A letter from AEthelweard ()

Translated letter:

Now indeed it is our task to cull from the pages of previous writers, in order to present the substance of our third book. So we press you, darling of all my desire, that this little work be not counted by you as a weariness for length of reading, for to you above all I dedicate it. The more my mind travels regions afar, the more the spirit of love is engendered nearer by.

Original letter:

De prasentati quidem a prioribus iam paginulis carpere instat ut tertii nobis statum libelluli edicamus. Te ergo exhortamur, omni desiderii mei charissima, ut non reputetur in taedium a te pro longitudine lectionis praesens opusculum, quoniam ad te maxime deuoueo hoc. In quantum ergo longinquo spatia mens metitur, in tantum charitatis proprius generatur affectus.

Historical context:

Matilda commissioned or requested a history of her distinguished English forebears from an English cousin, AEthelweard, who apparently adapted the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle into Latin for her.

Printed source:

Chronicon AEthelweardi, The Chronicle of AEthelweard, ed. A. Campbell (London: Thomas Nelson, 1962), prologue to book 3, p.26.