The Project Gutenberg EBook of Edwy the Fair or the First Chronicle of
Aescendune, by A. D. Crake

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Title: Edwy the Fair or the First Chronicle of Aescendune

Author: A. D. Crake

Release Date: August 18, 2004 [EBook #13215]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDWY THE FAIR OR THE FIRST ***

Produced by Martin Robb

Edwy the Fair or the First Chronicle of Aescendune:

A Tale of the Days of Saint Dunstan,

by the Rev. A. D. Crake.

PREFACE.

It has been the aim of the Author, in a series of original tales told to
the senior boys of a large school, to illustrate interesting or
difficult passages of Church History by the aid of fiction. Two of these
tales--"Aemilius," a tale of the Decian and Valerian persecutions; and
"Evanus," a tale of the days of Constantine--he has already published,
and desires gratefully to acknowledge the kindness with which they have
been received.

He is thus encouraged to submit another attempt to the public, having
its scene of action in our own land, although in times very dissimilar
to our own; and for its object, the illustration of the struggle between
the regal and ecclesiastical powers in the days of the ill-fated and
ill-advised King Edwy.

Scarcely can one find a schoolboy who has not read the touching legend
of Edwy and Elgiva--for it is little more than a legend in most of its
details; and which of these youthful readers has not execrated the
cruelty of the Churchmen who separated those unhappy lovers? While the
tragical story of the fate of the hapless Elgiva has been the theme of
many a poet and even historian, who has accepted the tale as if it were
of as undoubted authenticity as the Reform Bill.

The writer can well remember the impression the tale made upon his
youthful imagination, and the dislike, to use a mild word, with which he
ever viewed the character of the great statesman and ecclesiastic of the
tenth century, Dunstan, until a wider knowledge of history and a more
accurate judgment came with maturer years; and testimonies to the
ability and genius of that monk, who had been the moving spirit of his
age, began to force themsel