seems possible.

The earthworks of the Danish position still remain on Edington
hill, that looks out from the Polden range over all the country of
Alfred's last refuge, and the bones of Hubba's men lie everywhere
under the turf where they made their last stand under the old walls
and earthworks of Combwich fort; and a lingering tradition yet
records the extermination of a Danish force in the neighbourhood.
Athelney needs but the cessation of today's drainage to revert in a
very few years to what it was in Alfred's time--an island, alder
covered, barely rising from fen and mere, and it needs but little
imagination to reproduce what Alfred saw when, from the same point
where one must needs be standing, he planned the final stroke that
his people believed was inspired directly from above.

It would seem evident from Alfred's method with Guthrum that he
realized that this king was but one among many leaders, and not
directly responsible for the breaking of the solemn peace sworn at
Exeter and Wareham. His position as King of East Anglia has gained
him an ill reputation in the pages of the later chronicles; but
neither Asser nor the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle--our best authorities--
blames him as they, for his contemporaries knew him to be but a
"host king," with no authority over newcomers or those who did not
choose to own allegiance to him.

Save in a few cases, where the original spelling preserves a lost
pronunciation, as in the first syllable of "Eadmund," the modern
and familiar forms of the names have been used in preference to the
constantly-varying forms given by the chroniclers. Bridgwater has
no Saxon equivalent, the town being known only as "The Bridge"
since the time when the Romans first fortified this one crossing
place of the Parret; and the name of the castle before which Hubba
fell varies from Cynuit through Kynwith to Kynwich, whose
equivalent the Combwich of today is. Guthrum's name is given in
many forms, from Gytro to Godramnus. Nor has it been thought worth
while to retain the original spelling AElfred, the ae diphthong
having been appropriated by us to an entirely new sound; while our
own pronunciation of the name slightly broadened as yet in Wessex,
is correct enough.

The exact relationship of St. Neot to Alfred, beyond that he was a
close kinsman, is very doubtful. He has been identified with a
brother, Athelstan of East Anglia, who is known to have retired to
Glastonbury; but there is no more t