Sic Transit Gloria: August 2010

When Alfred the Great ascended the throne of Wessex in 871, the old kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England were on the brink of collapse. The Viking invaders had conquered one by one the crowns of Northumbria, East Anglia, and Mercia. Only Wessex survived, and pressure was mounting. His father and brothers, the rulers before him, did their best to hold back the invading forces and to hold the kingdom together. Despite growing up as the youngest son of King Æthelwulf of Wessex in this troubled time, Alfred became a seasoned warrior, a scholar, a poet, a law maker, and a loyal Christian. During his own rule, he strove to imitate the kings of the past who, as he described, “succeeded both in warfare and in wisdom.”

The Danish crisis of the late 9th century was a serious one, and led to the extinction of every Anglo-Saxon kingdom except Wessex. No longer satisfied with raiding, Danish hosts were remaining on English soil and other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were losing their independence. The Danes were able to go where they wished, raiding royal and ecclesiastical centers, and demanding hefty payments as ransom. They relied on speed, swift movement by water or by horse, raiding and retreating to their established strongholds, or taking over new bases. Every year from 867 to 879 the Anglo Saxon Chronicle records that the Danes moved from one royal estate to another and by 880 were beginning to settle down and cultivate land.

Alfred was an unlikely choice for king. He was the youngest of the four sons of King Æthelwulf, and not even mentioned during the reigns of his two eldest brothers. Only when Æthelred, his closest brother, succeeded the throne was he thrown into the dim political spotlight of the 9th century. Æthelred named Alfred the “heir-apparent,” and the two brothers commanded their military forces together against the Danish invaders in 871, winning a crucial battle at Ashmore. As the story goes, the English Christians fought the Viking invaders for more than two weeks in this area. Alfred and his men reached the battlefield before his brother, King Æthelred, and was organized better for it. Æthelred, meanwhile, was still in his tent. He would not leave until the priest finished his Mass. Alfred could not hold off the Viking army long enough to wait for Æthelred, and deployed all his Christian forces against the hostile invaders without the help of his brother. The English forces were at a disadvantage, defending themselves as the Vikings pushed from the higher position, but withstood the attacks until they were able to ultimately win the battle.

Around the year 885, Alfred recruited a Welsh monk named Asser for his court of learning and educational reforms. After an illness, Asser joined Alfred’s court and wrote a biography of his patron which became the main source of information known about King Alfred. The only known manuscript survived until 1731 when it was burned in an accidental fire at the Cotton Library.

While serving the King, Asser grew to know Alfred, to respect him and to guide him along the path of learning. "The just man builds on a modest foundation and gradually proceeds to greater things." Asser cites this quote while describing King Alfred's method of learning. The source of this quotation is unknown but likely originated with Alfred himself. Asser also describes an occasion in which Alfred had been listening as Asser read aloud a few passages from a book, since Alfred himself had not yet learned to read. Alfred asked Asser to copy the passage into a little book of quotations, which appeared so full that Asser recommended the king begin a second source for his excerpts. It is worth noting that the king himself did not copy the quotation, but requested Asser to do so, hinting that the king had not yet learned to write either. This “little book” compiled the king’s favorite Biblical passages such as prayers and psalms as well as other extracts in a handbook known as the Dicta of King Alfred. Unfortunately, the handbook itself did not survive to the present. Asser notes that after he had copied the selected passages into the King’s book, Alfred was “eager to read it at once, and to translate it into English, and thereupon to instruct many others […].”

In the year 887, Asser reports in his biography that Alfred was divinely inspired to read in Latin. For such a pious king, being able to read Latin would have enhanced his understanding of religious works and his ability to instruct others. A very small percentage of scribes and monks were educated, thanks to the Danish raids. The raiders destroyed monasteries, the centers of learning, burning manuscripts and the precious vellum on which they were written. Alfred introduces his works with a statement regarding the importance of literature, a hobby that lost most of its followers before he was born. “Therefore it seems better to me, if it seems so to you, that we too should turn it into the language that we can all understand certain books which are the most necessary for all men to know.” Pastoral Care itself gives an account of the decay of learning in Britain, and presents the king’s determination to reform the schools of Wessex. It also expresses Alfred’s effort to convince the bishops that they must lead the people to learning by following the footsteps of their forefathers. The best way to lead the people would be in their own language. Pastoral Care is widely recognized as Alfred's most important contribution to English Literature.

Another translation often accredited to King Alfred is the Ecclesiastical History of the English People written by the Venerable Bede. Bede’s history, in Alfred’s day, was treated as a standard history of the early English church; it was a recognized classic. One of its central ideas was that from the Church comes worldly prosperity. Alfred may have been particularly drawn to this piece of work because it provided the English, as a whole, with a sense of their common past. This would have provided a sense of comfort during the troubled times. In his Homily on St. Gregory, Aelfric, the abbot and scholar, refers to the Historia Anglorum, “which Alfred translated out of Latin into English.” There is further evidence of this in the manuscript itself. On the first page is written, “Historicus quondam fecit me Beda latinum, Alfred rex Saxo transtulit ille pius” which roughly translates to “the history which was written by Bede in Latin, translated by Alfred, the pious King of the Saxons.” Within the text, however, I have found certain Mercian characteristics, which call into question whether the translator was Alfred, dictating to a Mercian scribe, or whether it was translated by a Mercian on Alfred’s request. In fact, some of these stylistic and vocabulary differences have caused scholars to reject some manuscripts, like this one, as Alfred's own translations.

Aside from revitalizing education in West Saxon England, Alfred lived a well rounded life. He attended mass regularly, donated alms charitably, and showed kindness to all men, from his native population and to foreign visitors. With his extensive knowledge of literature, Alfred ruled wisely and with a sense of justice. He established the truth always during judicial hearings, especially with cases concerning those less fortunate, for whom he took special care to provide with a fair decision. His writings constantly reveal his aspirations after truth, and there is a definitively religious tone. Unfortunately, the Old English literary tradition faded until the Renaissance revitalized interest in the past. Alfred writes in the translation of Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, “I have wished to live worthily while I lived, and to leave to those who should come after me my memory in good deeds.”

During his reign, Alfred found learning dead and he restored it, education neglected and he revived it, the laws powerless and he gave them force, the church debased and he raised it, the land ravaged by a fearful enemy from which he delivered it. Alfred’s name shall live as long as mankind shall respect the past. As a king, Alfred defeated his enemy, defended the wisdom of his people, and laid the foundations of the English nation. When he died, Wessex was secure, and his descendants would spread his style of government until they could call themselves Kings of England. If reputation is a measure of success, then Alfred truly deserves to be known as “Alfred the Great.”

Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge, Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources [London: Penguin USA, 1995], 79.
Joel T. Rosenthal, "Bede's Ecclesiastical History and the Material Conditions of Anglo-Saxon Life," The Journal of British Studies 19.1 (1979): 3-7.
Judith Bennett and C. Warren Hollister, Medieval Europe: A Short History [New York City: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages, 2005], 103.
Benjamin R. Merkle, The White Horse King: The Life of Alfred the Great [Waco, TX: Thomas Nelson, 2009], 61.
A. W. Ward and A. R. Waller, “Alfred and the Old English Prose of his Reign,” The Cambridge History of English and American Literature [New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2000]. www.bartleby.com/cambridge/ [Accessed December 1, 2009]

Sic Transit Gloria

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The Legacy of Alfred the Great

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Lemon cupcake with Raspberry swirl Preserves and Lemon Buttercream Frosting

DON'T PANIC

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