The Story of Engle and Scardying: Fragment of an Anglo-Norman Chronicle Roll

Fragments of an illuminated Anglo-Norman chronicle roll of the mid-fourteenth century, surviving as partially palimpsested flyleaves in the Princeton University Library, Garrett MS 119, offer new evidence for a northern English story about Engle and Scardyng, two legendary Britons previously known only from Robert Mannyng of Brunne’s The Story of Inglande. The article discusses this story and other incidents in the Anglo-Norman text in relation to possible sources (oral and written), late medieval English historical writing, and chronicle rolls as a form of popular literature. The article also traces the provenance of Garrett MS 119, especially in connection with Croyland Abbey and the library of the Elizabethan statesman William Cecil, Lord Burgley, and provides a transcription of the text.