CHAPTER X
GOLD RINGS CONTEMPORANEOUS
The earliest recorded doubt as to the identity of the Ælfred of the Jewel with Alfred of Wessex was grounded upon the high artistic quality of the work[53]. It may therefore be illustrative if we advert to some other specimens of English jewellery belonging to those early times. One such has already been quoted above (p. 68), namely, the ‘enamelled ouche’ of Mr. Roach Smith, which is now in the British Museum. This is a piece of great beauty and high technical skill; and it has every appearance of belonging to these times, but there is nothing to fix its date more definitely. Happily, there are specimens of English jewellery of the ninth century which exclude this doubt. We have no less than three inscribed gold rings which certainly belonged to eminent contemporaries of Alfred, and two of them to members of his family circle; insomuch that we may say, with some confidence, that these two must have been familiar objects to his eye.
The Ring of Alhstan, who was Bishop of Sherborne from 824 to 867.
In chronological order the first of these three rings is one that bears the name of Alhstan. It was found in the year 1753 at Llysfaen, in the county of Carnarvon. It was figured and described in the Archæologia, iv. 47, by Mr. Pegge, whose letter is dated July 6, 1771. He identified the name with Ealhstan or Ealchstan, the warlike bishop of Sherborne. It may seem strange that the bishop of Sherborne’s ring should be found in Carnarvonshire; but the Saxon Chronicle suggests a simple and natural explanation. In the year 853 Æthelwulf, king of Wessex, was petitioned by the king and Witan of Mercia to aid them in the subjugation of the Welsh, who were in rebellion. Consequently, Æthelwulf marched with an army into Wales, and restored the imperial authority of Mercia.
This operation (which was part of the defence of the country against the Danes, whom the Welsh of Cambria were prone to support) would naturally have been conducted with the advice and under the management of Alhstan[54]. The name Llysfaen (‘Stone Court’) fitly describes the rocky enclosure in which the ring was found, and in which we may suppose that the final negotiations were conducted. Preoccupation of mind in momentous business makes it easy to imagine how the old war-chief of Æthelwulf might have lost his ring. Among the selfsame rocks of Llysfaen, and near the spot where the Alhstan ring was discovered, another ring was shortly afterwards found, containing a greater weight of gold, but of comparatively rude workmanship, and not inscribed.
The Alhstan ring now belongs to the Waterton Collection, which is preserved in the South Kensington Museum. It is of that type (not uncommon in Roman rings) which suggests derival from a string of beads. The lettering occupies four circular compartments, which alternating with four lozenge-shaped compartments, constitute the hoop of the ring. Pegge saw the dragon of Wessex in the grotesque animals which occupy the lozenge-shaped compartments. The characters are beautiful Roman capitals of Anglo-Saxon type, except the N, which is represented by the Rune
. Besides the Archæologia, the ring is figured in Art Treasures of the United Kingdom, a monumental book which was published in connexion with the Manchester Exhibition of 1857.
Inscribed Gold Ring of Æthelwulf, King of Wessex (836–855).
