Edgar and the eight kings, AD 973: Textus et dramatis personae

The purpose of the paper is to examine in detail the alleged submission by Welsh, Scottish and Scandinavian rulers to the English king Edgar at Chester in 973, and particularly the claim made in a number of Anglo-Norman chronicles that these rulers rowed Edgar up and down the River Dee as part of this submission. All relevant texts (both explicit descriptions and possible allusions) will be presented and analysed, and the identities of the Celtic and Scandinavian rulers will be considered. The paper will argue that the rowing episode is a post-Conquest fictional embellishment based on earlier Old English material, and that the meeting at Chester in 073 was a 'peace summit' rather than a straightforward submission.