T I. ASSER. 'OF THE DEEDS OF ALFRED.' HE biography of Alfred which goes under the name of Asser is admitted by the all but unanimous consent of historical criticism to be his indeed, and to have come down to us (with the one or two very obvious and unskilful interpolations noted as such hereinafter) substantially as the author left it. Asser, as he himself tells us, was a monk of St. David's, and an inmate of Alfred's Court from 884 onwards. His chronicle ends so abruptly (in 893) that we may conjecture it to be unfinished. His personal acquaintance with Alfred, and his access to first-hand sources of information for the whole period of which he writes, render his work the foundation for every subsequent attempt to portray our hero-King. No ancient MS. of Asser is now known to exist, since that in the Cottonian Collection perished by fire in 1731. It was edited by Parker in 1574, and again by Camden (1603), and by Wise (1722). CONTENTS. 1. Of Alfred's birth and parentage. 5. How the Danes sacked London; 8. How the English subdued Wales. 12. How King Ethelwulf tithed the Judith, and what came thereof. 19. How King Ethelwulf died, and of 24. Of King Ethelred, and of the Danes 33. Of the Danes at Nottingham. 34. How the Danes won East Anglia; 35. How the Danes came into Wessex; and of the fighting at Englefield 42. Of the fight at Basing; and of the 43. How Alfred was made King; and 44. How the Danes left Wessex. 47. How they won Northumbria; and 48. Of the Danes at Wareham and 50. Of Alfred's fleet. 75. Of Alfred's thorn in the flesh. 80. Of his children, and their up- 82. Of his zeal and devotion to God 90. Of the Teachers he called in. 99. How the Danes beset Paris. 100. How Alfred built again London. 112. Of his troubles and alms-deeds. 118. Of the Abbeys that he made. 128. How he parted out his money. ASSER. To Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons, and Ruler of all Christian folk within the Island of Britain, my kindest and most worshipful Lord and Master, Asser, lowest of all God's servants, wisheth, for either life, both here and hereafter, wealth a thousandfold, and answer to all his prayer. 1. In the year of our Lord's Incarnation 849, at the royal town of Wanating [Wantage], in the shire called Berrocscire [Berkshire] (drawing this name from Berroc Wood, wherein the box-tree groweth freely), was born the King of the Anglo-Saxons, ALFRED. § 2. Son was he to King Ethelwulf, who was the son of Ecgbert, son of Ealhmund, son of Eafa, son of Eowwa, son of Ingild. Full brethren were Ingild and Ina, that far-famed King of the West Saxons; who wended him Rome-wards, and at Rome ended with good report this life here, so to begin in the Kingdom of Heaven his reign with Christ. § 3. And these brethren were sons of Ceolwald, son of Cudam [Cutha], son of Cuthwine, son of Ceaulin,' son of Cynric, son of Creoda, son of Cerdic, son of Elesa, son of Gewis, from whom the Britons call all that stock Gegwis. [Asser continues the genealogy through eight more mythical generations to Geatta, whom, on the authority of the Latin poet Sedulius, he declares to have been a Teutonic deity, and thence through ten more descents to Shem, and so to Adam.] § 4. Alfred's mother hight Osburga, a devout woman, and keen of wit withal, great of heart as high in birth. Child was she of Oslac, the farfamed cup-bearer of King Ethelwulf. Now this Oslac was by birth a Goth, sprung both from Goths and Jutes, and of the stock of Stuf and Wihtgar, brethren alike and earls. From their uncle, King Cerdic, and his son, Cynric, their cousin, had they sway over the Isle of Wight. And there, at a place hight Gwihtgara-burhg [Carisbrooke], slew they the few British indwellers whom they found in that island; for the other folk thereof had been slain before, or had fled into exile. § 5. In the year 851 (the third of King Alfred's age) did Ceorl, earl of Devonshire, with the men of Devon, fight the heathen at Wicam-beorg [Wembury]; and the Christians won. And in the same year the Heathen wintered in the island called Scheapieg [Sheppey],3 which, being interpreted, is Sheep Isle. It lieth in the Thames between Essex and Kent, but nearer to Kent than to Essex, and hath a fair Minster therein. § 6. Also, in this same year, did a mighty heathen host, with 350 ships, come in into Thames mouth, and laid waste Dorubernia [Canterbury], the chief city of Kent, and eke London, which is on the march between 1 Bretwalda, A.D. 518. The original leader of the West Saxons into Britain. Essex and Middlesex; howbeit it belongeth of right to Essex. And Beorhtulf, King of Mercia, who came forth to meet them with all his war-folk, did they put to flight. And thereafter the aforesaid heathen host passed over into Surrey, which lieth on Thames-bank southward, and from Kent westward. § 7. Then came Ethelwulf, King of the West Saxons, with Ethelbald, his son, and with all his war-men, and fought with them no short battle, at a place called Aclea [Ockley], which meaneth Oak-lea. There strove they long and long (for full stout was either side, and full bold), even until the most part of that heathen horde was utterly overthrown and slain, so that never heard we tell of their being so cut down in any place, either before or since, in one day. And the Christians won them all honour, and theirs was the death-stead. Moreover, in the same year King Athelstane,1 son of King Ethelwulf, and Ealhere the earl, utterly destroyed in Kent no small host of the Heathen, at a place called Sandwich. And nine of their ships took they; and the rest gat them off and fled. § 8. In A.D. 853, the fifth of King Alfred's age, Burghred, King of the Mercians, sent an errand unto Ethelwulf, King of the West Saxons, and besought of him aid against the Middle Britons, dwelling between Mercia and the Western Sea;2 for, beyond all wont, were they striving against his sway. Then King Ethelwulf, as soon as he heard the errand, hasted him with his host, and brake into Britain [Wales], and King Burghred with him. And so soon as he was in, then harried he the land, and brought it all under Burghred, and so came home again. § 9. And in that same year did King Ethelwulf send his aforenamed son Alfred to Rome, and many a peer with him, full worshipfully, and many a commoner. Pope Leo held then the Apostolic See;3 and he it was who anointed for King this young Alfred; yea, and confirmed him also, and received him for his own son by adoption. § 10. And in this same year did Earl Ealhere, with the men of Kent, and Huda, with the men of Surrey, stoutly turn to against a Heathen host in the island called in Saxon tongue Tenet [Thanet], but in British Ruim. At the first had the Christians the better; yet waxed the fight longer, notwithstanding; and on either side were full many slain, and full many were there plunged beneath the water and so drowned. And there both those earls perished. § 11. Also, in the same year, after Easter, did Ethelwulf, King of the West Saxons, give his daughter in wedlock to Burghred, King of the Mercians; and at the town royal of Chippenham did he the wedding, and that with kingly worship. § 12. In the 855th year of our Lord, and the 7th of the aforesaid 1 King of Kent, afterwards St. Neot. See p. 17. I.., in Wales, called the Middle Britons, as lying between the Cumbrians and the Cornish. Wales had first been brought under English sway by Offa, King of Mercia, but never permanently submitted till the days of Henry V. 3 See Introduction, p. 15. |