About this time, Ethelfrid, a very powerful and ambitious king, ruled the kingdom of the Northumbrians.1 He ravaged the Britons more cruelly than all other English leaders, so that he might well be compared to Saul the King of Israel, except of course that he was ignorant of true religion. He overran a greater area than any other king or ealdorman, exterminating or enslaving the inhabitants, making their lands either tributary to the English or ready for English settlement. One might fairly apply to him the words of the patriarch Jacob’s blessing of his son: ‘Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.’
Alarmed at his advance, Aidan, king of those Irish who lived in Britain, came against him with a large and strong army, but was defeated and fled with very few, having lost almost his entire army at a famous place known as Degsastan, that is, Degsa’s Stone. In this battle, Ethelfrid’s brother Theodbald and all his following were killed. Ethelfrid won this fight in the year of our Lord 603, the eleventh of this reign, which lasted twenty-four years. It was also the first year of the reign of Phocas, who then occupied the throne of the Roman Empire. From that day until the present, no king of the Irish in Britain has dared to do battle with the English.
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The awkward position of this chapter partly depends on the date of the battle it describes: it also introduces the reader to the founder of Northumbrian political power. ↩