1 In the year 967, Eadgar the Peaceable, King of the English, placed nuns in the monastery which his grandfather, Eadward the Elder, King of the English, had built, and appointed St. Meriwenna abbess over them.
2 According to some accounts, the raid in which the abbey was destroyed took place in 994, but the later date is more probable since it is said that Swegen’s son, Knut, who was born in 994, took part in it.
3 This list shows us what were the names most in favour at the time. Eight nuns bore the name of Ælfgyfu, six of ÆlflÆd, four of Eadgyth (Edith), four of Eadgyfu, three of WulflÆd; besides these there were two, each bearing the names of Æthelgyfu, Ælfgyth, Ælfhild, ByrhflÆd, Wulfthryth, Wulfrun. It is worthy of note that none of these, and only one of the remaining seventeen nuns, namely, Godgyfu, had a scriptural or Christian name. The old names common among their heathen ancestors still survived, no less than ten being compounded of the word Ælf, the modern Elf, or mountain spirit.
4 It was common to bury not the real silver vessels used by the dead priest, but imitations in baser metal.
5 Christina is mentioned as abbess in 1190, in the list suspended in the church, but it is uncertain if she was an abbess.
