82 



Severn, and also some part of the North-Welsh people. 

 When they had all drawn together then they came up with 

 the army at Buttington on the bank of the Severn, and 

 there beset them about, on either side, in a fastness. When 

 they had now sat there many weeks on both sides of 

 the river, and the King was in the west in Devon, against 

 the fleet, then were the enemy distressed for want of food, 

 and having eaten a great part of their horses, the others 

 being starved with hunger, then went they out against the 

 men who were encamped on the east bank of the river 

 and fought against them, and the Christians had the 

 victory. And Ordheh a kings-thane was there slain ; and 

 of the Danish men there was very great slaughter made, 

 and that part which got away thence was saved by flight. 

 When they had come into Essex to their fortress and the 

 ships, then the survivors again gathered a great army from 

 among the East-Angles and the North-Humbrians before 

 winter, and committed their wives and their wealth and 

 their ships to the East- Angles, and went at one stretch, day 

 and night, until they arrived at a western city in Wirral, 

 which is called Legaceaster (Chester). 



It is evident from this passage that a most desperate 

 battle was fought at Buttington, between the Danes and 

 the combined English and Welsh forces. And when we 

 consider the position of the church -yard, which is slightly 

 above the level of the fields on the east side, and which 

 stands out boldly above the stretch of alluvium on the 

 north side, there can be but little doubt that the battle 

 was fought on the very spot where the bones were dis- 

 covered. In the Chronicle we read that the Danes were 

 compelled to eat their horses. The jaw of a horse was 

 discovered in the excavations, together with many horse's 

 teeth. It is therefore almost certain that these human re- 

 mains l^elong to the men who fell in this battle. We cannot 

 tell who arranged the bones in the way in which they were 



