nor army so strong,
that 'mid the English nation
took from him aught,
the while that the noble king
ruled on his throne.
And this year Edward, Edgar's son, succeeded to the kingdom; and
then soon, in the same year, during harvest, appeared "cometa"
the star; and then came in the following year a very great
famine, and very manifold commotions among the English people.
In his days,
for his youth,
God's gainsayers
God's law broke;
Eldfere, ealdorman,
and others many;
and rule monastic quashed,
and minsters dissolved,
and monks drove out,
and God's servants put down,
whom Edgar, king, ordered erewhile
the holy bishop
Ethelwold to stablish;
and widows they plundered,
many times and oft:
and many unrighteousnesses,
and evil unjust-deeds
arose up afterwards:
and ever after that
it greatly grew in evil.
And at that rime, also, was Oslac the great earl banished from
England.))

A.D. 976. This year was the great famine in England.

A.D. 977. This year was that great council at Kirtlington, (46)
after Easter; and there died Bishop Sideman a sudden death, on
the eleventh day before the calends of May. He was Bishop of
Devonshire; and he wished that his resting-place should be at
Crediton, his episcopal residence; but King Edward and Archbishop
Dunstan ordered men to carry him to St. Mary's minster that is at
Abingdon. And they did so; and he is moreover honourably buried
on the north side in St. Paul's porch.

A.D. 978. This year all the oldest counsellors of England fell at
Calne from an upper floor; but the holy Archbishop Dunstan stood
alone upon a beam. Some were dreadfully bruised: and some did
not escape with life. This year was King Edward slain, at
eventide, at Corfe-gate, on the fifteenth day before the calends
of April. And he was buried at Wareham without any royal honour.
No worse deed than this was ever done by the English nation since
they first sought the land of Britain. Men murdered him but God
has magnified him. He was in life an earthly king--he is now
after death a heavenly saint. Him would not his earthly
relatives avenge--but his heavenly father has avenged him
amply. The earthly homicides would wipe out his memory from the
earth--but the avenge