At least twenty chronicles and medieval histories reference the battle of Brunanburh. The majority of these documents use similar names from Bruneswerce (Gaimar), Brunfeld (William of Malmesbury), Brunandune (Aethelweard), Brunfort (Book of Hyde), Brunanburgh (Florence/John of Worcester). There are though alternate names such as Weondune (Symeon of Durham) to the Plains of Othlyn (Annals of Clonmacnoise).  

 

Selected Bibliography

 

Primary

A review and translation of the sources can be found in Livingston’s Casebook.  The poem ‘the Battle of Brunanburh, is the earliest account of the battle and is found in the A-D versions of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle 

The Chronicle of Aethelweard, ed. by Alistair Campbell (London: T. Nelson, 1962)

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: Illustrated and Annotated, ed. by Carruthers, Bob, trans. by Ingram, James (Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2019)

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, trans. and ed. by Swanton, Michael (London: Phoenix Press, 2000)

The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester: with the two continuations, trans. by Forester, Thomas (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854)

The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon, trans. and ed. by Forester, Thomas (Felinfach: Llanerch Press, 1991)

Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, ed. by Thorpe, Lewis (London: Penguin Books, 1966)

Simeon of Durham; A History of the Kings of England, trans. by Stevenson, J. (Burnham-on-Sea, Llanerch Press, 1987)

The Annals of Ulster, ed. Sean Mac Airt, Gearoid Mac Niocaill (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1983)

Elaine Treharne, ‘Battle of Brunanburh’ Woruldhord, accessed 8 June 2021,  http://poppy.nsms.ox.ac.uk/woruldhord/items/show/456   

Livingston, Michael, ‘The Roads to Brunanburh’, in The Battle of Brunanburh: A Casebook, ed. by Michael Livingstone (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2011)

 

Secondary

Books / Journals

Atherton, Mark, The Making of England: A New History of the Anglo-Saxon World (I. B. Taurus, London and New York: 2017)

Bjornsson, Stefan, Vernhardsson, Bjorn, Brunanburh: Located through Egil’s Saga (Reykjavik: Hugfari, 2019)

Blair, Peter Hunter, Anglo-Saxon England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962 & London: The Folio Society, 1997)

Breeze, Andrew, British Battles 493-937: Mount Badon to Brunanburh (London: Anthem Press, 2020)

Breeze, Andrew, ‘The Battle of Brunanburh’ in Northern History, 53.1 (2016) 138-145 <https://doi.org/10.1080/0078172X.2016.1127631>

Capener, D. H., Brunanburh and the Routes to Dingesmere: A Battle for England Fought on the Wirral (Birkenhead: Countyvise Ltd, 2014)

Chadwick-Hawkes, Sonia, ‘Introduction’ in Weapons and Warfare in Anglo-Saxon England ed. by Sonia Chadwick-Hawkes (Oxford: Oxford University Committee for Archaeology, 1989)

Clarkson, Tim, The Men of the North: The Britons of Southern Scotland (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2010)

Davidson, Hilda Ellis, ‘The Training of Warriors’ in Weapons and Warfare in Anglo-Saxon England ed. by Sonia Chadwick Hawkes, (Oxford: Oxford University Committee for Archaeology, 1989)

Downham, Clare, Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland: The Dynasty of Ivarr to A.D. 1014 (Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press, 2007)

Downham, Clare ‘A Wirral Location for the Battle of Brunanburh’ in Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 170 (2021), 15–32

Edmonds, Fiona, Gaelic Influence in the Northumbrian Kingdom : The Golden Age and the Viking Age (Boydell and Brewer, 2019

Ellis, Peter Berresford, Celt and Saxon: The Struggle for Britain AD 410-937 (London: Constable, 1993)

England, Sally, 'X marks the spot? The Nunburnholme Cross and the Battle of Brunanburh' in the Council for British Archaeology’s Forum Plus journal, Volume 2, 2020 

England, Sally, 'The Battle of Brunanburh' in the Council for British Archaeology’s Forum Yorkshire journal, Volume 2, 2013: 

Foot, Sarah, Aethelstan First King of England (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011)

Gregg, David, P., The Battle of Brunanburh (Wirral: Green Man Books, 2021)

Halloran, Kevin, ‘Brunanburh reconsidered’, History Today, 56 (2006)

Halloran, Kevin, ‘The Brunanburh Campaign: A Reappraisal’ in The Scottish Historical Review, Volume LXXXIV, 2, No. 218 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, October 2005)

Halsall, Guy, Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450-900 (London: Routledge, 2003)

Higham, Nicholas, J., Martin J. Ryan, The Anglo-Saxon World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013)

Hill, Paul, The Anglo-Saxons: At War 800-1066 (Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2012)

Horovitz, David, Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians: the battle of Tettenhall 910 AD; and other West Mercian Studies (Brewood: David Horovitz, 2017)

John R. Kirby, Egil’s Saga: Traditional evidence for Brunanburh compared to Literary, Historic and Archaeological Analyses (Oxford: Archaeopress Publishing, 2019)

Kirby, John, R., Identifying Brunanburh: on dyngesmere - the sea of noise (Oxford: Archaeopress Publishing, 2019)

Livingston, Michael, Never Greater Slaughter: Brunanburh and the Birth of England (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2021)

Marren, Peter, Battles of the Dark Ages (Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2006)

Matthews, Rupert, England versus Scotland (Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 2003)

Morris, Marc, The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England (London: Hutchinson, 2021)

Parker, James, ‘The Battle of Brunanburh’, in Battlefield, 25 (2020)

Reid, John, ‘Bullets, Ballistas and Burnswark: A Roman assault on a hillfort in Scotland’, in Current Archaeology, 316 (2016)

Reynolds, Andrew, ‘Archaeological Correlates for Anglo-Saxon Military Activity in Comparative Perspective, in Landscapes of Defence’ in Early Medieval Europe, ed. by John Baker, Stuart Brookes and Andrew Reynolds, (Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2013)

Stenton, F. M., Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955)

Underwood, Richard, Anglo-Saxon Weapons and Warfare (Stroud: Tempus Publishing Limited, 1999)

Vernharosson, Bjorn, Bjornsson, Stefan, The Field in Hunwick and Egil’s Saga (Reykjavik: Hugfari, 2019)

Walker, Ian, W., Lords of Alba: The Making of Scotland (Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2006)

Westwood, Chris, Brunanburh: Aethelstan, Anlaf and Constantine’s Route to the Battle (Independent Publishing, 2021)

Williams, Gareth, Viking Warrior versus Anglo-Saxon Warrior, The Combat Series (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2017)

Williams, Thomas, Viking Britain: An Exploration (London: William Collins, 2017)

 

Internet

Clarkson, Tim, SASVA: notes on the Viking Age / Brunanburh on the Fylde [Online]. Available: https:www.vikingsstrathclyde.wordpress.com > 2015

Michael Wood, Brunanburh: Where did the battle that saved England take place? https://www.historyextra.com/period/anglo-saxon/where-did-brunanburh-battle-take-place-location-england-michael-wood/BBC History Magazine, [October 2017] 2019.

Dan Snow’s History Hit podcast interviewing Fiona Edmonds, Clare Downham and the archaeological team working on a possible Viking battle site on the Wirral https://play.acast.com/s/dansnowshistoryhit/worldexclusive-havearcheologistsfoundbritainsmostelusivebattlefield-