[3][4][5][6] The Viking army was said to have been led by Ubba,[b] brother of Ivar the Boneless and Halfdan Ragnarsson, and sailed from Dyfed (where they had overwintered) to land on the coast at Countisbury[c] with 23 ships and 1200 men.

[1][3] On landing, the Viking army discovered that the West Saxons had taken refuge in a stronghold at "Cynuit", possibly Countisbury.

[1] According to Alfred's biographer Asser,[d] the West Saxons burst out of the fortress one day at dawn and were able to overwhelm the Viking forces, killing their leader and over eight hundred of his men.

It was therefore an important victory for the West Saxons won by someone other than Alfred, who was then leading English resistance to the Viking invasions.

[11] In addressing the year 878, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle claimed that "all but Alfred the King" had been subdued by the Vikings' Great Heathen Army: This year, during midwinter, after twelfth night, the army stole away to Chippenham, and overran the land of the West-Saxons, and sat down there; and many of the people they drove beyond sea, and of the remainder the greater part they subdued and forced to obey them, except king AlfredThe Battle of Cynwit was one of several triumphant stories recorded by Asser and the Chronicle in 878, ultimately culminating in the English victory over the Vikings at the Battle of Edington.