PREFACE. IN the year 1849 a festival was held at Wantage to celebrate the Thousandth year since the birth of KING ALFRED THE GREAT. In consequence of that meeting the whole works of that great king were published in English, with Preliminary Essays, illustrative of English History during the Ninth Century. A limited number of that JUBILEE EDITION having been issued to suit the number of Subscribers, the work is now out of print; but as many persons, who had not procured a copy of the Works, were desirous of obtaining the Preliminary Essays, the most important of these are now issued in this volume. They will be found to contain a perfect and authentic history of the fifty years of King Alfred's life, and to furnish an insight into the literature and manners of that age which the greater brevity of complete Histories of England, written by modern authors, fails mostly to convey. CONTENTS. PAGE. III.-DESCRIPTION OF ALL THE COINS OF KING ALFRED NOW RE- MAINING (with 7 plates). BY THE REV. DANIEL HENRY HAIGH IV.—A METRICAL ENGLISH VERSION OF KING ALFRED'S POEMS, TO V.-HISTORY AND POLITICAL STATE OF EUROPE IN THE NINTH CENTURY, THE AGE OF KING ALFRED THE GREAT. BY THOMAS VI.-DESCRIPTION OF KING ALFRED'S JEWEL, WITH SOME OBSER- VATIONS ON THE ART OF WORKING IN GOLD AND SILVER AMONG THE ANGLO-SAXONS (with a coloured fac-simile as frontis- VII.-THE DANES:-1. THEIR ORIGIN.-2. THEIR WARLIKE DEEDS AND CHARACTER.-3. THEIR RELIGION.-4. THEIR POLITY.- 5. THEIR LOVE AND MODE OF WAR.-6. THEIR MANNERS, CUSTOMS AND OCCUPATIONS.-7. THEIR ARTS AND LANGUAGE VIII.-GRIMBALD'S CRYPT (with a plate). BY THE REV. DR. GILES ... 379 |