f St. AElflaed appeared during mass to the Abbess Elwina, and warned
her that the Danes were at hand, and would plunder and destroy the abbey;
whereupon she, not disobedient to the heavenly vision, gathered her nuns
together, and, collecting all the treasures that could be carried away,
sought safety at Winchester, and there they abode until the danger was
past; on their return they found the abbey in ruins. The inroad of the
Danes in this year, led by Swegen, was undertaken as a retribution on the
English for the cowardly and barbarous massacre on St. Brice's Day,
November 13th of the previous year, in which Swegen's sister, in spite of
the fact that she had embraced Christianity, had been condemned to death
by AEthelred.[2]

There is no record of the rebuilding of the abbey after this destruction,
but it could not have been long delayed, since we hear that in 1012
AEthelred's wife AElfgyfu (who afterwards married Knut, and is known under
the name Emma) gave lands to the abbey, and shortly after Knut came to the
throne, we learn from a still existing list that, including two who are
marked as abbesses, there were fifty-four nuns at Romsey.[3]

[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 AElfgyfu, six of AElflaed, four of Eadgyth
(Edith), four of Eadgyfu, three of Wulflaed; besides these there were two,
each bearing the names of AEthelgyfu, AElfgyth, AElfhild, Byrhflaed,
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 AElf, the modern
Elf, or mountain spirit.

The church restored after the raid mentioned above probably remained
untouched until after the Conquest, when possibly the apsidal east end was
built. It would seem that about 1120 the present church was begun, as
usual from the east. As this church is so much larger than the earlier
one, it is quite possible that its outer walls were built without in
any way disturbing the eleventh century church within them, so that the
services could be conducted without interruption. The gener