224 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINnot leave Al-Andalus on 11 November 884 as predicted may have
robbed the prophecy of its value, but the work, which is not a true
chronicle in form, was preserved, probably thanks to the historical
and chronological information that its author included as the basis
for his calculations. Amongst other materials was a regnal list of the
Asturian royal dynasty, which was subsequently continued up to 928,
in the reign of Alfonso IV.
Although modest in size, the most substantial and complex piece
of historiography produced in the Asturian kingdom is the work known
as the Chronicle of Alfonso III; which takes its name from the monarch
who is thought to have written it. It survives in two versions, which
display marked differences of emphasis and even of information
contained in the text. One version, known from its earliest manu-
script, as the Rotense, is usually thought to have been compiled in the
reign of Ordono II (913/14-924), while the other, called from a
prefatory letter the Ad Sebastianum, is assigned to that of his brother
Garcia (910-913/14). The latter is also thought to display the more
sophisticated use of language, and has often been seen as the work
of a cleric. It is sometimes called 'the learned version'. The most
recent editors see the core text, as supposedly composed in the late
ninth century by Alfonso III himself, as comprising perhaps no more
than the account of the reign of his father Ordono I (850-66), with
the two extant versions being written around it in the first quarter of
the tenth century.4 It is possible, however, to cast doubt on the gen-
eral consensus that sees these two texts as being more or less con-
temporaneous. It is quite conceivable that the so-called Ad Sebastianum
or 'learned' version is an Oviedan concoction of the eleventh cen-
tury, re-using the extant Rotense or possibly an earlier form of it. In
this case the Ad Sebastianum would have no independent authority as
a source for the history of the Asturian kingdom, and credence would
have to be given exclusively to the Rotense.'
The last of these chronicles, that 'of Albelda' was possibly the first
to be written. It takes its name from the Navarrese monastery of
Albelda, where the text was continued up to the year 976, but the first
section covering the years 672 to 883 was probably written in the
Asturias. In form this work, like the two versions of the Chronicle of
Alfonso III, follows Isidore's History of the Goths in providing brief notices
of each individual reign, rather than a year by year account. Common
to all these chronicles appears to be a belief that Isidore's History
finished with the reign of Reccesuinth. Although this seems to imply