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[COMMONLY CALLED 'THE ANNALS OF ASSER.']

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HIS chronicle, its authorship, and its value, have long been a standing crux in Alfredian literature. Assigned to Asser by its earliest editor, Gale, it has been commonly known as his 'Annals' (from Julius Cæsar to A.D. 914). Asser's, however, it assuredly is not, if internal evidence is to count for anything. Much, indeed, is copied, and more abridged, from his 'Deeds of Alfred'; but the chronicler is a far better writer, less wordy, and much more spirited and picturesque. To him we owe some of the bestknown legendary scenes in English history-that of the cakes, for example, and the touching story of Bede's last hours. And he is by no means the late and worthless authority that most modern writers on Alfred are apt to hold him. His style, and his tendency to air Greek learning, eg., his description of the Danish slaughter of infants as 'achemenia rabies,' and specially his use of Theophania,' for the 'Twelfth-night' of the A.S. Chronicle (878), would seem to point to the tenth or beginning of the eleventh century as his most probable date.

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This period is also suggested by the panegyric on Norman sanctity ($7), Normandy having this reputation specially under Duke Richard the Good (997-1028), at whose Court Edward the Confessor received his education.

Gale's edition is from a MS. of the twelfth or thirteenth

century in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, bearing (in a sixteenth-century hand)-the title 'Asserii Annales.' Leland mentions finding the work in the Church of St. Neot's (Hunts), and calls it 'Chronicon Fani Neoti.' The following extracts are given :

SECTION

2. Of Edmund, King of East Anglia.

4. Of Ingwar and Hubba.

6. Edmund's answer to Ingwar.

SECTION

10. Alfred's vision of St. Neot.

II. The vision of Charles the Emperor. 13. Alfred's death.

THE CHRONICLE OF ST. NEOT'S.

§ 1. The chronicler's first entry during Alfred's lifetime is of the Danish invasion of 851; the Battle of Wembury' against the Heathen Norsemen [Nordimannos] or Danes'; their wintering in the Isle called Sheppey '; their sack of London, 'a city on the march of Essex and Middlesex, but in very truth pertaining to Essex'; and their crushing defeat at Ockley. All is from Asser, as is also the notice, which follows, of Alfred's journey to Rome, his father's wedding, and the story of Edburga.

From Asser, too, come the transactions of the reigns of Ethelbald and Ethelbert, the Danish conquest of Northumbria, and the siege of Nottingham.

§ 2. 'In the year of our Lord's Incarnation 870, there suffered St. Edmund, King of the East Angles, most holy and acceptable unto God. Edmund, sprung from the high-born stock of the ancient Saxons, was, from his earliest years, the truest of Christians. Offspring of the Kings of old [atavis editus regibus], he showed himself of such promise that, by the unanimous goodwill of all his fellow-countrymen, he was—not so much chosen by right of birth, as-rushed into supreme power and kingship over them. For his very look was worthy of this high estate; so bright was it with the calm beauty of holiness, and of a conscience like the sea at rest. Kind he was of speech and courteous to all; the grace of humility came natural to him; and amongst his own comrades he kept his place [residebat] as their Lord, with wondrous meekness, and no touch of pride. For already the Saint bare in his face that which he was afterwards, by God's will, to show forth; seeing that as a boy he had pressed, with all his might, into the Way of Righteousness, which, as God's pity foreknew, would end for him in the Way of Martyrdom.

§ 3. And when the Blessed Edmund reached the kingship, such was his goodness to his subjects, such his strict justice towards evil-doers, that we may not declare it, for it is far beyond any words of ours. For so did he temper the wisdom of the serpent with the harmlessness of the dove, that no deceit of the Old Enemy might blind him; nor would he accept the unjust sentences of wicked men ; for that which he knew not, with all diligence sought he out. And walking in the King's Highway [Via Regia], he turned aside neither to the right hand, by being puffed up with his own merits, nor to the left, by yielding to the faults of human weakness. To the needy, moreover, was he a cheerful giver, to widows and orphans the kindest of Patrons; ever keeping before his eyes the saying of the Wise Man, “ Behold, they have made thee Prince; be not up-lifted; but be thou amongst them even as one of themselves."

§ 4. And seeing that he shone out, in Christ and His Church, with such brightness of good deeds, the Enemy of mankind (who, being himself void of goodwill, grudgeth, all the more, at the good) drew nigh to make trial of his patience as of the holy Job. Therefore raised he up one of

his [Satan's] members as an adversary against him, to strip him bare on every side, if perchance he might provoke him to break out into impatience, and, in his despair, to curse God to His face. And this same adversary was by name Ingwar [Hinguar]; who, with another, called Hubba, a fellow of like perversity, strove (had not God's mercy hindered) utterly to exterminate every province in Britain. . . . Neither could any man in any province stop or stay their misdeeds, for by the well-deserved wrath of God grew they and multiplied, and Hubba was the minister of His justice.. Craftily would he steal into a city, and, ere the townsfolk knew it, give all to the flames. Boys and men, old and young, did this cut-throat hew down in the open street, and of the honour of matron and maiden made he mock. There lay husband and wife, dead or dying, together on their own threshold; and, to heighten the horror, the babe snatched from the mother's bosom was slaughtered before the mother's eyes.

§ 5. And when now by multitudinous massacre he had, not indeed satiated his achæmenian1 ravening, but deferred it, through fatigue, to the morrow, he called certain plebeians, whom he thought unworthy of his sword, and diligently inquired of them where their King might, as then, be living.'

Here follows the account of the message of Ingwar told by Roger of Wendover (§ 7), Edmund's answer being somewhat expanded as follows:

§ 6. 'The Almighty Judge of all things is my witness, that, whether in death or life, none shall separate me from the love of Christ. The trothplight [annulum] of His Faith took I on in the confession of Baptism, to renounce the Devil and all his pomps. And thereby was I found worthy to be hallowed to the praise and glory of the Eternal Trinity, and that in three-fold wise, being anointed with Holy Chrism unto everlasting life. First when at the Font I received the garment of Salvation; secondly in the yet higher sealing [majusculo signaculo] of the Bishop at Confirmation; thirdly when, by the common acclaim of all my people, I took up the duties of my Kingship. And, thus triply bedewed with the unction of mystic hallowing, have I vowed rather to serve than sway [prodesse quam præesse] the commonwealth of England [Anglorum reipublica), and scorn to bow me beneath any yoke save that of God's service only.'

§7. Edmund's martyrdom is given as in Roger of Wendover (p. 185), with an elaborate comparison of his passion to that of our Lord. The finding of his head is also as in Roger. Next follow the invasion of Wessex, the Battles of Reading and Ashdown, the death of Ethelred, the accession of Alfred, the Battle of Wilton, and the Danish evacuation of Wessex, all from Asser. From him too we have their conquest of Mercia and Northumbria, and their seizing of Cambridge, Wareham and Exeter.

§ 8. Here is brought in the Dream of Rollo (as in John of Brompton, § 22), with a theological explanation. 'For in that he saw all that land burst 1 This curious phrase seems to be an allusion to the story of Cyrus, son of Achæmenes, whose bloodthirstiness forms the subject of a well-known classical legend.

into blossom, this was the call of the Divine Pity, that he might win that land, and that under him and his children it might glow with the flowers of many a virtue and of true religion.' His conquest of Normandy is next detailed, and his conversion. 'Then was he instructed in the Scriptures of our Divine Religion; and, little by little, began he to delight therein, even as the Holy Spirit moved his heart. Thus at length was he washed in the Sacrament of Regeneration, to the knowledge of God; and all his host in like manner, by his example, brightened out into white apparel, and took their stand on the Faith.' A long panegyric on the zeal and devotion of Norman Christianity seems to point to the early years of the eleventh century, when their reputation in this respect stood very high, as the probable date of this passage.

§ 9. The overrunning of Wessex in 878 by the Danes is given from Asser and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, with the interesting translation of 'Twelfth Night' into the Greek Theophania. Next we come to the story of the Cakes (transcribed into Asser on p. 98), of which this chronicle is probably the earliest extant source; also the Danish defeat in Devon, and the rising of the English, verbatim from him.

§ 10. On the night before the Battle of Ethandune, while Alfred slumbered, 'there showed unto him an apparition [effigies] in the likeness of St. Neot, erst his own dear friend and kinsman, and bade him “Cast away all fear and dread of the Barbarians, neither be of faint heart because of their multitude. For to-morrow will the Lord visit thee and thy people, seeing that for the arrogance of thy youth hast thou suffered all this trouble. Yea, to-morrow," added he, "will I go on all day long before thy banners, that the more surely thou mayest fight against thy foes, fearing nought; and mayest know that the Lord Almighty fighteth for thee and for thy people." Thereupon up woke the King, gladdened indeed by the heavenly vision.'

§ 11. The baptism of Guthrum, the Peace of Wedmore, the Danish invasion of Gaul, and Alfred's rebuilding of London, 'follow as in Asser. After this the chronicler dwells upon a remarkable vision of Purgatory beheld by the Emperor Charles III.; wherein, guided by a shining clue, he sees wordly-minded ecclesiastics immersed in pits of scalding ‘pitch, sulphur, lead, wax, and grease.' The wrong-doing laity were plunged, some to the crown of the head, some to the chin, some to the waist,' in molten metal; and his own predecessors on the throne in boiling water, whence every other day they were transferred to cold water, 'through the prayers of the Saints. “And if thou and thy faithful Bishops, and Abbots, and churchmen of every degree, wilt but help me with Masses, Oblations, Psalmody, Vigils, Prayers, and Almsdeeds, eftsoon shall I be wholly freed from this vessel of boiling water."'

§ 12. The campaigns of 893 and the following years are abridged from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, with the additional touch that Hasting and his followers in the end 'were fain to cross again the sea, without money and without honour.'

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