[502] ‘urne ealra freond,’ Birch, No. 582; K. C. D. No. 327. I do not mean to assert that Werferth was at Athelney or Edington, though he may have been. But he and Æthelnoth were working for a common end, and his district benefited largely by Alfred’s victory.
[503] ‘They were the first European warriors who realised the value of quick movement in war,’ Green, C. E. p. 89.
[504] ‘þæer gehorsude wurdon,’ 866; ‘se gehorsoda here,’ 876, 877; ‘þa wearþ se here gehorsod æfter þæm gefeohte,’ 881. Conversely after a defeat: ‘his wurdon þær behorsude,’ 885. Asser, describing this last incident, says: ‘equis, quos de Francia secum adduxerant, derelictis,’ 483 C [37]; ‘hie asettan him … ofer [sc. to England] mid horsum,’ 893; cf. Flor. Wig. i. 111.
[505] Note the use of ‘bestelan’ for the movements of the invaders, 865, 876 (bis), 878.
[506] Earlier in the annal Alfred ‘rides’ to Brixton.
[507] ‘Ælfred æfter þam gehorsudan here mid fierde rad.’
[508] Sir Walter Besant, Essays, p. 17.
[509] For purely English events we have not, as a rule, the help of the foreign Chronicles, and cannot therefore be sure whether they also are dated a year in advance; but probably in most cases they are.
[510] That this and not 885 is the true date is proved by the Annales Vedastini, and the Chronicon Reginonis, Pertz, i. 521, 594.
[511] Asser, 483 B, C [37].