Customer Reviews

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

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The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is an extremely useful tool for the study of of British history. Its time-line format is an effective organization technique which simplifies keeping events in their true order and, in its own way, adds an element of suspense to the unfolding narrative.

This particular translation is not only one of most highly regarded, in this edition it is also a bargain, being considerably less expensive than most others. Other editions have their merits, but Ingram's translation from the Old English and Latin sources is clear, direct and very readable.

This book is a must-have for those who interested in real history. Reading this compilation from the original source materials is far surperior to suffering through an edited, re-telling of the events by an author with a personal agenda.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is all that the other reviewers say that it is, but this translation is extremely poor. Ingram -- who was writing in the 1810s & 1820s -- dreamed up meanings when he could not parse the Anglo-Saxon, which occurs in many places.

Mind you, it's not his fault: We learned a great deal about the Old English language(s) between 1850 and 1950. But for this reason alone, you must buy a more modern edition.

Lastly, Ingram's method of collating all nine manuscripts together lands him in the soup, with a large number of contradictions, single events happening twice, and so forth.

Ingram's translation of The Anglo Saxon Chronicle is not perfect by modern standards, but for true scholars and students of the period, it has the personality of the original texts preserved. I found the idiosyncracies to be charming, and as a companion to reading Beowulf and Sir Gawain, I definitely felt immersed in the culture of the time period.