THE 



WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE. 



"multoeum manibus geande levatue onus." — Ovid. 



e §attle of €t|anktie. 



By Walteb Monet, F.S.A. 

 [Reprinted from The Antiquary, vol. xxvii., p. 146, New Series.] 



[[II^N the year 878 — that is, seven years after the battle of 

 I ^ Ashdown and the traditional cutting of the White Horse 

 at UfRngton — the battle of Ethandune was fought (or, as it is 

 variously written, "Eddeiandun," " Assandune," and "Edendune^'). 

 A considerable difference of opinion prevails as to the place of this 

 battle, in which the Danes were defeated. Lysons, on the authority 

 of Dr. Beke, a contemporary Professor of Modern History in the 

 University of Oxford, considers Eddington, near Hungerford, to 

 have superior claims to be considered as the Ethandune of the ninth 

 century. 



" From Asser we obtain the following outline of Alfred's move- 

 ments : Leaving Athelney, and following the route of the King, 

 we have no difficulty in identifying the place where Alfred was met 

 by the troops of his subjects who flocked to him, and called Egbert's 

 or Egbricht's Stone, with Brixton-Deverill, a small village about 

 half-way between Hindon and Warminster. Thence the array 

 marched the next day at daybreak, in the middle of May, to Mglea, 

 about the locality of which place writers are not agreed — and the 

 next day he marched to Ethandune." 



Dr. Beke supposes that the day before the action Alfred made a 

 long and forced march of about thirty-five miles over the Downg 

 with his cavalry, and reached -^glea, and that the next morning he 

 attacked the Danish army by the road from Shefford. He bases 



VOL. XXVII. — NO. LXXX. I 



