THE CHRONICLE OF FABIUS ETHELWERD, FROM THE BEGINNING OP THE WORLD TO THE TEAR OP OUR LORD »75. IN FOUR BOOKS. To Matilda, the most eloquent and true handmaid of Christ, Ethelwerd the patrician, health in the Lord ! I have received, dearest sister, your letter which I longed for, and I not only read it with kisses, but laid it up in the treasury of my heart. Often and often do I pray the grace of the Most High, to preserve you in safety during this life present, and after death to lead you to his everlasting mansions. But as I once before briefly hinted to you by letter, I now, with God's help, intend to begin in the way of annals from the beginning of the world, and explain to you more fully about our common lineage and descent, to the end that the reader's task may be lightened, and the pleasure of the hearer may be augmented, whilst he listens to it. Concerning the coming of our first parents out of Germany into Britain, their numberless wars and slaughters, and the dangers which they encountered on ship-board among the waves of the ocean, in the following pages you will find a full description. In the * present letter therefore I have written, without perplexity of style, of our modern lineage and relationship, who were our relations, and how, and where they came from : as far as our memory can go, and according as our parents taught us. For instance king Alfred was son of king Ethelwulf, from whom we derive our origin, and who had five sons, one of whom was king Ethelred* my ancestor, and another king Alfred 9 Ethelred died and Alfred succeeded him A. D. 871· Β