Asser's Life of King Alfred: Together with the Annals of Saint Neots Erroneously Ascribed to AsserClarendon Press, 1904 - 386 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
Ælfred Æthelred Æthelstan Æthelweard Æthelwulf Alfred Alfred's Anglo-Sax Anglorum Annals of St Anno Dominicae Incarnationis apud Asser atque autem B P Ar Camd Beda Bishop bishop of Sherborne Camd W Pet Camden Cart charter chartulary Chronicle compiler copy Cott Cottonian Cynric Danes derived dicitur Dominicae Eadburh ealdorman eius England English Eodem anno error etiam evidence ex Chron ex eisdem ex SN exercitus Exscripp filius Flor SD Florence of Worcester Francorum Frankish fuit Gesta Regum ibid illa inter interpolation Karolus king later Latin Malmesbury mention monastery Neots Occidentalium Saxonum occurs pagani paganorum Parker's passage probably quae quam quod quoque reference regis regni rell Rome Sancti SD 1 SD seems Simeon of Durham SN SD Stubbs sunt tenth century usque Utic vero vitae Welsh Wessex William of Malmesbury Winchester words written
Popular passages
Page xi - The design and construction of the outlet arrangements is one of the most important and at the same time most difficult features of the work.
Page vii - Bishop Asser in the lifetime of King Alfred, there is no anachronism or other proof that it is a spurious compilation of later date. The serious charges brought against its authenticity break down altogether under examination, while there remain several features that point •with varying strength to the conclusion that it is, despite its difficulties and corruptions, really a work of the time it purports to be. This result is confirmed by the important corroboration of some of its statements by...
Page c - I am inclined to doubt the truth of the alleged neglect which, according to Asser, had been shown to Alfred's education in his infancy. We know that his father King Ethelwolf was an accomplished scholar, that he had been an ecclesiastic before he came to the throne, that his friends and advisers were ecclesiastics, such as Swithun and Alstan, the former of whom at least was a scholar, that he was a great patron of the clergy and of the Church, that Alfred (his...
Page 19 - Sed, ut more navigantium loquar, ne diutius navim undis et velamentis concedentes, et a terra longius enavigantes longum circumferamur inter tantas bellorum clades, et annorum enumerationes ; ad id, quod nos maxime ad hoc opus incitavit, nobis redeundum esse censeo : scilicet aliquantulum, quantum meic cognition! innotuit, de infantilibus et puerilibus domini mei venerabilis jElfredi Angulsaxonum regis moribus hoc in loco breviter inserendum esse existimo.
Page xxi - Anglica, normannica, hibernica, cambrica a veteribus scripta; ex quibus Asser menevensis, anonymus de vita Gulielmi conquestoris, Thomas Walsingham, Thomas de la More, Gulielmus Gemiticensis, Giraldus Cambrensis, plerique nunc primum in lucem editi ex bibliotheca Guilielmi Gamdeni.
Page xxvi - I published) to be transer1bed out of a manuseript copie which I had then in my hands wherein that place now questioned was extant and in the very same forme as there I found it and in none other; marry it seemed that the copie was not verie antiente : and when I demanded of him how antient he thought the copie was, he answered, that he took it to be written about King Richard the second his time.
Page 59 - INTEREA tamen rex, inter bella et praesentis vitae frequentia impedimenta, necnon paganorum infestationes et cotidianas corporis infirmitates, et regni gubernacula regere et omnem venandi artem agere; aurifices et artifices suos omnes, et falconarios, et accipitrarios, canicularios quoque docere; et aedificia, supra omnem antecessorum suorum consuetudinem venerabiliora et pretiosiora, nova sua machinatione facere...
Page 294 - VitanT et conversationem et ex parte non modica res gestas domini et nutritoris mei Karoli, excellentissimi et merito famosissimi regis, postquam scribere animus tulit, quanta potui brevitate complexas sum ; operam inpendens : ut de his, quae ad meam notitiam pervenire potuerunt, nihil omitterem, neque prolixitate narrandi nova quaeque fastidientium animos offenderem.
Page 60 - Episcopos 3° quoque suos et omnem ecclesiasticum ordinem, comites ac nobiles suos, ministeriales etiam et omnes familiares admirabili amore diligebat. Filios quoque eorum, qui in regali familia nutriebantur, non minus propriis diligens, omnibus bonis moribus 35 instituere et literis imbuere solus die noctuque inter cetera non desinebat.
Page xcvii - ... active and interested in them, accompanied with vivid sketches and clear views of the policy and character of that great monarch. When we turn to Asser, we seem to have a writer who would fain imitate the biographer of the Frankish emperor, but who only knows the history of his hero from one bare chronicle, and depends upon popular traditions for his views of his personal character. There is clearly much that is legendary and not historically true in Asser's account of Alfred.