Note 181 — Chapter XX · EDGAR AND DUNSTAN.
Reading edition
As pointed out by Mr. W. H. Stevenson in the English Historical Review (1898), xiii., 506, an important attestation to the meeting of the kings (though not to the water procession) is furnished by the ecclesiastical author Elfric, himself a contemporary of Edgar and a pupil and friend of bishop Ethelwold. In his poetical Life of St. Swithin, written about 996, he contrasts the happy days of Edgar with the disastrous reign of his son, and says: “All the kings of this island of Cymri and of Scots, eight kings, came to Edgar once upon a time on one day and they all bowed to Edgar’s government”.