differs in two different texts, but this word can hardly deliver any derogatory meanings; cf. CitationHecht (43).
18. The Old English text is based on CitationBately, Old English Orosius (73); For the translation, see CitationGodden (197).
19. In historical context, it is borne out that Cynewulf was a ruler who displayed his power, consolidated the kingdom of Wessex, and checked the extension of Mercian over-lordship, whereas other kingdoms such as Sussex and Kent were stepwise reduced to subordination by king Offa of Mercia. Cf. Keynes, “King Alfred and the Mercians” (2); CitationReynolds, “Anglo-Saxon Execution Cemetery” (245–275).