The ‘Northern Recension’

Abstract

This chapter considers the most famous lost vernacular chronicle, the so-called ‘Northern Recension’, fossilized in Chronicles D and E. It examines its making, patronage, and audience, and its connection to the extension of southern power to England north of the Trent and Humber. A detailed reconstruction of the text identifies its sources in Bede, the York Annals, and the chronicle produced at Alfred’s court, the use of Bede being part of the story of Bede’s reception in later Anglo-Saxon England. It considers the nature of the resulting chronicle, its continuities with and shifts from that of Alfred. The Northern Recension is the first identifiable chronicle to add substantially to the Alfred Chronicle’s text. It is argued that this chronicle is linked to the archbishops of York, who were southern appointees and agents of southern power, but its makers were Northumbrian and attention is paid to their voices in the text.