193 
Edington ov Patton the Ethandun of Altced's 
bictorp ? 
By R. C. Atexanper, Esa., M.D. 
f= HERE has lately been renewed in the pages of this Magazine 
¥ V): a question as to the march of Alfred, and the site of his 
victory in the year 878. All discussion on the subject is vague, 
unless we refer to the cotemporary authorities, and see what they 
say, and what they call the places mentioned, in their own lan- 
guage. The only two of the chroniclers upon whom reliance can 
be placed are the author of the Saxon Chronicle for that period, 
and Asser. The others wrote much later and copied from them. 
The words of the Saxon Chronicle are, “ Da on pere seofoSan 
wucan ofer Eastron he [ Ailfred] gerad to Kegbyrhtes-stane be 
eastan Sealwuda, and him comon per ongen Sumorscete ealle, & 
Wylscete and Hamtunscir, se deel se hyre beheonan se was, & his 
gefeegen werun. And he for ymb ane niht of pam wican to Iglea, 
and pxs eft ymb ane niht to Mpandune, & per gefeaht wid ealne 
pone here, and hine geflymde, & him efter rad 03 pot geweore, & 
per set xiv. niht,” &c.—Gibson’s edition, p. 85. Ingram, p. 105. 
«Then in the seventh week after Easter he rode to Ecbyrht’s stone 
east of Selwood, and there came to meet him all the Somerset and 
Wiltshire men, and that part of Hamptonshire that was on this 
side the sea, and were glad of him [to see him]. And he marched 
after one night from that station [wic] to Iglea, and from this 
after one night to pandun,! and there fought against all the 
army and routed it, and rode after it to the stronghold, and sat 
there a fortnight.” 
The words of Asser are, “ Kodem anno post Pascha Alfred rex 
eum paucis suis adjutoribus fecit arcem in loco qui dicitur A‘pelin- 
1 Our ancestors represented the two sounds of th by p ‘for that in ¢horn and 
thistle, and 8 for that in other, thy, and with. 
0 
