Chapter I War and Peace "I will camp against thee round about, And will lay siege against thee with a fort, And I will raise siege works against thee. And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, Even all that fight against her and her stronghold and that distress her, Shall be as a dream, a vision of the night."-Isaiah of Jerusalem. "Now 'tis most like as if we fare in ships on the ocean flood, over the water cold driving our vessel, through the spacious sea of boundless waves, and there are strong seas on which we toss here in this feeble world o'er the deep paths. Ours was a sorry plight over the troubled main.”—Cynewulf's “Christ.” 1 ALFRED'S work for England was not ended without being tested. For three years (893-896) it was tried by the severest test to which it could be submitted - a prolonged, stubborn struggle with Hasting the Northman and his "Grand Army." Hasting was the one man who was at the moment capable of uniting the Northern world under his banner; strong, experienced, respected, his name was an 1 Gollancz's edition. inflammatory watchword among Northmen. Had his attack been made with equal force and strategy earlier in Alfred's reign, it might easily have been successful. When it did come, it only proved how the integration and consolidation of Alfred's kingdom had given a new vitality and solidarity to the nation's life. For our knowledge of the campaigns of these years we are dependent on the English Chronicle, which at this point becomes exceptionally full and vivid. It is very probable that in the entries for these years "we can hear Alfred's voice." 1 The remarkable compilation known as the English Chronicle had probably originated in the Bishop's Roll kept in Wolvesey Abbey for the Winchester diocese. The original entries were then supplemented from Bede and other sources, such as the Northumbrian Chronicle that had grown up on the tail of certain MSS. of Bede. The whole, in the form in which it has come down to us, is clearly the work of many hands; and it is only about Alfred's time that the plan of making meagre notes gives way to a more full and connected narrative, which follows up certain subjects systematically, such as the movements of the Danes. Professor Earle thinks that Alfred took the Chronicle in hand in 887. He thinks it was he 1 Bishop of Bristol. |