FOOTNOTES
[1] Based on the Chronicle under 855.
[2] MS. Cudam. So always, but see the Chronicle.
[3] Bede, Eccl. Hist. 3. 7: ‘The West Saxons, formerly called Gewissae.’ Plummer comments in his edition, 2. 89: ‘It is probably connected with the “visi” of “Visigoths,” meaning “west,” and hence would indicate the western confederation of Saxon tribes; ... “Gewis” is probably an eponymous hero manufactured out of the tribe-name.’ The gw of Gegwis is a Welsh peculiarity (Stevenson).
[4] MS., Stev. Seth (but Stevenson suggests Sceaf in his variants, referring to the Chronicle under 855).
[5] MS. Cainan, but see Gen. 5. 12 in R. V.
[6] Partly from the Chronicle, but the whole account of Alfred’s father and mother is original.
[7] From the Chronicle under 530 and 534.
[8] Unidentified.
[9] From the Chronicle.
[10] Possibly Wigborough, in the parish of South Petherton in Somersetshire (Stevenson).
[11] Minster in Sheppey, founded by St. Sexburh in the seventh century; it disappeared during the Danish ravages (Stevenson).
[12] From the Chronicle.
[13] MS. Cantwariorum civitatem; Chron. Cantwaraburg.
[14] Based upon the Chronicle.
[15] Stevenson is inclined to reject this customary identification with Oakley, in Surrey.
[16] The source—the Chronicle—says: ‘And there made the greatest slaughter among the heathen army that we have heard reported to the present day.’
[17] From the Chronicle.
[18] Mainly from the Chronicle.
[19] The ‘North Welsh’ of the Chronicle.
[20] Based upon the Chronicle.
[21] MS. in regem.
[22] MS. infantem.
[23] ‘A letter from the pope to Alfred’s father, regarding the ceremony at Rome, has been fortunately preserved for us in a twelfth-century collection of papal letters, now in the British Museum.... The letter is as follows: “Edeluulfo, regi Anglorum [marginal direction for rubricator]. <F>ilium vestrum Erfred, quem hoc in tempore ad Sanctorum Apostolorum limina destinare curastis, benigne suscepimus, et, quasi spiritalem filium consulatus cingulo <cinguli emend. Ewald> honore vestimentisque, ut mos est Romanis consulibus, decoravimus, eo quod in nostris se tradidit manibus”’ (Stevenson). The Chronicle has: ‘... consecrated him as king, and took him as bishop-son.’ See p. 29.
[24] Based upon the Chronicle.
[25] Thanet.
[26] From the Chronicle.
[27] Based upon the Chronicle.
[28] Charles the Bald.
[29] Original.
[30] Comprising Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall.
[31] Chiefly original.
[32] From the Chronicle.
[33] Prudentius of Troyes (in Annales Bertiniani, an. 856, ed. Waitz, p. 47), says of Bishop Hincmar: ‘Eam ... reginæ nomine insignit, quod sibi suæque genti eatenus fuerat insuetum.’
[34] Original.
[35] Offa’s Dike; it extended from the mouth of the Dee to that of the Severn.
[36] Original.
[37] Charlemagne.
[38] ‘Pavia was on the road to Rome, and was hence frequented by English pilgrims on their journey to the latter’ (Stevenson). The Chronicle says under 888: ‘Queen Æthelswith, who was King Alfred’s sister, died; and her body lies at Pavia.’ ‘With this story of Eadburh’s begging in that city we may compare the statement of St. Boniface, written about 747, as to the presence of English prostitutes or adulteresses in the cities of Lombardy, Frankland, or Gaul (Dümmler, Epistolæ Karolini Ævi 1. 355; Haddan and Stubbs, Councils 3. 381). At the date of this letter the Lombards still spoke their native Germanic tongue, and it is probable that as late as Eadburh’s time it was still the predominant speech in Lombardy’ (Stevenson).
[39] Mostly original.
[40] In Alfred’s will (Cart. Sax. 2. 177. 9) he refers to this as ‘Aþulfes cinges yrfegewrit’ (Stevenson).
[41] That is, for the good of his soul.
[42] Lat. manentibus.
[43] A mancus was thirty pence, one-eighth of a pound.
[44] Original.
[45] From Florence of Worcester. The Annals of St. Neots have: ‘and buried at Steyning’ (Stemrugam).
[46] This last statement is incorrect.
[47] From the Chronicle under 860. As Æthelbert was already in possession of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, it should rather be said that he added Wessex.
[48] From the Chronicle under 860.
[49] Chiefly from the Chronicle under 865 and 866.
[50] The earlier part from the Chronicle.
[51] Probably meaning the mouths of the Rhine (Stevenson).
[52] Original.
[53] Curto, a word showing Frankish influence.
[54] Original. Stevenson would refer this event to a date earlier than 855.
[55] From Florence of Worcester.
[56] So Pauli and Stevenson interpret legit.
[57] Original.
[58] Cf. chap. 88.
[59] The liberal arts were seven, consisting of the trivium—grammar, logic, and rhetoric—and the quadrivium—arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. This course of study was introduced in the sixth century. Asser here employs the singular, artem, which might be translated by ‘education.’
[60] See Alfred’s own statement in Appendix I, p. 69.
[61] Original.
[62] Alfred says (Preface to the Pastoral Care): ‘Thanks be to Almighty God that we have any teachers among us now.’ In this same Preface he mentions, among those who aided him in the translation, Archbishop Plegmund, Bishop Asser, our author, and the two priests Grimbold and John. Cf. chaps. 77, 78, 79, 81, 88, and Appendix I, p. 71.
[63] Stevenson brackets this clause.
[64] Mostly from the Chronicle.
[65] This clause must refer to the first line of the chapter, as there is no previous mention of the Northumbrians.
[66] From the Chronicle.
[67] Original.
[68] ‘Subarravit, formed from sub and arrha, represents literally the English verb wed, which refers to the giving of security upon the engagement of marriage.... [It] is glossed by beweddian in Napier’s Old English Glosses’ (Stevenson).
[69] William of Malmesbury calls her Æthelswith.
[70] Of the Gaini nothing is known.
[71] Largely from the Chronicle.
[72] ‘A compound of tig (Modern Welsh tŷ, “house”), and guocobauc (Modern Welsh gogofawg), an adjective derived from gogof, “cave.” ... The name ... is certainly applicable to Nottingham, which has long been famous for the houses excavated out of the soft sandstone upon which it stands’ (Stevenson). The word Nottingham itself, however, has not this meaning.
[73] Here and elsewhere in the text often spelled Æthered.
[74] From the Chronicle.
[75] In Norfolk.
[76] Mostly from the Chronicle.
[77] Chiefly from the Chronicle.
[78] Five and one-half miles southwest of Reading.
[79] Added from Florence of Worcester by Stevenson.
[80] Chiefly from the Chronicle.
[81] The Berkshire Downs (Stevenson).
[82] Stevenson is convinced that Æscesdun, though interpreted as ‘mons fraxini,’ cannot mean ‘the hill of the ash,’ but that Ash is here a man’s name.
[83] Perhaps mediam is a scribal error for unam or primam (Stevenson).
[84] There is a note on the Germanic shield-wall in my edition of Judith (305ª), in the Belles Lettres Series.
[85] All original except final clause.
[86] Supplied by Stevenson from Florence of Worcester.
[87] Mostly original.
[88] Probably Reading.
[89] From the Chronicle.
[90] Before this sentence occurs the following in the Latin: Quibus cum talia præsentis vitæ dispendia alienigenis perperam quærentibus non sufficerent. This may represent a sentence in the author’s draft that was intended, owing to change of construction, to be omitted (Stevenson).
[91] In Hampshire.
[92] Mostly from the Chronicle.
[93] In Dorsetshire.
[94] Paraphrased and amplified from the Chronicle.
[95] A tributary of the Nadder, which it joins near Wilton.
[96] Or, perhaps, ‘fewness,’ reading paucitatem for peraudacitatem (Stevenson).
[97] Mostly from the Chronicle.
[98] From the Chronicle.
[99] Chiefly from the Chronicle.
[100] In Derbyshire.
[101] Among the Germans there were Colonies (Scholæ) of the Frisians, Franks, and Lombards, as well as of the Saxons.
[102] Now Santo Spirito in Sassia, near the Vatican.
[103] From the Chronicle.
[104] The valley of the Clyde.
[105] Here spelled Gothrum.
[106] From the Chronicle.
[107] Chiefly from the Chronicle.
[108] In Dorsetshire.
[109] Dorchester.
[110] For the usual Dornsæte.
[111] Here the Chronicle has ‘on the holy arm-ring,’ on which the Danes, it would seem, were accustomed to swear.
[112] Here the Chronicle has: ‘They, the mounted army, stole away from the fierd [the English forces] in the night into Exeter.’ This, of course, is the true account, while the statement in Asser is incredible.
[113] Exe.
[114] From the Chronicle.
[115] See chap. 46.
[116] Largely from the Chronicle.
[117] At this point Archbishop Parker interpolated, from the Annals of St. Neots, the story of Alfred and the cakes. This story, however, cannot be proved to antedate the Norman Conquest.
[118] The first clause from the Chronicle; the rest original.
[119] Name unknown.
[120] Hingwar.
[121] Or South Wales. See chap. 80.
[122] Site unknown.
[123] Mostly from the Chronicle.
[124] In Somersetshire.
[125] Unknown.
[126] Or perhaps better, Iglea; see Stevenson’s note on the word, p. 270 of his edition. He says: ‘It is probably an older name of Southleigh Wood, or of part of it.’
[127] Based upon the Chronicle.
[128] In Wiltshire.
[129] Supplied by Stevenson from the Chronicle.
[130] Properly, as one of thirty, according to the Chronicle.
[131] Chrism is the term employed for the mixture of oil and balsam employed in the rite of confirmation, and sometimes for the ceremony of confirmation itself. In the early church, this ceremony immediately followed baptism, and was performed by the laying on of hands. In the Roman church it is obligatory on all Catholics, and no baptism is theoretically complete without it. It is performed by a bishop (only exceptionally by a priest). The ceremony begins with the bishop’s rising and facing the person or persons to be confirmed, his pastoral staff in his hand, and saying: ‘May the Holy Ghost come upon you, and the power of the Holy Ghost keep you from sins’ (Handbook to Christian and Ecclesiastical Rome: Liturgy in Rome, London, 1897, pp. 169–171). The rite is described in Egbert’s Pontifical, which may be taken as representing the custom in the church of Alfred’s time. Lingard says (Anglo-Saxon Church, London, 1858, 1. 297): ‘According to that pontifical, the bishop prayed thus: “Almighty and Everlasting God, who hast granted to this thy servant to be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, and hast given to him remission of his sins, send down upon him thy sevenfold Holy Spirit, the Paraclete from heaven, Amen. Give to him the spirit of wisdom and understanding, Amen—the spirit of counsel and fortitude, Amen—the spirit of knowledge and piety, Amen. Fill him with the spirit of the fear of God and our Lord Jesus Christ, and mercifully sign him with the sign of the holy cross for life eternal.” The bishop then marked his forehead with chrism, and proceeded thus: “Receive this sign of the holy cross with the chrism of salvation in Christ Jesus unto life eternal.” The head was then bound with a fillet of new linen to be worn seven days, and the bishop resumed: “O God, who didst give thy Holy Spirit to thine apostles, that by them and their successors he might be given to the rest of the faithful, look down on the ministry of our lowliness, and grant that into the heart of him whose forehead we have this day anointed, and confirmed with the sign of the cross, thy Holy Spirit may descend; and that, dwelling therein, he may make it the temple of his glory, through Christ our Lord.” The confirmed then received the episcopal blessing, and communicated during the mass.’
The chrism-loosing was the ceremony of unbinding the fillet, apparently.
[132] MS. ædificia; Stevenson, beneficia.
[133] Chiefly from the Chronicle.
[134] Gloucester, Worcester, etc.
[135] Mostly from the Chronicle.
[136] Mostly from the Chronicle.
[137] See Stevenson’s interesting note.
[138] From the Chronicle.
[139] Ibid.
[140] Ibid.
[141] Ibid.
[142] Mostly from the Chronicle.
[143] Largely from the Chronicle.
[144] Mostly from the Chronicle.
[145] Cf. chap. 60.
[146] The MS. has dormiret, but perhaps for domum iret, since the Chronicle has hāmweard wendon (Stevenson); so perhaps we should read ‘was on its way home.’
[147] Chiefly from the Chronicle.
[148] Louis the Stammerer.
[149] Cf. chap. 59.
[150] Charles the Bald.
[151] Cf. chaps. 11 and 13.
[152] From the Chronicle.
[153] From Duisburg, about January, 884 (Stevenson).
[154] There was a battle in Frisia, about December, 884, and a later one in Saxony (Stevenson).
[155] Mainly from the Chronicle.
[156] The North Sea.
[157] Brittany.
[158] Louis the German.
[159] Louis the Pious.
[160] Mainly from the Chronicle.
[161] From the Chronicle.
[162] Based upon the preface to Eginhard’s Life of Charlemagne.
[163] See chap. 21.
[164] Original.
[165] Perhaps the hemorrhoids.
[166] Interpolated some time between 893 and 1000 A.D.
[167] In Alfred’s prayer at the end of his translation of Boethius, one of the petitions is: ‘Deliver me from foul lust and from all unrighteousness.’
[168] Original.
[169] This is the beginning of a corrupt sentence, of which nothing has been made.
[170] MS. Eadredo.
[171] See Appendix I, p. 70.
[172] See chaps. 24 and 88.
[173] Original.
[174] Cf. Alfred’s jewel, and the book upon it by Professor Earle.
[175] See chaps. 23 and 75.
[176] Our first accounts of Arctic exploration are from his pen. For his interest in geographical discovery see the narratives of Ohthere and Wulfstan, in his translation of Orosius. In 897, according to the Chronicle, he was experimenting with new war-galleys: ‘They were almost twice as long as the others. Some had sixty oars, some more. They were swifter, steadier, and higher than the others, and were built, not on a Frisian or Danish model, but according to his personal notions of their utility.’
[177] There were Frisians in his fleet in 897 (Chronicle).
[178] Northmen; such were Ohthere and Wulfstan (see note 1, above).
[179] Three such came to him in 891 (Chronicle).
[180] MS. Armorici. See chap. 102.
[181] Or, ‘degrees’; cf. p. 60.
[182] See chap. 101.
[183] Matt. 6. 33.
[184] Ps. 85. 8.
[185] Cf. chap. 88; Stevenson gives a number of parallels from ancient and mediæval authors, beginning with Lucretius (3. 9) and Seneca (Epist. 84.3).
[186] Cf. chap. 24.
[187] Original.
[188] See Appendix I, p. 69. In Alfred’s will he gives Werfrith (Wærferth) a hundred marks.
[189] See Appendix I, p. 71.
[190] Perhaps Bishop of Ramsbury (909 A.D.). The later MSS. of the Chronicle say, under the year 883: ‘And in the same year Sighelm and Æthelstan took to Rome the alms that King Alfred sent, and also to India to St. Thomas’ and St. Bartholomew’s.’
[191] Or, ‘chaplains.’ See p. 61, note 6.
[192] Original.
[193] Probably from the monastery of St. Bertin, at St. Omer (Pas-de-Calais). See Appendix I, p. 71, and Appendix II, pp. 75 ff.
[194] Cf. chap. 94, and Appendix I, p. 71.
[195] Original.
[196] Perhaps Dean, near Eastbourne, in Sussex.
[197] Five miles southwest of Chepstow. ‘There was an abbey there, where a traveling ecclesiastic would be likely to stay, and it was on the great Roman road to South Wales, by which a traveler from Wessex to St. Davids would proceed’ (Stevenson).
[198] The MS. seems to be corrupt at this point, so that what I have given is a loose conjectural rendering of the Latin: ... et illa adjuvaretur per rudimenta Sancti Dequi in omni causa, tamen pro viribus.
[199] Original.
[200] Pembrokeshire and part of Carmarthenshire.
[201] ‘Rhodri Mawr (the Great), King of Gwyneth, who acquired the rule of the whole of North and Mid-Wales and Cardigan’ (Stevenson).
[202] Old name of Glamorgan and part of Monmouthshire.
[203] In Monmouthshire.
[204] Alfred.
[205] See chaps. 8 and 56.
[206] Original.
[207] Perhaps Landford in Wiltshire.
[208] In Alfred’s Preface to his translation of Boethius we are told: ‘[He made this translation as well as he could], considering the various and manifold worldly cares that oft troubled him both in mind and body.’ The similarity of phrase is striking.
[209] Both in Somersetshire; these monasteries are otherwise unknown.
[210] Largely from the Chronicle.
[211] Largely from the Chronicle.
[212] Namely, Alfred.
[213] A mistranslation from the Chronicle; it should read, ‘were not in captivity,’ etc.
[214] Here follows Camden’s famous (forged?) interpolation about Grimbald and Oxford.
[215] Much expanded from the Chronicle.
[216] From the Chronicle.
[217] Charles the Fat.
[218] Burgundy.
[219] Chiefly from the Chronicle.
[220] Cf. chap. 84.
[221] Original.
[222] Original.
[223] Cf. chap. 24.
[224] Author unknown.
[225] Cf. chap. 76.
[226] Original.
[227] Luke 23. 42.
[228] The following phrases, introduced at this point, seem to be corrupt: Hic aut aliter, quamvis dissimili modo, in regia potestate.
[229] November 11.
[230] Alfred calls the passages which he translated from St. Augustine’s Soliloquies by the name of ‘flowers’ or ‘blossoms’ (blōstman). See Hargrove’s edition (Yale Studies in English XIII), and his version into modern English (Yale Studies in English XXII).
[231] The application of the word to a work of St. Augustine’s gave it great currency in the Frankish Latin of the period.
[232] The Handbook seems to have been known to William of Malmesbury (d. 1143); cf. his Gesta Pontificum, pp. 333, 336.
[233] Original.
[234] Unknown.
[235] Cf. note 5, chap. 80.
[236] ... unicuique ubicumque male habet.
[237] Original.
[238] Cf. chap. 74.
[239] MS. corrupt: De cotidiana nationum.
[240] This makes no sense; yet the Latin is: quæ in Tyrreno mari usque ultimum Hiberniæ finem habitant.
[241] Cf. chap. 70.
[242] Perhaps Elias III, patriarch from about 879 to 907; the MS. reads Abel. Stevenson’s emendation is supported by the fact that certain medical recipes are related to have been sent to Alfred by the patriarch Elias (Cockayne, Leechdoms 2. 290).
[243] Stevenson says: ‘Possibly he intended to refer to the use of the precious metals in sacred edifices. We are told, on the doubtful authority of William of Malmesbury, that King Ine built a chapel of gold and silver at Glastonbury. A ninth-century writer records that Ansegis, abbot of Fontenelle, 806–833, partly decorated a spire of the abbey with gilt metal, and another writer of that period mentions the golden doors of the “basilica” of St. Alban in his description of the imperial palace at Ingelheim. Giraldus Cambrensis ascribes the use of golden roofs or roof-crests to the Romans at Caerleon-on-Usk. The idea that a king’s palace ought to be decorated with the precious metals is probably an outcome of the late Roman rhetoric and Byzantine magnificence.’
[244] The early part of the sentence is corrupt in the MS.
[245] The figure is found as early as Sophocles and Aristophanes.
[246] Original.
[247] This corresponds to the OE. sāwle þearf.
[248] The Latin has: inter cetera diuturna et nocturna bona. Stevenson does not emend, but it seems as though we should read diurna. Compare, for example, in Stevenson’s edition, 78. 14, 35, 39; 99. 10; 100. 11; 103. 9.
[249] Cf. chap. 55. The second monastery was for nuns, and at Shaftesbury; see chap. 98.
[250] Original.
[251] Original.
[252] Cf. chap. 78.
[253] Cf. chap. 78.
[254] Original.
[255] Supplied by Stevenson.
[256] Original.
[257] Matt. 27. 64.
[258] Original.
[259] Original.
[260] Cf. chap. 92.
[261] Original.
[262] This passage is somewhat corrupt.
[263] Gen. 4. 7, in the old Latin version, following the Septuagint.
[264] Prov. 21. 1.
[265] Original.
[266] Cf. the Chronicle under 894: ‘The King had divided his forces into two, so that one half was constantly at home, the other half in the field.’
[267] Original.
[268] Or, ‘rank’ (dignitatem), as in line 3 of the chapter.
[269] 2 Cor. 9. 7.
[270] Original.
[271] Incorrectly quoted from the Pastoral Care 3. 20: ‘Ne quædam quibus nulla, ne nulla quibus quædam, ne multa quibus pauca, ne pauca præbeant quibus impendere multa debuerunt.’
[272] See chaps. 75 and 76.
[273] See chaps. 74 and 81.
[274] See chaps. 78 and 94.
[275] Original.
[276] Not from the Bible, but from St. Augustine’s Enchiridion de Fide, chap. 20: ‘Qui enim vult ordinate dare eleemosynam, a se ipso debet incipere.’
[277] Reading divitiis for the divinis of the text.
[278] Cf. chap. 99.
[279] Original.
[280] Or, ‘chaplains.’ See p. 41, note 5.
[281] ‘As these six candles weighed 72 pennyweights, each one was of the weight of 12d. The weight of the OE. penny was 22½ Troy grains, so that each candle would weigh roughly ⅝ oz. avoirdupois. As the candles were twelve inches long, they would be very thin in proportion to their length. A modern beeswax candle burns at a considerably quicker rate than is here assumed, but we do not think this condemns the figures given in this chapter as imaginary. The candle of Alfred’s time was probably not moulded, and the wick would not be made of cotton, as in the modern ones. Rushes, tow, and the hards of flax were used for wicks. Aldhelm refers to the use of linen or flax wicks, but also to those made of rushes. It is therefore hardly possible to reproduce the candles used by Alfred for the purpose of testing this chapter’ (Stevenson).
[282] Reading fenestras for the fenestrarum of the text.
[283] Meanings doubtful.
[284] ‘Ducange objected that horn lanterns were known to the Greeks and Romans long before Alfred’s time. But the passages adduced by Salmasius, to whom he refers, and such others as we have been able to gather, do not clearly describe a horn lantern lit by a candle, but rather screens formed of horn to place round oil lamps. It is possible, therefore, that Alfred may really be the inventor of the horn lantern as we know it. The door in the side, which would be rendered necessary by the change of the candles every four hours, is here described, and seems to be a new feature’ (Stevenson).
[285] Original.
[286] The name of the diocese and of the bishop of course varied in the different copies.
[287] Cf. p. 11, note 2.
[288] The books.
[289] From Rev. Joseph Stevenson’s translation of The Book of Hyde, in Church Historians of England (London, 1854), Vol. 2, Part 2, pp. 499–503. The translator states that the text of the letter printed by Wise in his edition of Asser (see Stevenson’s edition of Asser, p. 308) ‘has been employed in correcting the many obscurities and errors of the copy inserted in the Liber de Hida.’ Of the letter our editor says: ‘It ... seems to be genuine. There is no conceivable motive for forging such a letter. We can discover no grounds for Pauli’s condemnation of it.... As Malmesbury, Gesta Regum, c. 122 (p. 130), states that Grimbald was sent to Alfred at his request by the Archbishop of Rheims, he would seem to have been acquainted with this letter.’