202 
Notes on the Evidence bearing 
English Nation,’ is the next authority as regards date ; it was 
written about 731, and Bede’s death took place in 785. 
Then comes the Saxon Chronicle, which is known to have 
existed in the time of King Alfred, more than a century later, 
and may have been begun by him. In the words of Mr. 
Elton: 22 —“ Of the (English) Conquest itself no accurate 
narrative remains. The version which is usually received is 
based in part on the statements in the histories of Gildas and 
Nennius, and in part on Chronicles which seem to owe much 
to lost heroic poems in which the exploits of the English 
chieftains were commemorated.” He adds that Hengist, for 
example, is but a hero of song and legend; a hero of such 
numerous and such divergent traditions that he is ubiquitous, 
and fills all kinds of characters. In the fragmentary poem 
known as “ The Fight at Finnisburg,” Hengist leads a band 
of Jutisli pirates to burn the palace of the Frisian king. In 
the legends of the Frieslanders themselves he is claimed as 
the father of their kings and as the builder of their strong¬ 
holds on the Rhine. 
On the other hand the Welsh accounts are equally unsatis¬ 
factory as materials for a history of the period, and the 
British hero, Arthur, and his exploits, are as impossible to 
localise with certainty as Hengist and his deeds. Dr. Guest 
thought that Arthur’s great victory over the Saxons at Mount 
Badon was probably won at Badbury Rings, in Dorset, while 
Mr. Skene considers the position of this and the rest of 
Arthur’s battlefields to have been in the Scottish Lowlands, 
where the number of Arthurian names is especially great. 
The site of the battle of Mount Badon, on this last hypothesis, 
is considered to be Bouden Hill, not far from Linlithgow. 
Again, the tradition of the Britons of Damnonia was that 
Arthur’s burial-place was Glastonbury; while the Brigantes 
held that he lay enchanted under the Eildon Hills, or beneath 
the Castle of Sewingshields, close to Hadrian’s Wall. 
We gather, however, that, at all events, the Anglo-Saxon 
supremacy was attained very slowly, except in the counties 
bordering on the east coast, and that their progress suffered 
22 ‘ Origins of English History,’ ch. XII. 
