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 735.
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 Jutish 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.