Alfred in the Chroniclers

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E. Stock, 1900 - 236 pages
 

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Page 7 - Offa's daughter ; and in his days first came three ships of Northmen, out of Hasretha-land [Denmark]. And then the reve* rode to the place, and would have driven them to the king's town, because he knew not who they were : and they there slew him. These were the first ships of Danishmen which sought the land of the English nation.
Page 5 - ... attributed to him, but to whose character romance has done no more than justice, and who appears in exactly the same light in history and in fable. No other man on record has ever so thoroughly united all the virtues both of the ruler and of the private man. In no other man on record were so many virtues disfigured by so little...
Page 12 - ... they have forcibly dishonoured, others they have carried off with them." Bewildered by such various tidings of bitter woe, both kings and people lost their vigour both of mind and body, and were utterly prostrated ; so that even when they defeated the enemy, victory was not attended with its wonted triumphs, and supplied no confidence of safety for the future.
Page 172 - Perpetuumque labor nomen: cui mixta dolori Gaudia semper erant, spes semper mixta timori. Si modo victor eras, ad crastina bella pavebas: Si modo victus eras, ad crastina bella parabas. Cui vestes sudore jugi, cui sica cruore Tincta jugi, quantum sit onus regnare, probarunt. Non fuit immensi quisquam per climata mundi, Cui tot in adversis vel respirare liceret, Nee tamen aut ferro contritus ponere ferrum, Aut gladio potuit vitae finisse labores.
Page 130 - WestSaxons, chiefly on the south coast, by predatory bands ; most of all by their " esks,"' which they had built many years before. Then king Alfred commanded long ships to be built to oppose the "esks;" they were full-nigh twice as long as the others; some had sixty oars, and some had more ; they were both swifter and steadier, and also higher than the others. They were shapen neither like the Frisian nor the Danish, but so as it seemed...
Page 67 - ... and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied ; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage...
Page 124 - ... Alfred: and he, with a small band, with difficulty retreated to the woods and to the fastnesses of the moors. And the same winter the brother of Hingwar and of Halfdene came with twenty-three ships to Devonshire in Wessex ; and he was there slain, and with him eight hundred and forty men of his army: and there was taken the war-flag which they called the RAVEN.
Page 58 - From his own words we get a vivid picture of the decline of education that had been caused by the Danish inroads. " So clean was learning fallen off among the English Folk, that few there were on this side Humber that could understand the Service in English, or even turn an errand-writing from Latin into English. And not many were there, I ween, beyond the Humber. So few they were that I cannot bethink me of so much as one south of Thames, when first I took the kingdom.
Page 112 - And what shall I say more? For the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jephthae, of David also and Samuel, and of the prophets; who through faith...
Page 121 - Ethelwulf gave by charter the tenth part of his land throughout his realm for the glory of God and his own eternal salvation. And the same year he went to Rome in great state, and dwelt there twelve months, and then returned homewards.

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