It may give some measure of the extent of Alfred’s changes to note that whereas the original consists of seven books divided into 236 chapters, the Saxon version contains six books with only 84 chapters[732]. The most important additions are to be found in the geographical introduction which Orosius prefixes to his work. It is here that Alfred inserts the well-known description of the geography of Germany, which for him includes all central Europe from the Rhine on the west to the Don on the east, and from the Danube on the south to the White Sea on the north[733]. Here too are inserted the yet more famous accounts of the voyages of Ohthere[734] and Wulfstan[735], on which so much has been written. Ohthere’s account begins: ‘Ohthere told his lord king Alfred that of all the Northmen he dwelt furthest to the North’; and this is the only direct evidence which the work contains as to its authorship. These accounts and also the description of Germany, which, like them, must have been carefully derived from oral information, illustrate what Asser tells of Alfred’s intercourse with strangers and his eagerness to learn from them[736], a trait which was characteristic also of the great Charles[737]. In the historical part the chief additions are the description of a Roman triumph[738], and of the temple of Janus[739]. But there are endless smaller additions; and of these one of the most interesting is the anecdote, ultimately derived from Suetonius, how Titus used to say that the day was a lost day on which he had done no good to any one[740]. This saying is quoted also in the Chronicle, and is one of the links connecting the two works[741]. We can understand how this saying of the ‘deliciae generis humani’ would come home to the heart of England’s darling[742]. Some of these shorter insertions are brief explanatory notes[743] like those which we have already met with in the Cura Pastoralis, and, like them, are by no means always correct.
Editorial explanations.
§ 101. Sometimes the explanations are longer; and many of these are due entirely to Alfred’s imagination, and are intended to make clear to us how, in his view, the event narrated came about. It is not in accordance with our modern notions that editorial explanations of this kind should be incorporated in the text of an author. But the idea of literary property is a comparatively modern one, and footnotes and appendices had not then been invented. It is more questionable when the phrase ‘cwæð Orosius’ which Alfred frequently[744] uses to indicate that a sentiment or a statement is his author’s, not his own, is used, as is the case in one or two instances, to introduce something for which there is no warrant in the original; for instance, one of the passages about fate alluded to above[745].
These frequently relate to military matters.
Of these editorial explanations the most interesting perhaps are those which relate to military matters; because they seem in some cases to reflect Alfred’s own military experience—a point which Schilling has not noticed. For instance, when Alfred gives as Hannibal’s reason for his terrible winter march over the Apennines, that ‘he knew that Flaminius the consul was fancying that he might remain securely in his winter quarters, … being fully persuaded that no one would attempt such a march by reason of the intense cold[746],’ we think of the sudden swoop of the Danes on Alfred at Chippenham that Epiphany tide 878[747]; the stratagem of a simulated flight, by which he explains the defeat of Regulus[748], is one which there is reason to believe that the Danes more than once resorted to[749]; as also the device which he attributes to Hannibal, without any warrant from the original text, of sending out parties to ravage in various directions in order to make the enemy imagine that his whole force was occupied in this manner[750]; though this also closely resembles the feigned attacks which Alfred himself made from Athelney, in order to mask his advance in force to Ethandun[751].
Passages in Orosius illustrated by Alfred’s own experience. Anecdote of Nelson.
§ 102. The same is true of some things for which there is a basis in Orosius himself; for instance, the story how, within sixty days from the felling of the trees, Duilius had a fleet of 130 ships ready ‘both with mast and sail[752]’ recalls Alfred’s own shipbuilding efforts; the story how Dercyllidas dealt with the opposing forces of Pharnabazus and Tissaphernes is extraordinarily like Alfred’s attempt to detach the Danes of Milton from those at Appledore in 893 [894][753]: ‘As soon as the Lacedemonian general knew that he had to deal with two hosts (heras), he thought it more advisable to make peace with the one, in order that he might the more easily overcome the other[754]’; while I have already suggested that the twofold division of the Amazonian host[755], one to remain at home while the other was on active service, may have even suggested Alfred’s similar division of the native fyrd or militia. And, indeed, if the workings of the human mind were always traceable, I fancy we should find, more often than is commonly supposed, that what seem like brilliant intuitions on the part of great commanders and statesmen, had really been suggested by their reading. Nor is this any detraction from their originality. To remember at the right time, and apply in the right way, the hints furnished by previous experience, is as much a mark of genius as invention. There is an interesting tradition that Nelson’s manœuvre of anchoring his vessels by the stern at the bombardment of Copenhagen in 1801, was suggested by the fact that he had that morning been reading the twenty-seventh chapter of the Acts, which tells how St. Paul’s shipwrecked companions ‘cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the day[756].’
The alterations sometimes illustrate Alfred’s own sentiments. Mistakes. Alfred’s character displayed.
§ 103. Often the additions and expansions let us see Alfred’s own sentiments; his religious feelings[757], his admiration for genius, patriotism, and courage, as exemplified in such men as Alexander[758], Scaevola[759], Regulus[760], the two Scipios[761] and Caesar[762]; his disgust at ingratitude to God[763] and man[764], at cruelty[765], treachery[766], or sloth[767]. The omissions are often dictated by similar motives. He leaves out or abridges many of the civil wars, the calamities, the crimes, the unclean mythologies[768], over which Orosius gloated as proofs of heathen depravity; though often the omissions have no special motive beyond the necessity for shortening the work. It must be confessed that these omissions frequently have the effect of wholly dislocating the succession of events. And it may be said generally that Alfred, though he apprehends individual incidents with extraordinary vividness, is by no means clear as to the connexion of events. For the latter quality greater knowledge was required than was accessible in his day. In regard to the additions, moreover, we must bear in mind the possibility that some of them may be due, not to Alfred himself, but to interpolations or glosses in the MSS. which he used. This, as we shall see[769], is a consideration of great importance in the case of the Boethius, but it has been proved to apply to one or two passages of the Orosius also[770]. That there are many errors as to persons bearing the same or similar names[771], many confusions of personal and geographical appellations[772], many quaint mistakes of translation[773] and of fact, as when he says that Augustus took his name from the eighth month of the year instead of vice versa[774], turns the snake-charming tribe of Psylli[775] into a kind of serpent, and infers from Augustus’ heart-broken exclamation, ‘Vare, redde legiones,’ that that ill-fated commander had escaped alive from his defeat[776]; this is only what we might expect, and it would be ungracious to dwell upon such things[777]. Dr. Schilling has truly and excellently said[778] of the Orosius: ‘We see Alfred here weak in historical and linguistic knowledge; but we see him also simple, high-hearted, and earnest; full of warm appreciation for all that is good, and of scorn for all that is evil; putting himself to school that he may educate and raise his people.’