Six major manuscripts and two fragments (one ms was damaged after scholars had examined it) make up the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
They are known by letters of the alphabet
A. The Parker MS AKA C.C.C. Cant. 173 because of its location at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
The Parker MS is the oldest version and extends to the year 1093. It may have been written at Winchester where it was until the mid-11th century when it was moved to Christ Church, Canterbury. Written by one hand until 891. Later alterations and additions were made in the same hand as the F version.
B. The Cotton Tiberius A vi
Part of the Cotton collection of
manuscripts at the British Museum B and ends at 977. Versions B and C are copies
of a lost document which included the Mercian Register which covered the years
902 to 924.
C. The Cotton Tiberius B i
The MS extends to 1066 has been
mutilated, suggesting a crude form of Norman censorship.
D. The Cotton Tiberius B iv (AKA The Northern Recension)
Text from the Mercian Register is incorporated into MSs rather than a separate narrative (as in B and C). Records some exclusive events in northern England.
Versions D and E are known as the "northern recension" because of their incorporation of additional material concerning northern English history.
E. The Laud Misc. 636
Copied in one hand until 1121 from a
lost document with several additions of local event and updated until 1154
making it the latest manuscripts. It includes a well-known account of upheaval
during King Stephen's reign. Written in Peterborough now located at the Bodleian
Library, Oxford.
F. The Cotton Domitian A viii
An abridgement of Version E plus some
material from Version A. Probably inscribed in the late 11th or early 12th
century.
G. The Cotton Otho B xi
Almost destroyed by fire in 1731,
appears from a transcript in 15th and 16th Century to be a
copy of Version A.
H. Cotton Domitian A is a fragment which covers the years 1113 and 1114.