Anonymous, The Poems of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Susanne Kries
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Tweet Report an Error

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ASC) is the name commonly given to the group of texts containing annals which record the history of Anglo-Saxon England. Its seven manuscripts – referred to in scholarship by the letters A-G (quoted below behind the annal number) – include a number of poems that commemorate important moments in Anglo-Saxon history. That these Chronicle poems have generally received little scholarly attention is due to their allegedly marginal status within the overwhelmingly prose content of the ASC. Like most Anglo-Saxon poetry, they are transmitted anonymously, although three poems (annals 959-DEF, 1011-CDEF, 975-DE) have been attributed to Wulfstan, archbishop of York (1002-23).

The …

1088 words

Citation: Kries, Susanne. "The Poems of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 February 2003 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11653, accessed 23 November 2024.]

11653 The Poems of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.