A.D. 793. DESCRIPTION OP LINDISFARNE. 13 Elf and Elfwin. In this year also, Lambert, archbishop of Canterbury, departed to the Lord ; Ethelherd, abbat49 of the monastery of Lhuda, was elected his successor and consecrated archbishop. Tn the year 792, Charles, king of the Franks, sent to Britain a book containing articles agreed upon in a synod, which had been sent to him from Constantinople; in which book, oh shame ! there were found many things repugnant and contrary to the true faith, and especially that it had been unanimously agreed to by three hundred, or even more, of the various bishops of the East, that images ought to be worshipped, a thing that the Church of God utterly abhors. Against this Albinus wrote an epistle, wonderfully confirmed by the authority of the Holy Scriptures, and presented it with the same book, in the name of our bishops and princes, to the king of the Franks. In the same year also, Osred, relying upon the oath and fidelity of certain nobles, came secretly from Eufania,50 the place of his exile; and then, being deserted by his soldiers, was taken prisoner by the said king Ethelred, and by his order slain at a plaee called Dingburg, on the eighteenth day before the calends of October. His body was carried to Tyne-mouth,51 and buried in the royal tomb, in the noble monastery there. In the same year king Ethelred took as his queen Elileda, the daughter of Offa, king of Mereia, at Cataract, on the third day before the ealends of October. In the year 793, being the fourth year of the reign of King Ethelred, dreadful prodigies alarmed the wretched nation of the English, for terrific lightnings, and dragons in the air, and strokes of fire were seen hovering on high and shooting to and fro ; whieh were ominous signs of the great famine and the frightful and fceffable slaughter of multitudes of men which afterwards ensued. In the same year also, duke Sigga, who slew king Elfwald, died a merited death, and his body was carried to the island of Lindisfarne, on the ninth day before the calends of May. Lindisfarne is a large island, eight miles or thereabouts in circumference. In it was a noble monastery, where the illus- 49 Roger of Wendover says, that he was previously bishop of Winchester. 6U Probably either the Hebrides, a name of which was Evania, or the Isle of Man, which was called Ebonia. 51 In Northumberland.