Æthelweard (historian)

thumb|Brittannia nunc Anglia appellatur, assumens nomen uictorum.Britain is now called England, taking the name of the victors. Æthelweard (also Ethelward; d. c. 998) was an ealdorman and the author of a Latin version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle known as the Chronicon Æthelweardi. He was a kinsman of the royal family, being a descendant of the Anglo-Saxon King Æthelred I of Wessex, the elder brother of Alfred the Great. Quotes Chronicon Æthelweardi Quippe de Saxonia quæ nunc uulgo Ealdsexe nuncupatur, id est 'Saxonia uetus', uenere tribus, quæ apud Anglos modo ita dicuntur, Eastsexan, et Suthsexan, et Westsexan...Anglia igitur de prouincia uenere iuxta Orientales Angli, Medii Angli, Mercii quoque, et tota gens Northanhymbrorum. Porro Anglia uetus sita est inter Saxones et Giotos, habens oppidum capitale, quod sermone Saxonico Slesuuic nuncupatur, secundum uero Danos, Haithaby. Ideoque Brittannia nunc Anglia appellatur, assumens nomen uictorum. Præfati enim duces eorum inde uenerunt Brittanniam primi: hoc est Hengest et Horsa filii Vuyhtelsi, auus eorum Vuicta, et proauus eorum Vuithar, atauus quidem eorum Vuothen, qui et rex multitudinis barbarorum. In tanta etenim seductione oppressi aquilonales increduli ut deum colunt usque in hodiernam diem, viz. Dani, Northmanni quoque, et Sueui...In tanta ergo fuisse perhibetur supra dictarum illa aduec-tio crescens, et nimium, ut et incolarum paulatim et habitationis nomen aboleuisset, qui cum muneribus eos traxere quondam gentium repentinæ. Magis stipendia poscunt; renuunt Brittanni; mouent arma; fit discordia nimis, et, ut ante præfati sumus, a finibus eos pellunt in arcta promontoria quædam, et ipsi possessores a mare ad mare usque in præsentem diem existunt. In nono etiam anno post euersionem Romæ a Gothis, relicti qui erant in Brittannia Romana ex gente, multiplices non ferentes gentium minas, scrobibus occultant thesau-rum, aliquam sibi futuram existimantes fortunam, quod illis post non accidit. Partem sumunt, in unda gregan-tur, dant uentum carinis, exules Gallias tenent partes. From the land of the Saxons, which is now known as Ealdseaxe, that is 'the old land of the Saxons', by the common people, there came tribes which among the English have these names: East Saxons, South Saxons and West Saxons...From the province of the Angles there came likewise the East Angles, Middle Angles and Mercians, and the whole race of the Northumbrians. The old land of the Angles lies between the Saxons and Jutes, and has as its capital the town known in the Saxon language as Schleswig, but by the Danes as Hedeby. And so Britain is now called England, taking the name of the victors. Now the above-named leaders of those people were the first to come to Britain from the lands we have been discussing, that is to say Hengest and Horsa, the sons of Wihtels; their grandfather was Wihta, their great-grandfather Withar, and their great-great-grandfather Woden, who was king of a multitude of the barbarians. The heathen northern peoples are overwhelmed in so great a seduction that they worship [him] as a god to the present day, that is to say the Danes, Norwegians and also the Svebi...Immigration of the above-mentioned nations was on so increasing a scale (and all too much so), that it gradually brought into disuse the name used for their country by the natives, who, impetuous among nations as they were, had previously attracted those people with gifts. They made increasing demands for payments and the Britons refused; they took up arms, and there was a clash on a scale all too great. As we said above, they expelled them over their boundaries into certain narrow promontories, and they themselves are possessors from sea to sea up to this present day. In the ninth year after the overthrow of Rome by the Goths, those of the Roman nation who remained in Britain no longer endured the manifold threats of foreigners, but hid their treasure in trenches, thinking that some future luck would fall to their lot, but it did not thereafter turn out so for them. They took a part [of the treasure], gathered on the sea, set sail, and lived as exiles in the country of Gaul. B. 1, sec. 4 (ed. & tr. A. Campbell, 1962). On the Svebi, Æthelweard quotes Lucan, b. 2, l. 51. Campbell's note: "Perhaps Æthelweard confused Svebi and Swedes." External links A[listair] Campbell (ed.) Chronicon Aethelweardi: The Chronicle of Aethelweard (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1962) Category:Historians from England Category:Chroniclers Category:990s deaths