Reading, Berkshire from the "Readingas", an Anglo-Saxon tribe whose name means "Reada's People" in Old English, or less probably the Celtic "Rhydd-Inge", meaning "Ford over the River". In late 870, an army of Danes invaded the kingdom of Wessex and set up camp at Reading. On 4 January 871, in the first Battle of Reading, King Ethelred and his brother Alfred the Great attempted unsuccessfully to breach the Danes' defences. The battle is described in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", and that account provides the earliest known written record of the existence of Reading. The Danes remained in Reading until late in 871, when
The Daughter Of King Under-Waves bundle of rushes, and they were glad to see each other. She told him she had lost three gulps of blood; when he told her he had them, she told him she needed the cup of Righ Magh an Ioghnaidh, the King of Plain of Wonder, to drink from to recover. He set out and came to a rivulet he could not cross. A little russet man brought him over, and he reached the castle. There he shouted that he wanted either the cup or battle, and the king three times sent out forces against him, and Diarmaid killed them