Further Danish forces had settled on the land before Guthrum attacked Wessex: in East Anglia, and in Mercia between the treaty at Exeter and the attack on Chippenham; many others were lost in a storm off Swanage in 876–877, with 120 ships wrecked. Internal disunity was threatening to tear the Danes apart, and they needed time to reorganize. Fortunately for Wessex, they did not use the time available effectively. Location of the battle The primary sources for the location of the battle are Asser's Life of King Alfred, which names the place as "Ethandun" and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which has Eðandun. The chronicle was compiled during the reign of Alfred the Great and is thus a contemporary record. It is believed that Asser's Life was originally written in 893; however, no contemporary manuscript survives. A version of the Life, written in about 1000 and known as the Cotton Otho A. xii text, lasted until 1731, when it was destroyed in the fire at Ashburnham House. Before its destruction, this version had been transcribed and annotated; it is this transcription on which modern translations are based. Some scholars have suggested that Asser's life of King Alfred was a forgery. The location of the battle accepted by most present-day historians is at Edington, near Westbury in Wiltshire. However, the location has been much debated over the centuries. In 1904 William Henry Stevenson analysed possible sites and said "So far, there is nothing to prove the identity of this Eðandun [as named in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle] with Edington" but then goes on to say that "there can be little reason for questioning it". The reasoning to support the Eðandun of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Ethandun of Asser's Life being Edington in Wiltshire is derived from a trail of information from ancient manuscripts. Edington, Wiltshire, is known to have been part of Alfred's family estate. He left a manor called Eðandun to his wife in his will. A charter records a meeting of the king's council at Eðandun, although a later scribe has annotated the same document with Eðandune. In 968, another charter reported that King Edgar had granted land at Edyndon to Romsey Abbey. The Domesday Book of 1086 has an entry for Romsey Abbey holding land at Edendone in the county of Wiltshire at the time of Edward the Confessor (before 1066) and also in 1086, and this is known to