THE HISTORY OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS: COMPRISING THE history of England FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST. BY SHARON TURNER, F.A.S. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. 1. THE FOURTH EDITION. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN PATERNOSTER-ROW. PREFACE ΤΟ THE THIRD EDITION. THE first edition of this work was published, in successive parts, between the years 1799 and 1805. When the first volume appeared, the subject of the Anglo-Saxon antiquities had been nearly forgotten by the British public; although a large part of what we most love and venerate in our customs, laws, and institutions, originated among our Anglo-Saxon ancestors. A few scholars in a former century had cultivated the study, and left grammars, dictionaries, and catalogues for our use; but their labours had been little heeded, and no one had added to the information which they had communicated. The Anglo-Saxon MSS. lay still unexamined, and neither their contents, nor the important facts which the ancient writers and records of other nations had preserved of the transactions and fortunes of our ancestors, had been ever made a part of our general history. The Quida, or death-song, of Ragnar Lodbrog first led the present author to perceive the deficiency, and excited his wish to supply it. A series of careful re |