[165] It was probably at this time that Athelstan, as we learn from William of Malmesbury, rased to the ground the fortress which the Danes had aforetime built in York, “that there might be no place in which these perfidious ones could take refuge,” and generously divided among his men the vast booty which he found there.
[166] By Symeon of Durham, not by the Chronicle, which here is singularly barren of information except such as is contained in the “Lay of Brunanburh”.
[167] The twelfth century chronicler, Florence of Worcester, says that with these ships he entered the Humber; and this statement has been frequently copied by later historians. It is not, however, to be found in any contemporary or nearly contemporary record, and it is now generally regarded with suspicion, for the obvious reason that an invader, coming from Ireland with the intention of co-operating with the Kings of Cumberland and Scotland, would be more likely to land on the western than on the eastern coast of Britain.
[168] Especially since it was turned into spirited yet closely literal English verse by Tennyson, from whose poem a few passages are here quoted.
[169] William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum, ii., 135.
[170] Ibid., 134.
[171] Probably of the tenth century, therefore nearly contemporary.
[172] See Plummer, Saxon Chronicles, ii., 137, and Freeman, Hist. Essays, i., 10–15, for a full discussion of the question.
[173] See Birch, Cartularium Saxonicum, 656.
[174] Possibly Chesterfield.