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Halfdan, said to be Ivar’s brother, after the winter
was out, prepared to finish the work by invading
Wessex. With him was King Bagsecg or Bægsceg,
Sigtrygg the Old and Sigtrygg the Young, Osbjörn,
Fræna, and Harald, all named as jarls who fell in this
campaign. They set out about Christmas-tide, 870.
At this period the Chronicles begin the year with
Christmas, and the dates of their earlier movements
are precise enough to give the days on which the
actions were fought (see the Rev. C. Plummer’s Life
and Times of Ælfred the Great, p. 93). As they came
from Thetford after many months of land operations,
it is not likely that they took boats up the Thames :
probably they rode along the Icknield way, making
for Winchester. Near the Thames they must have
been aware of the Wessex army on the watch, for the
rapidity with which they were attacked shows that
they were not unexpected.
At Reading there was a royal vill and a little
monastery to plunder. There was also a fine site
for a fortress, in the tongue of land between Thames
and Kennet ; for at that time the land now covered
by the railway-stations was marsh, and the tip of
the tongue, now occupied by Huntley & Palmer’s
biscuit factory, was close to navigable water from
which boats could go down the river and out to sea.
Asser has puzzled historians by saying that the town
was south of the Thames, but that the Danes made a
dyke between the two rivers to the right (south) of
the town (or vill). Now the Saxon monastery seems
to have been where St. Mary’s stands, and no dyke
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