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Alfred the Great (Medieval Studies)

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. The only English monarch to earn the epithet “Great” and who was esteemed highly by the later Victorians who considered him something of a philosopher-king, Alfred (b. 849–d. 899; r. 871–899), King of Wessex, was the youngest son of Æthelwulf. Four elder brothers were ahead in the line, but Alfred survived them all. When a young child visiting Rome, Alfred received some sort of investiture amounting to an anointing to kingship, or so the court biographer Asser would have us believe. In his early years as king, Alfred had to contend with the Vikings, whose Great Army had landed in 865. Alfred lost many a battle until he took refuge in the Athelney marshes from which he conducted guerrilla-like raids on his enemies. Alfred was victorious at the battle of Edington (878), which led to an agreement whereby the Viking chief Guthrum took baptism with Alfred as his sponsor and agreed to leave Wessex. Thereafter, Alfred consolidated his rule, especially with the Mercians, and strengthened it with a system of forts, thus effectively preparing himself for the return of the Vikings in the 890s. This time the Vikings were defeated. Alfred’s ultimate military and political successes received their complement in his program of Christian culture, outlined in the Preface to the Old English Pastoral Care, where he cited books “most needful for men to know” in a series of translations. This royal position paper would seem to stand behind the remarkable flowering of translations still generally associated with his reign. Although some of these translations can be traced to Alfred’s own hand, others would seem to take their broad inspiration from his cultural program or at least were preserved by it. In uniting cultural concerns with military-political considerations, Alfred prospered in “wig and wisdom” (“fighting and wisdom,” or “sapientia et fortitudo”). When Alfred first used the phrase in the Preface, he applied it to his forebears; clearly, he was projecting his own concerns.
  4.  
  5. General Overviews
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  7. In the last century or so, historians have taken more opportunities to offer overviews of Alfred and his milieu than literary scholars. Historians have more documentary evidence with which to work, especially given Carolingian connections. Literary scholars have until recently worked on Beowulf and other poetry to the exclusion of prose, Alfredian or otherwise. Keynes and Lapidge 1983 should be the first stop in any study, as it offers authoritative translations of texts in literature or in history with balanced judgments reflecting the traditional view of Alfred and his achievements. In Keynes and Lapidge 1983, there is an easy entry into Asser’s biography, which is the fundamental reference point for the study of Alfred. A concise introduction to Alfredian literature is available in Greenfield and Calder 1986. Abels 1998 gives an updated single-volume history, as does Sturdy 1995 that considers Alfred “a philosopher king” and “the supreme figure of a heroic age.” Peddie 1999 studies Alfred’s military campaigns and the military problems that beset him. Smyth 2002 continues contemporary controversy on the history side, and his translation and commentary on Asser reflect the author’s view that the text of Asser is a forgery. Hinton 1977 allows material culture to complement textual evidence for a wider view of Alfred and Wessex.
  8.  
  9. Abels, Richard. Alfred the Great: War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England. London and New York: Longman, 1998.
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  11. Upholds the traditional view of Alfred as warrior and as lover of wisdom while arguing for the importance of Asser’s Life.
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  13. Discenza, Nicole Guenther, and Paul E. Szarmach, eds. A Companion to Alfred the Great. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill, 2014.
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  15. This Oxford Bibliographies article discusses works attributed to Alfred as well as works no longer attributed to him. This corpus as a whole is the subject of A Companion to Alfred the Great. The contributors are Simon Keynes, “Alfred the Great and the Kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons”; Leslie Webster, “The Art of Alfred and His Times”; Rosalind Love, “Latin Commentaries on Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy”; Janet M. Bately, “Alfred as Author and Translator” and “The Orosius”; Susan Irvine, “Alfredian Prefaces and Epilogues” and “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”; Carolin Schreiber, “Searoðonca Hord: Alfred’s Translation of Gregory the Great’s Regula Pastoralis”; Nicole Guenther Discenza, “The Old English Boethius”; Paul E. Szarmach, “Augustine’s Soliloquia in Old English”; Patrick P. O’Neill, “The Prose Translation of Psalms 1–50”; Mary Richards, “The Laws of Alfred and Ine”; and David F. Johnson, “Alfredian Apocrypha: The Dialogues and the Bede.”
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  17. Greenfield, Stanley B., and Daniel G. Calder, with Michael Lapidge. “The Alfredian Translations and Related Ninth-Century Texts.” In A New Critical History of Old English Literature. Edited by Stanley Greenfield and Daniel G. Calder, 38–67. New York: New York University Press, 1986.
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  19. Still a generally serviceable account of how literary scholars approach Alfred’s apparent corpus.
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  21. Hinton, David. A. Alfred’s Kingdom: Wessex and the South, 800–1500. London: J. M. Dent, 1977.
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  23. An important early study based on archaeological evidence.
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  25. Horspool, David. Burnt Cakes and Other Legends. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006.
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  27. Cheerfully revisionist, Horspool seeks to describe how myth and reality combined to create the figure of Alfred.
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  29. Keynes, Simon, and Michael Lapidge, trans. Alfred the Great: Asser’s Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1983.
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  31. The introduction, texts translated, and supplementary material make this volume an almost obligatory “first book” in the study of Alfred.
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  33. Peddie, John. Alfred: Warrior King. Thrupp, Stroud, UK: Sutton, 1999.
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  35. “Not yet another history of the life and times” of Alfred.
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  37. Smyth, Alfred P., trans. The Medieval Life of King Alfred the Great: A Translation and Commentary on the Text Attributed to Asser. Basingstoke, UK, and New York: Palgrave, 2002.
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  39. Follows up on his 1995 biography of Alfred and sees the Life, allegedly by Asser, as a medieval forgery written by Byrhtferth of Ramsey c. 1000.
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  41. Sturdy, David. Alfred the Great. London: Constable, 1995.
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  43. The “backbone” of the book is a new translation of the Chronicle printed throughout the book.
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  45. Bibliographies
  46.  
  47. Two continuing bibliographies have dominated. The annual Anglo-Saxon England 1972–, or ASE, gives strong coverage of archaeology, onomastics, and history. The quarterly Old English Newsletter Bibliography Database now produces an annual bibliography in its “summer” issue and reviews that bibliography in the subsequent winter issue in “Year’s Work in Old English Studies.” OEN also records “Research in Progress” as part of its bibliography. The year 1972 is an axial year, for ASE begins its bibliography then, and Greenfield and Robinson 1980 ends their historical sweep. NOTE: at this writing (June 2015) both bibliographies, ASE and OEN, are in transition. It is anticipated that both are likely to be available in July–August 2015.
  48.  
  49. Anglo-Saxon England 1972–.
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  51. Offers an annual bibliography compiled by many hands and covers all branches of Anglo-Saxon studies.
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  53. Discenza, Nicole Guenther. “Alfred the Great: A Bibliography with Special Reference to Literature.” In Old English Prose: Basic Readings. Edited by Paul E. Szarmach, 463–502. New York and London: Garland, 2000.
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  55. Lists primary texts from Camden (1602) to 1997 and secondary literature.
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  57. Discenza, Nicole Guenther, and Paul E. Szarmach, eds. A Companion to Alfred the Great. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill, 2014.
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  59. Supplies two bibliographies: “Appendix: Annotated Bibliography on the Authorship Issue” (pp. 397–415), and a “Bibliography” (pp. 416–452).
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  61. Greenfield, Stanley B., and Fred C. Robinson. A Bibliography of Publications on Old English Literature to the End of 1972. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980.
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  63. The standard for the subject through its terminal date.
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  65. Keynes, Simon. Anglo-Saxon England: A Bibliographical Handbook for Students of Anglo-Saxon History. Cambridge, UK: Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic, Cambridge University, 2006.
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  67. A handbook produced for the department, brilliant in its presentation of vast information drawn from many fields.
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  69. Old English Newsletter Bibliography Database.
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  71. This database contains OEN bibliographies from 1973 to 2004, over 19,000 entries in searchable form.
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  73. Pratt, David. The Political Thought of King Alfred the Great. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  74. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511495595Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  75. The extensive bibliography on pp. 357–394 can serve as a history-based bibliography for Alfred.
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  77. Waite, Gregory. Old English Prose Translations of King Alfred’s Reign. Woodbridge, UK: D. S. Brewer, 2000.
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  79. A useful annotated bibliography.
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  81. Collections of Essays
  82.  
  83. The major Alfredian collection derives from the eleventh centenary conference at the University of Southampton in 1999. This collection is edited by Timothy Reuter and, on his untimely death, was brought to publication by David Hinton. The twenty-one essays of Reuter 2003 cover sources, literature, government and society, rulership, and the afterlife. Szarmach 1986 contains seven essays on Alfredian prose but none on the Prose Psalms. Whitelock 1980 assembles six (out of twelve) of the author’s previously published essays on Alfred. Szarmach 2000 offers reprints of four classic articles as well as the Guenther Discenza bibliography (see Discenza 2000 under Bibliographies). Festschriften for major scholars and various collected essays by major scholars often contain important contributions.
  84.  
  85. Reuter, Timothy, ed. Alfred the Great. Aldershot, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2003.
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  87. A collection of papers from two events marking the eleventh centenary (1999) of Alfred’s death and the major commemoration of it.
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  89. Roberts, Jane, Janet L. Nelson, and Malcolm Godden, eds. Alfred the Wise: Studies in Honour of Janet Bately on the Occasion of Her Sixty-fifth Birthday. Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer, 1997.
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  91. Historians and literary scholars present seven essays relating to Alfred.
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  93. Szarmach, Paul E., ed. Studies in Earlier Old English Prose. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986.
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  95. Essays consider the Soliloquies, Alfred’s Preface to the Pastoral Care, Boethius, and the Laws.
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  97. Szarmach, Paul E. Old English Prose: Basic Readings. New York and London: Garland, 2000.
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  99. Reprints of essays on the Alfredian prose in general, the Soliloquies, Boethius, and Alfred’s Preface.
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  101. Whitelock, Dorothy. From Bede to Alfred: Studies in Early Anglo-Saxon Literature and History. London: Variorum, 1980.
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  103. The influential Anglo-Saxon historian of her generation on Alfred, Asser, Bede, and William of Malmesbury, among other topics and figures.
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  105. Biographies
  106.  
  107. In the traditional view, the Welshman Asser of St. David’s writes the first biography of Alfred in 893. Summoned to court by Alfred, who presumably had knowledge of Asser’s learning, Asser took inspiration from Einhard’s Life of Charlemagne and other sources to offer a sympathetic portrait of someone he knew firsthand, however idiosyncratic it can sometimes be. The consensus is that Asser really wrote to introduce Alfred to the Welsh. The evidence for the circulation of the Life of King Alfred is spotty at best, but later writers did know and cite Asser. The only known copy of the work was destroyed in the 1731 Cotton Library fire, its contents now reconstructed from other evidence. It may be that the copy now reconstructed represents an incomplete draft that other medieval writers may have seen in a more finished form. Modern biographies clearly depend on Asser for their point of departure in the critical edition of Stevenson 1959 as supplemented by Whitelock. To this foregoing traditional view, Smyth 2002 counters with an argument that the Life is a forgery of a century or so later (c. 1000) originating in Ramsey where Byrhtferth is the likely writer. The forgery was part of a political campaign to reinvent the history of earlier Christianity and to establish “a Christian cultural powerhouse” in an area reverting to paganism, according to Smyth 2002.
  108.  
  109. Keynes, Simon, and Michael Lapidge, trans. “Asser’s Life of King Alfred.” In Alfred the Great: Asser’s Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources. By Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge, 66–110. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1983.
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  111. Keynes and Lapidge issue the traditional “take” on Alfred and Asser as they offer authoritative translations.
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  113. Smyth, Alfred P., trans. The Medieval Life of King Alfred the Great; A Translation and Commentary on the Text Attributed to Asser. Basingstoke, UK, and New York: Palgrave, 2002.
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  115. A view contrary to that of Keynes and Lapidge 1983.
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  117. Stevenson, William Henry, ed. Asser’s Life of King Alfred together with the Annals of St. Neots, with an article on recent work by Dorothy Whitelock. Oxford: Clarendon, 1959.
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  119. The standard edition.
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  121. Texts Attributed to Alfred
  122.  
  123. There has been no uniform treatment of the full set of Alfredian texts or of the translations. The translation of Latin into Old English must have posed as many problems as translating Alfredian Old English into contemporary English. Texts such as Boethius and Soliloquies, and even Pastoral Care need to have a serviceable Latin edition at hand to assist the translation of technical vocabulary. Boethius, trailing late-classical cultural and literary assumptions, offers special difficulties because of the philosophical vocabulary. The take on the Alfredian corpus here is that of Janet Bately, with five works associated with King Alfred. Granted that much can be disputed, this wider view allows for a more inclusive discussion within the Oxford Bibliographies format. Bately 2003 is the maximalist position linking the major works together because of a common, shared vocabulary and considering the weight of tradition. See also Boethius: Texts and Translations and Debate and Controversy.
  124.  
  125. Bately, Janet. “The Alfredian Canon Revisited: One Hundred Years On.” In Alfred the Great. Edited by Timothy Reuter, 107–120. Studies in Early Medieval Britain. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2003.
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  127. Reviews the Alfredian canon from a traditionalist view, concluding that at the macro level there are some confident conclusions and firm exclusions in defining the canon, but on the micro level there are many possibilities based on limited evidence.
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  129. Pastoral Care
  130.  
  131. Gregory the Great’s Cura Pastoralis (familiarly called Pastoralis) is a basic book of the early Middle Ages, serving to assist a bishop in his office and particularly in preaching. For the Anglo-Saxon Church, the book would be central. Gregory holds that the “art of arts is the direction of souls,” but Alfred slants much of the text toward leadership.
  132.  
  133. Texts and Translations
  134.  
  135. The most accessible edition of the Pastoral Care is Sweet’s 1871 English Text Society facing-page edition (Sweet 1988), though the Stockholm edition of Carlson 1975–1978, focusing on British Library MS. Cotton Otho B.ii, gives a good selective view of one manuscript. Schreiber 2003 may lay claim to be the most authoritative edition.
  136.  
  137. Carlson, Ingvar, ed., completed by Lars-G. Hallander, with Mattias Löfvenberg, and Alarik Rynell. The Pastoral Care: Edited from British Library MS. Cotton Otho B.ii. 2 parts. Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis 34, 48. Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1975–1978.
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  139. Old English version of Cotton Otho B.ii manuscript, the original of which is located in the British Library.
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  141. Schreiber, Carolin. King Alfred’s Old English Translation of Pope Gregory the Great’s Regula Pastoralis and Its Cultural Context. Münchner Universitäts-Schriften 25. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2003.
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  143. Although a partial edition, this is the most up-to-date version.
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  145. Sweet, Henry, ed. King Alfred’s West-Saxon Version of Gregory’s Pastoral Care. Millwood, NY: Kraus Reprint, 1988.
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  147. Initially published in 1871 by the Early English Text Society (2 vols. Original Series 45, 50; London: N. Trübner), accessible translation with original Old English on facing pages.
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  149. Scholarship
  150.  
  151. On the whole, literary scholars have not had a high regard for the translation as a translation and have shown little understanding or sympathy for the message it seeks to convey. On the other hand, the Old English offers a Preface in which Alfred (apparently) in his own voice sets forth an amazing educational program to translate books “most necessary for men to know” in major part to correct the perceived decline of learning in the nation. The first problem with the Preface is that it is not a preface; rather, Magoun 1948 has it right (if inelegantly) that the document is a “circular letter on educational policy directed to his bishops.” Magoun considers the text as relatively straightforward, but quietly, if inadvertently, throws a light on various problems. Brown 1969 has no appreciation of the style. Pratt 2007 brings the Preface into perspective by showing how the Gregorian focus on power (“the art of arts is the care of souls”) receives an Alfredian spin. Schreiber 2003 not only offers a text that will serve future study but also presents a framework of understanding for that study.
  152.  
  153. Brown, William H. “Method and Style in the Old English Pastoral Care.” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 68 (1969): 666–684.
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  155. A generally unfavorable view of the Old English effort.
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  157. Magoun, Francis Peabody. “Some Notes on King Alfred’s Circular Letter on Educational Policy Directed to His Bishops.” Mediaeval Studies 10 (1948): 93–107.
  158. DOI: 10.1484/J.MS.2.306572Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  159. Despite its basic approach, this article is inexplicably ignored in most studies of the Preface.
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  161. Pratt, David. “The Hierdeboc as a Treatise of Power.” In The Political Thought of King Alfred the Great By David Pratt, 193–213. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
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  163. Argues that the Hierdeboc is “an overarching treatise of contemporary power” (p. 193).
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  165. Schreiber, Carolin. King Alfred’s Old English Translation of Pope Gregory the Great’s Regula Pastoralis and Its Cultural Context. Münchner Universitäts-Schriften 25. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2003.
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  167. A study and partial edition according to all surviving manuscripts based on Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 12.
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  169. Boethius
  170.  
  171. The Latin text, considered by Gibbon as a golden volume not unworthy of the leisure of Plato or Tully, was no doubt the single most important book of the early Middle Ages, with the exception of the Bible. The Carolingians, with the apparent help of Alcuin or Theodulf of Orléans, rescued De Consolatione Philosophiae from oblivion, creating and promoting a commentary tradition that still baffles and intrigues scholarship. By the time the mainline text reached Alfred in the 890s, the Latin was enriched—or overloaded—with layers of interpretation.
  172.  
  173. Texts and Translations
  174.  
  175. Sedgefield’s (Sedgefield 1899) edition of the Alfredian Boethius is a busy presentation of the Oxford Bodley MS. 180, which renders in Old English prose the Latin prose and poetry, and the badly damaged Cotton Otho A.vi, which, like the Latin, is prosimetrical in giving Old English prose for prose, Old English poetry for poetry. Sedgefield 1899 and Sedgefield 1900 separate the poetry from the prose, which is a decision almost all contemporary scholars question. Griffiths 1994 brings recent secondary sources to bear on its edition of the Meters in a student format. The new Oxford University Press edition of Godden and Irvine 2009 supersedes Sedgefield, whose efforts, which now can be seen as heroic, are nevertheless flawed.
  176.  
  177. Godden, Malcolm, and Susan Irvine, eds., with a chapter on the Metres by Mark Griffiths and contributions by Rohini Jayatilaka. The Old English Boethius. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
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  179. A true full-service edition offering critical texts of the two versions and a translation of both; there is also a twenty-six-page select bibliography and language study. But most importantly, there is the judgment that Boethius’s work is that of an unknown writer of substantial learning, not necessarily connected with King Alfred or his court but working sometime in the period 890 to 930, probably in southern England.
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  181. Griffiths, Bill, ed. Alfred’s Metres of Boethius. Pinner, UK: Anglo-Saxon, 1994.
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  183. Brings recent secondary sources to bear on the text. Useful and appreciative but not always authoritative.
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  185. Krapp, George Philip, ed. The Paris Psalter and the Meters of Boethius. Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 5. New York: Columbia University Press, 1932.
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  187. Useful for the text of the Meters, but they are once again separated from the prose. Reprinted in 1961.
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  189. Sedgefield, Walter John, ed. King Alfred’s Old English Version of Boethius De Consolatione Philosophiae. Oxford: Clarendon, 1899.
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  191. The reigning edition for over a century; daunting to use, but it was the foundation for most of the scholarship of its time.
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  193. Sedgefield, Walter John, trans. King Alfred’s Version of the Consolations of Boethius Done into Modern English, with an Introduction. Oxford: Clarendon, 1900.
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  195. Sedgefield attempts to translate both the prose and the verse, but he keeps them separate.
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  197. Scholarship
  198.  
  199. The Oxford edition may very well begin a new era in the study of the earliest vernacular rendition of the Latin classic, and at least some of that renewed study will concern the authorship issue. Thus far book-length studies have been rare. Payne’s existential Alfred (Payne 1968) challenges received notions of Alfred’s intellectual engagement, but it convinced few if any. Discenza 2005 stakes out new ground in part because of its use of Bourdieu and his idea of “cultural capital.” Most articles seek well-defined and delimited themes or ideas; see Szarmach 1997 and Szarmach 2007 or Wittig 1983 and Wittig 2007. An area likely never to be delimited is the vast array of Latin commentaries with their many problems, as Wittig 2007 describes.
  200.  
  201. Bolton, Whitney F. “How Boethian Is Alfred’s Boethius?” In Studies in Earlier Old English Prose. Edited by Paul E. Szarmach, 153–168. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986.
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  203. Argues that the Old English translation is “Boethius edited, excerpted, adapted, explicated, Christianized, and made into a mirror for princes of a sort the original never was.”
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  205. Discenza, Nicole Guenther. The King’s English: Strategies of Translation in the Old English Boethius. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005.
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  207. How Alfred’s translation is a foundational text for Anglo-Saxon England.
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  209. Payne, F. Anne. King Alfred and Boethius: An Analysis of the Old English Version of the Consolation of Philosophy. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968.
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  211. Controversial interpretation trying to show Alfred as an independent thinker with existentialist inclinations.
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  213. Szarmach, Paul E. “Alfred’s Boethius and the Four Cardinal Virtues.” In Alfred the Wise. Edited by Jane Roberts, Janet L. Nelson, and Malcolm Godden, 223–235. Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer, 1997.
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  215. A major cultural theme with special reference to the commentary tradition.
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  217. Szarmach, Paul E. “Alfred’s Nero.” In Sources of Wisdom: Old English and Early Medieval Latin Studies in Honour of Thomas D. Hill. Edited by Charles D. Wright, Frederick M. Biggs, and Thomas N. Hall, 147–167. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007.
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  219. Alfred’s treatment of Nero as a reflex of the commentary tradition where Nero appears as a mad tyrant.
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  221. Wittig, Joseph S. “King Alfred’s Boethius and Its Latin Sources: A Reconsideration.” Anglo-Saxon England 11 (1983): 157–198.
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  223. A classic study with special reference to the Orpheus meter.
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  225. Wittig, Joseph S. “The ‘Remigian’ Glosses on Boethius’s Consolatio Philosophiae in Context.” In Sources of Wisdom: Old English and Early Medieval Latin Studies in Honour of Thomas D. Hill. Edited by Charles D. Wright, Frederick M. Biggs, and Thomas N. Hall, 168–200. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007.
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  227. Examines new and old manuscript evidence to show that the current state of the glosses does not reflect the decay of a master commentary.
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  229. Soliloquies
  230.  
  231. Augustine of Hippo wrote his Soliloquies in the 380s as a personal account of his thinking between conversion and baptism. His internal quest for truth would seem an unlikely text to translate in the 890s, given its mysticism, but the prayerful moments in it might be a reflection of early monastic practices.
  232.  
  233. Texts and Translations
  234.  
  235. Carnicelli’s edition of the Soliloquies (Carnicelli 1969) has met with severe criticism since its appearance on a number of scores, including weak philology and the use of photographs to establish the text rather than a direct examination of the manuscript. Endter 1922 at least includes a version of Augustine’s Latin as part of the apparatus. Szarmach 2005 gives a modern mini-edition of a prayer excerpted from the Old English.
  236.  
  237. Carnicelli, Thomas A., ed. King Alfred’s Version of St. Augustine’s Soliloquies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1969.
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  239. Carnicelli somehow missed the passage from the Soliloquies found in the British Library’s Cotton Tiberius A.iii art. 9g, which sheds light on the mainline text.
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  241. Endter, Wilhelm, ed. König Alfreds des Grossen Bearbeitung der Soliloquien des Augustinus. Bibliothek der Angelsachsen Prosa 11. Hamburg, Germany: H. Grand, 1922.
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  243. Though the notes are outdated, the edition is still serviceable. Reprinted in 1964.
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  245. Hargrove, Henty Lee, trans. King Alfred’s Old English Version of St. Augustine’s Soliloquies Turned into Modern English. Yale Studies in English 22. New York: H. Holt, 1904.
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  247. Accompanies Hargrove’s edition in Yale Studies in English 13 (1902). The translation is also available in a reprint: Translations from the Old English (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1970), pp. 37–89.
  248. Find this resource:
  249. Szarmach, Paul E. “Alfred’s Soliloquies in London, BL, Cotton Tiberius A. iii (art. 9g, fols. 50v–51v).” In Latin Learning and English Lore: Studies in Anglo-Saxon Literature for Michael Lapidge. Vol. 2. Edited by Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe and Andy Orchard, 153–179. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005.
  250. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  251. Supplies the text that Carnicelli missed and gives a contextual analysis.
  252. Find this resource:
  253. Scholarship
  254.  
  255. The choice of Augustine’s dialogue Soliloquia for translation surely needs explanation. For the health of the history of ideas, one would have preferred The City of God, or the Confessions, or even De Doctrina Christiana to this work of the early Augustine with its mystical reflections on the soul. Alfred hardly translated “word for word and sense for sense” his alleged standard, for he incorporated Augustine’s Letter 147, works of Gregory the Great, DCP, and Jerome’s commentary on Luke. As yet there is no master narrative or explanation for this elusive work, whose diction links it to the Boethius. Perhaps the best one can observe is that Alfred had no problem meditating on and displaying his interests in spirituality. Gatch 1986 and Waterhouse 1986 are effectively the first literary critics of the Soliloquies. Szarmach 2005 gives a modern edition of the Cotton Tiberius passage that Carnicelli missed with a discussion of its possible context. Pratt 2007 sees “extraordinary qualities” in the text (p. 336) with an overall effect of “the deepest justification of royal learning” (p. 309).
  256.  
  257. Gatch, Milton McC. “King Alfred’s Version of Augustine’s Soliloquia: Some Suggestions on Its Rationale and Unity.” In Studies in Earlier Old English Prose. Edited by Paul E. Szarmach, 17–45. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986.
  258. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  259. Sees more explicit moral statements and less metaphysical abstraction than in the Latin.
  260. Find this resource:
  261. Pratt, David. The Political Thought of King Alfred the Great. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  262. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511495595Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  263. Gives patristic and Carolingian context for the Alfredian adaptation. See pp. 308–337.
  264. Find this resource:
  265. Szarmach, Paul E. “Alfred’s Soliloquies in London, BL, Cotton Tiberius A. iii (art. 9g, fols. 50v–51v.” In Latin Learning and English Lore: Studies in Anglo-Saxon Literature for Michael Lapidge. Vol. 2. Edited by Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe and Andy Orchard, 153–179. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005.
  266. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  267. Supplies the text that Carnicelli missed and gives a contextual analysis.
  268. Find this resource:
  269. Waterhouse, Ruth. “Tone in Alfred’s Version of Augustine’s Soliloquies.” In Studies in Earlier Old English Prose. Edited by Paul E. Szarmach, 47–85. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986.
  270. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  271. A close reading that treats the work as a literary object.
  272. Find this resource:
  273. Prose Psalms
  274.  
  275. William of Malmesbury attributed an incomplete translation of the psalms to Alfred, unfinished by reason of Alfred’s death. The 9th-century Paris Psalter gives Psalms 1–50 based on the Romanum version.
  276.  
  277. Texts and Translations
  278.  
  279. There is no single translation of all of the Prose Psalms. O’Neill 2001 is the most comprehensive selection in modern English.
  280.  
  281. O’Neill, Patrick, ed. King Alfred’s Old English Translation of the First Fifty Psalms. Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy of America, 2001.
  282. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  283. Now the standard edition.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. Scholarship
  286.  
  287. In his Life of Alfred (75–76), Asser describes the life of letters found in Alfred’s court and the role that the psalms played in it. Anglo-Saxonists in general failed to follow up on these clues. At least there is a useful facsimile of the Paris manuscript, Colgrave 1958. Bately 1982 assembles evidence for Alfredian authorship, arguing for “one mind at work,” concluding that this mind was Alfred’s. O’Neill 2001 conducts its own investigation, producing similar results in its edition. Various philological studies abound, but O’Neill 2001 and Pratt 2007 aside, there has been no sustained study of the cultural meaning and significance of the translation. Each prose psalm except the first, offers, for example, a guiding theme expressed in multiple levels, generally four-fold. This exegetical practice asks for more discussion, as does the apparent Irish connection indicated by O’Neill, who has shown the way.
  288.  
  289. Bately, Janet. “Lexical Evidence for the Authorship of the Prose Psalms in the Paris Psalter.” Anglo-Saxon England 10 (1982): 69–91.
  290. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  291. A model study of lexical evidence and how it can contribute to authorship studies.
  292. Find this resource:
  293. Colgrave, Bertram, et al. The Paris Psalter: MS. Bibliothèque Nationale Fonds Latin 8824. Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile 8. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1958.
  294. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  295. A facsimile edition.
  296. Find this resource:
  297. O’Neill, Patrick, ed. King Alfred’s Old English Translation of the First Fifty Psalms. Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy of America, 2001.
  298. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  299. The introductory material and commentary help explain the centrality of this translation to the Anglo-Saxon literary tradition.
  300. Find this resource:
  301. Pratt, David. The Political Thought of King Alfred the Great. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  302. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511495595Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  303. Suggests that the songs attributed to King David “offered special opportunities for expression within the framework of Alfredian Discourse.” (p. 242). See pp. 242–263.
  304. Find this resource:
  305. Pulsiano, Phillip. “Psalters.” In The Liturgical Books of Anglo-Saxon England. Edited and introduced by Richard W. Pfaff, 61–85. Old English Newsletter Subsidia 23. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute, 1995.
  306. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  307. A manuscript-based introduction to the genre: that is, “a book that contains Latin texts of the 150 psalms, often with other features—notably calendars, canticles, litanies, and additional prayers.”
  308. Find this resource:
  309. Laws
  310.  
  311. The Introduction to the Laws of Alfred presents Alfred speaking in his own voice about how he sought to create a uniform code. The conscientiousness in the voice reflects a stance observable in other Alfredian works. In his collecting and combining of codes, Alfred anticipates what the future might need or want apart from his own ideas. He indicates that he sought the approval of his council.
  312.  
  313. Texts and Translations
  314.  
  315. The venerable three-volume Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen (Liebermann 1903–1916) remains the standard for the Laws, though Attenborough 1922, a select edition of The Laws of the Earliest English Kings, is more accessible for the Laws of Alfred. Whitelock 1979 is the most accessible Alfredian text.
  316.  
  317. Attenborough, F. L., ed. and trans. The Laws of the Earliest English Kings. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1922.
  318. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  319. Offers a translation of Alfred’s Laws but without his Introduction. See pp. 62–93. Reprinted in 1974.
  320. Find this resource:
  321. Liebermann, Felix. Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen. 3 vols. Halle, Germany: Niemeyer, 1903–1916.
  322. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  323. Still a reference point: a “titanic” and “colossal” edition. Reprinted in 1960.
  324. Find this resource:
  325. Whitelock, Dorothy, ed. English Historical Documents. Vol. 1, c. 500–1042. 2d ed. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1979.
  326. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  327. Offers a translation of the Laws of Alfred, pp. 407–416, in the context of other laws.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Scholarship
  330.  
  331. Contemporary study of Anglo-Saxon laws begins with Wormald 1999. Wormald is clearly aware that he is carrying the burden of the history of scholarship here, warts and all: his main argument is that past scholars were looking for the wrong thing, and thus someone such as the great and influential Liebermann looked not for links with the Common Law of the future but with the “Germanic Law of Antiquity.” Ninth- and 10th-century law codes have been read with the expectation that they could pass for 19th- and 20th-century law codes. Wormald is not interested in “constitutional rights” or in aspects of law-making or in practices or ideas shared by Germanic groups.
  332.  
  333. Richards, Mary P. “The Manuscript Contexts of the Old English Laws: Tradition and Innovation.” In Studies in Earlier Old English Prose. Edited by Paul E. Szarmach, 171–192. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986.
  334. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  335. Treats legal texts linked to Alfred and shows how the meaning and significance of these texts change in post-Alfredian manuscripts.
  336. Find this resource:
  337. Wormald, Patrick. The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century. Vol. 1, Legislation and Its Limits. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
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  339. Examines law codes as “textual artefacts” and the numerous questions surrounding them. The planned Volume 2 did not see publication owing to Wormald’s death.
  340. Find this resource:
  341. Texts No Longer Attributed to Alfred
  342.  
  343. No one now holds that the texts listed here are by Alfred himself, though past scholarship thought otherwise. At best they are considered as connected in some way toward the initiatives discernible in the Preface to the Pastoral Care. See Whitelock 1966.
  344.  
  345. Whitelock, Dorothy. “The Prose of Alfred’s Reign.” In Continuations and Beginnings. Edited by Eric Gerald Stanley, 67–103. London: Thomas Nelson, 1966.
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  347. A still serviceable overview on traditional grounds. Reprinted in 1980.
  348. Find this resource:
  349. Old English Bede
  350.  
  351. Scholars once believed that Alfred translated Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica, but the dialect is more Mercian than West Saxon. Ælfric of Eynsham (c. 992) thought that Alfred had translated it. The translator condenses and omits much of the Latin while showing a tendency to be too literal; at other times, one senses a poetic turn of mind. Miller 1890–1898 comes with a translation and with variant readings, but the introduction is outdated. Miller also gives little contextual discussion. Szarmach 2006 focuses on one of the many issues concerning translation practice, while Whitelock 1962 might be seen as the needed supplement to Miller’s edition.
  352.  
  353. Miller, Thomas, ed. and trans. The Old English Version of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Early English Text Society Original Series 95, 96, 110, 111. London: Early English Text Society, 1890–1898.
  354. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  355. The standard edition. Reprinted in 1996–1997.
  356. Find this resource:
  357. Szarmach, Paul E. “The Poetic Turn of Mind” of the Translator of the OE Bede.” In Anglo-Saxons: Studies Presented to Cyril Roy Hart. Edited by Simon Keynes and Alfred P. Smyth, 54–68. Dublin: Four Courts, 2006.
  358. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  359. Discusses the Old English translator and his renderings of the poems in the Historia Ecclesiastica.
  360. Find this resource:
  361. Whitelock, Dorothy. “The Old English Bede.” Proceedings of the British Academy 48 (1962): 57–90.
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  363. Evaluates the evidence for authorship and can make no definite statement on a connection with Alfred’s educational reforms.
  364. Find this resource:
  365. Old English Dialogues
  366.  
  367. Gregory the Great (d. 604) wrote a series of miracle stories with a special focus on Benedict, the founder of monasticism in the West. In a literal rendering, Wærferth of Worcester translated the main text, as Asser tells us, yet there is a Preface in Alfred’s voice that is perhaps not by Alfred after all (see Godden 1997). Some century and a half later, an anonymous reviser turned the translation into a smoother and tighter work, as Yerkes 1986 describes.
  368.  
  369. Godden, Malcolm. “Wærferth and King Alfred: The Fate of the Old English Dialogues.” In Alfred the Wise: Studies in Honour of Janet Bately on the Occasion of Her Sixty-fifth Birthday. Edited by Jane Roberts and Janet Nelson with Malcolm Godden, 35–51. Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer, 1997.
  370. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  371. Considers the Preface problematic and questions other aspects of attribution and provenance.
  372. Find this resource:
  373. Hecht, Hans. Bischofs Wærferth von Worcester Übersetzung der Dialoge Gregors des Grossen. Bibliothek der Angelsächsischen Prosa 5. Leipzig: G. H. Wigand, 1900.
  374. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  375. The standard edition of the original Old English. There is no modern English translation of this text.
  376. Find this resource:
  377. Johnson, David F. “Why Ditch the Dialogues? Reclaiming an Invisible Text.” In Sources of Wisdom: Old English and Early Medieval Latin Studies in Honour of Thomas D. Hill. Edited by Charles D. Wright, Frederick M. Biggs, and Thomas N. Hall, 201–216. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007.
  378. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  379. Makes an intellectual argument that if Gregory’s Dialogues has merit and function in Christian literature, then the Old English version has similar claims.
  380. Find this resource:
  381. Yerkes, David. “The Translation of Gregory’s Dialogues and Its Revision: Textual History, Provenance, Authorship.” In Studies in Earlier Old English Prose. Edited by Paul E. Szarmach, 335–343. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986.
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  383. Compares revised versions and suggests possible authors from the Worcester community.
  384. Find this resource:
  385. Old English Martyrology
  386.  
  387. Perhaps the earliest piece of vernacular prose, Martyrology presents some two hundred entries on saints arranged according to the liturgical calendar. The dialect is Mercian and there are Mercian saints represented in the selection. The original Old English writer has clearly gone to a variety of Latin sources to assemble his list. Cross 1986 refutes earlier negative opinions of the work of the martyrologist, while Kotzor 1981 and Kotzor 1986 supplement its philological edition with a literary discussion of the Latin context.
  388.  
  389. Cross, J. E. “The Latinity of the Ninth-Century Old English Martyrologist.” In Studies in Earlier Old English Prose. Edited by Paul E. Szarmach, 275–299. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986.
  390. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  391. Shows how Herzfeld was mistaken in his negative opinion of the Old English writer’s Latinity.
  392. Find this resource:
  393. Kotzor, Günter, ed. Das altenglishe Martyologium. 2 vols. Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenchaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse 88. Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1981.
  394. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  395. The standard edition (in German). There is no translation of this text.
  396. Find this resource:
  397. Kotzor, Günter. “The Latin Tradition of Martyrologies and the Old English Martyrology.” In Studies in Earlier Old English Prose. Edited by Paul E. Szarmach, 301–333. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986.
  398. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  399. Considers the Martyrology more independent and original than Latin martyrologies derived from Bede’s Martyrology, concluding that the Old English is “a mine of diverse information contained in a very early narrative martyrology of a comparatively independent status.” (p. 322)
  400. Find this resource:
  401. Rauer, Christine. “The Sources of the Old English Martyrology.” Anglo-Saxon England 32 (2003): 89–109.
  402. DOI: 10.1017/S0263675103000061Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  403. Rauer reviews scholarly work on this collection preceding the Alfredian revival and offers a list of sources for the work of the martyrologist.
  404. Find this resource:
  405. Old English Orosius
  406.  
  407. Paulus Orosius, writing in the early 5th century at the suggestion of Augustine of Hippo, produced Historiarum adversus Paganos Libri Septem (Seven books of history against the pagans) to refute the pagans’ charge that the fall of Rome occurred because of Christianity. William of Malmesbury considered this translation to be Alfred’s, and it is Alfredian in its likely date, and indeed it might have been part of the Alfredian plan. The Old English version is more of a paraphrase in a style broadly reminiscent of the prose of the Chronicles. The Old English version includes many additions from other sources, perhaps the most famous of which is the voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan who “fill in” the Latin’s insufficient treatment of the Baltic with information presented at Alfred’s court based on their own travels. The Voyages have inspired a whole subfield of research into place names and early sailings, for which consult Greenfield and Robinson 1980, items 5653–5733, to start.
  408.  
  409. Bately, Janet M. The Old English Orosius. Early English Text Society, Supplementary Series 6. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980.
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  411. The standard and magisterial edition. There is no translation for this text. Discusses authorship on pp. lxxii–lxxxi, arguing that the case for multiple authorship is unproved.
  412. Find this resource:
  413. Greenfield, Stanley B., and Fred C. Robinson. A Bibliography of Publications on Old English Literature to the End of 1972. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980.
  414. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  415. The standard for the subject through its terminal date.
  416. Find this resource:
  417. Liggins, Elizabeth. “Syntax and Style in the Old English Orosius.” In Studies in Earlier Old English Prose. Edited by Paul E. Szarmach, 245–273. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986.
  418. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  419. Argues that “there is nothing inherently unlikely in the view that more than one author shared in the translation of the historical books of Orosius.” (p. 268)
  420. Find this resource:
  421. The Historical Alfred
  422.  
  423. Alfred is a figure of literature and of history. For much of the 20th century works associated with his name attracted comparatively little interest among literary scholars. By contrast, Alfred drew significant attention among historical scholars as an important figure in early medieval history. The four headings for Alfred in history here represent just a selection of the various topics the study of Alfred engages—and each of these, in turn, leads to even broader areas of study.
  424.  
  425. Chronicles
  426.  
  427. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle(s), also known as the Old English Chronicle, is a composite work in the vernacular that can trace its roots to Alfred and his time. There are seven main manuscript witnesses, including the badly damaged “G” version. All are bedeviled by the textual relationships of the versions complicated by many hands, scribal and authorial, working over time. The inception of the Chronicle is Alfredian in at least a general sense, for Asser used it in his Life of Alfred. Later historians such as Æthelweard and William of Malmesbury knew the Chronicle, which adds to the complexity of discussion. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition has issued nine volumes focusing on versions A–F, while promising to produce scholarly editions of separate annal collections that in one sense or another are continuations of the Chronicle or compilations derived from it to include Latin and Anglo-Norman texts. Of this last group, only one of the originally projected eight volumes has come forth. The Bately 1986 edition of the A version establishes the baseline of most discussions of the Chronicle. Whitelock’s translation (Whitelock 1961) admirably represents the work of an earlier generation and is both authoritative and accessible. Garmonsway 1953, a student-friendly translation and compressed treatment of the various versions, has a successor in the comparatively up-to-date Swanton 2000 volume with its extensive notes. Bredehoft 2001 and Sheppard 2004, without ignoring the text-based scholarship of the past, turn the discussion of the Chronicles toward the theme of national identity.
  428.  
  429. Bately, Janet M., ed. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition. Vol. 3, MS A. Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer, 1986.
  430. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  431. The core of MS. A constitutes the oldest witness to the Chronicle. Bately describes and discusses the evident complexities of the text, arguably the single most important version.
  432. Find this resource:
  433. Bredehoft, Thomas A. Textual Histories: Readings in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001.
  434. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  435. Bredehoft asks what the cultural force of the Chronicle was, arguing that it forged a national identity.
  436. Find this resource:
  437. Garmonsway, G. N., trans. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. London and New York: Dutton, 1953.
  438. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  439. Useful and concise, this translation covers the period 450–1150 and includes the major manuscripts. Reprinted in 1965.
  440. Find this resource:
  441. Sheppard, Alice. Families of the King: Writing Identity in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.
  442. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  443. Sheppard offers a judicious blend of history and literature that seeks to describe national identity.
  444. Find this resource:
  445. Swanton, Michael, ed. and trans. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. 2d ed. London: Phoenix, 2000.
  446. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  447. This revision of the 1996 version includes an updated introduction.
  448. Find this resource:
  449. Whitelock, Dorothy, trans. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Revised Translation. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1961.
  450. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  451. The introduction is essential reading.
  452. Find this resource:
  453. The Vikings
  454.  
  455. From the late 8th century through the late 11th, the Vikings challenged Europe by raids, invasions, and ultimately settlement. They attacked England in three major campaigns of raids—not to mention gradually settling in the country—leading ultimately to the kingship of Cnut (r. 1016–1035). Alfred contended with the second of these invasions achieving relative success consolidated by the following generations. Haslam 2005 describes a two-part strategy Alfred used to overcome the Vikings: a system of “fortresses” and the assumption of overlordship of Mercia, while Hill and Rumble 1996 focuses on the “Burghal Hidage,” an administrative document connected to the development of fortifications probably going back to the first half of the 9th century. Page 1995 collects and translates a variety of written sources to describe this three-hundred-year confrontation. Egil’s Saga Pálsson and Edwards 1976 describes the Viking world from the inside, so to speak, as it relates the life of the poet and Viking, Egil Skallagrimsson, humanized in his emotional complexity. Abels 1991 and Biddle and Biddle 2001, in relation to the encampment at Repton, discuss the military and diplomatic aspects of Alfred’s engagement with the Vikings. Sawyer 1982 and Sawyer 1997 help contextualize Viking activity in England.
  456.  
  457. Abels, Richard. “King Alfred’s Peace-Making Strategies with the Vikings.” Haskins Society Journal 3 (1991): 23–34.
  458. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  459. How Alfred engaged his enemies.
  460. Find this resource:
  461. Biddle, Martin, and Berthe Kjølbe Biddle. “Repton and the Great Heathen Army, 873–4.” In Vikings and the Danelaw: Select Papers from the Proceedings of the Thirteenth Viking Congress, Nottingham and York, 21–30 August 1997. Edited by James Graham-Campbell, et al., 45–96. Oxford: Oxbow, 2001.
  462. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  463. The Biddles discuss the Viking encampment at Repton where the great army spent the winter.
  464. Find this resource:
  465. Haslam, Jeremy. “King Alfred and the Vikings: Strategies and Tactics, 876–886.” Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 13 (2005): 122–154.
  466. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  467. Discusses Alfred’s burh and how they functioned.
  468. Find this resource:
  469. Hill, David, and Alexander Rumble, eds. The Defence of Wessex. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1996.
  470. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  471. This conference volume concerns the Burghal Hidage. It includes an edition and translation; a bibliographical review; papers on place names, on the document as a document, on fortifications, and on mints; and four appendices, figures, and tables.
  472. Find this resource:
  473. Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1968.
  474. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  475. Jones’s survey remains a classic.
  476. Find this resource:
  477. Page, R. I. Chronicles of the Vikings: Records, Memorials and Myths. London: British Museum, 1995.
  478. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  479. Page presents excerpts from literature by and about Vikings. Organized thematically.
  480. Find this resource:
  481. Pálsson, Hermann, and Paul Edwards, trans. Egil’s Saga. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1976.
  482. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  483. The story of Egil, Viking and poet, takes place partly in 10th-century England. Includes the battle of Vinheiþr (battle of Brunanburh), 937.
  484. Find this resource:
  485. Sawyer, Peter. Kings and Vikings: Scandinavia and Europe, A.D. 700–1100. London: Methuen, 1982.
  486. DOI: 10.4324/9780203407820Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  487. Covers the whole range of Viking activity from Ireland to Russia as well as resultant change in Scandinavia.
  488. Find this resource:
  489. Sawyer, Peter, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
  490. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  491. This collaborative volume with essays by several hands contains illustrations (some in color) and useful maps and key studies, such as by Simon Keynes, “The Vikings in England,” pp. 48–82.
  492. Find this resource:
  493. The English Royal Line
  494.  
  495. The political history of early England offers its complexities and ambiguities, thanks in major part to the absence of records and evidence but also to differing regional and tribal practices. For present purposes Alfred may be considered the founder of the house. Alfred was king of the Anglo-Saxons, his grandson Æthelstan king of the English. It is an irony that the Vikings made it possible for Alfred to consolidate his power. Alfred’s successors were able to extend the power of Wessex further until the Viking successes of the late 10th century. Dumville’s two source-based works (Dumville 1985 and Dumville 1992) show how the house came to be and how it continued the Alfredian revival through the middle of the 10th century. Kirby 1991 and Yorke 1995 give overviews.
  496.  
  497. Dumville, David N. “The West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List and the Chronology of Early Wessex.” Peritia 4 (1985): 21–66.
  498. DOI: 10.1484/J.Peri.3.96Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  499. Noting the existence of limited sources and their status as 9th-century texts, Dumville stresses their role in forming dynastic history, neither settlement history nor national history.
  500. Find this resource:
  501. Dumville, David N. Wessex and England from Alfred to Edgar. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 1992.
  502. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  503. Six essays concern the political, cultural, and ecclesiastical revival.
  504. Find this resource:
  505. Keynes, Simon. “Appendix: Rulers of the English, c. 450–1066.” In The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Edited by Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes, and Donald Scragg, 500–520. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
  506. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  507. Keynes charts and connects royals through William the Conqueror.
  508. Find this resource:
  509. Kirby, D. P. The Earliest English Kings. London: Unwin Hyman, 1991.
  510. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  511. In effect, Kirby amplifies the charts in Keynes 1999.
  512. Find this resource:
  513. Yorke, Barbara. Wessex in the Early Middle Ages. London: Leicester University Press, 1995.
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  515. Focuses on the six historic shires from the end of Roman Britain through 1066. Includes eighty-eight illustrations and a twenty-seven-page bibliography.
  516. Find this resource:
  517. Alfred and the Continentals
  518.  
  519. The relations between Anglo-Saxon England and the Continent make for a major theme informing the background of Alfred’s policies and initiatives. Alfred drew on Continentals for his educational program and, facing the Vikings, had much in common with the Franks. But rivalry was sometimes a substitute for cooperation. Nelson has been the major scholar in describing and explaining the relations between the English and the Continentals (see Nelson 1986, Nelson 1997, and Nelson 2003). Wallace-Hadrill 1950 helped set the stage for the discussion with his early study. Story 2003 discusses Carolingian influence on the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms with special reference to kingship.
  520.  
  521. Nelson, Janet L. “A King across the Sea: Alfred in Continental Perspective.” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Fifth Series. 36 (1986): 45–68.
  522. DOI: 10.2307/3679059Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  523. Continental rulers supply “realistic criteria” on which to judge Alfred, who comes out well: “in Machiavelli’s sense, a virtuous prince.” (p. 68)
  524. Find this resource:
  525. Nelson, Janet L. “The Franks and the English in the Ninth Century Reconsidered.” In The Preservation and Transmission of Anglo-Saxon Culture. Edited by Paul E. Szarmach and Joel Rosenthal, 141–158. Studies in Medieval Culture 40. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute, 1997.
  526. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  527. Discusses how Anglo-Frankish contacts reflected the pull of Rome.
  528. Find this resource:
  529. Nelson, Janet L. “Alfred’s Carolingian Contemporaries.” In Alfred the Great. Edited by Timothy Reuter, 293–310. Studies in Medieval Culture. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2003.
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  531. Nelson compares Carolingian rulers with Alfred, concluding the following: if Alfred had a model, it was perhaps, rather than any contemporary, an imagined Charlemagne.
  532. Find this resource:
  533. Story, Johanna. Carolingian Connections: Anglo-Saxon England and Carolingian Francia, c. 750–870. Aldershot, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2003.
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  535. Complements previous work on political, social, cultural, and ecclesiastical connections and incorporates new insights as well.
  536. Find this resource:
  537. Wallace-Hadrill, J. M. “The Franks and the English in the Ninth Century: Some Common Historical Interests.” History 35.125 (October 1950): 202–218.
  538. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-229X.1950.tb00956.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  539. This seminal article points out that the full force of Frankish example hit England in the second half of the 9th century.
  540. Find this resource:
  541. Afterlife
  542.  
  543. About a century after his death Alfred begins to receive notice for his traditional role: Æthelweard cites him in his Chronicon as a translator of Boethius, and Ælfric cites him erroneously in the Catholic Homilies as a translator of Historia Anglorum (Bede’s Historia Eccelsiastica). William of Malmesbury celebrates him, and popular tradition immortalizes him in a folkloristic text, the Proverbs of Alfred. Later in the Middle Ages Alfred was seen as the founder of Oxford University and a candidate for sainthood, which candidacy failed. In many ways Arthur of Avalon was Alfred’s competitor in the national mythology (Arthur, after all, founded Cambridge University). By the 17th century Alfred emerged as the model Christian king, and Sir John Spelman wrote the first modern biography of him. The Victorians seized upon the figure of Alfred, casting him as the perfect man in every way. After Alfred’s thousandth year it was more or less downhill in the public view. Much of the dismissive scholarly attitude toward Alfred would seem to be displaced anti-Victorianism. For an overall view illustrated and rich in annotation, consult Keynes 1999. Yorke 2003, indebted generally to Keynes 1999, offers a concise version of the topic. Bowker 1903 stands as an example of the high-water mark of Victorian Alfredism, while Heathorn 2002 shows the potential dark side of Victorian adulation, and the movie Donner 1969 depicts the epic degeneration of the hero. The 1100th anniversary was very subdued.
  544.  
  545. Bowker, Alfred. The King Alfred Millenary: A Record of the Proceedings of the National Commemoration. London: Macmillan, 1903.
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  547. A remarkable record of high Victoriana and of the millennium celebration, including an American counterpart featuring a banquet at Delmonico’s in New York City (menu provided) and the misspelling of President Theodore Roosevelt’s name. Explains why there could be no similar 1100th celebration.
  548. Find this resource:
  549. Donner, Clive, dir. Alfred the Great. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios, 1969.
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  551. Starring David Hemmings as Alfred and Michael York as Guthrum. Brings Alfred to the silver screen and leaves him there in a dreadful mish-mash.
  552. Find this resource:
  553. Heathorn, Stephen. “The Highest Type of Englishman: Gender, War, and the Alfred the Great Millenary Commemoration of 1901.” Canadian Journal of History/Annales Canadiennes d’Histoire 37 (2002): 459–484.
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  555. How Alfred’s memory was constructed from prevailing racial and elite gender ideologies, leavened with differing interpretations of the political meaning of his legacy that crystallized as a result of the Boer War (1899–1902).
  556. Find this resource:
  557. Keynes, Simon D. “The Cult of King Alfred the Great.” Anglo-Saxon England 28 (1999): 225–356.
  558. DOI: 10.1017/S0263675100002337Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  559. The magisterial survey of Alfred’s Nachleben. Illustrated.
  560. Find this resource:
  561. Yorke, Barbara. “Alfredism: The Use and Abuse of King Alfred’s Reputation in Later Centuries.” In Alfred the Great. Edited by Timothy Reuter, 351–380. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2003.
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  563. Outlines briefly some of the main developments in the history of Alfred the icon to include the 19th- and 20th-century appropriations.
  564. Find this resource:
  565. Debate and Controversy
  566.  
  567. Alfred is now the contested site of a debate regarding his achievements and his significance, if any. There has always been a minority opinion downplaying Alfredian prominence to be sure, but contemporary views reopen old debates or launch new ones. Forgery, misattribution (intended or not), and propaganda are themes intertwined with the idea of translation, the shape of Anglo-Saxon culture, and the concept of nationhood, among others, in the assessment of Alfred as a cultural figure. The simplicities of past views may not all disappear, but the student and scholar must read cautiously and actively now as the debate continues to unfold. The postmodern age has its biases against heroes. Davis’s take on Alfred’s literary and historical works (Davis 1971) has a positive spin as an indication of the king’s persuasive powers in the face of remarkable difficulties: that is, propaganda in the service of good. Godden’s continuing studies of Alfredian literary works diminish the king’s personal role (see Godden 2003, Godden 2007, and Godden 2008). Pratt 2007 reasserts Alfredian presence and ultimately the traditional view by appealing to wider cultural and historical contexts. Smyth 1995 may prove to be the most radical of all in his claim that forgery is at the heart of the Alfredian myth.
  568.  
  569. Davis, R. H. C. “Alfred the Great: Propaganda and Truth.” History 56.187 (June 1971): 169–182.
  570. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-229X.1971.tb02016.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  571. Also available in the collection of his essays, From Alfred the Great to Stephen (London: Hambledon Press, 1991), pp. 33–46. Sees the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as a vehicle of propaganda not for the glory of Alfred but rather as a way to rally his subjects to his support.
  572. Find this resource:
  573. Godden, Malcolm The Translations of Alfred and His Circle, and the Misappropriations of the Past. H. M. Chadwick Memorial Lectures 14. Cambridge, UK: Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge, 2003.
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  575. Argues that Alfredian writers were engaged in an imaginative fictionalizing on themes suggested by their progenitors.
  576. Find this resource:
  577. Godden, Malcolm “Did King Alfred Write Anything?” Medium Aevum 76 (2007): 1–23.
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  579. Granting that an answer to the questioning title is impossible, Godden offers the personal view that Alfred did not write anything.
  580. Find this resource:
  581. Godden, Malcolm “King and Counsellor in the Alfredian Boethius.” In Intertexts: Studies in Anglo-Saxon Culture Presented to Paul E. Szarmach. Edited by Virginia Blanton and Helene Scheck, 193–209. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 24. Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2008.
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  583. Suggests that the true author of the Boethius reflects contemporary questioning of political tyrants, an awkward topic and unlikely to be discussed by Alfred himself.
  584. Find this resource:
  585. Pratt, David. “Problems of Authorship and Audience in the Writings of King Alfred the Great.” In Lay Intellectuals in the Carolingian World. Edited by Patrick Wormald and Janet L. Nelson, 162–191. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
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  587. Finds Alfred uniquely placed to speak the language of kingship and lordship and resists detaching those special qualities from the king’s person.
  588. Find this resource:
  589. Smyth, Alfred P. King Alfred the Great. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
  590. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198229896.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  591. Argues that Asser’s Life of King Alfred, the source of much information about Alfred and his times, is a forgery. The treatment of Alfred’s literary works is more conventional.
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