for certain counties in large part, and also delivered a massacre of many men; and, after the monastery of Tavistock had been set on fire, it turned back to its ships laden with enormous booty, and wintered in the same place.
In the 998^th year the aforementioned pagan army landed at the mouth of the River Frome, laying waste Dorset in large part, and went frequently to the Isle of Wight. An army was assembled many times against so great a disturbance, but the enemy were rendered victors by wretched misfortune.
In the 999^th year the army of pagans entered the Thames, carried to Rochester by the River Medway; and they besiege it for a few days. A harsh battle is waged there with the men of Kent, but the enemy are clearly victors; as a result they demolished almost the whole district of west Kent.
In the 1000^th year the Danish fleet headed for Normandy. Æthelred, king of the English, devastated nearly the whole land of the Cumbrians. Hugh, king of the French, son of Hugh Capet, died; his son Robert succeeded him.
In the ▬▬▬ 1001^st year the pagan army was carried back again to England from Normandy, entering the mouth of a river, and attack Exeter, achieving nothing; as a result, it was provoked beyond measure, in the usual way, and wanders throughout Devon setting fire to settlements, devastating fields, and killing men. On account of this the men of Devon and Somerset, gathered together as one, go into battle with them. The English, however, turning their backs, go into flight, and the enemies are rendered victors.
In the 1002^nd year Æthelred, king of the English, after he took counsel with his men, decided, for the sake of maintaining peace, to pay 24,000. In the same year King Æthelred took as wife Emma, called Ælfgifu in English, daughter of Richard I, duke of the Normans. Ealdwulf, archbishop of York, raised the bones of St Oswald the archbishop, and placed them with honour in a shrine; and not much later he died; Abbot Wulfstan succeeded him.
In the 1003^rd year Svein, king of the Danes, broke into Exeter, plundered it, and destroyed the wall, and thereafter Wiltshire; as a result the men of Wiltshire and Hampshire assembled manfully against the enemy. But, with the ealdorman Ælfric, extremely terrified, beginning to vomit and inert with cowardice, they turned away from their opponents without a fight. Seeing this, Svein with his army wasted Wiltshire and Salisbury, and afterwards headed back to their ships. Giric king of Scots is put to death, after whom:
In the 1004^th year Svein, king of the Danes sailed with his fleet to Norwich and laid it waste and burned it. Because he came unexpectedly, Ulfcetel, an ealdorman of great vigour of the East Angles, did not have the opportunity to assemble an army against him; after taking counsel with his men, he accordingly agreed a truce with him—which, not much later, he \the Danish king/ violated, Thetford having been burned. After this had become known, the vigorous ealdorman Ulfcetel, mustering his army, engages boldly with the enemy; and, after many from among these men and from among those of the enemy had fallen, the Danes, in truth, barely escaped. And as they themselves bore witness, they never experienced a harsher battle in England. Pope John died; Gregory succeeded him.
In the 1005^th year a dreadful famine gripped England; as a result Svein, king of the Danes, went to Denmark; he was to return after no long period of time. Pope Gregory died; John succeeded him; dying that year, Silvester succeeded him, who was also Gerbert. They say that that Gerbert did homage to the devil, so that he would make him rise to earthly dignities, concerning which it is said: Gerbert transfers from R. to R.; he becomes pope, thriving at R.² That is, from the archiepiscopacy of Rheims to the archiepiscopacy of the city of Ravenna—which at that time