Chapter 13 Reading Practice

 


þæs ymb .iiii. niht Æþered Cyning 7 ælfred his broþur þær micle fierd to Readingum gelæddon 7 wiþ þone here gefuhton. 7 þær wæs micel wæl geslægen on gehwæþre hond, 7 Æþelwulf Aldormon wearþ ofslægen, 7 þa Deniscan ahton wælstowe gewald. 7 þæs ymb .iiii. niht gefeaht Æþered Cyning 7 Ælfred his broþur wiþ alne þone here on Æscesdune, 7 hie wærun on twæm gefylcum: on oþrum wæs Bachsecg 7 Halfdene þa hæþnan cyningas, 7 on oþrum wæron þa eorlas. 7 þa gefeaht se cyning æþered wiþ þara cyninga getruman, 7 þær wearþ se cyning Bagsecg ofslægen.

 

 

 


From the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 871:


Then four nights afterward king Athelred and Alfred his brother led a great army there into Reading and fought against the army [of the Danes]. And there was great slaughter on either hand, and Athelwulf the Ealdorman was slain, and the Danes had control over the place of slaughter. And after four nights King Athelred and Alfred his brother fought against the entire army at Ashdown, and they were in two groups: in the one was Bagsecg and Halfdane, the heathen kings, and in the other were the [Danish] earls. And then King Athelred fought against the troop of the kings, and there was King Bagsecg slain.

 

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